SUNDAY'S wet weather provided perfect conditions for the 511 runners taking part in the third Little Bromley 10km race.

Also doubling as the Essex County Championship for the distance, the best runners from across the county were in attendance.

Ryan Prout, of Thrift Green, won the race in a swift 32 minutes and five seconds while Liz Davies, of Springfield Striders, won the ladies' championship in 35m 55s.

There were some amazing successes among the Harwich Runners contingent, with a good number of personal bests (PBs) recorded.

The first of these saw the continued rise of Stephen Peck.

Demonstrating his improvement over the last year, he improved from 37m 43s on this course last April to a remarkable 33m 54s this time, placing 13th overall and second in the MV40 category.

There was also a PB for Harwich’s next finisher, Steve Cooper, who was in fine form and posted 34m 27s.

Both Peck and Cooper also recorded new club records for their respective age groups.

New recruit Tim Brand produced his quickest 10km since 2015 and his first in a Harwich vest in 37m 39s.

The fastest lady on the day for host club Harwich was Claudine Benstead, in 42m 23s, winning her age category (FV55).

She was followed closely by Madeline Lewis, who bettered her previous best by over two minutes to a stunning 42m 42s.

The biggest improvement of the day was by Michael Ball, who improved by over eight minutes from last year to 44m 41s this time.

Elsewhere, there were PBs for Ellie Haynes (48m 21s), Niall Burke (49m 28s) and Nicola Flatt (49m 23s).

Lian Meachen posted a five-minute improvement while Helen Benham, Harry Young, Alison Manley, Verity Webber, Ruth Benham and Andrew Thorn also ran faster than before for this distance.

There were also a number of runners racing the distance for the first time.

Lee Allen posted a promising 40m 41s with marathon hopeful Mark Higgs managing 43m 28s.

Karen Stapleton made her debut with a good 48m 23s while Zoe Orr, Donette Tiniakos, Hannah Jarvis, Jacqui Kettle and Kris Dalby were also racing the distance for the first time since joining Harwich Runners.

Meanwhile, Valentina Burley travelled to Paris for her first marathon, completing the distance in a good 4h 26m.

While most members were saving their legs for the Essex Championship 10k the next day, some also did a Parkrun on Saturday.

At Harwich, the first finisher was new recruit Stuart Raffle in fourth place (19m 57s).

Michael Knowles set yet another PB of 20m 41s, finishing seventh and first junior.

Another promising junior, Eddison Barker, also set a new best, of 21m 57s.

On the other side of the world, Graeme Knott, while working at the Commonwealth Games, ran the Kingscliff Parkrun in Australia, finishing first in 17m 33s.

At Ipswich, Gary Parker also finished first in 18m 25s.

Claire Bransby (26m 17s) and Ann Piercy (27m 7s) took park in the very first Felixstowe Parkrun.

Bill Haining ran at the Mersea Island event while Will and Sarah Roxby-Clarke competed at the Worcester Parkrun.

Victoria McCrea went to the birth place of Parkruns, Bushy Park, where she joined 1,225 other runners to record 29m 3s.