THE road running season is in its early stages and Thornbury Running Club newcomer Paul Saville opened his campaign with a run at Wokingham Half Marathon on Sunday, writes Matt Johnstone.

Wokingham is popular with elite and club runners looking for a good early season performance, thanks to its flat route around closed rural roads. Paul finished 389th overall in a time of 1 hour 31:28 mins.

Meanwhile, Henry and Laura Orna both competed at Sunday’s River Avon Trail 10k, a race which traces a route through the fields and woodland trails which border the river from Portavon Marina in Keynsham. They both had good races, Henry is recovering his form after hurting his back at the start of the year and finished 6th overall in 43:41 mins. Laura finished on the podium again, finishing in second place in the women’s field and 12th overall in 46:54 mins.

February’s 5-mile Prom Run in Weston-super-Mare always attracts a good field and Ian Shepherd and John Grimsey were back in action for TRC. Ian Shepherd was 194th in 40:26 mins, while John was performing a pacemaking role and finished 279th in 1 hour 6:09 mins.

Saturday’s TRC parkrun results included 3 runners on the home course. These were Mike Bennewitz 27:01 mins, Richard Illingworth 32:09 mins and Carol Mosses 39:13 mins. Anne Palmer ran 33:24 mins in Lydney and Kevin Wood ran a quick 21:54 mins on Severn Bridge.