TWO Richmond and Zetland Harriers headed to Manchester on Sunday, April 3 for the popular Therme Manchester Marathon.

The flat route starts at Old Trafford and heads out towards Altrincham before returning to Old Trafford. It was ideal weather conditions for marathon running and Paul Ellis was delighted to have joined the sub three-hour club with a time of 2:57:25 (PB) and Paul Simpson was very happy with his performance and a time of 3:08:04 (PB).

The day before and Charlie Stephenson competed in the Podium 5k at Barrowford in Lancashire, Charlie finished 19th overall in 14:52 (PB).

The Wensleydale Wander took place on Saturday, April 9. With two distances to choose from, both the 23 mile long route and 11 mile shorter route start and finish in Leyburn. Although John Gray took on the shorter route it ended up being slightly longer due to navigational errors but he was pleased to finish in second place in a time of 1:32:28.

On Sunday, April 10 in Middlesbrough at the Kieran Maxwell Memorial Open meeting, Shannon Robinson who is in great form raced the mile distance and finished second in her heat in a time of 5:17:44 (PB).

On the same day in York it was the Big Flat Runway Races event at Elvington Airfield. This event was launched between lockdowns in 2020 and there are a different distances to choose from, all which are laps of the flat runway. Joseph Smith had a good race finishing 20th overall in the 10k distance in a time of 38:08 (PB) and Ian Hepworth raced the same distance and finished 108th overall in 57:52 – his fastest time in two years.

The great seaside run in Marske, the Mermaid 10k, was on Friday, April 15. There was outstanding results despite a noticeable wind on the return section from Rob Scott who finished second overall in 30:38 (PB) followed by Carl Jones in third place in 32:28.

Wakefield was the location for the Yorkshire Road Championship on Saturday, April 16 and siblings Shannon and Rhys Robinson competed in the 3k relays. Shannon finished first in the U17 women's race in 10:28 and Rhys was ninth in the U13 boys in 11:07.

A round0up of the parkruns and Saturday, April 2 at Rothay parkrun in Ambleside, Rob Scott created a new male course record when he finished first in 16:23.

More locally, at Northallerton on the same day, Anthony Jefford finished second in 19:36, and Elaine Watters 16th in 24:47. At Darlington Carl Jones was first in 16:06, Mark Forrest fourth in 17:51, Henry Wright 12th in 19:39, Paul Wright 47th in 22:51, and Ian Hepworth 131st in 28:31.

The following day at Northallerton Junior parkrun, Ollie Middleton finished first in 7:23.

On Saturday, April 9 at Darlington, David Hack finished second in 17:31, Anthony Jefford tenth in 19:04, Paul Wright 52nd in 22:26, Rebecca Smith 55th in 22:34, Peter Richardson 90th in 24:25 and Ian Hepworth 167th in 29:03.

At Darlington on Saturday, April 16 Ken Harker finished fifth in 18:39 closely followed by Anthony Jefford seventh in 18:40. Both Ken and Anthony were pleased to be back under 19 minutes. Paul Simpson was tenth in 19:26, Rebecca Smith 23rd in 21:00, Matilda Ellis had an excellent run and finished 24th in 21:04 (PB), Jeremy Pattison 40th in 22:10, Paul Wright 46th in 22:26 and Peter Richardson 96th in 24:33.

Ollie Middleton was once again the first junior to finish at Northallerton the next day in a time of 7:17.