THE MAIN surprise of the weekend was not that Eileen Hieron was first in her category in the Round the Bays Race but that she was the only Dursley RC athlete to actually complete a scheduled race.

Unlike the United Kingdom where race after race was cancelled, she was able to post on social media that she had ran ‘in the sunshine, thirty thousand ran and walked for 8.4 km in the race held in Auckland, New Zealand.

Hieron was first out of 67 runners in her F70 age category.

Emma Denton continued her challenge of forty races at the age of forty on behalf of the charity RP- Fighting Blindness, and she was not going to let a little bit of snow get in her way. She posted: “Storm Emma may have led to the Coastal Pathway Marathon being cancelled but she didn’t stop me running. I ran my own marathon”.

She registered in advance with ‘Racing the Distance’ so she will get a medal and certificate for her DIY Marathon.

She ran loops so her children could give her water along the way.

It is race number 35 and her ninth marathon of the year completed.

That means nearly a quarter of the races Denton has run in her challenge have been marathons, totalling just under 235 miles running.

The snow meant the cancellation of lots of local races, the Newport Half, Bath Half and all the cross-country events all off, along with all the local parkruns.

The Gloucestershire AAA Cross Country cancellation is likely to make no difference to the final podium placings for Margaret Johnson, Tony Wooldridge and Alice Lewis.

They had all got their three races in prior to this weekend with Wooldridge second M60, Johnson third F50 and Lewis third F55in the provision series places.

There were lots of other great running through the series, Erica Fuller always deserves a mention for her application and Mouse Clutterbuck and Garry Strickland where both very consistent over the series.

All those regularly competing in the cross-country events should, all being well, be stronger and faster in the summer as a result of their running.