PETER HALL of the Running Forever Running Club recently took his long distance running feats to a new level when completing the South Downs Way 100 mile off-road race from Winchester to Eastbourne.

The race, incorporating 12,000ft of climbing, started at 6am on Saturday morning and Peter completed the course at 8.15am the following day.

He finished in 101st place – there were 190 starters and 142 finishers – in 26hrs 15m 5s.

Thankfully for the runners the weather conditions were just about perfect – cool, dry and with a small tail wind.

Pacers are permitted to join runners for the last section of 46 miles, mostly through the night, and Dave Urwin – himself no stranger to long distance running – stayed with Peter all the way to the finish.

Next year it’s Urwin’s turn to run his first 100 miler and Hall has already volunteered to be his pacer in return.

Seven club members ran in two races over the weekend.

At the Torbay Half Marathon, run on a two-lap course from Paignton to Torquay and back and with windy conditions, Holly Ashford ran very well to lead the club home in 121st position in 1hr 31m 12s.

She was followed by Paul Dunlop (465th, 1hr 46m 30s), John Allinson-Smith (518th, 1hr 47m 21s), Andy Ashford (647th, 1hr 51m 38s) and Jen Boulton (1,307th, 2hr17m 56s).

Meanwhile Liz Williams and Nadine Prouse ran in the off-road Cheddar Gorge 10k challenge.

With a lot of hills and stiles and the ‘sting in the tail’, the Hello Steps at 7 kilometres, both ran well to finish together in 1hr 24m.

Running Forever have announced the return of their popular training group for the Taunton 10k race.

The aim of the group will be to take people who have never run before or who want to return to running again and train them to be able to complete the race at the end of September.

The group will use a variety of techniques to bring runners safely to a suitable level of fitness and will concentrate on all aspects of running from stretching to footwear advice, all within the safe confines of an organised group.

The running group will start next Wednesday, July 3 at 6.30pm at the Belvedere Road car park.

Send all enquiries to Phil or Sandra at enquiries@runningforeverrunningclub.org.uk