The frost and ice were not going to stop the annual and long-running Fred Hughes 10 race from celebrating its 30th anniversary - and both North Herts Road Runners and Fairlands Valley Spartans were among the big field.

The event, usually held on the lanes to the west of St Albans, was reduced to a two-lap circuit because of ice on certain stretches, but it still allowed runners to produce strong performances.

Of the 17 Squirrels who headed north, the first to finish was James Fox who clocked a PB of 53 minutes and 27 seconds to place fourth overall.

He was closely followed by Mike Roberts, Andrew Leach and Nathan Pask, all finishing in the top 20.

In the Female race Tash Pitman was the first home for the club, happy to have avoided slipping on the frosty patches.

Tracy Pitcairn and Eve Surridge were next across the line for NHRR, both completing their first 10 mile race, with the scoring team completed by Lucy O’Connor.

There were two other PB performances as well from Shahab Ahmad (59:19) and Kris Whitmore (1:02:13).

Fairlands Valley Spartans had a team of 12 taking part with the best of them being Mike Jeffs.

His time of 1:06:02 placed him just outside the top 100 while Mo Warrilow was the fastest FVS female, clocking 1:25:49.

Sharon Crowley's time of 1:48:21 delighted her, being almost nine minutes faster than her efforts at the Buntingford 10 at the end of December.

It had been a frosty morning 24 hours earlier as well but 18 Spartans still made their way to parkruns with Grant Ramsay finishing second in Stevenage.