LAST weekend started with Dursley Running Club helping Wootton parkrun celebrate their first anniversary.

Thirty Dursley RC athletes made up the 130 entrants with seven members assisting with the event organisation.

There were quite a few personal bests at parkrun over the weekend after just one the previous weekend.

Matt Rogers was quickest DRC parkrunner in 19:15mins at Wotton, with an age grading of just under 74 per cent, with Shona Darley first woman home.

Yet again, top of the age grading was Eileen Hieron with 75.35 per cent grading.

At Kingsway, DRC Junior Holly Clark ran a very impressive personal best, joined by Andreline Davies, at Wotton.

Stephen Watson, Luke Davis, Shona Darley, Francis Low, Rachael Barker, Charley Palmer, Liz Halford, Julie Froggatt, Julie Fenn, Nicola Christopher and Jennifer Wilkins ran bests whilst Nick Fennell did so at Chipping Sodbury.

Neil Hodgson took a weekend off from parkrun and went off road in the New Forest at the inaugural running of the Breamore10K.

Hodgson made the podium placing second in just over 40 minutes and placed first in category, over a hilly course.

Sunday saw James Everett in Dorset at the “Stickler”, described by Dorset Doodlers the organisers as ‘a friendly and popular running race”.

It features over 1500ft of climbing across three peaks of Dorset – Okeford Hill, Hod Hill and Hambledon Hill – and it is alternatively described by one of the past participants as the “Best off-road race in Dorset, hard as nails”.

Everett went off-course which possibly cost him a podium position, but apart from the navigational error it was another impressive morning’s racing for Everett completing the 10.1 miles in just under 69 minutes.

Dursley RC had five marathoners running on Sunday.

At the SSE Dublin Marathon, Damian Lai, ran his 16th marathon in the space of two years, and was accompanied by former Rednock pupil Rob Hale.

Hale now lives in Ireland and is a first claim athlete for Dunboyne AC but runs with Dursley when he can.

Both ran personal bests with Lai just 40 seconds from going under four hours, a target that is entirely achievable for him. Hale ran just under 11 minutes quicker than in 2016 finishing in three hours 19:06mins.

Kate Browning completed the Exmoor Trail Marathon finishing in five hours 25:07mins, first F40 and eighth woman overall.

Browning described it as the “ hardest trail marathon” she has completed.

In Wales, two new DRC members were running the Snowdonia Marathon – Kevin Brockway and Quentin Somerset.

Held over the roads around Llanberis, there are a couple of nasty climbs to get over, with the organisers equating the 26 miles to 29 miles of flat terrain.

Somerset made it to the 23 mile mark in just under four hours, going on to finish in an impressive four hours 40mins, with Brockway completing the course in five hours 10:24mins.

In Langdale two Dursley veterans enjoyed mixed conditions for the fiftieth anniversary running of the Original Mountain Marathon.

Andy Kilby and Rob Woodward competing in the Long Score event collected a total of 264 points over two days of orienteering.

Placing 130th on a ‘claggy’ day one, they moved up the rankings on the bright and sunny second day 115th finishing in 127th position overall, and 124th in the veterans, spending 11 hours 50.20mins in the mountains.

At the Cheltenham Poppy run, seven DRC athletes – Nicki Cowle, Lise Hindshaw, Lisa Young, Sam Hill, Leigh Allen, Jackie Gilmour, Angie Sinton and Kate Reynolds – were joined by some of their children to run.

The runners both remembering the fallen and raising funds for those within the Armed Forces.