Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s top woman marathon runner, Claire Grima, warmed up for next month’s Virgin London Marathon by breaking her own club record with a lifetime best in the Reading half-marathon on Sunday.

Grima, 37, crossed the finishing line in one hour 18 minutes 42 seconds to chop 64 seconds off her previous best and Hercules Wimbledon women’s record set in the same race last year.

However, this year, the Reading promotion, which incorporated the England championships, was staged over a new, faster course although the blustery conditions slowed the 13,000 plus runners taking part.

Grima finished 237th overall and was 19th woman and sixth veteran woman to cross the line.

Husband Dave also posted a lifetime best time in finishing 204th in 1.17:19 to improve by 26 seconds on the time he posted in the Brighton half-marathon in February last year.

He was the second Hercules Wimbledon finisher on Sunday. Top runner from the club was Joe Clark, who also posted a lifetime best in finishing 87th in 1.12:20.

Clark, who also runs in the London marathon, took almost three minutes off his previous best half-marathon time.

Second Hercules Wimbledon finisher was another London marathon entrant, Rob Tuer, who was 232nd at Reading in 1.18:23.

Over 45 woman veteran, who missed the weekend’s Wimbledon Common park run where she is a regular racer, competing almost 200 times, also posted a personal best time of 1.29:05, improving on her time of 1.30:33 set in the Ealing half-marathon last September.

Another Hercules Wimbledon runner in the London marathon, Tom Cheetham, continued his preparations by competing for the 18th time in the Hastings half-marathon on Sunday where he was 95th out of 3,000 runners in 1.27:43.

He as eighth in the veteran over 45 category. His best time of 1.26:58 was achieved last year.

Running the longest race of his life, Matthew Gibbons finished third lot of 564 runners in the Saloman City Rail Richmond 10km road race on Sunday in 36:21.

Veteran Peter Collins was fifth in a personal best of 38:14, slicing more than a minute for his previous best set in 2012.

Kieran White was fourth over-35 veteran in the Eastleigh 10km road race on Sunday in 32:44. He was 23rd overall out of 2,152 runners.