It’s the time of year when days are short and race calendars are sparse but that didn’t stop new club member Emma Louise completing the Heddon Howler 5km race over near Barnstaple coming in as 2nd lady in her age group. A further hardy group of 14 Running Forever RC members weren’t to be put off by the wintry conditions from making the short trip to Bicton College near Budleigh Salterton for the Bicton Blister 10 mile race. It’s great to see one of the popular local races making a comeback this year following cancellation in 2020 for this and many others. The course is mostly along hilly trails with a very welcome quick finish along the road, as you can see from the finishing straight photos. First home in 1h29m was Ron Foord continuing a rich vein of form over the autumn, with Simon Rowland (1h30m), Ian Bawler (1h31m), Jon Newby (1h34m) and Dave Loader (1h34m) all close behind. First ladies home were Sam Cross and Sue Lewis both in 1h38m, followed by Damon Butler (1h43m). The next set of hardy runners back were Ann-Marie Crampton (1h48m), Helen Prescott (1h50m), Nadine Prouse (1h50m) and Peta Aspden (1h54), with Rosie Bennyworth (2h01m) and Rachel Nicholls (2h07m) completing the club charge to the finish. Storm Arwen managed to close several parkrun events, but whilst numbers were down for us compared to a normal week we still had good representation at Longrun Meadow with 12 taking part, plus 1 each at St Mary’s Bridport and Great Field Dorchester.