11am start in Torrington, that’s get there at 10am so leave but 8.30, nice sunny warm morning in Cornwall, what do I wear?!?! I thought I’d better take my gloves just in case but it was definitely shorts and vest weather (so I thought).  Luckily I was staying in North Devon over Christmas so I had packed a base layer for a run later in the week.
As we drove over Bodmin Moor and further into Devon it was a white world....a heavy frost everywhere.  By the time we got to Torrington the temperature had plummeted and it was below freezing, well, I guess it was only 10am. 
By the time I had registered and jogged back to the car the sun was out and it warmed up a few degrees but I just couldn’t decide what to wear.  After much deliberation I plumped for the base layer under my vest as the other 215 runners couldn’t all be wrong, the other 1 was Fergy from TRC who’s just too hard to wear anything but a vest!!!  Its a fancy dress or tinsel race so there were some great sights but I didn’t realise til I got there so if you are thinking of doing it next year get your tinsel out and tie it to anywhere you can tie it to(bearing in mind there’s lots of ice cold water about!!!)
There was a field of 217 mad fools lined up to tackle this wet, muddy ‘fun run’.  All the top Devon girls seemed to be there so I settled in with Sharon Daw and we ran and chatted for 5 miles then she left me, as usual in these types of races.  She’s stronger and braver!
Within the first 2 miles there was thigh deep freezing water and calf deep mud under it to run though with no escape! It was the width of the path.  By the time we’d run through this which went on for about 400m, our feet had gone; it really felt like running on stumps!   After a few ridiculously steep up and down hills and lots of flat tracks through the woods and onto the Tarka Trail we ended up back in a field with another freezing water crossing (where the camera man was) then through thick broken ice and mud to the road, across another few fields and home, just over 10.1 miles!
Fantastic race, great fun and excellent marshalling and a few odd ‘bears’ in the woods with water pistols! Hmmmmm.  Damn cold but definitely one to do again!

Donna (no prize this time).