THORNBURY Running Club continues to go from strength to strength, attracting 28 new members since the turn of the year.

Several people have joined since starting the beginner’s courses, which are run on a regular basis and there has also been an encouraging trend of more younger runners signing up.

Several of the new starters came to the club after taking part in one of the many local parkrun events, which are all 5k in distance, free, and open to all ages and abilities.

There were three Thornbury parkrunners taking part at Chipping Sodbury’s three-lap course at the weekend.

First among them was Richard Jackson who came home in 21:36 mins for 39th place.

Malcolm and Karen Carr are parkrun regulars and completed their runs in 25:40 mins and 26:37 mins, respectively. Perhaps the most iconic running event of all is the marathon and it still represents the ultimate challenge in most people’s eyes.

And on Sunday, four Thornbury runners took to the Nottingham streets on an Indian summer’s day for the Robin Hood Marathon.

Kevin Cundy and Sonya Bryson were credited with the same time of four hours 23:21 mins in 542nd and 543rd position.

Hugh McPherson just ducked under five hours in four hours 59:55 mins.

John Grimsey has raced in marathons across the world, including Boston.

John completed the 26.2 miles on Sunday in five hours 13:34 mins and was sixth in the seventy-plus age category.

John jokingly said: “Unfortunately, as a seventy-year-old, I am way off thinking about racing a marathon – but I can certainly smile if people think I did get close to the three hour marathon in those years when everything was in black and white.”