SPIRIT Of Monmouth Running Club were invited to take part in the Rack Raid by Fairwater Runners on Sunday 31st May.

The race was established in 1993 and it involves more than 100 miles of racing across South Wales spilt into 13 stages of varying distances running to Castles or ruins.

The race began at Grosmont Castle at 7.30am with captain Emma King running the first stage for the club and finished at the Castell-Y-Bwch in Cwmbran at 7pm, with the club coach David Mather running the final stage.

Martin Blakeborough ran from the Old Court Moat to Monnow Bridge in Monmouth, to a sea of Spirit support and the performance of the day went to Gareth Jones, who ran one of the toughest stages from Usk Castle to Tintern Abbey which was half marathon distance, and he finished in an impressive third place smashing the cut off time by more than 30 minutes. The team was missing club chairman who was involved in a traffic incident on the day and unfortunately missed his stage.

Each stage is given a cut off time and King was very happy with the team's performance as every runner met the cut off which ensured the team gained valuable points.

After 13 stages they finished in 16th place which is very pleasing considering they ran with one less runner than the other 24 teams.