THE club had three members taking part in the Manchester Marathon last Sunday. Paul Simpson was pleased with a strong and confident performance in his third marathon, to finish in a personal best (PB) time of 3 hours 18 minutes and 17 seconds. This knocked 13 minutes from his previous PB set last October. He finished 1925th out of nearly 14,000 runners.

Julie Giblin, running her 8th marathon, partnered her friend and training partner Natasha Miller, who was running her first marathon. Their intense and dedicated build up certainly paid off, with them both recording an impressive time of 4-43.45, to beat their target time of 4:45. Julie beat her time at last year's event by nearly 3 minutes. Natasha and Julie finished in positions 9648 and 9649 respectively.

A few weeks earlier as part of his training, Paul Simpson warmed up with a half marathon distance, to be followed by a 3K race walking event. This could be his new activity as he finished joint 1st in an impressive time of 22 minutes 44 seconds.

Pete Bridgstock travelled to Temple Newsam to run in their Daffodil Dash Half Marathon. This was all off road, adding to the testing conditions. Pete finished in 2-42.00 beating his previous half marathon time earlier in the year at the Welsh Winter Trail by 24 minutes.

Fountains Abbey Parkrun saw 7 Bedale and Aiskew Runners taking part in a field of nearly 400 competitors, with some fantastic times recorded: Matt Randall (PB) in 20.55, Alex McNairn (PB) in 21.10,

Chris Lees in 21.35, Katie Watson (PB) in 27.44, Rebecca Barker (PB) in 27.49, Paul Berry in 27.50, and Jess Mallinson (PB) in 31.13.

Catterick Parkrun attracted nearly 200 participants, with Paul Bainbridge finishing in 23.33, Raymond Lightle in 26.09, Nicky Watkinson in 26.25, Marian Hunter in 27.50, and John Hunter in 30.12.