TIPTREE Road Runners' Paul Mingay was back in England colours, as part of a team taking on a combined Celtic nations squad at the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham 10K.

Mingay ran 37 minutes and 36 seconds to take the gold medal in his age category and confirm his number one UK ranking in his age group for the distance.

Meanwhile, Aaron Graves and Gavin Laws were also up in the Midlands for the Milton Keynes Marathon.

Despite missing out on their personal bests (PBs), they both posted great times in the 24C heat, with Graves coming home 34th in a field of nearly 2,000 in a time of 3h 10m 16s and Laws breaking the M35 club record with his time of 3h 45m 1s.

Further south, John McVelia was on the Isle of Wight, tackling the first leg of his Ultra Challenge.

This involves running around the 106km (63-mile) circumference of the island over a two-day period.

McVelia completed the event in 18h 34m 16s to finish 23rd out of the field of 163 runners.

Back in Essex, the first running of the Witham May Day 10, on a flattish course going out to Terling and back, saw 20 Tiptree Road Runners among the 300 runners lining up for the start.

Gary Perryman was first home for the club, running 1h 21m 10s and just pipping Morven Hurding, whose time of 1h 21m 41s was a PB.

Lorraine Mills clocked 1h 26m 55s and Simon Baker a season's best 1h 27m 9s, with Lorraine Baker recording 1h 30m 53s and Paul Graves, on his debut at the distance, 1h 31m 33s.

Robyn Harding continued her good run of form to cross the line in 1h 37m 38s.

Kelly Rogers and Danielle Harrington finished together in 1h 38m 50s, with Tina Clarke and Jo Roblin posting 1h 40m 22s.

Chris King ran 1h 40m 33s, Jo Dickman 1h 46m 54s, Mandy Graves 1h 46m 57s, Caroline Hare 1h 53m 14s, Chris Harding 1h 57m 20s, Zoe Jackson 2h 1m 6s and Alia Hamden 2h 1m 7s.

In other road running, Andy Conway ran 39m 19s at the Breckland 10K in Norfolk to finish 11th in a field of nearly 300.

Lee Kerrison was just outside his PB, running 46m 42s at the High Easter 10K, while chairman Anthony Knight was in Suffolk, completing the Thurston 10K in 56m 11s.

Off-road, Vicky Knight and Sue Long ran the Ashdon 10K, a hilly off-road 10K on the Essex and Cambridgeshire border.

Knight posted 48m 11s to finish second lady with Long running 1h 19m 14s.

Malcolm Bailey finished sixth at the Young at Heart Trail Race in 58m 43s with Jim Slater seventh in 58m 47s.

Rob Hadgraft came home in 1h 17m 57s.

In Parkrun action, 25 Tiptree Road Runners ran five different Parkruns on Saturday, with 21 enjoying good conditions at Maldon.

There was a PB for Robyn Harding (26m 7s), as well as season's bests for Kevin Bunton (21m 17s), Simon Baker (23m 14s), Lorraine Baker (24m 53s) and Angela Dellar (25m 25s).

Hadgraft (Conkers, NW Leicestershire) narrowly won the tourist of the week award from Zoe Gould (Andover, Hampshire).