Horwich Harriers’ England Masters runner, Gareth Webb, put in a wonderful showing at the fast Trafford 10K in his first race of the year after a veritable litany of infections.

Despite not having trained as much as he would have liked, Webb said it was great to finally run with the handbrakes off.

They certainly were as he stormed round the course in under 40 minutes in a time of 39mins 54secs, comfortably taking the V65 category and with a time that provisionally would put him seventh in the UK this year over the 10K distance in the V65 age group.

Elsewhere, Harriers had 12 runners out at various parkruns across the UK.

As ever, five wandered to Haigh Hall and the notoriously hilly course there, Nick Kelly coming home in third place and first V55 after exactly 20 minutes. Alice Tucker was first lady in 23:10, while Sandra Kelly clocked a fine 23:17 as second lady and Sophie Orrell ran under half-an-hour and did 29:48. Gillian Smith showed remarkable consistency with her 35:14 as first VF70 and Lawrence Pinnell generously acted as tail-walker.

Chairman Glynne Lever’s comeback continued at Preston, getting closer to 22 minutes, although daughter Milly took bragging rights in the Lever household this weekend with a fine run at Trentham’s Italian-style gardens, near Stoke, exactly one minute faster in 21:16.

Rob Jackson took first M55 at Sale Water Park and came fourth overall in a fine 19:10, Jane Kay took on Burnley’s course and ran 33:30, Sam Fairhurst went to Bristol and ran Ashton Court in exactly 19:00, while the fastest parkrun of the weekend was from Isaac Battye at Hillsborough, in Sheffield, in a rapid 16:40.

A good turnout was noted at the Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round up in Barley, at the foot of Pendle Hill.

This route is around 15 kilometres in length and features around 1,500 feet of ascent. It came complete with a light dusting of snow and extremely heavy conditions underfoot, which happened to make picking the route particularly difficult on the first descent.

Six Harriers were in a field of more than 200 as Luke Foley took second place, less than 40 seconds behind the winner in a splendid 1:06:08, while Nick Leigh came sixth in 1:09:22, Jullian Goudge was 14th and second V50 with 1:16:04. Dan Gilbert came 33rd and got home in just under 1:20:00, while Keagan Rowe and Mark Walsh finished together in 41st and 42nd in just over 1:21:00.

Closer to home and round three of the Central Lancashire Grand Prix was the Trotters Trail Race, a five-mile trail race held near Smithills Hall.

Previous incarnations included a famous blast down Smithills Dean Road, but more recently a new and tougher course has been created that is all on the trails from Smithills School and Horrocks Woods.

Recent inclement weather turned the course into a veritable mud bath and conditions were correspondingly testing, and the medal was designed by artist - and Burnden Road Runner - Carolyn Edwards.

Marcus Taylor carried on where he left off at Lostock the previous week, finishing in ninth and second V50 in a fine 34:25, while Sean McMyler came in as second V60 in 39:25.

Diane Furlong skated round and broke the 50-minute mark and Tony Hesketh took a tumble in the greasy conditions, but continued his fine form by also taking the V75 category, winning it in 52:03.

Mary White walked away with the VF70 category in 53:01, while Gillian Smith ran 1:07:32 and Heather Pinnell finished in 1:10:00.