It was another good weekend for Halstead Road Runners with four personal bests recorded over various distances.

Nicole Smith, in her first race for the Yellow Vests, travelled to Reading for their half-marathon.

A relatively flat course, finishing at the Madejski Stadium, attracted more than 18,000 runners and using this race as a warm-up for her Manchester Marathon attempt next month, Smith finished in two hours six minutes.

Her husband Jimmy also ran as second claim for Halstead and got over the line in a new personal best (PB) of 1h 15m.

The Stowmarket Half-Marathon was the race of choice for Jon Buist, but the undulating course was no match for the in-form Halstead man as he secured another PB in 1h 37m.

The club’s veteran world champion, Maurice Young took part in the British Age Group Duathlon Championships held at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire.

Running in the over-70 age group and giving away ten years to his opponents, he completed the five kilometre run, 20km bike ride and 2.5km run in 1h 50m 29s to finish fourth in his category.

At the ever-popular Park Runs, three different locations saw Halstead Road Runners present.

At the Notley run, Mick Purkiss ran 31m 1s, Sheila Purkiss 33m 54s for a PB and Diana Ashdown ran 38m 26s on her debut.

Over at Cornard, Stewart Ellis claimed second spot in a time of 17m 17s and was followed by Danny Hewitt in 20m 1s, while Dan Hollinshead ran the inaugural Hatfield Forest race, setting a new PB of 20m 48s.

Meanwhile, Halstead’s Gavin Allen and Tom Cammack competed in the Wymondham 20.

In a field of more than 400, Cammack finished in fourth position in a time of 1h 59m, with Allen not far behind in sixth position in 2h 2m.

Allen also claimed the prize for first male veteran as the duo continued preparations for the London Marathon when they will be raising money for the Mary Barron Chemotherapy Suite in Colchester Hospital.