The start of 2020 has seen 20 new members of Sidmouth Running Club take on the challenge of the Beginners Group, writes Hamish Spence.

Terry Bewes, Alexa Baker and Kyle Baker were the run leaders.

The first session started with a group chat to introduce themselves and to find out the reasons why they wanted to take up running, along with what they hoped to achieve.

The group did a quick warm-up and then proceeded along a windy seafront for the first step by running and walking between each lamp-post.

They then progressed to walk one lamp-post, run two, then the majority of the group managed to run three lamp-posts and walk one, which is a great achievement for the first session.

In readiness for following weeks, the group has been split into several groups, so they shall have a leader per group to really get cracking on the three-mile route.

Well done, to beginner Clare Austin, who turned out on Monday evening this week during Storm Brendon and completed a spectacular 2.75 miles.