ILKLEY Harriers' runners seemed inspired by the breathtaking exploits of sub-two-hour-marathon-man Eliud Kipchoge last weekend.

While the Kenyan was clocking 1:59:40 in Vienna, several Harriers were either winning or setting personal bests of their own around the UK and beyond.

First up was serial winner Tom Adams, who once again powered away from his rivals, this time at the Withins Skyline event across the wild 'Wuthering Heights' moorland above Haworth, which featured deep bogs and rivers of mud due to the recent heavy rains.

But Adams negotiated all that with ease in 41 minutes and 17 seconds to triumph by over a minute and a half ahead of Pudsey and Bramley's Joe Baxter.

And Rachel Carter was the second lady home in 55:27, just ahead of Harriers teammate Fay Walsh in third. That pair - along with Alison Weston in 12th - combined to land the female team prize for Ilkley.

The Langdale Horseshoe is 'classic Lakes' fell run and at 21km combined with extreme elevation it falls into the toughest 'AL' category.

Five Harriers were up for the challenge and, despite an initial downpour, the weather was kind and mostly dry.

But there was plenty of water already on the course, which made it tough going and created waist-deep bogs in places.

The many rocky sections were also very slippery, which meant that some of the descents were challenging.

Jack Wood was an impressive fifth out of 377 finishers in 2:13:45. He was followed by Dave Robson, Helen Wood, Michael Duffield and John Hayes.

In Wales, Steve Turland was a superb runner-up at the 50-mile Snowdon Ultra.

Tackling the high mountains of Snowdonia and featuring plenty of climbing and lots of technical rocky descents, Turland finished in second place overall out of around 200 runners with a time of 12 hours and 15 minutes.

The course was cut short slightly due to the conditions but still weighed in at 48 miles and 13,000 feet and Turland already has his sights set on the 100-mile version next year.

Meanwhile, Colin Williams and Petra Bijsterveld were channelling their 'inner Kipchoge' at the Kielder Marathon, breaking the four and five-hour barriers respectively.

Dubbed 'Britain's most beautiful' 26.2-mile race and with good reason, it follows an almost entirely off-road course around northern Europe's largest man-made lake in Northumberland.

The GoBigMoorRun is a 13-mile fell race based around Holmesfield in Derbyshire and two Harriers took part - Peter Roll was 57th in 2:08:03 and Caroline Howe wasn't far behind in 2:25:25.

Also running over 13 miles was Alex Hyde, who achieved a significant personal best at the Manchester Half Marathon in drizzly conditions on Sunday morning.

He's been aiming to break the two-hour mark for the distance this year and completed 'RED January' (running every day) to lay the foundations.

Unfazed by near misses at the Leeds Half (by just 16 seconds) in May, the Ilkley Half in July and then last month's Great North Run, he lined up on the start line alongside 15,000 other runners just outside Old Trafford - and the 'Theatre of Dreams' proved to be an apt setting.

For he smashed what had been an elusive target, crossing the line in 1:56:55.

Also running half marathons were a quartet of Harriers in Krakow, Poland.

They had very different conditions - with temperatures in the mid-20s.

Jane Bryant led them home in 1:51:07 and she was followed by Anna Nolan, Helen Horton and Jacqui Weston.

And on a notable weekend for landmark times, Hilda Coulsey collected a few more at the Portrush Parkrun in Ireland.

She beat her own F65 age category record again (this time by a whopping 36 seconds over the 5km thanks to a 24:53), topped the age grade list on the day (in a field of 196 runners) and attained fifth in the Portrush all-time age grade percentage list.

Also excelling on the Parkrun front were Jane McCarthy (first female in a course record time at Myrtle Park), Beth Massey and Catherine Gibbons (first ladies at Barnsley and Skipton respectively) and Oscar Stapleton (third place at Highbury Fields).

And setting his own fastest 5km time to date was Mike Abrams-Cohen, with an 18:48 in the 'A' race at the York Evensplits, where Mark Iley also produced a rapid 20:18.