With a pale blue sky lit by a radiant winter sun and Fingle Forest in full winter raiment, where else would you rather be than running the Drogo 10, writes Dave Mutter.

Quite often it lashes it down for this race on Dartmoor, but this year we were given a real weather treat with most runners enjoying the slightly longer course.

James Green started at the front, but let the two leaders speed off into the distance with canny James gradually closing in the final stages.

Unfortunately, the ridiculously steep Hunters Path near the end put paid to James’s ambitions and he finished third in a field of 485, finishing the race in a time of 1:05:15.

Eleanor Wood was first FV60, 117th overall in 1:27:17.

Other AVR finishing lots and times were: Matt Clist, 9th, 1:09:32; Duncan Staddon, 19th, 1:12:29; Robert Collier, 22nd, 1:12:48; Terry Emmett, 28th, 1:14:24; Matthew Hewer, 35th, 1:15:50; Rupert Pady, 56th, 1:19:54; Simon Davey, 109th, 1:26:24; Lee Moran, 123rd, 1:28:14; Richard Jackson, 126th, 1:29:00; Andrew Hartnell, 130th, 1:29:10; Steve Haines, 157th, 1:32:23; Margaret Pearce, 171st, 1:34:20; Alan Morbey, 213th, 1:37:57; Chris Hill, 244th, 1:41:10; Gillian Peach, 273rd, 1:45:16; Yvette Hill, 274th, 1:45:27; Mark Spraggs, 291st, 1:46:45; Anders Larsson, 306th, 1:48:24; John Larcombe, 311th, 1:48:52 and Dave Mutter, 384th, 1:59:01.

It was Linda Butterworth’s first 10-mile race and she ran well to be 386th in 1:59:13. Sarah Herfet finished 400th, 2:02:15, and other finishing slots and time were: Angela Kerr, 405th, 2:04:01; Bec Davey, 406th, 2:04:13; Susie Pitt, 413th, 2:05:44. Unfortunately, Amie Sibley, Sandra Mortimer and Tim Sibley missed a direction sign and ended up running much further and, to add insult to injury, Sandra had a nasty fall. All three eventually finished joint 459th, 2:20:55.

Many thanks to South West Road Runners (SWRR) for a brilliant event and to Alan Morbey for organising the transport and driver-in-chief Cliff Marriott.

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