The BBC Children In Need Colyton Fiver and Fun Run race director Paul Morgan must have good connections with the weather gods.

The BBC Children In Need Colyton Fiver and Fun Run race director Paul Morgan must have good connections with the weather gods. Five minutes before the start of the race it was pelting down with rain, then suddenly it stopped and, for the next hour, brilliant sunshine adorned the runners.

With such poor weather early in the day not many runners were expected, but in the end 171 finished the Fiver and 56 the Fun run. The best result was the �1,800 raised for the BBC Children In Need appeal, a superb effort.

Torbay AAC's Peter Monaghan was the Fiver winner in 28:18. That was a brilliant time as the first part of Cownhayne Lane was covered in six inches of water for over 100 yards making the race more like a duathlon. Great fun for the youngsters in the Fun Run, but many of the older "kids" enjoyed the splash.

Naomi Speake was the ladies' winner, 16th overall in 32:33. John Blackledge and Luke Reed had a battle to become the first AVR's home, with John just beating Luke to finish fourth in 30:19, with Luke fifth, 30:33, a new PB by over a minute.

Dominic Schneiders was next home, 19th in 32:46, followed by Chris Keeffe 22nd, 33:23. Steve White was delighted with his 29th spot taking 34:39, just ahead of Richard Hale 34th in 35:28 and birthday boy Geoff Woodward 38th, 36:07. In his first run for ages, Steve Potter fairly flew around to be 44th in 37:08.

The honour of finishing first AVR lady went to Sue Campbell who was 46th in 37:25. Peter Hughes had a barnstormer of a run, easily beating his nearest club rivals, finishing 57th in 39:11. Gary Davies was 66th in 40:16 and Tim Sibley 70th, 40:47. With 800 yards to the end, Rick Wood spotted Dave Mutter looming up on him so he put on a bit of a spurt to finish 79th in 41:31 and Dave, who had only just overhauled Dawn Potter, 82nd in 41:43. What can we say about Dawn? We haven't seen her for a long time and she has improved amazingly. There's no way a few years ago she would have finished 84th in 41:50 - well done Dawn.

Jon Day's Wednesday girls were all on form and loved the six inches of cold freezing water. First of the Wednesday tribe was Alanda Vere, 94th in 43:08. Close on her tail was her training buddy Tracy Stone 103rd in 44:51 who was suffering a little with cramp.

Sam Tooze did very well on her first ever five miler to be 138th in 50:27. Next came one of Gill Day's Friday girls Karen Leslie, who has only just joined the group but was 139th in 50:31, which made Gill very proud. Emma Ellyn ran very well after coming back from illness, she was 147th in 51:25.

Next was Gill Day and, despite a striptease on the second lap of the course, finished 154th in 52:47 knocking 13 minutes off her PB. It was good to see Mike Venn out again, he was 158th in 53:43.

New training buddies Marilyn Hughes and Debbie Scotter were joint 167th in 59:19. This was Marilyn's first race with AVR; she has just joined the Wednesday group from the Friday group. Marilyn completed the fun run last year and thought she'd never be able to manage the full five, so well done. Graham and Diane Newton ran together in Diane's first race, congratulations to her for being 169th in 1:01:01. Harry Moore did well to get around in 1:07:46.

AVR's Matthew Morbey was the winner of the 2.5 mile Fun Run in a brilliant 15:49, while Lily Helston the girls' winner, fourth overall in 17:10.

Performance of the day came from blind runner John Barrington-Rowell, who was ably guided around by the Atkins brothers. They overcame all obstacles to finish 52nd in 40:19, a flabbergasting effort.

Mollie Hansford ran well to finish eighth in 18:35, while Ellis Bee decided to fall in a ditch half way around but, despite this, he was 15th in 19:53. Jon Day thought he'd take the easier option with his son on the fun run, but Ethan, who has just turned nine, had different thoughts. Other than a very cold swim after taking a nose dive in the flood, Ethan was determined to beat his last year's time and flew around the course finishing 20th in 21.33, a PB by two minutes. They were just ahead of James Sibley, 22nd in 21:38. William Blackledge was 25th in 22:56 and Harley Pearce 27th, 24:21; Beth Sibley 30th, 25:58 and Jo Partridge 37th, 28:02.

Jon and Gill Day would just like to thank their girls for all the hard work and effort they've put in over the last couple of weeks - this is just the beginning girls, they are very proud of you all. Gill heads the complete beginners' group which meets at the yacht club end of the Esplanade at 7pm on Friday evenings and Jon coaches the improvers' group who do a 4-5 mile run every Wednesday at 6:30pm - this week they are meeting at the Tramway Car Park. If you feel like trying running, then go along and join in the fun.

Many thanks to Saucony, Winner-Print and Colyton traders for supplying the eagerly anticipated spot prizes, Colyton Youth FC for refreshments and Colyton FC for the superb venue plus, of course, all marshals and helpers who assisted Paul and Anne Morgan make the event a tremendous success once again.