NINE Witham Running Club members headed down to Brighton for the second big marathon weekend of the year and recorded several new personal best times.

Participants were pleased to see the temperature remain on the cooler side after the 2017 event hit over 20 degrees and the Darney brothers led the way as the first two finishers for Witham.

Scott finished in a new per sonal best (PB) of three hours one minute 41 seconds, just missing out on his sub three-hour target, while Sean was closely behind in 3h 12m, disappointed not have run the race he wanted.

Tanya Cregan ran a perfect race to achieve her target of a sub 3h 45m marathon, setting a new PB of 3h 40m 13s and earning a London 2019 Good For Age (GFA) time.

Karen Flowers and Sue Shippey both set new PBs, with times of 4h 37m 30s and 4h 38m 48s respectively.

Dawn Shilling completed her last ever marathon and the final leg of her charity running challenge by finishing in a creditable 5h 1m 58s, while Silvie Bullen-Bell completed her first marathon in a 5h 16m 51s and Anthony Smith achieved a PB in h 30m 8s.

There was also a ten-kilometre race and Thomas Ashley ran strongly to set a new PB of 46m 56s.

This week the London Marathon announced changes to its GFA times, which unfortunately means that a number of runners who ran as recently as Sunday and thought they had achieved the necessary time do not now meet the criteria.

Scott Darney and Giles Sowerby's times of 3h 1m and 3h 3m were under the previous time of 3h 5m but not inside the new time of 3h.

James Crisp's Manchester time last week of 3h 5m 47s was under the previous time of 3h 15m but not inside the new time of 3h 5m.

The women's Good For Age times did not change, but London Marathon have also reduced the number of spots offered to EA members of running clubs.