Those at home made the most of the smaller field to get valuable competition points. Despite the heat and much slower times recorded, many of the runners climbed well up the finish list.

Richard West jumped from 11^th a week ago to second, despite running 40 seconds slower. 

Likewise, Roy Binks, who was 20 seconds slower, jumped from 17^th to third.

Both were beaten to top honours by Tom Mackerras.

Mackerras is a short course specialist who opted for the long run for the first time in months.

He surprised himself to hold out the opposition after leading out off the zero handicap. Mackerras expected to hear heavy breathing and footsteps from behind, but they never came.

Anthony Nehme was next, continuing his string of top-10 placings, which puts him up with West and Binks in the pointscore after three weeks.

Mark Hancock, Sharon Careri, Ed Frkovic, Stewart Wood, Peter Stockwell and Bronwyn Jones all revelled in rare high placings.

There is one more week at the distance of 6.2km before the jump to 10km. The forecast is for hotter weather on Saturday, so runners must take extra care.

In the short course it was a Yenda one-two-three. Father and son Danny and Alex Careri claimed top honours, the duo unsplit by the electronic timing, with Alex surprising by improving almost two minutes from the previous week. Gabrielle Wood crossed for third almost a minute after the Careris.

From the back of the start line Malachi Smith put in another great run to finish seventh and take the fastest time of the day with a nett time of 13min24sec.

The Bacchus competition is an eight-race program that leads up to the Flexible Solutions Bacchus on the Lake on Easter Friday. Competitors can take part in a 5km sprint, 10km enduro or 8km social walk.

The Griffith Feral Joggers run every Saturday at 5.30pm from the water tower at Scenic Hill. Be early to register.