There was nothing saintly about this 56-mile challenge

Gemma Radcliffe, Charlotte Allen and Mark Luscombe were in the The Saints Way Ricochet, 56 challenging miles from Fowey to Padstow and back again.
They started off looking bright eyed and bushy tailed at just after midnight in Fowey.
The route is a mix of road and trail passing through Golant, Lanivet, Helman Tor and on to Padstow with various other villages and hamlets in between.
Padstow is the turn around point and also the start of The Saints Way 28.5mile event. It was great for them to see some familiar faces coming towards them at the start of the challenge as our athletes were were nearing the turn around - more amusing to watch them heading in to a high tide covered pedestrian bridge over the estuary - if you didn’t have long legs you were definitely going to get wetter in some areas! Some runners even took off their shoes and socks - not realising the mud at the other end.
Charlotte came 2nd Lady and Gemma’s sister Lucie 3rd Lady
The event was not easy. Muscle twinges were evident for all but for those who could it was a push to the finish.
A huge thank you to Team Purple Gecko and all the helpers.
Nick Robinson came an impressive 46th place in the Bridgwater Half with a time of 1.32.40. He achieved a personal best time by over a minute. The conditions were tough for running with heat and fierce sunshine. Nick described the race 'absolutely boiling'.
Sunday was the City to Sea Marathon and Half Marathon with Andy Philipou taking on the Half Marathon distance and Mark Atkinson, Rebecca Niles and Anita Merrit completing the marathon. A tough, challenging route on a hot sunny day, results to follow.
Sophie Thompson was in London for the Big Half. She overcame a longstanding injury and battled against the heat in the big smoke, passing the iconic landmarks to achieve an excellent finish time of 1:55:20
The junior Torbay Athletic team was also busy this week. The moon was amazing at the last Exeter Evening meeting of the season. So were the athletes. There were PBs for Leon Snell in 800m who broke the 2:30 challenge with a time of 2:28 a PB by 5 seconds. Adam Holland (Mac) also gained a PB with 2:42. And Marlow Kirby had a great run just outside his PB.
James Larkin who has had a great season at the shorter distance of 400m had a great battle to finish 2nd in 400m in 52:38. James is ranked 8th in SW U20 age group .
Gwilym Lewis broke the 5:00 challenge with a 1500m time of 4:57.34. Ella Richards and Scarlett Muscott both had great runs just outside their PBs. Ella is ranked 9th in SW and Scarlett 15th and both have another year in this age group.
After a busy racing schedule over the weekend, Paige Quinn decided to run at the last minute. On Saturday she came second in the 3k in the UK U15 championship in Birmingham with a time of 10:00.9 which makes her 6th in UK this season at this distance.
Then on Monday she ran at the Trafford 1500m time trial in 4:38.94 which was 0.3 seconds outside her PB. At Exeter on Tuesday night Paige ran a very impressive 4:36.72 moving her up the UK rankings to 11th place and 1st in SW.