COOL and blustery conditions greeted a somewhat unusual lineup at the 90th Harwich Parkrun on Saturday.

The fact Harwich was hosting the Essex Road Relay Championships later in the morning changed the dynamics of those taking part.

Many of the local runners decided to save their legs for the race later in the day, whereas runners from further afield took the opportunity to use the Parkrun as a warm-up for the relays.

Often at running events the younger runners will line up at the front on the start line and then quickly tire as the run progresses.

Several young faces stood expectantly on the front line waiting for the run to start.

After one lap of the park, they were still in the forefront of the pack and then disappeared off into the distance on the long out and back section of the course.

Approaching the run into the park, about 400m to the finish, Warren Byrd was marginally out in front.

Tight on his shoulder was young Keira-Jayne Atkinson.

Warren looked a little apprehensive as all his previous efforts to dislodge the young pretender hadn't worked.

The race to the finish line was an intense effort by both young and not-so young.

Ultimately age triumphed over youth, but by only the slenderest of margins, just one second. Warren was the first finisher, but Keira-Jayne ran the Parkrun of her life to smash all previous efforts by nearly a whole minute.

It was her first time under 20 minutes, by a massive margin and running at around 90 per cent of world record pace. Warren’s time was 19m 6s and Keira-Jayne’s was 19m 7s.

Not too far behind in third place overall was Liam Forbes, crossing the line on 19m 25s.

The second lady was Kayleigh Ann Atkinson, also in a personal best time of 20m 12s.

This was one minute quicker than ever before.

Both Keira-Jayne and Kayleigh are in the under-ten age group.

Jackie Stretton was another visitor to the Harwich Parkrun.

Finishing in a time of 20m 35s gave her seventh spot overall and she was third lady finisher.