OTLEY AC athletes were tackling events ranging from parkruns to ultra marathons at the weekend.

Neil Charlton, after months of injury, took part in the Frostbite 30 Ultra Marathon. The race is held on in the tough Nidderdale trail and fell, however, this year due to a change in the course the race was over 34 miles.

Weather conditions were tough but Charlton was determined to finish and did so in a time of 6:31:10. The winner was Ben Horris in 4:53:00 and the first lady was Sally Fawcett in 5:27:25 Sunday saw the final race of this year’s West Yorkshire Cross Country Series at Nunroyd Park. In the under-11 boys competition, Jenson Brogden ran a time of 8:50 and Kieran Green 11:18. Suzanne Lupton ran a time of 14:21 in the under-11 girls while Holly Davey finished in 14:09 in the under-13 race.

Otley had Caron Ralph and Pange Srivastave in the senior ladies race. Both ran really well, finishing 62nd and 97th respectively in times of 31:13 and 36:29. The first lady was Alex Bell from Pudsey & Bramley in 22:17 The senior men’s race was over four large laps, so the muddiest section had to be negotiated on each lap. Tom Adams from Ilkley Harriers was first home in 33:50 23. First for Otley in 17th was Scott Harrington in 37:02. Andrew Robertshaw 37:48, Liam Dunne 40:04, Shane Ewen 40:23, Graham Lake 44:19 and Antonio Cardinale 1:08:42 were the other Otley finishers.

Otley AC finished ninth in the overall team competition while Frank Beresford was second in the senior men’s standings, Andrew Robertshaw was third in the M40-44 competition and Antonio Cardinale came fourth in the M65+ competition.

Richard Smith, having not raced this distance for a while, tackled the Vale of Clywd Half Marathon near Denbigh on Sunday.

The whole race was run on bumpy, isolated and undulating country roads. With blustery winds, rain and hailstones, Smith said it was “Unquestionably the coldest I’ve been at a race start after Burley Moor 2013.”

Smith ran an impressive race to finish sixth in 1:23:06 and gained a personal best over this distance. The winner was Paul Wathan in 1:15:59 and the first lady was Aime Hannant in 1:30:26.

Frank Beresford decided to tackle the Stockport 10-mile race. Beresford produced a time of 54:24, which was a new personal best. The winner was Mohammed Abu-Rezeq from Altrincham & District AC in 49:55 and the first lady was Sue Partridge from Leeds City AC in 57:43.

Finally, Howard Jeffery was back out racing again in his Otley vest. This time Howard was taking part in the Guys 10 near Preston. He last did this race in 2011 and managed to complete it in just less than 70 minutes.

With expert pacing, Howard finished 84th (6th over 60) in 1:09:57, just inside his target. The winner was Gary Pennington of Preston Harriers in 54.46 and the first lady wasHannah Oldroyd from UKnetrunner.co.uk (18th place) in 1.01.11.