HARWICH Runners entered three teams in the latest edition of the Essex Way run.

Split over ten legs of varying distance, the off-road route takes the teams from Epping all the way through to Harwich - a total of nearly 82 miles.

The ladies' team finished sixth in their category.

Both Kate Hodgkiss and Becky McCorquodale were the fastest ladies on their respective legs.

Elspeth Knott and Sally Gillam had got the team off to a good start before Hodgkiss lifted them to seventh.

Ellie Haynes, who finished third lady, took the team into sixth - a position consolidated with strong runs from Karen Stapleton and Emma McKillop.

The West Bergholt to Dedham leg is the longest at just over 11 miles and that was tackled superbly by McCorquodale.

The team never relinquished sixth place, with final legs from Anna Anderson, Samie Franklin and, bringing the team back home to Harwich, Valentina Burley.

Harwich’s mixed team produced some fine displays, with Graeme Knott third-fastest of all the 73 teams on his 9.5-mile leg and Rob Reason fourth over the final Ramsey to Harwich leg.

This was an effort that gained the team four places to finish 20th out of the 52 mixed teams.

There were also strong runs in this team from Will Roxby-Clarke and Allan Bush.

Andre Besant also ran well, despite having done the first leg of the day for the Harwich vets' team.

Sadly, missing one runner cost the vets' team a better position.

Besant and Jason Meachen had elevated the team to first in their category before losing ground without a runner on leg three.

There were good runs by Charlie McCarthy, Justin Burls, Mark Rutter and Robin Brookes to give the team a respectable mid-category finish and 23rd overall out of the 73 teams taking part.

At the Harwich Parkrun, there were once again good performances from junior members.

Eddison Barker was fourth in 20 minutes and 32 seconds, Michael Knowles sixth in 20m 53s and Jamie Carter eighth in 21m 5s.

Claudine Benstead had a minor operation the previous day so took it easy but still finished second in 22m 25s.

Third lady was Nicola Challis, in 23m 40s.

Personal bests were achieved by Jo Higgon, 26m 54s, and Claire Lawrence, 28m 48s - her fourth in four appearances.

This week also saw some club members return who had been missing for a while.

Sam Gooding-Matthews finished second in 19m 44s - his first run in 13 months.

Emma Duffy, 31m 19s, made her first appearance since March this year and Tracy Lawrie (28m 8s) has not been seen at the Parkrun since April 2016.

Vicky McCrea ran the Delamere Parkrun in Cheshire.

At the Great Cornard event there were two club members.

Carrie Hook was third lady in 23m 50s and Mark Lloyd was second finisher in 18m 14s.

Mark Higgs was among the many thousands of runners at the Great North Run.

He completed the half-marathon distance in 1h 51m 15s.

Closer to home, Matthew Friend completed the Colchester Zoo Stampede half-marathon in a new personal best time of 1h 31m 29s.

He finished 14th overall out of 555 finishers in the course which started and finished at the zoo itself.

Meanwhile, Allan Bush was Harwich’s only representative at the Harlow ten-mile race, finishing well in 1h 16m 17s.