THORNBURY Running Club's Nick Langridge makes a yearly pilgrimage to his roots to compete in the Tour of Tameside, a four-day festival of running in the Manchester area.

Last year, Nick won the V65 age category by over 11 minutes and he was intent on defending his crown in 2018.

The first race took place on Thursday and was an off-road 10k in the parks on Ashton-under-Lyme and Oldham border, a location Nick described with civic pride as ‘exotic’.

The course was steep and twisty and Nick started with a 45:02 mins performance, 65th out of the runners competing all four races and he laid down an ominous warning to his peers with a dominant V65 victory.

The ‘Hell on the Fell’ followed on Friday, a six-mile run from Copley with a three mile ascent over Hobson Moor and a perilous descent back to the start over some uneven terrain.

Nick dropped down three places to 68th overall after running 48:55 mins.

At the halfway mark, Nick’s position at the top of the V65 leaderboard was now 14 minutes.

A mere 14 hours later, Nick lined up to compete in the Hero Half Marathon from Padfield and Hadfield, with a 12 mile out and back in the Peak District.

Nick’s legs were by now feeling tenderised after the previous day’s fell run, but he stayed the course to finish in one hour 42:23 mins, retaining his 68th place overall and put more time between him and his disheartened V65 rivals.

The final event on Sunday was in honour of Dr Ron Hill, the founder of the event and celebrated Olympic runner from North West.

The seven-mile course was on undulating roads in Hyde and Hattersley and Nick completed the final stage in 52:24 mins.

Nick’s overall time was six minutes quicker than last year in four hours 9:01 mins, in 71st position out of 389.

He beat his V65 rivals by over 35 minutes and he had the extra satisfaction of beating his younger foes in V60 category too.

Paul Thomas was seventh finisher at Kingsway parkrun in Gloucester in 20:16 mins.

There were ten Thornbury RC results at Thornbury parkrun with Paul Harrod second overall in 20:35 mins.

His son James, who races for Westbury Harriers, was two minutes ahead in first place.

Other results included Kevin Cundy with a new PB in 23:51 mins, Malcolm Carr new PB 26:07 mins, Peter Blenkiron 28:12 mins, Karen Carr new PB 28:48 mins, Nigel Hale 30:29 mins, Janet Gaze 32:28 mins, Denise Payne 33:07 mins, Sue Pascoe and Sylvia Fox new PBs in 37:51 mins.

At Chipping Sodbury parkrun, Kevin Wood ran 22:29 mins, David Palmer 26:38 mins and Anne Palmer 32:12 mins.

At Birkenhead parkrun, Carol Mosses ran 39:05 mins.

At Exmouth parkrun, Henry Orna was seventh finisher in 18:59 mins