With London looming on the horizon, the Manchester Marathon hogged the limelight one week earlier - and there were plenty of runners from north Hertfordshire willing to roll with it.
Twelve from North Herts Road Runners made the trip to the north-west for a course known for its speed.
And seven of them returned with PBs, three of them coming inside the three-hour barrier.
First home for them was Sam Coxon, knocking 15 minutes off his debut marathon time to record two hours 45 minutes five seconds, and he was joined under 180 minutes by Anna Klucnika (2:54:33) and Ollie Parsons (2:58:51).
New signing Luke Nicholl impressed with 3:06:56, two weeks after running at Brighton, while Paula Holm took 14 minutes off her previous best with 3:21:06.
James Godfrey clocked 3:28:23 and there was another 14-minute improvement from Laura Fairbanks with 3:34:00.
David Weston dipped under four hours in 3:59:14 while another new member, Emma Sandham, took 29 minutes off her PB with 4:00:22.
Jodie Wilkes (4:08:47), Anna Gibson (4:35:12) and Laura Preston (5:57:55) were the others from NHRR.
Fairlands Valley Spartans had PBs at Manchester too.
Simon Jackson was delighted with his new time of 2:44:12, something he "will take at 47 after a lot of years of running" while for Linda George and Martin Jacob, the event represented their first marathon.
Jacob, who said the last six miles were a real struggle, finished in 3:59:57 while George managed 5:00:23.
The PBs kept coming for Stevenage Phoenix too, who had six involved.
Paul Smith's PB of 4:00:31 was also a club age group record time of 4:00:31, as was the 4:06:08 from Andrew Liddle.
First lady, Katka Laughton made it three records with 4:11:42 with the fourth club best from Gemma Holloway in 5:00:46. Her partner Ashley Bates finished in 5:05:08.
Eleanor Williams set club record number five with 5:54:37.
Stevenage Striders completed a great day for the Hertfordshire clubs with Robert Smith beating team-mate Joe Bateman in a final sprint by three seconds, his 2:58:50 also breaking the club record.
Abdullah Athar (3:00:44) and Danny Alden (4:11:48) followed with Chrissie Thomas and Ian McClements crossing the line together in 5:23:57.
Two other events also proved popular - the Flitwick 10k and the Resolution 5k, held at the Ridlins track in Stevenage.
A dozen from NHRR took part on the infamous hills in Bedfordshire, Tom Webb not only leading in the squad but also the race, winning it overall.
The men and women's teams also won their event while Oli Babik finished with a new PB.
Yuko Gordon managed an age group win for FVS, finishing 85th overall from 424 finishers, while Hazel Smith and Jim Brown also ran.
Stevenage Phoenix had an age group winner too in Ken Hall, topping the 70-plus group.
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