THREE Leigh Striders runners travelled across the English Channel to take part in the popular Paris Marathon.

More than 57,000 runners took part in the event, celebrating its 40th anniversary, on Sunday, starting on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, passing the Lourvre gallery, following the course of the Seine past the Eiffel Tower before finishing on the Avenue Foch.

Leigh's Georgina McMasters ran with her cousin Anna Were, (pictured) with both finishing in 5h 23m 28s.

The other finishers were Peter Goldring (3h 05m 45s), Ashley Milson (3h 48m 50s) and Georgina McMasters (5h 23m 27s).

Tim Ketterer and Theresa Philips continued their London Marathon training with the Marathon Prep Race, a 20 mile race around Dorney Lake, in Windsor.

And Ketterer celebrated his 52st birthday with a good run and a finishing time of 3h 38m 29s, two seconds behind Phillips.

Ten brave Striders took on the tough Orion 15 last weekend, which is a challenging 15 mile race through the ancient woodland of Epping Forrest.

In extremely muddy conditions and with plenty of hills to contend with, a few runners got lost adding extra distance to an already long run.

Martin Dempsey was the first Strider home in a time of 2h01m56s. The rest of the finishers were Dean Ovel (2:16:41), Robert Burns (2:22:24), John Western (2:31:16), Katie Spicer 2:32:10), Neil Spicer (2:32:10), Pete Karaiskos (2:32:10), Gail Alexander (2:47:53), Gary Brown (2:48:57) and Helen Kidgell (2:50:53).