THERE were plenty of personal bests for members of Denbigh Harriers to celebrate over the weekend.

On Saturday, the toughest race of the weekend saw three Harriers heading for the 3 Peaks fell race.

They joined 800 runners for the 23.5-mile race, dubbed the marathon with mountains in the Yorkshire Dales.

The race climbs Yorkshire's three highest peaks, namely Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough.

It has strict and challenging cut-offs in three places, which pulls runners out of the race if they fail to reach the cut-off point in time, which is an additional pressure.

Competing in her furthest distance to date, Victoria Whitehead had a superb run to finish in four hours and 54 minutes.

Suffering from a lack of training and with his previous longest run this year being over 13 miles, David Baugh completed the race in five hours and six minutes.

Menai Baugh had a great run, going through two of the three cut-offs to complete 16.6 miles in three hours and 52 minutes.

Saturday also witnessed the second counter in the North Wales 2018 Fell Series.

A total of five Harriers turned out on the local hills for this well established race.

A great result for Ceri Belshaw saw her being the first lady home.

In addition, Ceri took a minute out of the ladies' course record, which was set by herself in 2017.

She came home 23rd overall in 49.11.

Emma Collins comfortably took the ladies' over-50 category and she was 31st in 53.42.

Meanwhile, the men's over-50 category was fiercely contested between four competitors, with the lead switching hands several times and they all finished within 43 seconds of each other.

Vic Belshaw took the lead on the summit of Moel Famau, but he was pushed back to third on the final run in.

However, with encouragement from fellow Harrier Tony Wood (18th in 45.19), Vic managed to take second place on a sprint finish and he was 17th overall in 45.16.

The fifth Harrier taking to the hills for his first fell race of 2018 was Tony Benton, who finished 36th in 54.49.

Emma and Vic are leading their respective age categories in the series after two races.

Over in Chester, there were perfect conditions for the Chester Half Marathon on Sunday, which saw 17 Harriers out on the course.

After the unseasonable hot race in London the previous week, Shaun Hughes and Joe Welch were both back out racing.

Shaun finished in 1-19.31, which was a few minutes off his personal best, but it was well ahead of his target of 1-25 for the race.

Joe was further back in 1-48.34 and running with a friend.

The big story of the day were the sheer number of personal bests and first time efforts at running a half marathon.

Phil Hayes (1-35.11) took more than a minute off his previous best, as did Hywel Roberts (1-42.38).

In his first half-marathon for four years, Paul Goffey (1-42.48) slashed a minute and 41 seconds off his previous best time.

Two Harriers took a whopping five minutes off their personal bests on the day and they were Alaw Evans (1-46.55) abd Sian Pritchard (2-06.19).

There was also a personal best for the course from Rob Parry (2-02.11) and Lisa Dafydd (2-12.30) took close to a minute off her previous best.

Joining them were a number of first time runners, with Claire Spencer (2-11.08), Ceri Boyd (2-18.49) and Angharad Gilbert (2-24.39) all in their first race at this distance.

Elsewhere on course and not far off their personal bests were Ian Jones (1-50.34), Dan Schraibman (1-52.31), David Spencer (2-02.09), Kath Evans (2-08.27) and Caroline Parry (2-11.35).

Caroline's effort following a 40-mile bike ride the day before as she trains for a half ironman.

In midweek, there were four Harriers out in disguise in the last of the Borders League series at Deeside.

They were running for their second claim clubs and Emma Collins showed further improvement to comfortably win the overall ladies' V55 series ladies with a time of 33.23.

Tony Benton put together another strong run in 32.27, while Vic Belshaw made it home in 29.12, securing second place in the men’s V55 series.

Beating his 5k personal best while on the 4.65km course, Craig Jones had a very fast run and he crossed the line in 27.48.

Parkrun results:

Rosliston (Derbyshire): 23, Martin Cortvriend 23.57.

Conwy: Julie Roberts 29.55.

Wepre: Sarah Bayliss (2nd lady) 28.02.