FOUR Thornbury Running Club members ran at the Little Stoke parkrun on Saturday, and John Francksen joined the team of volunteers without which the events could not take place.

Once again there were no personal best times, but it was still an opportunity for runners to test themselves over a timed 5k.

Garry Slater was first home for the club in 19:22 followed by Jack Grudgings (20:36), Kevin Arnold gaining his 10 parkrun t-shirt in 21:22 and Hugh McPherson (23:06), who was first in the MV60-64 age category.

On Sunday, Dursley hosted the tough yet popular Dursley Dozen, a 12-mile race, chiefly off-road, up and down the Cotswold Edge and through muddy woodland paths.

There were five Thornbury runners, four of whom had raced the previous day at the Gwent League Cross Country race at Brecon.

Rob Hopkins, one of those who raced twice, again showed his strength, speed and stamina, to finish 71st in 1:46:31.3.

Matt Johnstone, the only one who hadn't been slogging through Welsh mud the previous day, had to work hard and was 91st in 1:49:05.6.

Ros Rowland was having her first run at the Dozen and just managed to break the two hour barrier, 166th in 1:59:52.6 and second in the FV50 category.

Mike Willis ran with his daughter Sarah Hardwick, now running for Marlborough, and could have been faster than his time of 2:12:59.6, while Judy Mills was just beaten into third FV55 place in a time of 2:19:53.5.

Thornbury Running Club meet at 7pm on Thursday evenings at Thornbury Leisure Centre, as well as organising track sessions on Tuesday evenings and longer Sunday morning runs.