RUTH Barnes rounded off a great year on the road with yet another personal best and a thumping victory in the Bromham Xmas Pud 10k.

Victory in Bromham for a fourth successive year on Sunday was hardly a surprise for the 38-year-old Trowbridge mother as she had warmed up by shaving three seconds off her PB in the Aztec West Fast 5k the previous Wednesday.

Her swift time of 16 minutes 41 seconds is the third quickest in the 2016 South West rankings and the quickest in the veterans over 35 age group, raising the prospect of Barnes attacking her best of 34mins 15secs in Bromham just four days later.

She missed that target but not by much as Barnes finished third overall from a field of 416 runners in a sizzling time of 34mins 28secs, which is the second fastest of her career.

“It has been a good week for me,” said Barnes.

“I was really pleased with my PB at Aztec West as it was a freezing cold night and I just treated the event as a hard training session so was not expecting to run a PB.

“Regarding Bromham, it was just nice after racing so many high-profile events, which have been great for me and a huge learning curve, to come home and run among friends, club colleagues and for my family to come and watch and cheer me on.

“It was a lot less stress and also nice to get a Christmas pudding at the end of the race.”

As a measure of Barnes’ progress this year, the Bromham race, which has become one of the most popular events in the county, provides an excellent guideline as twelve months ago she won in a PB of 35:31.

“At this time last year, I could not believe that in 2016 I would be running under 35 minutes,” added Barnes.

“Now I have done it this year the goal for 2017 is to try and run inside 34 minutes for the first time. I would love to give that a big shot as I am not getting any younger and it really feels like now or never.

“The 2017 season will be very important but I am very happy with this year as well. It has been great and it is nice to end it on a high.”

Overall winner in a time of 34 minutes exactly was Team Bath’s Ewen Malloch, who was racing the event for the first time.

“It is a nice, mostly flat course and well organised and I was delighted to win,” said Malloch.

Harry Palmer of Athlos Triathlon was runner-up (34:06), with the Avon Valley Runners pair of Barnes and then Mike Rose third and fourth (34:53) respectively.

Hardenhuish School student Cameron Perkins was fifth and first junior in a PB of 35:01.