There were just over a hundred hangovers gathered at Chard Cricket Club for the New Year’s Day Chard Flyer 10k road race, writes Dave Mutter.

They assembled in grey weather to tackle relatively benign lanes east of town, with just one steady climb and descent.

Dominic Schneiders was the first AVR home in 43:54, fairly closely followed by Robin Britton who clocked just over 45 minutes. Eleanor Wood was next AVR and second lady overall in 46:52 (Lin Lascelles being first lady, in under 43 minutes).

Geoff Woodward in 49:55 and Steve Reynolds in 50-odd minutes soon followed. Mike Giles had a good run, registering 53:40. Harry Moore won the oldest competitor award and received a bottle of wine for his effort, finishing in 1:46. The team event was first three in a club, but had to be mixed. In a bizarre quirk some Maiden Newton runners ran as Crewkerne, and Chard had no ladies near the front of the race resulting in AVR winning the team prize, collecting both wine and a trophy.

?Lesley Adams completed the Cannon Hill parkrun, near Edgbaston 145th in 29:09.

?Nicky Ingarfield ran the Brown Willy Run on Bodmin Moor in darkest Cornwall. This was a seven mile social run, no numbers or times, very muddy and wet but great fun and she only fell over twice!

?The third annual Bog Training event, a chance to run repeated laps around and through the legendary Grizzly bogs at Hole Bottom, Branscombe happened last week. Each lap is a quarter mile long, with four feet of deep gloop in places. Twenty keen Boggers took up the challenge: one Honiton runner, Warren Oak, 18 AVRs, and one AVR elite junior, May Wood, learning the fine art of Bog Running. A new record of 23 laps was recorded by joint winners Jamie Lambert and bog host Jon Day. Most Boggers had a nice cool and fresh wash off in the stream before plodding up and over to the Fountain Head for some lovely refreshments by the roaring open fire. A great gooey day was had by all!

?For a Great New Year’s resolution why not get fit and healthy and join your local fun and very friendly running club, AVR?

All ages and abilities are catered for from Juniors, Absolute Beginners, Improvers, Intermediates, and Fast Runners - check out our web site www.axevalleyrunners.org.uk or contact Absolute Beginners’ leader Gill Day on 01297 625 078 or email Jon.Day@AxeValleyRunners.org.uk