FIVE Dursley athletes travelled north to the Asics Manchester marathon.

Joe Browning was looking to improve on his performance at Edinburgh last year when a blistering half marathon time of 91 minutes left him legless in the closing miles.

Along with all the other Dursley runners, Browning showed consummate pace judgement, coming through the first 10k in 44:57mins, his first half showed he had learnt his lesson with a steady 97mins split.

This meant that there was only a negligible drop in pace over the final 12 kilometres with Browning smashing his previous time by just over 27 minutes in a time of three hours 16:57mins.

Marathon veteran Dave Halford was second home comfortably under four hours, and just ahead of Margaret Johnson completing her first ever road marathon, she found the last few miles gruelling, despite a slowing down she was able to hold a steady pace and made a big effort over the final half mile. Behind Johnson, Becky Court and Audrey Harris both had good runs with Harris another one to smash her previous best running 16 minutes faster.

Results: Joe Browning 1049th 03:16:57 (338th SenM); Dave Halford 3702nd 03:54:42 (M40 1064th); Margaret Johnson 3736, 03:55:01 (204th F55); Becky Court 5182nd 04:15:02 (481st F35); Audrey Harris 5632nd 04:23:03 (483rd F40).

Neil Parry took part in the Cardiff Bay 10K as part of his London Marathon preparation, he declared himself pleased with his time of 41:28mins placing 20th MV45 and over.

Suzanne Moss completed the inaugural Dave Mcnamee Memorial 10k on the same day finishing in one hour 06:50mins.

Carolyn Thraves completed her first Ultra, the Vale Coastal Ultra, from Penarth to Ogmore-by-Sea in Wales, and came home in around nine hours. She was thrilled to have run and walked the 34 miles, two miles longer than originally planned due to coastal path diversions.

Seven DRC athletes travelled to down to Bristol and West's Aztec West Fast 5K on Tuesday night. They were led home by Dave Durden who held on after a fast start. Jonathon Tudor ran well, just missing going under 20 minutes to record a PB.

Jadie Cotterell was first woman home for DRC and 23rd woman overall, with Francesca Amigoni just 46 seconds behind to place 28th woman overall. Pete Dunn and Tony Ball both close to a top ten finish in their categories, no mean feat in an event with a high-quality field. Results: David Durden 19.39, 98th (5th MV50); Jonathan Tudor 20.01, 107th; Carl Fivey 133rd 21.40; Jadie Cotterell 21.42, 135th (11th SenW); Francesca Lane Amigoni 22.28, 143rd (14th SenW); Pete Dunn 154th 23.22, (10th MV40); Antony Ball 162nd 24.20, (13th MV45).

Parkrun saw 26 Dursley RC walk2run athletes celebrating their graduation at Kingsway with another 34 athletes taking part.

Mark Brasier was quickest in 19:14mins., 16 seconds ahead of Thomas Smith, Luke Davis was 4th home and 2nd J11-14. Jadie Cotterell and Francesca Amigoni again came home first and second for the Dursley women. Richard Pitt and Braiser both posted over 70% age gradings. In godo conditions for running Charlotte Stickland posted a personal best at Chipping Sodbury; at Kingsway Braiser, Damain Lai, Steve Rugman, Erica Fuller, Pete Wintle, Chris Curry, Margaret Badger and Carly Heath all ran PBs.