THE sun was shining on Burnden's Sarah Watton as she recorded a personal-best time of 1hr 38mins 2secs at this year's Lanzarote Helford marathon.

The point-to-point course starts at the popular Peurto Del Carmen and finishes along the coast in Costa Teguise.

Closer to home and getting into the Festive spirit were Jackie Cairns (1:02:06) and Joanne Darby (1:02:35) at the Great Langdale Pudding Run.

This year saw more than 700 runners tackle the10k coarse in the North West Lake District. 

Teamwork was certainly the order of the day at the Montane Cheviot Goat ultra event in Northumberland.

Burnden member Sarah Woodiwiss set off in tandem with good friend Kelly Clarke to tackle the daunting 55-mile course, which also took in 9,500 feet of ascent.

With gusts of up to 80mph, chest-high streams, energy-sapping bogs and extreme weather warnings, it was never going to be easy.

This proved to be the case as the duo were forced to withdraw after a mammoth effort some 46 miles in, due to Clarke suffering from hypothermia in the extreme conditions.

The event was held over 24 hours, and the hardy duo stuck at it for just over 20 hours. 

Marcus Chester was Burnden's sole representative at the popular Stockport 10-mile road race and recorded a great time of 1:08:02.

There was a catalogue of Burnden success stories at various parkrun locations over the last couple of weeks. 

Richard Pollitt recorded a speedy 18:48 at Stretford – his first time under 19 minutes marking a great end to the year.

Joining him and celebrating his 100th parkrun was Aidy Ashburn (20:41).

Shirley Staveley was first woman home at Haigh Hall in a strong time of 23:26, while Simon Marland (24:43) and Sue Blackman (40:07) took part in the Snowden Field parkrun in Peterborough.