Colchester Harriers’ rising star, Victoria Primmer, continued her recent rapid improvement across all distances with a remarkable run as the autumn marathon season got properly under way with the 47th running of the Berlin Marathon. The 26 year old defied temperatures rising into the mid 20 degrees centigrade to run an excellently paced race, running 1:37:36 for the first half of the race and then gradually accelerating to post 1:34:20 for the second half to record an overall time of 3:11:56. Primmer’s time was more than half an hour faster than her previous best for the distance and brought her home in 137th place overall in the large, international field of over 6,000 female runners.

On the roads at home Justine Sheekey retained her title in the Geoff Day Memorial 5K, running 20:26 to run out comfortable winner, Wayne Cook returned to racing with an impressive 18:31 at the Shalford 5K and Bill Haining posted a season’s best 43:41 at the Bedford 10K.

In trail running Richard Heath was first home in the Mayflower Trail Half-marathon, running 1:35:03, with Tim Holden second (1:40:57) and Sean Duffett fifth (1:43:55) despite losing their way on two separate occasions. Eleanor Mayne finished first female in 1:48:47, Arthur Whiston ran 2:09:24, Anita Mussett 2:09:26, Mark Wade 2:17:17 and Lydia Cunningham 2:17:17. Simon Morgan was second in the 5 mile Essex Trail Events Trail at Felsted, finishing in a time of 43:00.

In cross-country the first Essex League fixture of the season at Hockley saw some excellent performances from Harriers’ runners. For the women, Lyla Belshaw took victory in the U15 girls’ event whilst Denise Morley finished an excellent eleventh in the Senior event. For the men, Adrian Mussett was sixth, Cameron Humphries fourteenth, Tomas Colsell seventeenth, Luke Orrin forty-first and Allen Smalls forty-sixth with Finley Greenleaf (eleventh) and Harrison Leek (thirteenth) both performing well in the U15 Boys race.

On to the track, a depleted team of Kevin McAlinden, Paul Mingay, Simon Morgan and Gavin Sandercock acquitted themselves well and with admirable versatility to finish eight in the Eastern Masters track and field final in Milton Keynes.

Finally, it was a busy weekend of Parkruns too with Jason Gunn (19:18), Tim Ballard (19;48) and Austen Mitchell (19:52) all among the first 10 to finish at Colchester Castle, Colin Ridley (18:26) first home at Great Cornard, Andrew Jobling (18:42) second at Great Notley, Jack McGuire (18:00) third at Harwich and Susan Waller-Toyne running 23:28 to finish fifth in Middlesbrough.