THE fourth race in the 5km series took place along the promenade at Harwich.

A total of 127 runners took on the challenge of trying to beat their predicted times.

The winner was Dennis Warner, who beat his predicted time by the biggest margin, closely followed by Jason Meachen.

The fastest runner on the night was Harwich’s Rob Reason, whose time of 17 minutes and ten seconds was quicker than his only previous effort in the series.

Fellow Harwich Runners Mark Lloyd (18m 18s) and Robin Brookes (18m 23s) both ran their quickest this year.

Fastest lady for the fourth race in succession was Aiko Henington, of Colchester, in 18m 25s, with the fastest local runner being Madeline Lewis, in a season's best 20m 41s.

Despite a headwind in the first half of the race, there were a good number of impressive new personal best times set.

Archie Barrington recorded his third PB of the series, lowering his time by another 14 seconds to 18m 34s.

There was a big leap forward for Lee Allen, who ran inside 19 minutes for the first time, recording 18m 39s.

Becky McCorquodale keeps threatening club records at the moment and narrowly missed out by just three seconds on the best V45 mark of 20m 44s here.

There were also good gains for Ellie Haynes (22m 23s), Harry Young (21m 35s) and Valentina Burley (25m 48s).

Trevor Lewis ducked under 22 minutes for the first time while Kim Pretty continues to improve with his first sub 24-minute time.

Others grabbing new personal best times included Stuart Raffle, Kathy Barfield, Marcus Turner and Emma MacKillop.

In the accompanying junior race, run on the rock hard sports field over a one-mile distance, the youngsters were trying to beat their predicted times by the biggest margin too.

Race winner by a long way was Jude Lynch, who smashed his predicted time by a huge amount. Fastest boy was Archie Henington, in 6m 19s, while the quickest time recorded by a girl was the 6m 55s recorded by Amy Thompson.

There were new best times set by both Bella and Daisy Ward, as well as Jamie Carter, while Eleanor Newman matched her previous best.

At the Maldon 5k series, Mike Ball was the only club member.

His time of 21m 2s shows he will soon be running sub 21 minutes for the distance.

It was another hot day for running at the local Parkrun on Saturday.

Forty-four members took part but only one achieved a new personal best.

That was Emma Mackillop and she improved from 24m 4s to 23m 16s.

She was third lady finisher - her second PB of the week.

Kate Hodgkiss was first lady finisher in 20m 32s and second was Claudine Benstead in 20m 41s.

First junior finisher once again was Eddison Barker, in 20m 57s.

The overall winner was Graeme Knott, in 17m 31s, and clubmate Mark Lloyd was second in 18m 22s. Gary Parker regularly represents Harwich Runners at the Ipswich event.

This week he was eighth in 19m 35s.

Rachel Jarvis was at Colchester where she finished fourth lady in 24m 11s.

Charlie McCathy was fifth finisher at Clacton in 20m 22s.

Will and Sarah Roxby Clarke chose Kesgrave Parkrun where they recorded 23m 42s and 30m 17s respectively.

Three club members were in Paris for the Bois De Boulogne Parkrun and they were Sally Gillam, Hannah Jarvis and Victoria McCrea.

The French don’t issue results as quickly as we do in the UK so their finish time is not yet known.

On Sunday it was the first running of the junior Parkrun in Harwich.

Junior Harwich Runners led the field home with Jamie Carter first in 8m 23s.

Daisy Ward was first female to finish and second overall in 9m 6s.

Warren Mann was the only other club junior and he finished in eighth place in 9m 58s.

The junior Parkrun will now be on every Sunday in Cliff Park, with a 9am start.

It is free to enter for any juniors between four and 14 years.

The run is 2k, just over one mile in distance.

Peter Fraser Hopewell joined almost 12,000 other runners in the Virgin Sport British 10k.

He was happy to finish in 52m 21s considering the heat in central London on the day.