Colchester Harriers endurance athletes defied the wet and windy conditions to tackle a variety of long distance events over the weekend.

The Abbey Fields based club fielded a number of runners in the Virtual Virgin London Marathon.  Veteran Clive Thomas recorded the fastest time, completing the distance in 3:07:09 whilst Steve Wilkins ran a beautifully judged race to record a Personal Best (PB) 3:30:52.  Michelle Lock posted 4:13:14, Darren Ferrugia 4:13:22 with Louise Yates recording 4:40:27 despite having been able to complete very little training.  Cheryl Appleby ran 4:49:11 whilst Lydia Cunningham (4:52:46), Mark Wade (4:53:51), Holly Mackenzie and Sue Waller completed the distance by running loops of 1.6 miles around central Colchester, with the enthusiastic support of other club mates.

Elsewhere Mark McKeown continued his run of impressive form to record a PB of 2:40:57 in the Lake Dorney Marathon with Victoria Primmer also recording a PB of 3:47:20 on a challenging, hilly course at the Kent Marathon.

In off-road running, not content with running just 26.2 miles Sudbury based Tom Creswell went more than a few steps further as he completed an amazing 96 miles in 24 hours in support of mental health charity York Mind. Meanwhile in trail racing, at Bradwell Marina, Simon Smith making another comeback, came 8th in the 14 mile event clocking 1:57:45 whilst Simon Morgan came 3rd in the shorter 7 mile event making it back home in 57:26  A good day for Simons on a busy weekend for the club.