A BRIEF hiatus in the cross country and road racing calendars meant it was a weekend for the parkrunners of Dursley Running Club. Saturday saw Shona Darley complete her 50th parkrun at Kingsway, and she celebrated by coming in first in her category.

Graeme Hawkins ran another personal best, pushing his age grading up to 78.89 per cent, with an impressive sub 22 minute 5K.

Also, running PBs were Lise Hindshaw, Cara Zoglowek and Tracey Goodwin, and Charlotte Strickland, whilst Charlotte Palmer travelled down to Weymouth to record her parkrun PB of 24:24mins.

Lucy Lia was just two seconds beating her best. At Wotton Zoe Lamerton led the DRC team home, with Dave Halford and Pete Dunn running the event having ran over from Dursley.

They then then ran back, Halford intent on getting some quality marathon training. in. Dunn was a first timer at the Wotton event, with two other first timers out – Avril Bagnall at Kingsway and Tom Roper at Stonehouse.

Kingsway: Graeme Hawkins, 15th , 21:52, (1st VM65-69), PB; Shona Darley, 45th, 24:29:00, (1st VW40-44), Kevin Higgins, 47th, 24:32:00, (3rd VM60-64); Antony Ball, 48th, 24:33:00, VM45-49, Lisa Hindshaw, 62nd, 26:21:00, (4th VW40-44), PB; Julie Froggatt, 68th, 27:20:00, (2nd VW50-54), Jo Fearns, 115th, 31:14; Ian Roberts, 116th, 31:15; Veronica Higgins, 140th, 33:53; Cara Zoglowek, 142nd, 34:06 PB; Avril Bagnall, 144th, 34:11; Tracey Goodwin, 154th, 35:54, PB; Luci Lai, 155th, 35:56. Stonehouse: Tom Roper, 22nd, 24:58 (3rd VM35-39); Wotton: Zoe Lamerton, 12th, 23:15, (1st VW35-39); Pete Dunn, 43rd, 27:59; Dave Halford, 44th, 28:00 Chipping Sodbury: Charlotte Strickland, 108th, 25:36, (2nd SW20-24), PB; Garry Strickland, 109th, 25:37; Tracey Strickland, 147th, 27:23; Annette Heylings, 185th, 28:49, (2nd VW60-64); Steve Rugman, 208th, 30:18, Jude Rugman, 245th, 32:02. Weymouth: Charlotte Palmer, 79th, 24:24:00, (4th VW40-44), PB.

DRC regularly organises club challenges for its members. October’s was a hill-reps challenge that demonstrated the sheer willpower of Dursley athletes with some running the equivalent of half marathon sessions, while Steve Watson run a marathon in repetitions.

Many runners returned day-after-day to increase their tally.

The “November Challenge” was to be an antidote to the OCD tendencies of runners, and to go to the heart of competitive running – knowing your pace.

Runners were invited to Jubilee Fields with no further instructions until they got on site.

Dispensing with watches and GPS devices the athletes had to predict their pace over 1km.

Winning the challenge was Vicci Phillips, just one second off her predicted pace, Tony Ball was just behind her and Nigel Sankey came in third.

Whilst one of the clubs least physically testing challenges it certainly got the runners thinking DRC November Challenge placings: Vicc Phillips; Tony Ball.; Nigel Sankey; Soos Moss; Robert Woodward; Lucy Fairall; James Everett: Lise Hindshaw; Cara Zoglowek; Rach Goatman Thomas; Nicki Cowle; Annette Heylings; Damian Lai; Garry Strickland ; Annette Keevil; Hannah Butcher; Steve Rugman; Becky Court; Carolyn Thraves; Hayley Hogg; Fran Amigoni; Jim Moss; Michelle Ball; Richard Hogg; Sarah Wilcox; Dan Gabb; Pete Dunn; Jo Shean; Zoe Lammerton; John Delafield; Tara Truman; Caroline Jones; Sam Martin; Nicola Evered; Margaret Johnson; Ian Roberts; Tony Freer.