The Bank Holiday Monday sunshine greeted several Honiton runners who were brave enough to tackle the Killerton 10k and Half Marathon races organised by Relish Running Races which specialise in hills, writes Judy Davey.

So it wasn’t a surprise that the routes seem to find as many different ways as possible to climb the wooded hill behind Killerton House.

The Half Marathon course was twice around the 10k route.

Howard Bidmead and Tony Peek had both pre-entered for the Half Marathon course and they managed to persuade Louise Crisp to join them.

It was a wise move as Louise ran a great race, overtaking Howard at the start of the second loop and finishing in 24th place in two hours three minutes. Howard finished just behind in 2:07 and surprisingly he found the hills on the second loop much easier. Tony Peek came steaming in at 2:12 to finish 38th, but regretting the drinks at the Honiton Sausage and Cider Festival the day before. There were 72 finishers.

The Half Marathon was won by Milan Goc from Sidmouth, a former Honiton Club member.

The 10k runners followed the Half Marathon folks around, but thankfully only had to do one loop of the hills.

Rod Inglis came in at 50:06 in good form enjoying the route complete with bluebells. He was followed by Roger Saunders who hasn’t been racing for several months due to injury so this was his comeback run. His time was 55:59 which managed to win a prize as first in category. Joe Daly has done a few races recently and came in at 61:01. Finally Roger’s daughter Helen made this her first race after graduating from the beginners group at the club and finished looking very fresh in 64:17. She wants to do a flat race next though so she can keep running. 195 runners completed the race.