Colchester Harriers endurance athletes enjoyed a busy week of competition, racing in a variety of events up and down the country.

Tina Southgate and Mark McKeown led the way, both posting remarkable performances at the Bedford Grand Prix with Southgate taking almost an hour off her Personal Best (PB) to clock 3:39:18 in the marathon and McKeown extending his recent fine run of form to finish 5^th in the half marathon in an incredible time of 1:14:19 (PB).

Not to be outdone, three Harriers were competing in an endurance event called the Medal Chaser in Finchingfield, attempting to complete as many laps of the off-road 5.3Km course as they could within a 6 hour time limit.  Dean Williamson managed 13 laps thus covering over 43 miles in just 5:08:19 to beat off a competitive field and run out overall winner of the event.  He was closely followed by Nate Filer whose 12 laps (39 miles) took him only 5:08:12 and earned him second place overall whilst Tom Cresswell followed up his remarkable 24 hour run the previous weekend by completing the marathon distance in 3:49:17.  Meanwhile Harriers exile Martyn Clarke was also competing off-road, running 1:32:23 in the muddy Thoresby Half Marathon near Nottingham.

Back on the roads a group of Harriers made a mid-week evening trip to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford to run in the aptly named Chase The Moon events.  In the 5k Kevin McAlinden ran 19:39, Ellie Cumner 20:01 and Paul Neville 20:21 whilst in the 10k Victoria Primmer crossed the line in a PB of 43:38 with Simon Miller coming home in 46:30.

In trail racing, Simon Morgan and Simon Smith ran in the 7 mile Toppesfield trail race, with Tiptree based Morgan posting 58:48 to finish eight with Smith coming in fifteenth in 62:32.

Finally, those Harriers who weren’t busy competing in externally organised events were embarking upon a series of virtual cross-country races organised by the club.  More than 60 green vests competed in the first event at Abbey Fields, either solo or in small groups, with Adrian Mussett completing the 5 mile course in 28:11 to post the fastest time.