ARTHUR Renshaw, recovered from his gruelling European Duathlon Championships, was the only Thornbury Running Club member to compete in the Manic Midweek Duathlons that took place at Castle Combe racing circuit last week.

And he came away with an excellent result as a bonus.

The venue provides a traffic-free route, with two, two-mile flat runs around the perimeter of the track, sandwiching a 10-mile bike ride on the smooth tarmac of the race circuit.

The downside is that it always seems to be windy but Renshaw took that in his stride to win the SuperVet60 category in one hour 04.52mins, almost 10 minutes ahead of his closest rival.

Meanwhile, Kevin Arnold had unfinished business with the hilly Ashton Court parkrun and finished last Saturday's event in exactly 23 minutes, one minute and 17 seconds faster than the previous week.

David and Anne Palmer returned to the Chipping Sodbury event where Anne took eleven seconds from her previous parkrun best and also finishing first in her age category.

David had a good run in a time of 25.50mins for his efforts.

At Little Stoke, Garry Slater was the first Thornbury member home in 19.14mins, with Chris Dawes not far behind in 19.49mins and Kevin Cundy crossing the line in 22.35mins.

Eve Slater followed in her father's footsteps with the junior parkrun on Sunday, finishing the 2k course in 13.57mins.

And today, when Thornbury Running Club meets at 7pm, a new group will start.

On a programme designed to bring runners from walking to running 10k (6.2 miles) in eight weeks, up to 20 newcomers will be made welcome and given personal training plans.

The group is led by fully-qualified coach Craig Carscadden who has a wealth of experience in producing the best from runners.

There are still a few places available – for this and for details of all club activities see thornburyrunningclub.co.uk.