Six Honiton runners travelled to Snowdonia in Wales to take part in the 30th Annual Race the Train from Tywyn to Abergynolwyn Station and back again, writes Judy Davey.

This is a very popular event with four races on offer competing against the steam train and all Honiton runners chose the longest being 14 miles of undulating off road running.

Runners are set off at the same time as the train and run beside the railway line sighting and hearing the train several times.

Unfortunately, none of the Honiton runners actually managed to beat the train although Steve Davey was tantalisingly close.

The train recorded a time of 1:48:07 and the Davey time was 1:48:49. Bruce Strawbridge was next back finishing in 1:55:35.

Judy Davey and Howard Bidmead had run the race within spitting distance of each other for most of it and their positions changed several times.

Davey eventually edging that particular battle, though she was slightly disappointed to have missed out on recording a time of under two hours by just 16 seconds!

The Bidmead time was 2:01:32. Clare Melbourne made it a family affair with her brother and sister in law also taking part. She was the only one to have completed two races that day as in the morning she had run with her niece to complete the Toddlers’ Trot.

She finished in 2:29:07 with her brother managing to beat the train by an amazing nine minutes.

Tracey Strawbridge completed the Honiton line-up coming just outside the three hour mark in 3:02:21.

The weather conditions were awful with driving rain and a strong wind blowing against the runners but the race had a bigger than usual field with 935 runners taking part.