WHILE it may have been a bright, sunny day for the running of the popular Edmund Carr Great Baddow Ten-Mile race, it rained personal bests (PBs) and club records on the Tiptree participants.

Frances Gridley led the way, running one hour 25 minutes 42 seconds to take three minutes off her previous mark and broke her own F55 club record in the process.

Not to be outdone, Stacy Hember finished in 1h 28m 7s to take six minutes off her PB and Paul Dellar took more than a minute off his in clocking 1h 8m 26s to finish 66th in a field of more than 600 runners.

However, none of them were fast enough to catch Craig Dawson, who returned to form to claim a top 50 place in 1h 6m 15s.

Lindsay Rolerkite (1h 24m 38s), Julia Bawden (1h 38m 42s), Larina Marsh (1h 47m 34s) and Anita Leaver (2h 4m 33s) all made impressive debuts at the distance for the club with Anthony Knight, running with Stacy Hember over the closing stages, recording 1h 28m 7s.

Meanwhile, Wendy Smalley was first home for the club in 1h 19m 6s in the 6.5-mile Leisure FM Trail in Greensted Green.

It was a race that also saw welcome returns for two club stalwarts - Carolyn Bownes and Barry Dobson - who both ran 1h 37m 45s.

At the well-attended Woodbridge 10K, Matt Davey ran a well-paced race to finish in 46m 16s.

Further afield, Rob Hadgraft flew the flag for Tiptree in the Berlin 'Big 25' 10K, finishing in the Olympic Stadium in a time of 55m 5s.

Tracy Harrington and Mark Lawes made the journey down to West Kent to run in the Bewl Marathon, which is run on an undulating course around Bewl Water.

They ran together to finish in 4h 8m 1s, with Harrington claiming the prize for second lady.

Vicky Knight continued her good run of form to clock 1h 46m 1s in the half-marathon event.

Saturday's Park Run at Maldon Prom saw a new PB for Simon Baker, who crossed the line in 22m 54s, just behind Graeme Moon, who ran 22m 48s.

Iain Rhodes continued his return from injury with an encouraging 23m 51s, Alison Tuck ran 26m 13s, with Lorraine Baker close behind in 26m 48s to claim first VW 50-54.

Frances Gridley ran 29m 20s and Larina Marsh 29m 23s.