IT was a cold, frosty day that greeted competitors at the Harwich Parkrun on Saturday.

Despite the sun shining, the temperature hardly moved off zero.

Of the 77 who took part, 34 were members of Harwich Runners.

Once again, the first male and female finishers were club members.

Simon Day was first back to the bandstand in the park in 18 minutes and 59 seconds.

New club signing Tim Brand was close behind in 19m 11s.

Once again, the first lady finisher was Parkrun regular Claudine Benstead, in 21m 16s - the sixth finisher overall.

The first junior was club member Michael Knowles, who was the 11th finisher in 23m 3s.

Ellie Haynes had her appendices removed ten days ago.

However, she has made a rapid recovery from the operation and finished second lady, not too far off her best in 23m 45s.

Four weeks ago, Kim Pretty set a new personal best (PB) of 23m 50s.

In his last two runs he has been within two seconds of beating that.

This week he achieved his goal and set a new best of 23m 49s.

Mike Ball started the year with an aim of running sub 25 minutes.

By the end of February he had achieved that and set new targets.

By mid-September he had a best of 24m 4s.

During his last ten Parkruns, he has achieved seven PBs, this week going sub 22 minutes for the first time to record 21m 59s, probably faster than he thought possible at the beginning of the year.

Harwich Runners were due to compete in the fourth race in the 53-12 Cross-Country League on Sunday at Halstead.

As with so many sporting events, due to the bad weather it had to be postponed until March.