Another busy week for Thetford Parkrun saw 148 people take part in the volunteer-run free event at Thetford Priory and water meadows, with 14 first-time participants and 42 personal bests recorded.

The first person to finish was event regular, and not the Thetford born professional footballer of the same name, Ian Henderson in 19.35mins.

Junior runner Devon Lockwood was second in 19.42 and Simon Smith finished third in a new PB of 19.46.

The first woman to finish was Kate Fowler in 17th overall, in 23.05, followed by Sabine Schaefer in 20th in 23.30 and Tina Plumley of Thetford AC in 26th in 24.15.

The Thetford Parkrun ‘purple army’ was once again out in force with parkrun tourism, Shaun Carroll took part in the Hull parkrun while Richard Crewe visited the Stewart parkrun, near Middlesborough, and finished 15th overall.

Following the parkrun, many regulars headed down to Melford Common for a Thetford’s Great Festival fun day, where the parkrunners and Haart of Thetford put on two fun runs.

An under-16s 1km race, won by Devon Lockwood, and an adult and child three-legged race, won by Stevie-Leigh Malkinson and Caleb Malkinson, were both held.

Also on Saturday, Iain Downie and Jez Blackburn completed the Vetruvian Half Iron Man at Rutland Water. Iain finished in a time of 4 hours 52 minutes and Jez in 5 hours 58 minutes.

On Sunday there was also plenty of representation at Thetford’s Race For Life, while Stacey Owen competed in the St Neots Tri series triathlon and was the third woman to finish, in a time of 44.53mins.

Melanie Floyd completed her 66th marathon and is now heading for an amazing challenge of 10 marathons in 10 days in the Great Barrow 10 in 10 challenge, which starts tomorrow and will see many of the Thetford Parkrunners supporting her, some of whom with be completing their first marathons with her.

This weekend also saw the start of the UK Spartan Race season with two events at Pippingford Park in South London; the Spartan Sprint on Saturday and the Super on Sunday.

Four of the Thetford Parkrunners completed the Super, eight miles with 20 extreme obstacles, with Stewart Docherty, Martin Godfrey, Lisa Stone and Glynn Pearce all completing the course.