SUNDAY saw the 27th annual Wellington Monument race in Hemyock with a record number of 217 entries.

Despite a chill in the air and light rain prior to the start, clear skies and only light wind made for good race conditions.

The overall race winner was Phil Burden representing Taunton AC in a time of 34m 13 sover the ‘hilly’ 6.27 mile scenic course, with Ben Pointing (Taunton AC) and Arran Tocknell from Torbay AAC completing the distance in 34m 55s and 35m 37s respectively.

Lucy McAlister (V35) from Bristol & West was first Lady home overall in 38m 01s, followed by Joanna Carritt (V35) representing Running Forever in 41m 08s and Kim Hill from Taunton AC in 42m 12s. First male veteran (V40) was Torbay AAC’s Peter Monaghan, only a few seconds behind the third placed man overall. The only new course record for the day went to Andy Bussell as the fastest Hemyock man in 38m 15s, improving his own previous record by three minutes.

Taunton Athletic Club retained the ‘John Cooksley’ Team shield, hard pushed for the award by Torbay AAC in second, and Hydro Harriers in third.

The course started as usual from the Catherine Wheel public house in the village square, the route then climbed to and circled the Wellington Monument, returning along the same road to finish at the school in Hemyock. Age Category Winner were: Senior Men – Phil Burden (34.13); Junior Men (U18) – Sam White (40.34); Male V40 – Peter Monaghan (35.54); Male V50 – Tim Vialls (38.17); Male V60 – Robin Britton (46.03); Male V70 – Brian Gough (48.33); Senior Women – Lucy McAlister (38:01); Junior Lady (U18) – Rebecca Carver (43.41); Female V35 – Joanna Carritt (41.08); Female V45 - Niki Morgan (44.2); Female V55 – Karen Cook (45.42); Female V65 – Patricia Seabrook (98.13).

Full results will be made available via the dedicated race web-site: www.wellingtonmonumentrace.co.uk/ THE Longrun Meadow parkrun on Saturday attracted 117 runners dressed in various Christmas outfits.

Conditions were very wet and muddy, lots of splashing through huge puddles and wading through sticky mud. One section of the course was completely flooded so we had to make a slight diversion which meant the start point had to be adjusted so not all personal bests were recorded.

However there were still 11 official PBs which, considering the attire and the ground, was very surprising.

Mr P Worst, dressed as Joseph, won the fancy dress prize for adults while Ben Mills won the prize for juniors in his festive sunflower and tinsel costume. Danny Doyle collected his 10 parkrun T-shirt. As well as volunteering, Danny has proved to be a very speedy Longrun Meadow runner finishing the previous race in third place. First place was taken by an unknown runner with Chris Ray second in 19m 01s followed very closely by Martin Hewlett in 19m 04s.

First lady home was first timer and junior Rachel Langbein of Taunton AC in 19m 33s, followed by Alexandra Cutts of South West Runners in 19m 58s and Katie Gormley of Liswerry Runners in 22m 36s.

HYDRO Harrier’s sole entrant in the parkrun was Andy White who finished in a highly respectable 14th place 21m 17s.

Rowland Lyons competed in the Valentines (Ilford) event, coming home in 31st place out of 110 in a time of 24m 18s.

In the Wellington Monument Race there were six Harriers.

Competition was hot from the start with Andy Bussell, Tom Mellor and Andy Wilson setting a blistering pace among the front runners to the bottom of the big hill out of Hemyock.

Mellor was first Harrier back in 38m 02s (12th place), followed by Bussell.

Andy Wilson finished in 27th place in 41m 22s and a private scrap between Andy White (69th, 46m 48s), Chris Perring (70th, 46m 56s) and Paul Bradley (71st, 46m 58s) claiming three consecutive places and some excellent sprint finishes.