IT was a long and tiring weekend for athletes from Dudley Kingswinford Running Club as two teams of blue hoops took on a 24 hour endurance race.

The Adidas sponsored Thunder Run, held at Catton Park on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border, is open to individuals, pairs and teams starting at noon on Saturday and going through the night until noon on Sunday.

The aim is to keep going for 24 hours covering as many laps of the 10k course. The winners, be they individuals, pairs or teams, being the ones who have completed the most laps before the time limit is reached.

DK were able to enter two mixed teams of eight runners. The A team comprising of Matt Biggs, Kevin Duckworth, Helen Tromans, Dave Norman, Mark Homer, Steve Wood, Daren Thompson and Graham Wildgoose completed a total of 31 laps to finish in 11th place of the 228 teams competing in a total time of 24.43.08.

The B team of Richard Tonks, Sally McConville, Samantha Hemming, Meg Dowen, Mark Judge, Lisa Newell, Sarah Cox and Joanne Wall were 149th, completing 23 laps in 24.45.03.

In total the 14 runners competing covered a distance of 550 kilometres or nearly 335 miles over the 24 hour period and had someone out on course for every minute of the whole weekend. Matt Biggs managing five laps himself include a double lap in the middle of the night, the rest of the A team completing four laps and many of the B team covering four or three laps each on very little food and hardly any sleep.