A BRIGHT and breezy day greeted the arrivals for the 38th Harwich Parkrun.

A strong field of 87 runners set off through the park and quickly on to the promenade.

To a casual observer it seemed the run fragmented into many minor battles with lots of groups of four or five runners jostling for positions.

Harwich Runners monopolised the front end, with Graeme Knott proving dominant, coming home in a new personal best (PB) time of 18m 14s.

Second place went to Sam Gooding-Matthews, in 18m 27s, and Simon Harrison finished third in 18m 49s.

Seven of the first 10 finishers were members of the local club.

There was another PB for Claire Gooding-Matthews (23m 40s), which gave her top spot in the ladies’ section.

Graeme’s mum, Elspeth Knott, was second lady and also best age-related runner on the day, in 24m 53s.

Other lady members of the local club who ran well include Ann Piercy (25m 22s) and Angela Walton (27m 56s), who both set new PBs.

It was also good to see Kate Hodgkiss taking part again and she finished fifth in 25m 30s.

Of the 87 runners, 29 achieved PBs.

Harwich Runners also had members in Parkrun events further afield.

Great Cornard regular Richard Flutter was third out of the 114 finishers in 18m 58s.

At Ipswich, Jonathan Burls made an appearance, finishing 74th of the 299 runners in 23m 45s.

In Cornwall, Louise Papworth ran her 50th Parkrun at Lanhydrock, near Bodmin.

Despite being injured and she should have been resting, she ended the off-road hilly course in 38m 4s.

Harwich Runners also were represented in two of Europe’s biggest running events last weekend.

The first European big city marathon of 2016 took place in Paris on Sunday and there was one Harwich Runner in the field.

Anne Herbert overcame an injury-affected training schedule to complete her first-ever marathon in a time of 5h 31m 6s.

Also travelling to complete a first was Katharine Pleace, who took on the Berlin half-marathon for her debut at that distance, finishing in 2h 50m.

Kieran Callaghan, while in Southern Ireland, couldn’t pass up a chance of running a race.

He entered the Dunboyne four-mile road race, which is major race in the road racing calendar in Ireland and usually attracts a large and fast field.

This year was no exception with two Olympic athletes running.

Sara Treacy won the ladies’ race in 21m and Mick Clohisey came third in 18m 48s.

Kieran finished 230th of the 571 runners in a more gentile 31 minutes.

The inaugural Bromley 10km run is on Sunday.

Five hundred runners and one wheelchair athlete will set off along the country lanes around Little and Great Bromley.

The run is a sell-out, with a bumper crowd drawn to the flat, fast course and looking to get in shape prior to the upcoming London Marathon.

Proceeds will go to St Marys Church, for maintenance, and it has been organised by Harwich Runners in conjunction with the church PCC.

There will be a 2km children’s race that starts at 10am, followed by the main race at 10.30am.

The marshalling and support is almost entirely by residents of the village.