THE good weather at the weekend produced some great times at the Harwich Parkrun on Saturday.

Of the 141 finishers, 29 ran personal bests (PBs).

Members of Harwich Runners to achieve new bests were Alan Gardener (21 minutes and 14 seconds), Trevor Lewis (22m 8s), who knocked 1m 32s off his previous best, Katie Holmes (24m 34s), with a 57-second improvement, and Francine Battram (30m 2s), who set a new best by 52 seconds.

Two junior members also set new bests.

Theo Sanderson ran 23m 30s and young Jack Manley went sub 30 minutes to record 29m 39s.

This time of year many runners are putting in long training runs in preparation for a marathon.

Club runners Stephen Peck and Simon Day ran an 18-mile training run, timing their arrival in Cliff Park to coincide with the start of the Parkrun.

They still finished in fifth and sixth positions in 20m 5s, indicating that their training is going very well.

The latest edition of the Tarpley races at Beyton near Bury St Edmunds took place last weekend with two distances on offer.

For those building up to a spring marathon, the 20-mile race provides a really good test while the other option is a ten-mile race.

Both distances are run on gently undulating country roads out in the West Suffolk countryside.

There was drama at the front of the 20-mile race as the first four runners, who were well clear of the rest of the pack, were sent the wrong way.

Among this group was Rob Reason, from Harwich, who eventually went on to finish second in a swift one hour, 50 minutes and 37 seconds.

Also preparing for marathons are Lian Meachen and Jeremy Downs, who completed the distance in a little over four hours.

There were 328 runners in the 20-mile race and slightly more, 337, opted for the shorter ten-mile distance.

First home for Harwich was Allan Bush, in 1h 10m 43s - his first outing for the club over this distance.

There were some big personal bests recorded by other members.

Christina Pretty had run the distance three times previously since joining Harwich Runners and each time was just over 1h 40m.

This year, though, she managed to smash that time and finished in 1h 33m 42s.

Helen Benham improved by nine minutes to 1h 27m 28s from her last trip to this race two years ago.

Also improving was Kim Pretty, who knocked over four minutes off his time at Hadleigh in November to post 1h 21m 22s.

He was also fourth in his age category (MV60).

There was a new best time for Carrie Hook, who recorded 1h 24m 33s, an improvement of just over a minute.

The sixth runner, Anna Anderson, also did well to finish in 1h 45m 42s.