GRANGE farm and Dunmow Runners had a choice of events as some tackled the Braintree five-mile road race and others the longer Greater Manchester Marathon.

There was a new course for this year’s Braintree Five, along undulating country lanes, starting and finishing at the Chelmsford City Racecourse.

The race attracted 440 competitors, including 26 from Grange Farm and it was an Essex County Championship event.

The race was won by Blair McWhirter of Ilford in 25 minutes 34 seconds, while fastest for Grange Farm was James Bosher, finished sixth in a personal best (PB) time of 27m 1s.

The club claimed two Essex County Championship age category medals, with John Hardy taking silver in 41m 55s and Alistair Brown bronze in a PB and club record time of 28m 7s.

Steve Read finished 28th in 29m 20s, and there were PBs for Lee Pickering (29.55), Luca Predebon (36.23), Dan Wright (37.21), Laetitia Corbett (39.04), Emily Predebon (39.50) and Debbie Stares (45.11).

RESULTS: Dan Reynolds (30.16), Ashwin Shah (32.29), Geoff Maidment (33.42), Gerard Geurts (34.08) and Ian Lawson (34.59). Martin Atkinson (36.30) was followed by John Smith (37.43), Charlotte King (38.58), Nick Perry (39.35), Simon King (39.51), Hayley Smith (40.23), Tara Corbett (41.33), Angela Thorpe (43.15), Gavin Foster (46.21), Roz McKenna (48.24) and Richard Percy (62.11).

Five representatives of Grange Farm and Dunmow were among more than 8,600 runners who completed the Greater Manchester Marathon.

Colin Jackson achieved a PB of three hours 38m 36s.

Running their first marathons, Brady Ramsay finished in 3h 59m 52s and Kerry Harrington in 4h 46m 38s, while Lee Prowse was back in 4h 45m 53s and Mark Smith in 4h 56m 16s.

Entries are open for Grange Farm’s Felsted 10 km road race on July 9.