MUD, mud and more mud – hundreds of hardcore runners and brave first-time entrants waded across fields during the renowned Sodbury Slog on Sunday (November 8).

Setting off from Chipping Sodbury School following a two-minute silence to mark Remembrance Sunday at 11am, 1,300 men and women, some serious competitors others taking on the challenge to raise money for their chosen charity, ran down the High Street to cheers and applause from onlookers and family members.

But the dry and clean start was a false representation of the rest of the nine-mile race which took runners across muddy terrain, through ditches and up heart-pounding hills in a course across Sodbury Common, through Little Sodbury End and Old Sodbury before returning to Chipping Sodbury School.

Race director Steve Herring said: “Forget roads - they're for wimps - this is a lung-busting, trainer-ruining, hill-climbing, multi-terrain challenge held over and through some of South Gloucestershire's most stunning countryside.

“The race always coincides with Remembrance Sunday and was preceded by exhortation, a two-minute silence and playing of the Last Post, which sets the scene for a memorable day.”

Started in 1990, the Sodbury Slog is organised by Bitton Road Runners and has won several titles including the second best UK race in 2006/07.

This year’s event was won by James Thompson, from the University of Bristol running club, in a time of one hour and three minutes.

First-time slog participant Sarah Todd, from Chipping Sodbury, raised £700 for Cancer Research UK through sponsorship.

She said: “It was well worth wading through cow slurry up to our waists.”

Katie Marshall, who has raised more than £450 for stillbirth and neonatal charity Sands, was also running the slog for the first time.

She said: "There was an amazing atmosphere and it was so much fun."