Halstead Marathon race director Keith Thorogood says the feedback that he has received from competitors at this year’s event has been “phenomenal”.

The 21st running of the race that was voted as the third best Marathon in the UK by readers of Runners World magazine last year took place on Sunday and even though there were changes this year, Thorogood said the feedback had been as good as ever.

An impressive 496 of the 507 starters made it over the finish line in warm conditions and alterations to the course lay-out from previous years had been well-received.

Thorogood said: “A lot of people ran PBs (personal bests) even though it was very warm and they seem to have loved the new route that we set out.

“It was a lot more scenic and that went down very well despite the hills on it.

“The comments that we have had back from people have been phenomenal.”

The men’s overall race winner was Chris Sellens of Colchester Harriers, who completed the course in two hours 37 minutes 56 seconds.

Sellens ran a fantastic race and made his move at 21 miles to overtake Pere Capdevilla, who had led from the start and had built up a seven-minute lead.

However, the Harriers runner powered through, running remarkable 5m 30s mile spilts to take victory from Capdevilla by three minutes and the Essex Championship title.

Third place went to fellow Colchester Harriers runner, Carwyn Jones, who was six minutes behind Sellens.

In the ladies’ race, Royston Runners’ Nicky Tyrell dominated from the off, finishing in 3h 13m 22s.

That was 12 minutes ahead of second-placed Christine Howard from Billericay Striders, with third going to RAF Triathlon Club’s Jennifer Jenks, who was a minute further behind in 3h 26m 9s.

The race is organised by the Halstead Road Runners club and there were also local successes.

Bob Langley was second in the M55 category and was also the first Halstead Road Runner back in 3h 36m, while Andy Wilmot was first in his age group of M70+ with a time of 4h 7m 2s, which was an eight-minute improvement on his time of last year.

Second-claim Halstead runner Gav Allen was sixth overall and won in the M40 age group.