I'd entered so it had to be raced (or at least be as racy as possible) and conditions were really good, although still not warm enough to expose the legs!

Set off around about an hour earlier than the official time to give a bit of a window for anyone else to have a crack at the course without getting in each other's space.

Darn but that's a swine of a hill to get up at the start, but once over that I headed off towards the crossroads at a half decent pace and met two separate unknown female runners, heading back on their return leg.

With a little help from gravity and an absence of traffic, the section from the crossroads to Merriott was a great prelude before the drag up to Hinton. That drag can be a bit tedious but I was encouraged along the way by chasing down fellow runners ahead. These guys turned out to be Derek and Ian and it was a real shame that I couldn't stop for a socially distanced chat, but the clock was ticking.

After going left at Hinton I whizzed down the hill but started to struggle on incline up to the wood yard. Luckily again there were two more unknown female runners ahead (also doing the route) which gave me the incentive to dig deep and push on.

The final climb from haunted house to the top after the kennels was tough but I managed to keep running, or more exactly jogging (often times I've walked chunks), all the way up before dropping down to the finish.

Did it in 51:33, which I'm more than pleased with, even if it’s a good deal slower than last year as it felt like the best run I've done for a while.

I know I saw a chap from Yeovil doing a recce of the route in his car and I'm sure others will have had a go at this today. So even though the event was cancelled I get the distinct impression it hasn't been forgotten.