Colchester Harriers’ athletes are continuing to get back into the swing of racing with a host of excellent performances in events up and down the country.

Starting close to home, the Felsted 10K is a well established race in the local calendar that always attracts a good field and this year’s race was no exception with 13 green vests amongst the 300 runners lining up at the start. Mark Howard was the first home for the club, battling very warm conditions to clock 39:13 and finish inside the top 20. Jack McGuire posted a promising time of 40:41 on debut and he was followed by Dan Cook who, despite the heat, ran a Personal Best (PB) 41:19, with Matt Read clocking 42:23 and Polly Mears, another debutant to shine, crossing the line in 42:46 to finish 4th lady. Steve Wilkins ran 42:46, Marcus Cox 44:26, Ella Jeffries 44:54, Dan Wilkinson 45:30, Mark Wellsted 47:38, Simon Miller 48:55, Victoria Rae 49:15 and Lizzie Wellsted completed the Colchester finishers in 58:33.

Meanwhile two of the club’s female athletes were posting very strong performances in the Midlands. Victoria Primmer continued her incredible run of form to take a whopping 10 minutes off her PB, clocking a rapid 1:27:38 to finish second female at the Bedford half marathon, whilst Tina Southgate completed the Outlaw Ironman Triathlon in Nottingham in an incredible time of 11:56:42 to finish 16th female overall and fifth FV40 in an extremely competitive field.

The resumption of parkrun action after a break of almost 18 months saw Harriers popping up all over the country. There were 13 Harriers at Colchester Castle where Richard Heath was first finisher in 17:25, followed by Cameron Humphries who took second in 17:54. Nate Filer was first home at Highwoods, completing the hilly course in 19:03 with Jordi Moat running 22:49 to finish second female whilst there were also top two finishes at Mersea Island with Andrew Jobling first in 17:56, Chris Sellens second (18:26) and Helen Taczynski first lady in 22:37. Further afield Jack McGuire ran 18:31 (PB) to take fourth at Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, Allen Smalls was fourth at Morecambe Park in 18:21 and club stalwart Richard Milward took to the west country to run 22:49 at Killerton, near Exeter.