The festive trail racing season reached its climax with three events over three days, with the wet weather making for testing conditions.  The 10K search for Santa event from Littley Green saw Melissa Dowell finish first lady after benefiting from time bonuses to record a time of 28:26. Dowell was then in action again a few days later in Little Baddow, running 1:17:58 to finish second female in the 13K race.  Meanwhile Malcolm Statham clocked 1:45:46 at the Elves 11 trail from Maldon.

In parkrun action the Colchester Castle event survived the wet conditions with 24 Colchester Harriers making the start line.  There were five Harriers in the first six to finish with Angus Holford first across the line in 17:38, closely followed by Cameron Humphries (18:30), Danny Millward (18:43), Ian Haw (18:52) and Jon Nears (19:03).

The ladies trumped the men with the top six females including three juniors all being Harriers. Becky Cooke was first female finisher in 21:20, closely followed by Lizzie Wellsted (21:58) and Amelia Green smashing her personal best by minutes with 22:06. The next three were Alexandra Hennessey (22:13), Jordi Moat (22:54) and Emily Henderson (23:19). Other juniors running were Finley Greenleaf (21:17) and  Harrison Leek ((22:20).

There were also two green vests in the first five to finish at Highwoods, with Russell Goodridge second in 21:00 and Sean Duffett fourth after clocking 22:36. 

Elsewhere Aiko Hennington’s return to action saw her run 20:26 to finish first female at Clacton, Richard Heath was fourth at Blickling in 18:22, Richard Flutter fourth at the 200th event at Dolgellau in 20:53 with Debbie Cattermole recording 22:53 to finish first female whilst Kieran Callaghan made it over to Ireland to run 24:46 at Virginia Water in Dublin.