Colchester Harriers in form women’s team still managed to find a silver lining at the Essex Half Marathon Championships at Pleshey despite the baked, cloudless skies.  On a day of relentless heat, far from ideal for endurance running, the women came through with another fine team performance to secure second place.  Debutant Kate Creak was the star of the show, clocking a remarkable 1:29:25 to take overall bronze despite taking a nasty tumble eight miles in and was backed up by brave showings from Victoria Primmer (1:36:11 – 8^th) and captain Justine Sheekey (1:36:16 – 9^th) as the mercury rose beyond 30C.

There were some fine performances amongst the men too, lead by Colin Ridley who took his now customary V60 Gold in a time of 1:30:17, with Chris Stevenson taking bronze in the same category after coming across the line in 1:37:17.  Paul Dellar (1:32:41 – V55 Silver) and Mark McKeown (1:22:58 – V40 Bronze) also made the podium on the day with Mark Howard (1:28:13), Stuart Harris (1:42:17), Dan King (1:42:20), Dan Summersgill (1:42:45) and Nigel Eden (2:06:43) the other male finishers.

The green vests also entered two teams in the Essex Way Relay – a 10 leg offroad trail relay along the public footpath of the same name, starting at Epping and finishing in Harwich, the Harriers teams finishing in 8^th and 20^th position out of the 76 teams competing.

In Parkrun action Adrian Musset ran 15:48 to finish first at Mersea Island, Emma Burgess was the first female across the line at Harwich in 19:56, Cameron Humphries ran 18:21 at Colchester Castle to take second place with Paul Connell third at Maldon in 19:08.  A little further afield Simon Colclough ran 19:38 to finish third in Wroclaw, Poland whilst Alexandra Hennessy clocked 24:38 to finish second female in Kraherwald, Germany.