Runners had a wide and varied array of events to choose from this week.

Stevenage Phoenix were at the Lee Valley Sundowner 10k with both Ashley Bates and Gemma Holloway setting personal bests of 51:21 and 56:57 respectively.

The Comet: Gemma Holloway and Ashley Bates with their medals. Picture: STEVENAGE PHOENIXGemma Holloway and Ashley Bates with their medals. Picture: STEVENAGE PHOENIX (Image: Stevenage Phoenix)

On Tuesday the club held its third food-bank run supporting the Knebworth food-bank.

The runners' food donations were taken to the food-bank after a 10km run to the food-bank where they heard about the operation and the good work it does in the community.

The club also held its first family social event at Hampson Park, during which was the personal performance awards.

The awards are based on age graded performances over a range of seven standard road race distances and are graded into eight different levels.

Club level awards were given to Ashley Bates, Angela Goodwin, Jodie Kantas, Gemma Holloway, Dawn Lloynes, Eleanor Williams, Peter Tungate.

Tin level awards were given to Ashley Bates, Sue Bryson, Scott Crawford, Lewis Green, Andrew Liddle, Emma Mead, Gemma Holloway.

Bronze level awards were given to Lewis Green, Chris Leigh, Emma Mead.

Silver level awards were given to Greg Bradbury, Jodie Kantas, Chris Leigh.

Gold and diamond level awards were given to Paul Smith.

The Comet: Andy Grudzinski was on the South Downs for The Midnight Marathon. Picture: NHRRAndy Grudzinski was on the South Downs for The Midnight Marathon. Picture: NHRR (Image: North Herts Road Runners)

Three North Herts Road Runners made their way down to the Olympic Park to take part in the Twilight 5000m event.

Ed Price ran in race six and dug deep to put in a fast last lap, taking five places and finishing just one second off his target in 16 minutes 41 seconds.

Ben Hadman ran in a slightly faster group and finished in 16:08 seconds, while Tom Webb was in the fastest group of the evening and ended pleased with his 15:44.

Stuart Overton also took to the track at the Biggleswade AC Trackfest 10,000m, which also served as the Hertfordshire County Championships.

A fairly small field meant a lot of solo running but a strong finish over the last few kilometres ended with Overton in third in a time of 34:48. 

Away from the track Ian Datlen finished third at the Sundowner 10k, his first podium finish. 

Andy Grudzinski and Jennie Fraser headed to the South Downs for The Midnight Marathon, an out and back race with 3,500 feet of climbing and requiring head torches.

Fraser returned in a time of 5:47 while Grudzinski managed 7:16.

The Comet: Andrew Patterson of Fairlands Valley Spartans. Picture: FVSAndrew Patterson of Fairlands Valley Spartans. Picture: FVS (Image: Fairlands Valley Spartans)

Fairlands Valley Spartans have a new club record holder.

Andrew Patterson ran at Watford in the open graded meeting over 1500m and clocked four minutes 15.42 seconds.

At the same time Danny Scanlon was at the Chase the Sun 10k at Battersea Park and also in the pouring rain.

He finished in 42:00.

Jim Brown ran his best half marathon of the year at the Sundowner Half and finished in 2:00:49.

There were Spartans at 15 different parkrun venues on Saturday with 15 at Stevenage.

Suzy Hawkins was first woman at Wendover Woods.

The Comet: Stevenage Striders had another takeover at Stevenage Parkrun. Picture: STEVENAGE STRIDERSStevenage Striders had another takeover at Stevenage Parkrun. Picture: STEVENAGE STRIDERS (Image: Stevenage Striders)

Saturday saw another Stevenage Striders takeover at Stevenage parkrun, with members taking on every volunteer position from marshalling to time keeping to barcode scanning.

Some still had to time to run a morning 5k themselves with a couple going extreme.

Ollie Garbas was across in Wejherowo, Poland, while Peter Bampton-Clare ran in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

Two Striders were at the Sundowner Half.

Helder Soares finished third in 1:28:38, followed by Chrissie Thomas in 2:21:00.