The Humdinger is a hilly road half marathon that has over 1,000ft of climb, writes Dave Mutter.

The race is organised by the Taunton based Running Forever club. This race is becoming more and more popular and this year both The Humdinger and The Hurtle sold out (The Hurtle is the shorter five-mile version).

The race itself was keenly contested and AVR had Terry Emmett and Matt Hewer in The Humdinger and Robin Britton in The Hurtle.

The cold conditions and wind chill made conditions tough and choosing the right running gear and preparation was important.

Matt managed to fail on both accounts! Terry, who came fourth last year improved on his time and finished ninth in 1:25:38. Matt was 16th in a time of 1:30:06, but he suffered the school boy error of not doing his laces up properly at the start and the brief stop after one mile and the poor wisdom of ‘I’ll warm up when I get going so I’ll be ok in just a T-shirt’ probably cost him a sub 1.30 time.

The shivering wreck in the changing rooms after the race probably indicated this also! Robin came home 29th in 39:50. A great event and a hopefully it will be bigger again next year, and Matt will be better prepared - but don’t rely on the last bit.