BOXING Day on the beach? Sounds appealing, but how about Boxing Day on the run?

The Round The Lakes 10km has become one of the most popular races on the south coast over the Christmas period.

Organisers Poole Athletic Club were allowing on the day entries, but these were quickly snapped up an hour before start time, and some runners who had turned up on Boxing Day morning hoping for a cobweb clearing run around Poole Park were sadly disappointed.

Four hundred runners lined up in Dorset for the race which consists of a four-lap run around the boating lake at Poole Park, and then a one-lap circuit of the cricket field to the finish.

In the summer, there is an extremely popular 10km race organised by Poole Runners as part of the Poole Festival of Running.

This consists of two 5km laps from Poole Park, but heading out towards millionaire's row along Sandbanks, beside the beach, before cutting inland to the start/finish line inside the park.

The Christmas offering is a little less scenic, though conditions were unseasonally bright and warm for this Boxing Day feast.

I ran with my son Ross, pushing him around the course in his pushchair.

We started off steadily and made good progress from the back of the field through the runners.

It was hard going at times, negotiating the speed bumps, coping with some impatient drivers in their gas-guzzling cars who were trying to edge past the runners, and pushing up one long hill which got harder with each lap.

Ross seemed to enjoy himself. Thankfully there was no rain.

It got a bit hairy by the end of the second lap when we were lapped by the front runners, some of whom were pathetically arrogant demanding that slower runners gave them a wide berth on some of the narrower paths. There are ways of asking and ways of asking.

I was going at a reasonable pace and these guys could just move round.

The atmosphere, though, among the middle-packers was good. We were there for an enjoyable Boxing Day run-out in a very pleasant location. I ran 10km in 52min 11sec which was nice and gentle.

Seventy races down in 2007 and three more to go!