THE seventh Harwich Parkrun attracted 50 runners to Cliff Park on Saturday morning, despite the inclement weather.

There were some notable performances, with six of the 23 Harwich Runners taking part achieving personal best (PB) times for the five-kilometre course.

Claire Gooding-Matthews was the first female overall to return to the bandstand, in 24 minutes and 28 seconds – a 19-second PB.

Only 19 seconds behind was Tracey Keeble, followed by Michelle Greenfield (26m) in third.

Diane Warner was another to set a new PB, finishing in 31m 58s, six seconds quicker than her previous best.

Among the Harwich Runners’ male contingent, Archie Barrington, competing in the 11-14 years age group, was the stand-out performer, finishing third overall in 21m 8s, lowering his previous best by five seconds.

The other Harwich men to lay down new PBs were Amos Seddon (24m 24s, for 11th overall) and Justin Cooper Keeble (26m 1s, for 15th overall).

Mark Rutter (19m 22s) was the first athlete overall to cross the line, 44 seconds ahead of Simon Day.

Peter Fraser-Hopewell was the sole Harwich representative among 229 runners at the Castle Park event, in Colchester.

He was the clear winner in the 60-64 years age group, in 23m 19s, for 61st overall.

Last weekend saw the Dedham 10km and 275 runners took part.

The winner was Ramadan Osman, of Colchester, who completed the course in 34m 6s.

The first Harwich Runner home was Rob Reason, who took fourth spot in 35m 23s.

Ben Hammond was 17th, in 40m 42s, while Matt Doran finished in 46m 34s, to take 59th.

Rob Warner finished 25 seconds and three places behind.

Francis Mills clocked 49m 24s at Dedham, placing 99th, while Kieran Callaghan secured a PB in 50m 58s.

Miles Doran managed 53m 15s in his first outing for the club over 10km.

In the accompanying 3.2km race, Michael Knowles recorded 15m 40s, which placed him fourth in his age group (MU13) and 15th overall.

Tanya Ferguson was among the 50,000-strong field at the Great North Run, posting 2h 46m 45s.

Bill Haining took part in the Masters World Mountain Racing Championship, in Snowdonia.

He finished 31st in his category (MV55), completing the difficult 8.7km in 53 minutes.

Ultra-distance fan Andre Besant took on the man versus mountain challenge – a 20-mile race running up and down Snowdon.

Out of 1,210 finishers, Besant was 74th in 4h 22m 31s.

Robin Brookes won the Rendlesham 20km race in 1h 29m 44s.

At the same venue, Liz Smith ran the 28-mile event in 7h 34m and then, the following day, she opted for the shorter race of 5.5 miles, in which she finished second.

Six members of Harwich Runners found the conditions ideal for the standard distance Clacton Triathlon, consisting of a 1,500m swim, 40km cycle and 10k run.

Simon Day was the fastest of the Harwich contingent, setting an overall time of 2h 6m 38s to finish 11th overall and seventh in the over-40 age category.

Steve Tatum was in the same age group and, despite suffering from a nasty headache, was able to complete the event in 2h 34m 43s.

Justin Burls and team-mate John Francis found themselves racing each other in the over-50 age category.

Burls posted a time of 2h 14m 54s for second place.

Francis finished fourth in 2h 16m 2s, while veteran Jeff Higgon won the over-60 age group in 2h 34m 3s.

Katie Holmes was the fastest lady swimmer overall and put in a much-improved cycle and run performances to clock 2h 45m 19s in the under-40 category.