PARKRUNS continues to be family affairs in Thornbury Running Club, with Thomas Darton and Eve Slater following in their parents' footsteps to run in the Sunday 2k event.

The parkrun movement is supported by many well-known and professional athletes, and on Sunday champion triathlete Chrissie Wellington MBE went along to support the youngsters at Little Stoke, and had her picture taken with Slater and Darton.

In the run, Darton chipped one second off his personal best to finish in 9:15, while Slater showed that last week's time was not a fluke, coming just two seconds short of her personal best in 11:48.

The adults ran their 5k version of parkrun the previous day.

To mark the clocks going back, the parkrun course was run in reverse at both Little Stoke and Chipping Sodbury.

It seemed to make little overall difference to the times and at Little Stoke Garry Slater was fifth in 18:57.

Kevin Arnold was having a warm-up for the next day and ran a respectable 21:15.

Also keeping it in the family, a Thornbury husband and wife team took part with Malcolm Carr (25:31) and Karen Carr (27:11) both improving on their previous week's times.

At Chipping Sodbury, Judy Mills (26:40) improved by almost a minute from the previous week, though still a long way short of her best.

Both ladies did however come first in their age groups.

David Palmer (28:49) took part in his second ever parkrun and his first in four years, this time at Darley Abbey Park in Derby, and most of the Davies family were in Yorkshire, Andi finishing the tough undulating Barnsley parkrun in second place (18:21) with Nicky fourth in a strong ladies' field (23:10).

The next day Kevin Arnold was the sole Thornbury finisher at the Stroud Half Marathon, completing the 13.1 miles in almost ideal conditions in 1:37:43.

Further north, Rob Hopkins and Ros Rowland took on the challenge of the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) in the Cheviots.

This famous event, held over two days with an overnight camp, attracts the very best fell runners, and applicants have to prove their ability before being allowed to enter.

In the class B race, teams of two are required to locate nine control points over the 26.6k of day one and a further seven points over 19.4k on day two with a considerable climb on both days.

Hopkins' original partner had dropped-out so Rowland was a last-minute replacement, giving a pair of strong, determined runners, though with concerns over their navigational skills.

Rowland was not used to running with a backpack and found it hard to keep her balance over the challenging terrain, not helped by heavy rain and strong winds.

Then came the navigational problems. After wasting much time looking for control points on day one they decided to take a direct route to the campsite, which at least allowed them to take part in day two.

The second day was better and with some trouble they found the first few controls, then made their way direct to the finish.

Rowland had been planning a shorter course option in 2015 but had been thrown-in at the deep end with the class B distance.

Not deterred, she is writing her Christmas list to include kit she now knows she will need.

Thornbury Running Club meets at 7pm on Thursday evenings at Thornbury Leisure Centre and new members are always welcome. For more details see thornburyrunningclub.co.uk or the Club Facebook page.