17 May Ultra Impressive Torbay Tri Club Members
Another busy weekend for Torbay Tri Club members started early on Saturday 15th May. Kevin Lofts took on the Devon Coast to Coast Ultra marathon which started on the beach in Wembury, South Devon and took the athletes over an incredible 117 miles before finishing in Lynmouth in North Devon. The run had all the variety Devon has to offer with the route meandering north through towns and villages as well as crossing the naturally beautiful Dartmoor and Exmoor. If the distance, elevation and terrain wasn’t enough, the weather decided to add the final challenge to the weekend with regular heavy downpours testing the athletes and making the endeavour to the finish even more impressive. Kevin completed the ultra in a superb 8th place in a time of 29 hours 11 minutes.
Nik Langdon-Ward was also in ultra marathon action at the Albion Westcountry Flat 50 mile race on Saturday 15th May. Starting in the beautiful Somerset county town of Taunton the route eased athletes in via the flat Taunton to Bridgwater canal for the first 15 miles. Despite it’s name the route certainly isn’t flat and once past Bridgwater the race heads up to the North Somerset coast and past the Hinkley Point Nuclear Power station as it heads towards the finish in Minehead. The north Somerset coast normally provides great views across to Wales, but Nik was also having to contend with the weekend of torrential rain and flooded paths, as well as terrain that consisted of gravel tow paths, marshland and sand dunes. Nik seeking value for money even ran an extra 5 miles with some navigation issues, but still completed the event in an excellent 12 hours 47 minutes.
