After a chilly week, the sun decided to shine on March for the town’s inaugral Park Run, which saw 240 runners from across the country lace up their running shoes for a Saturday morning 5km.

Park Runs take place every Saturday morning in parks across the country, and offer keen runners the opportunity to take part in free 5km races against the clock.

Runners from as far afield as Newcastle (Staffs), Basingstoke, Croydon and Ilford travelled to West End Park on Saturday morning, alongside runners from the local running clubs BRJ, Eye, Thorney, Ramsey, Fenland, Ely, Yaxley, Nene Valley, Huntingdon, Werrington, Team Bex from Huntingdon, Bodymode from Chatteris and March AC who provided a number of volunteers for the day.

Inevitably, the start was delayed as people continued to arrive and Event Director Simon Render welcomed the runners to March.

On a muddy and mixed-terrain track, the run was a hard-fought battle and there was only 10 seconds between first and second, with Malcolm Muir from Ilford AC just in front of local runner Jevan Robertson (NVH).

Jackie Wren (DSRA) was the first lady runner home (20th) in 22.26 with the highest age grading on the day too at 77.64%.

Melanie Murdoch from Fenland RC was 2nd lady home in 23.38 and a mention too to Fletcher Collins-Shirley (JM11-14) from Ely Runners who was sixth in 20.24 and Sophie Fenner (JF15-17) of March AC who was fourth lady home in 26.17.

Run organiser Dawn Veal said: “It was great to see so many smiles on faces and the cheery support from the Marshals was much appreciated by many runners. With around 100 runners new to Parkrun on the day, the future looks bright for March Parkrun and we very much look forward to seeing more runners back again next week. We managed to get the results out by 10:55am too - a decent start!”

For more general information on Parkrun, please visit http:www.parkrun.org.uk/march.