After a rainy start to the day, just to ensure the slippery terrain was er ... slippery, it actually turned into a mix of sunshine and drizzle.

The course was without a doubt my most challenging yet and my hubby now wants to vet all event details when I tell him it’s ‘only’ a 10K he’s accompanying me on.

In all honesty, I was out of breath clambering up the steep gorge to get to the start area and truly questioned my sanity scrambling about on a rocky muddy trail without sturdy walking boots.

However, it was all too late for thoughts like that; we had race numbers to collect.

After a children’s 300-meter race was over (which ended up mighty competitive), the 5K and 10K runners gathered for a race brief. When I say race brief, I think the Relish Running guy was doing his best to deter anyone from taking part, I mean, he kept throwing in words like seriously steep, uphill, undulating, rocky, slippery, caution.

Before I had time to consider the voice of doom in my head, the whistle was blown and the lycra clan were off uphill for the first 1k. To be fair, it was a decent, spirited off-road route until a set of wooden steps at 8K, which were just heinous. From that point my legs and lungs were burning and begging for forgiveness. For me that finish line couldn’t come soon enough and I couldn’t help feeling a little compassion for the HM runners who had to complete another lap (probably a bit cheesy to say they must be crackers).

It was an enjoyable, challenging run. While gorging out on tea and cakes in the Lion Rock tearoom afterwards, hubby and I both agreed we’d definitely do it again. I came 33 out of 57 ladies that headed across the start line on the 10K route so I’m really pleased with that result. I’m sure wearing the GG t-shirt kept me running on sections I would have otherwise walked.

Deb Redmond (GoodGym, Bristol)