Fairlands Valley Spartans brought 2022 to a busy close before starting 2023 in an equally intense fashion.

Yuko Gordon's last-minute decision to head to Essex for the Witham Boxing Day Five, responding to a reminder email from the organisers late on Christmas Day, was rewarded with a time of 37 minutes one second, placing her 100th out of the 321 finishers.

Closer to home was the Buntingford 10k which was held on sodden ground and sullen skies

Danny Scanlon took three minutes exactly off his time from his last visit in 2018, clocking 1:11:00.

Ross Gallagher was fastest of the seven Spartans with 1:03:58, putting him 34 from a field of 437, while Paul Hewett was 56th in 1:06:51.

The last race of the year took Paul Holgate to Ely and the New Year's Eve 10k which he completed in 1:09:46.

There were bumper turnouts at parkruns both before and after the turn of the year.

More than 1,200 people ran Stevenage Parkrun over the period, with the biggest field being on Christmas Eve when 371 competed.

There were also 348 on Christmas Day.

The New Year's Day event saw 307 with Andrew Patterson taking the win in a new PB of 16:52.

Holgate was running his 50th parkrun which he finished in 34:51.

Scanlon was over at Westmill along with Andy Jay, Daniel Bates went to Littleport in Cambridgeshire while Gabbie O'Brien was in Letchworth.

The New Year’s Eve run had Simon Jackson second in 18:09 with Grant Ramsay sixth, exactly one minute behind.

Patterson took the win on Christmas Day for FVS with what had been his PB of 17:07 and he was closely followed by Adrian Busolini in 17:35.

Georgie Hooper ran her 50th parkrun.

There had been milestones one day earlier too in Stevenage with Ryan Dunning and Hazel Smith completing their half-century while Claire Emmerson brought up triple figures.

On the same course Mike Jeffs was 11th overall in 19:39 while Ashley Johnson was third female in 22:45 and Harriet Smith clocked a parkrun PB of 25:50.

At Lee-on-Solent, Sharon Flaherty ran a parkrun PB time of 36:02.