MARATHON regulars Dan Smith and Andy Wilmott did the Great Barrow Challenge Christmas Triple Tipple, with both of the Halstead Road Runners completing two out of the three long-distance events on offer over the three-day period.

The series takes place on a tough course with only day two being all on-road and the cold weather made conditions even more challenging.

Wilmott finished day one in four hours 52 minutes and impressively achieved a quicker time of 4h 45m on day two.

Smith finished day two in 5h 6m and day three in 5h 31m.

John Warne also completed a 26.2-mile event, running the Flitch Way Marathon on New Year’s Eve in a time of 5h 6m.

The distance wasn’t enough for Warne, who decided to do the Great Notley Park Run an hour before the start of the marathon, taking his total mileage for the day to 29.3.

Recent retiree Warne clearly has no intention of slowing down and even returned to do the Great Notley Park Run the following day.

Also hungry for some extra mileage this week were a hardcore group of Wesley Atkins, Richard Candler, Jim Clark, Dan Hollinshead, Steve May, Nathan Roulson and Simon King.

They thought it would be fun to run 12 miles off road in the New Year’s Eve Park Run at Great Notley.

The group timed their warm-up perfectly, arriving just a minute before the start of the race.

The long warm up was no hindrance for Clark, who finished in sixth place in a new personal best of 20 minutes 44 seconds.

There was quite a Halstead contingent at Great Notley on New Year’s Eve, including Andy Carter, Jenn Langley, Axel Voigt and regular Les Morley.

Wendy Carter didn’t let recent injuries stop her from finishing first in her age category and eighth female overall in a time of 26m 7s.

There were some Park Run trebles over the New Year weekend, with Julia Woolnough running at Colchester, Charlotte May and Andy Owen at Great Notley and Nicole Smith at Southend on New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Day all three of them also did double Park Runs with Woolnough returning to Colchester having first run at Ipswich.

Owen, May and Smith did Great Notley and then Chelmsford with May’s cumulative time being 5m 50s quicker than her 2016 double.

Sam Wolton also completed the Great Notley and Chelmsford double.

There was also a Park Run debut at Great Notley on New Year’s Day for John Markham, who finished in a time of 26m 45s.