OKEHAMPTON Running Club member Caroline Wilson made the long journey up to her native Scotland to take part in her first ever marathon in Edinburgh on Sunday.

This is just the first of a series of running challenges Caroline has set herself this year. The 13 hour drive up there was not part of the plan, but from there on things went better for her.

The course at Edinburgh, which is now second only in size to the London marathon, is a fast one but can be susceptible to the wind as, after leaving the city, it follows the coastline down to Musselburgh. This year it was the heat rather than the wind that made it challenging. Caroline ran an excellent first marathon finishing in 4 hours 32 minutes 04 seconds, which was well within her predicted finish time. 

At the other end of the racing scale, three ORCs took part in their first parkrun on Exeter Quay. Chris Turner and Mark Hawkins both set new personal bests for the distance in 19 mins 09 secs and 20.34 respectively. Stuart May finished in 20.02, just 8 seconds off his PB.