Reindeer and Hogs

Last Saturday, after a night of prolonged, heavy rainfall, Sidmouth Running Club, the organisers of the Reindeer Run at Otterton, had to reduce the multi-terrain course from 10K to around 8K due to the very severe flooding. Although the rain had stopped well before the 10.00am start and the weather remained dry throughout the race, the water level on the flooded roads just got higher and higher, for longer and longer stretches, after the river burst its banks and the water poured down through the fields onto the road.

The runner who coped with all the mud and water best to win the race was James Denne of Honiton Running Club in 30:57, beating the other 161 finishers. Jon Croome, the first of the seven Harriers to finish, was 10th in 35:09, just 8 seconds in front of Jim Pyne who was 11th in 35:17. Andy Kennedy was 53rd in 41:15, Lorraine Croome 57th in 41:53, Lissie Lingard 90th in 47:00, Kevin Lingard 105th in 48:07 and Les Turner 119th in 51:12.

Jon and Lorraine Croome were runners up in the married couples category, despite the fact that their accumulated time was less than that of the winners, Steve and Judy Davey from Honiton. The reason was that the cross country scoring method was used where the winner gets 1 point, 2nd two points and so on, and the pair with the lowest number of points is the winner.

.

On Sunday, 14th December, Harrier Andy Johnson had an earlier start - 9:30am - for the 49th running of the Hog's Back race, at Guildford, Surrey. After raining constantly all day Saturday, the runners were fortunate to be rain-free and flood-free, but the whole race was run in mist. There were a couple of short, sharp inclines in the first couple of miles, which were harder than the Hog's Back itself - a long drag up from miles 2 to 3.3. They then dropped for the next mile, and around a dozen runners swarmed past him. As the route levelled off, he maintained a fairly steady pace but couldn't maintain this in the final mile along the long entrance drive to the Losely House stately home, which didn't looks quite so impressive in the mist. He finished 96th out of 644 in 54:27 for the 7.9 mile course.

.

(LT & AJ)