Terry Bewes and David Skinner headed out to the Haldon Hill Jingle Bell event on Sunday morning, writes Hamish Spence.

Organisers, Purple Geko, set two courses for this event, a 5k (one lap) and a 10k (two laps) in which a total of 230 people took part, many dressed in the obligatory seasonal attire.

It was a chilly morning, but having run the Purple Gecko multi-terrain event here earlier in the year, David knew what to expect and was sure that he'd soon warm up.

Care would need to be taken as the ground was extremely soggy following the inclement weather.

The out-bound part of the route is mostly down hill, with a few undulations before the final kilometre, which abruptly turns into an uphill finish!

David and Terry set off together with David managing to keep Terry company for around 3k.

But then Terry powered on up the hill to the finish line, leaving David to struggle on alone.

Terry was happy with his official finishing time of 37:41 in 46th place and David surprised that he was under a minute behind Terry in 38:23 coming in 49th place. There were 91 runners in the 5k.