Neil Rumbold, Ian Baines, Hayley Smith, Sue Harrington, Ashwin Shah and Gavin Foster at Pleshey

A FIRST Pleshey half marathon - held as an Essex AAA Championship race - attracted over 330 runners, including 16 from Grange Farm and Dunmow Runners (GFDR).

Springfield Striders hosted the 13.1-mile race over a relatively flat, scenic course starting and finishing at Pleshey and following country roads through High Easter and Bishop’s Green.

After a dry start on Sunday, conditions deteriorated with the wind picking up and rain sweeping in during the second half of the race.

The winner, in an impressive time of 1hr 9mins, was Paul Molyneux of Springfield Striders. The first female, also representing Springfield Striders, was June Allen in 1hr 19mins.

Fastest for GFDR was Kevin Marshall, finishing 37th in 1rh 22mins, followed by Ashwin Shah in a personal best time of 1hr 29mins, Geoff Maidment in 1hr 31mins and David Spencer in 1hr 34mins.

Ian Baines achieved a personal best time of 1hr 37mins and was followed by Dan Reynolds in 1hr 38mins.

There was also a person best for Simon Burpitt (1hr 39mins), followed by Neil Rumbold (1hr 40mins) and Ian Lawson (1h 42mins), just 8 seconds faster than Michael Butterworth.

Hayley Smith was the fastest GFDR’s female in 1hr 44mins. John Hardy finished in 1hr 47mins, ahead of Lee Prowse (1hr 57mins), Lesley Burpitt (2hrs), Gavin Foster (2hrs 9mins) and Sue Harrington (2hrs 11mins).