Last Sunday morning four Sidmouth runners braved the icy conditions to take part in the Resolution 5k organised by the Stroke Association at Escot, writes John Perratt.

As the name suggests the run is intended to encourage runners to stick to New Year’s Resolutions (seems a long way off!) and stay committed to their running.

Indeed, for two of the four this was a first race and they did themselves proud. Jane Doe and Lucy Brown have only recently started running and were accompanied by their son and mother respectively.

Jane surprised everyone, especially her son and herself, by being the second female to finish, a fantastic result in a first race. Lucy’s aim was to finish and hopefully to run the whole way round - she did both and could easily have run round again if necessary!

The star of the morning was in fact Jason, Jane’s son, who was the overall winner of the race and, at only 16-years-of-age, that is no mean achievement. Louise, meanwhile was happy to keep her daughter Lucy company and be proud of her (as a mother should be) at the end.

All in all it was a fun, if chilly, family morning out.

With them in spirit was another of Louise’s daughters – Sarah, who, as part of her London Marathon training, headed to Cranleigh, Surrey, for the Cranleigh 15/21 mile race, a road race with two potential finishes, depending on how much energy the participants have.

She entered with every intention of doing the 21, but a combination of a 9am start in below freezing conditions; snow blowing in our faces; and maybe slightly too much wine on Friday night, the 15miles were becoming more appealing.

The first 9 miles passed relatively quickly, much of it thinking about how stupid she was to enter a marathon full stop, let alone 21 miles in what felt like the middle of winter. When the first of two six-mile loops loomed up ahead the decision was made that 15 miles was going to be the limit.

Trudging up a massive climb (all relative to Sidmouth hills) with snow falling and a mile to go, she couldn’t wait to reach the end but did so in a finish time of two hours and 16 minutes. The temperature was still well below freezing when she finally got back to the car. Less than four weeks until London and it can’t come soon enough!