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During the journey down to Devon that morning, the radio had been announcing severe weather warnings, albeit for the following day, for the coastal areas and urging the public to keep away from the beaches, headlands and coastal paths.
So there was a mad inevitability about this year's race as the runners and spectators gathered on the Seaton esplanade for the twenty-first running of this ever-popular event - over the beaches, headlands and coastal paths of South Devon. Most were planning to run the full 19+ mile Grizzly course and some the shorter 'Cub' version.
Almost to the second of the start being sounded, the rain started. From then on conditions varied from spring sunshine to cold winds and to finish with a hail storm of paint-removing strength.
The early rain made for slippery conditions on top of otherwise firm ground and the bogs really did live up to the name with plenty of shoes being lost.
Styled as "Twentyish muddy, hilly, boggy, beachy miles of the multiest-terrain running experience you will find this side of the end of time", this year' race certainly fulfilled all expectations.
No doubt the 2000 places for next year's event will, again, be fully subscribed within days.
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