The annual HRC club trip abroad saw ten members return to the city of Las Fallas and paella on the Mediterranean coast for the Valencia Half Marathon on Sunday.

In a race won in the fastest time ever recorded on Spanish soil and the sixth-fastest time in history by Abraham Cheroben (58:48) – and which also saw the women’s course record broken by Emily Chebet as she stopped the clock at 68:01 – it was a day of success and personal bests for the Heanor RC contingent supported from the sidelines by Rose Leivers – watch the race video HERE.

Louise Insley led the way and, despite finishing just outside her personal best in 1:24:23, the British Masters 10k champion finished seventeenth female and scooped a superb second in the V40 standings behind only Spanish Olympic marathoner, Elena Espeso.

Clocking a season’s best – and almost ten minutes faster than on the same course twelve months ago – Carl Hughes finished inside the top-500 in 1:26:09.

With temperatures already reaching 20 degrees centigrade before the race kicked-off at 9:00am, personal bests came the way of Rob Page (1:30:45) and Matt Chambers (1:47:27).

Ed Godber (1:38:59), Paul Mercer (1:41:47), Abbie Leivers (1:47:35), David Henton (1:50:29) and Scott Wigman (1:50:30) rounded-off the HRC efforts and performed well among the 9,336 finishers.

Full results HERE

Lily Winfield scored a decisive victory at the first Derbyshire Cross Country Mini League fixture of the season on Saturday as the twelve-year old led the U13 girls team to a sixth-place team finish.

Lily, who opened her North Mids campaign with second last week at Markeaton Park, dominated and enjoyed a twelve-second winning margin over her nearest rival.

HRC newcomers Harriet Bull, Ellie Turner, Sophie Hartley and Hollie Spencer backed up their debut runs on the mud last weekend with encouraging efforts at Tupton Hall School, finishing 13th, 16th, 22nd and 23rd respectively.

Phoebe Winfield struck an impressive 8th-place finish in the U11 girls race, William Pallan placed 13th in the U13 boys event and Dylan George, twelfth last week at Markeaton Park, took a clear third-place (just five seconds off silver) in what was a disappointingly low turnout for the U15 boys race.

Full results HERE

Elsewhere in Europe, flying the HRC flag in the capital of the Netherlands was Dawn Morland, who completed the Amsterdam Half Marathon in 2:14:01.

Full results HERE

At the Werrington 10k, hosted by Trentham Running Club, Wendy Mullineux edged ever closer to her personal best mark as she finished third female in 40:46.

Full results HERE

Images from Paul Winfield & Rose Leivers