THE ever-popular Great Bentley Friday five-mile race took place and featured more than 50 Harwich Runners.

On paper, this is the quickest race of the five-mile series and has always been seen as a good, competitive local event.

This year, 423 runners took part.

The night was probably a bit warm for really fast times but, nonetheless, there were some strong performances overall, together with various good age-category placings.

The first Harwich Runner home was Rob Reason, who has not raced much since April’s London Marathon.

He finished in ninth place in a decent time of 28 minutes and four seconds.

Mark Lloyd continued his comeback from injury with a quicker time than his outing at Lawford the previous week and 29m 31s was enough to secure third place in his age category (MV45).

Claudine Benstead beat her own five-mile club record for her FV55 category.

Her time of 33m 51s was also enough to secure second in that age group on the night.

Third in the FV35 group was Madeline Lewis, who came within four seconds of her personal best in 33m 57s.

There were also third-place category finishes for Anne Herbert (FV60) and Bill Haining (MV60).

Becky McCorquodale has been going really strongly recently and was second in the FV45 group and only one second off beating her own club record of 34m 20s.

There were a couple of new personal bests recorded on the mostly flat course with Michael Ball (36m 54s) and Valentina Burley (41m 54s) going quicker here than ever before.

Matthew Friend completed his first-ever race for the club, finishing in 33m 50s, and there were also encouraging first appearances at the five-mile distance for Karen Barker, Lian Meachen, Chris Elliott, Jules Lawrence, Samie Franklin and Trevor Lewis.

At the Harwich Parkrun, club members were first male and female finisher. Steve Cooper returned for his first Parkrun since April and secured his fourth win at the local event in 17m 43s.

The first lady was Karen Stapleton.

It was also her fourth win, this time in 22m 27s.

Club junior Eddison Barker continues to impress.

The 12-year-old finished third overall in 20m 28s.

The third lady finisher was also a club member, Emma Mackillop, in 24m 14s.

The hot weather meant very few runners achieved new personal bests.

The only club member to do so this week was Allan Bush, who finished in 22m 33s.

Harwich Runners once again did not restrict their Parkrunning just to Harwich. Gary Parker was at Ipswich (21m 44s), Ann Piercy ran 29m 42s at Sheringham and Amos Seddon did 26m 3s at Littleport.

Further afield, Sally Gillam was in Paris and ran 25m 48s.

Victoria McCrea (26m 51s) and Hannah Jarvis (26m 53s) were at the Zary Parkrun in Poland where they finished fourth and fifth ladies.