Months of hard work paid off for Dan Hollinshead as the Halstead Road Runners member smashed his personal best time at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival.

He headed to Scotland with club captain Jim Clark and made the long trip worthwhile as he set a new personal best (PB) time over a 26.2 mile course by more than an hour as he finished in three hours 38 minutes 21 seconds.

Clark, fresh from his Halstead and Essex Marathon performance, romped home in 3h 48m 26s Meanwhile, a quartet of Halstead Road Runners took on the unique Kent Road Runner Marathon.

This 17-lap event is run on the cyclopark at Gravesend and boasts the biggest finisher’s medal in the UK.

Kathryn Bronson was the first home for the club in 3h 46m 53s to set herself a new PB, however, she missed her automatic London Marathon qualification time by an agonising one minute.

Andy Wilmot took age group honours in the M70 category in a closely-fought race, winning by just three minutes in 3h 58m 4s.

Rosie Atkins ran consistently, but was disappointed to just miss her sub four-hour goal as she finished in 4h 3m 23s, while Dan Smith shaved a further 16 minutes from his PB with a time of 4h 15m 14s.

Julia Woolnough was the only Halstead representative in the Park Run Series as she took on the Colchester Castle 5k event, finishing in a time of 28m 3s.