After four hard months of training the day had finally arrived for Dotty King and Kate Fowle to make their way to Seaton to take part in the gruelling Grizzly and with this year’s event named ‘Paws for Thought’ the pair knew that every part of their training would come into play.

The Grizzly is one of the hardest running events in the South West with 20 miles of hills and more hills accumulating to an overall 3000ft climb.

With thigh deep bogs and following a winter of hard rain the going was very slippery for most of the way and made it very hard going on legs especially when ropes were provided to pull themselves up some of the hills.

The winter training, however, ensured that they were prepared for whatever their legs came across on the course.

The ladies ran through the shingle, they climbed the hills, they dragged themselves through the bogs, they fell down, they got back up, they scraped the mud off, they climbed some more, they climbed the stairway to heaven up the side of a cliff in mile 17 and finished with a sprint to finish in a time of 5:19:11.

Dotty was running to raise money for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal run by The British Red Cross Society — www.justgiving.com/fundraising/dotty-king