So what do you do when you arrive at Ripon cricket club for the annual post-xmas Jolly Holly Jog 10k - only to be told that it has been cancelled due to the ice ?

Contact as many club mates as there are in the surrounding area and organise the Quaker Running Club 'alternative jolly holly jog' of course.  (Being slightly annoyed that the Ripon Runners website had said 90 minutes earlier that the race would definitely go ahead - )

Getting together myself & April, Mark & Wendy, Abbie & Andrew, Louise & David, Diane, Sally & Sandra - we set off up the road along the original 10k route to Studley Royal. The surface seemed fine for running and we made the deer park in good time. The uphill run to the church meant we passed both a herd of deer and crowds watching them and after a cry of 'Well done Quakers' also spotted Jes Smith walking up the road.

The race drinks station was unfortunately absent as we carried on along the race route with the odd ice patch making things a little more difficult. A crowd of over 20 runners - possibly York Knavesmire Harriers - passed in the other direction before we hit the path leading back towards Ripon. At one point as the path crosses a road it became sheet ice for over 100 metres - we all had to totter slowly over this bit - especially after someone's bambi on ice impression !

The path took us back into Ripon and on to the Race HQ - the rugby club, where Sally showed she is prepared by being the only one of us with money so we could purchase some coffees ! Other little groups of runners kept appearing - all with the same runners mentality that if we are here we might as well run - no matter how bad the course is.

Did the organisers make the right choice cancelling it - considering the conditions last year when it went ahead ??  The jury is still out on that one - but if I was a race director, I think I would have made the same decision, but earlier.