Stevenage was flooded with club runners in the week as a popular running race returned for its 2023 edition.
The Relays in the Park, organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans, saw teams of four competed over a 3k course with competitions for men, women and mixed squads.
And there were home successes too with both the Spartans' women and their vet women claiming bronze in the county championships.
The women's team was made up of Ashley Johnson, Sam Pretty, Gabrielle O’Brien and Gail Mackie while Suzy Hawkins, Marie Colucci, Tracey Jackson and Yuko Gordon made up the veteran squad.
The FVS men were fourth in the open and county races while the fastest individual leg by a Spartan belonged to Jon Parr with nine minutes 20 seconds.
Johnson was the fastest FVS female in 11:38.
Luton AC won the open men's race and the open mixed one while St Albans Striders were the victors in the women's race.
North Herts Road Runners fielded 14 teams in total and enjoyed great success on the night.
Their senior and veteran women both finished second in their categories, while the men's veterans finished third overall but claimed the county silver medal.
The Squirrels' senior women were led by Katie Harbon, whose leg was the second fastest and one of only two from women to go under 10 minutes, Hannah Ridley, Rhia Botha and Astrid McKeown.
The vet women were Rachel Arnott, Paula Holm, Tash Pitman and Jane Clarke while their male equivalents were Ed Price, Matt Sayers, Shahab Ahmad and Steve McKeown.
The Doug Anderson 5k was another popular choice, with this version being the 20th anniversary of the Bedford Harriers race.
Matt Tutton ran for FVS, clocking a PB of 24:54, while this was this 17th time over the course for Paul Holgate.
He finished in 31:19 with Roger Biggs in 38:38.
Eight from Stevenage Phoenix were in action at Bedford Park.
First home was Jay Papa in 21:12, 12 seconds ahead of Greg Bradbury.
The first lady from Phoenix was Emma Mead in 25:37 with her son Owen completing the course in 27:41.
The ever improving Neil Homewood ran a season best of 27:05, Mel Tanti finished in 28:42 with Stella Toresse posting a PB of 31:27.
Wendy Summerbee completed the team's day in 34:57 with the runs of Papa, Homewood and Toresse all club records in their respective age categories.
Stevenage Striders had runners at other events.
On a warm morning in Bedford, Remy Knowles finished the ATW Blues Foundation Half in 2:02:03, Angie Hayes in 2:09:43 and Chrissie Thomas in 2:16:12.
Peter Monk ran the Saturn Running Dragonfly Half Marathon in 2:15:12 while Adam Hough smashed the Chase The Sun Olympic Park 10K in 40:48.
Tony Randfield celebrated his 150th parkrun with some parkrun tourism at Dunstable Downs.
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