A Bishop’s Stortford Running Club contingent lined up for a race with elephants on their right and giraffes on their left on Sunday.
They took part in the Colchester Zoo Stampede, a 10k race that started and ended at the zoo with the course also taking the entrants along the country roads of Stanway.
The zoo grounds made for a congested start, but Gary Jones started with the 45-minute pacer then worked his way through the field for a finish time of 43min 42sec while Lily Murray was first female for the club in 47.54.
Peijie Zhu finished in 52.57 and Clare Masterson crossed the line in 54.07.
Jenny Brayshaw was second F70 in a time of 1hr 50sec with Fay Dodgen alongside in 1:00.53.
Clare Gallagher completed the list of team green and gold finishers in 1:05.30.
On the same day, BSRC members were also taking part in the Boston Marathon in Lincolnshire.
It is billed as the UK’s flattest marathon, but torrential rain made for difficult conditions.
John Dodsworth and Fiona Liddell finished in 4:34.17 and 4:36.33 respectively, with the latter claiming third place in her F60-64 age group, while Feridun Kadir clocked 5:12.20 on his marathon debut.
Ian and Eleanor Rodgers took on the half-marathon distance and registered times of 2:01.11 and 2:25.00 respectively as they both came 13th in their age categories.
Meanwhile, around 70 enthusiastic beginners started the club’s 10 Weeks to 10k course last Wednesday. It aims to take the participants from running one minute at a time with walking breaks to running a continuous 10k by the end of the summer.
