SOARING temperatures made the going tougher than usual around the region’s various Parkruns.

Harwich Runner Mark Lloyd was not phased by this, however, as he took on a bumper field of 318 runners at the Ipswich event to emerge fifth overall and second V40 in 18m 38s.

This was two seconds quicker than his previous outing around the recently-extended course.

The biggest course best of the morning, however, came from new signing Roger Holmes, over at the Great Cornard event.

Holmes and fellow Harwich Runner and V45 age group rival Richard Flutter took the event by the scruff of the neck from the gun, with Flutter leading the 112-strong field and Holmes in second place.

Eventually, the intrepid pair were overhauled, but still managed to finish in the top ten, with Flutter in eighth spot and third V45 in 19m 39s and Holmes fifth and first V45 in 19m 26s.

This was a 21-second course best.

There was to be another age group victory for the club over at the Kesgrave Parkrun, with Ann Piercy tackling a record field of 322 competitors at the off-road event.

Piercy emerged 17th woman out of 141 and dominated the V60 category in 27m 26s, less than half a minute shy of the age group record.

Clubmate Louise Papworth made the trip to Suffolk as well, placing a very respectable 46th woman in 31m 17s as she works her way back from long-term injury that forced her to abandon her London Marathon plans in the spring. Finally, over at the Colchester event in Castle Park, Dennis Warner and Peter Fraser-Hopewell made impressive progress through the 260-strong field to finish in 44th place and 61st place apiece in 22m 48s and 23m 40s.

Both Harwich athletes secured third place in their respective V55 and V60 age groups.