Gade Valley Harriers iron man Michael tackles the Welsh hills

Four Gade Valley Harriers took part in the St Albans parkrun

The 2.4-mile open water swim took place in the choppy waters of Camarthen Bay, followed by a 112-mile cycle ride around the coastal routes of Pembrokeshire, then a full marathon distance 26.2-mile run.

This was Birch’s first iron man distance triathlon and he completed the swim in 1:30:09, the bike ride in 7:54:38 and the run in 4:38:11 – giving at total time of a very respectable 14:23:30.

Another Gade Valley triathlete, Jonny Broom, was also in action at London’s Richmond Park on Sunday at the London Duathlon event.

The event consisted of a 10km run, a 44km bike ride and then a 5km run, and Broom completed the course in a total time of 3:06:13.

Sunday also saw Harrier Richard Hutton travelling to compete in the Northampton Half Marathon.

Hutton finished the tough race in 244th place, out of 524 runners, in a time of 1:51:48.

Elsewhere, Peter Tucker was in action at the Harefield Hospital 10km in Middlesex.

The race has been in existence for more than 30 years and attracts upwards of 1,000 runners.

Peter completed the race in 58:20, knocking a huge 10 minutes off his time from his last 10km race over a year ago.

Meanwhile, four Harriers took part in the St Albans parkrun. Russ Bailey was first home for the club, equalling his PB of 21:28, with Luca Ramusino next in 30:29.

William Terry finished in 38:25, with dad Andy just behind in 39:14.

Vince Ellerby was the lone Gade Valley Harrier at the Black Park parkrun this week, putting in a good run, but just missing the 20-minute barrier in 20:01. That was good enough for 17th place overall out of 410 runners