IT WAS a weekend of extreme distances as runners from Tavistock Athletic Club took on two challenging ultramarathon events.

First was the Hope Trail Festival in Newnham Park, Plymouth, where runners are challenged to run as many times as they can around a 5-mile course, over 12, 24 or 36 hours. TAC stalwart Holland took things to the ultimate extreme as usual, choosing the 36-hour timeframe and managing 27 laps.

That's a distance of 135 miles or just over 5 marathons! Unsurprisingly, he ended up the overall winner of the 36-hour event, just one lap ahead of his second-placed rival.

Also running was Les Wilkinson, who opted for the 12-hour event. She's a new runner to the club and, now 60 years old, only started running eight years ago. Having raced the London Marathon two years ago, her stated goal was to run 60km at 60. She did extraordinarily well, completing nine laps in the allotted time, finishing 15/129 overall and 7/56 for females. That's 45 miles- crushing her 60km (37 miles) goal.

A little further afield, TAC's Sarah Rhodes took part in the Race to the Stones ultramarathon - racing from Lewknor in Oxfordshire towards the Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire, with a choice of 50km or 100km distances.

This was the second part of her fund-racing duo of races, racing sponsorship to support Scope, having completed the London Marathon earlier in the year. Sarah took on the 100km (62 miles) race, which was split over two days, finishing in an aggregated time of 16 hours 28min, achieving a very respectable 10th out of 39 in her FV50 age category.