The local Dalwood 3 Hills race has returned after a three-year absence but the weather, during the lead up to the event, had been extremely wet and this meant a last minute re-route to the main race.

The rivers were taken out, as they were deemed too dangerous, which also meant that one of the hills went too. However, this did not disappoint runners, as there were still three hills, as the original race actually boasts four hills, despite the name!

The new course was still extremely slippery and muddy meaning, so finishing times were slower than normal. The original route would have measured approximately 10 miles but the diversion meant it was only 9.3 miles.

Sam Kelly won the race in a time of 1 hour 4 minutes and first Honiton Running Club member back was Jordan Brigden in 1:29, in 30th place. Johnny Bennett and Nick Couch followed, coming 32nd and 34th in 1:30. Pete Nicholls was the next HRC runner coming 44th in 1:33.

There followed a bit of gap of HRC runners but Stephen Boyes finished in 66th place in 1:41. Julian Gigg and Richard Harvey had begun the race trying to out-run each other but with about 2 miles to the finish, they decided they may as well stick together and they finished 72nd and 73rd respectively in 1:43.

Judy Davey was first HRC lady back coming 88th in 1:48. Rachel Hennessey was next, coming 117th in 2:01. Claire Staniforth and Darren Boswell-Carter ran together and finished 159th in 2:28. There were 167 finishers.

Also on offer, for the first time, was the Dalwood Dash, which was a race of about 6k. This was won by Rossi Wayne in 34:20 and HRC’s Yossi Maclure was runner-up, finishing just two seconds later. Rafi Maclure came 4th in 34:57 and first female back for HRC was Mia Wills who came 7th in 39:22.

Siblings Imi and Isaac Clarke came in together in 9th place in 42:01. Jenny Rawlins and Kate Clarke came 21st in 56:44 and Sean Wills completed the HRC line-up coming 24th in 59:34. There were 30 finishers.

These were great events organised by Alasdair Moffett and Tim Wigram with a number of helpers and, despite the conditions, thoroughly enjoyed by competitors.