THORNBURY Running Club enjoyed a Sunday for half marathons, with local options at Cheltenham and Chippenham and the Great North Run a bit further afield.

Kevin Davis was the sole Thornbury runner in Tyneside, where he enjoyed the atmosphere to complete in 2:21:57.

At Chippenham Dave Flemington finished in under two hours in 1:59:52, while at Cheltenham Sonya Bryson was first club member home in 2:03:23 with Joel Ava Makinson and Doug Herbert running together in 2:08:00.

However, for Thornbury Running Club runners the weekend started with parkruns on Saturday, with just Andrew Darton (18:25) and Garry Slater (19:14) at Little Stoke, where they had two good runs, though both well outside their best times.

It was a different story at Aberystwyth, where Nicky Davies broke the 22-minute barrier for the first time at any parkrun with a great time of 21:42.

Andi Davies, almost back on form, finished a good fifth in 17:59, back below 18 minutes but totally out-paced by son Luke, who achieved a new parkrun personal best (PB) of 16:26, the 13-year-old finishing not surprisingly in first place.

Thomas Darton, son of Andrew, also had a personal best at the Little Stoke junior parkrun on Sunday, his time of 9:16 almost half a minute faster than his previous best, proving he has mastered the art of pacing himself over the distance.

The final Castle Combe duathlon of the 2014 series was held last Wednesday.

Rob Hopkins put in a strong performance to take 19th place with a total time of 49:47.5 for the two-mile run, 10-mile bike, two-mile run.

Unlike most competitors, his second run was faster than his first.

Mike Willis, in 51:34.6, made a clean sweep of the series, again taking the SuperVet60 prize in 28th place, with similar average run times to Hopkins but with a slower time on the bike.

The relay team of Ros Rowland and Ray Sunnucks came up against stiff competition and finished in 55th place overall, while Arthur Renshaw, also in the SuperVet60 class, ran well and finished 82nd.

Sue Bamford took part in the Cotswold Sprint triathlon and was pleased to beat last year's time by five minutes, also finishing second in her category in 1:13:59.2.

Ross Phillips came 20th in his category in a total time of 1:19:24.3.

With the club looking forward to the Oldbury Power Station 10-mile road race on Sunday, it was time for the Steve Jones Memorial Handicap, a race just for club members held over the same course.

Being a handicap, runners' times are compared with past performances to determine the winner, but until announced those taking part can only compare themselves to the other runners.

Jim Williams was first to finish in a good 73:11, followed by Kevin Arnold in 77:23.

Over-60s Steve Dimond (79:38) and Hugh McPherson (81:21) followed with club secretary Nigel Hale (85:17) and captain John Watt (93:44) in front of the Grimseys with son Mark in 98:27 and father John in 103:13.

Entries are still open and will be taken on the day for the Oldbury 10-mile race, which will start from the Power Station at 10.30am on Sunday.

More details of this and all club activities can be found at thornburyrunningclub.co.uk or the club facebook page.