The Cotleigh Climb is an invitation only social run organised by Howard Bidmead, Chair of Honiton Running Club. This year four Clubs were invited to take part, Axe Valley Runners, Honiton, Tiverton Harriers and SIDMOUTH Running Club. The run started and finished at Cotleigh Village Hall and covers a distance of 10 miles mostly off road.

With many of the SIDMOUTH Sunday Runners not available due to other commitments we only managed a team of three which was disappointing.
However the three of us soon became aware of why the run is named, as dropping down into Cotleigh from the top of the hill we realised that we would soon be running up it.

Being a social run there are no numbers or times and you could set off any time between 9.30 and 10am with members of the other Clubs. You followed the 10 mile route marked with yellow arrows and dots which at times we found difficult to spot so we ended up running 10.75 miles. It was a good experience to run in a new area and the panoramic views from the top of the hills were stunning and the run along the streams in the valleys interesting. It is a funny thing about hills that the ups always seem longer than the downs and it applied to this course in particular which had a couple of beauties.

With the run over it was now time for the social and the ladies of Honiton had laid on a spread to be believed, there was enough food and drink for twice the number of runners and it went down well.

This was a good training run for both Janice Ranson and Milly Frankpitt as in two weeks time they will be running the same distance but this time eating and drinking their way around the Delicious Drake Trail.