The final Sunday of 2013 saw Honiton Running Club’s Steve Briggs travel to contest the Stoke Stampede based at Stoke St Gregory, Taunton, writes Judy Davey.

This is a 10km road race which is fairly flat with some inclines.

Briggs enjoyed the run and came 132nd in a time of 48:47 amongst a field of 322 runners.

Whilst many were nursing hangovers on New Year’s Day, 102 runners decided it was kill or cure on the first day of 2014, taking part in the Chard Road Runners’ Chard Flyer.

This event is based at Chard Cricket Club and is a 10k race along roads and paths. Honiton’s Joe Daly and Tony Peek joined what turned out to be an interesting race. The pouring rain never gave up and meant a few parts of the run were underwater. This didn’t dampen the spirits of the marshals who were a great support with their smiles and words of encouragement.

The route description is mainly flat, but runners found an interesting hilly bit at about 3k that just seemed to go on forever!

Tony and Joe ran the race together which they felt was a great help. They came 57th in a time of 56 minutes. Both said they would definitely do it again next year.

Last Sunday, following particularly bad storms for several days before the event, the start of South West Road Runners’ First Chance was delayed by one hour to avoid the high tide.

Predictably the route was very wet under foot with rain and wind prevailing. Due to floods there was a slight route change which made the course only just over six miles instead of the planned 10k. Runners found themselves soaking wet with very cold feet which slowed them down.

All Honiton runners had bagged a place at the last minute for this race which fills up very quickly. Roland Hall was first back for Honiton in 25th place in 36:07. Joe Daly was next back in 198th place in 48:13 followed closely by Tony Peek who finished 218th in 49:01.

The only Honiton lady representative was Kelly Allison who was wearing her Honiton racing shirt for the first time.

She finished 348th in 56:27. There were 465 finishers.