BENFLEET Running Club had a busy week of competition last week, enjoying numerous successes at events across the south of the country.

The club’s Andy Firth and Lorri Gibson took on the enormous challenge of the Jurassic Coast Challenge, with three marathons in three days on the wild coastline of the south west of England.

Firth’s times were 6h 09m 32s on day one, 5h 47m 42s on day two and 6h 47m 27s for day three making a total time of 18h 44m 41s to complete the challenge.

Gibson’s times were 7h 54m 06s for day one, 8h 28m 53s for day two and 9h 42m 56s on the final day as she closed the challenge in 26h 05m 55s.

James Caldon led the Benfleet Running Club charge at the Brentwood Half Marathon with a time of 1h 14m 59s to finish in 10th position overall.

Next for Benfleet was John Gould in 1h 22m 44s closely followed by Paul Delaney in 1h 24m 51s and David Miller (1h 28m 16s).

The first Benfleet lady across the line was Marie Smith in a time of 1h 52m 55s and she was followed by Melanie Anthony in 1h 57m 49s.

Karen and Chloe McMeekin, another mother and daughter team, ended with times of 2h 05m 37s and 2h 05m 39s respectively.

Also running for BRC were: Brian Venton (1h 34m 27s), Tim Tomlins (1h 34m 54s), Mohammed Shofiuzzaman (1h 43m 31s), Stuart Ross (1h 45m 38s), Tom Byrne (1h 52m 04s), Mark Cowan (1h 58m 18s) and Chris Chappell (1h 58m 18s).

In the North London Half Marathon, there was a very respectable 80th place finish by Benfleet Running Club’s Dan Carter.

Carter crossed the line in 1h 22m 22s.

There was just one competitor in the Hastings Half Marathon, with Roy Harwood making the trip to East Sussex.

Harwood completed the tricky, undulating course in 1h 35m 45s.

And finally, two committed members travelled to the USA to compete in the Oakland Running Festival.

Husband and wife Paul and Ann Reed took on the 26.2 mile course in the Oakland Running Festival in California, with Paul completing the race in 5h 00m 01s, just two seconds ahead of his wife.