Last Wednesday, Sidmouth Running Club hosted the ‘Not the Festival Run’; a normal club run that followed the route of the now-extinct Sidmouth Festival Run, writes Sarah Brown.

In a slightly different format from normal club runs, the club invited other local clubs to join our normal training session, and we had a large turnout from Honiton Running Club in particular, as well as various runners from Exmouth and clubs further afield.

Led by Colin Flood, dressed, as always, in his Morris dancer folk festival attire, the 50 or so runners set off from the bottom of Peak Hill, and up on to Muttersmoor.

There they were joined by more runners, and the whole group continued on to the old Festival Run route. It was agreed by almost all that running the club course as a normal run, which included occasional rest breaks and looping back to make sure nobody got left behind, made the normally difficult run much more enjoyable.

The run loops around Muttersmoor, over the ninth hole of the golf course and around Bulverton way and back, and despite not being a marked route, we managed to complete it without losing any runners! As always, the run finished with a downhill mile, straight down the way we came. Runners enjoyed the chance to stretch their legs at the end, and the whole group all finished together in just over an hour.

Although a shame that Sidmouth no longer hosts this run as a race on the final Sunday of FolkWeek, it was nice to get the opportunity to run it, and we were delighted to welcome so many runners from other clubs. As always, the running club continues to meet at the sailing club on a Wednesday at 7pm, and all are welcome.