Three Ryde Harriers who have been preparing for the Abingdon Marathon for the last 12 weeks were all rewarded with outstanding performances.

The Abingdon race is a well established Autumn event which always attracts a field capacity of 1,200 athletes.

Despite some atrocious weather recently, race day, on October 22, turned out to be perfect conditions which was ideal for fast times.

Dave Hunt, running in the Masters 40 age category, knocked a massive 15 minutes off his personal best time to finish in 9th place overall and 3rd in his age group in a time of 2hrs 37min 26sec.

This is equivalent to running each of the 26.2 miles in six minutes.

Doing battle in the women’s race, Island Games silver medallist, Charlie Metcalfe was soon into her running, and moving away from the women’s field.

Despite some issues with a stitch Charlie still won the women’s race in 2hrs 56min 01sec and along with it her 45-49 age category.

Carly Scoble, who has a fantastic year after only taking up the sport recently, was running her debut marathon and was rewarded with an excellent run to finish in 8th place in the women’s field and 5th in her 35-39 age category. Her time of 3hrs 13min 10sec was seen as an outstanding debut.

Harriers' Geoff Watkin said: "I’m delighted for all three athletes who have trained so hard for this race during the last three months, fitting their training around full time jobs and families.

"With some other excellent results around the country and Europe in the last two months, it’s exciting to see Ryde Harriers competing against some of the best teams in the South of England."