Eight North Herts Road Runners took part in the Rome Marathon on Sunday. Gary Cook was first home for the club in a new personal best of 2-55:58 and he was delighted to break the three-hour barrier again and finish 300th out of a field of 12,027 runners.

Eight North Herts Road Runners took part in the Rome Marathon on Sunday.

Gary Cook was first home for the club in a new personal best of 2-55:58 and he was delighted to break the three-hour barrier again and finish 300th out of a field of 12,027 runners.

Next home was veteran Adrian Sherwood who in running 3-12:33 qualified for an automatic entry for the 2008 London Marathon.

Steve Taplin recorded 3-21:51 and Neil Ward ran well to finish in 3-43:12.

Suffering from a cold, Duncan Hooker was pleased to make it to the finish line in 4-08:36, while Lorraine Hewitt was delighted to complete her debut marathon in 4-46:30.

Lindsay Cook warmed up for London with a 4-55:05 clocking and Vanessa Rolfe recorded 5-20:02.

Four members completed the Silverstone half marathon, a warm-up event for the London Marathon.

Veteran John Russell ran strongly, despite having to contend with hail and sleet mixed with spring sunshine, to finish sixth in his category and record 1-25:31.

James Brooke had a new personal best of 1-28:27, Keiron McGill finished in 1-32:31 and Claire Messenger ran an excellent race to finish in 1-39:49.

Two Fairlands Valley Spartans achieved fantastic new personal bests at Finchley.

Despite being windy which made the hills hard, Simon Jackson and Andrew Patterson ran new personal bests at the Finchley 20-mile road race organised by Hillingdon AC on Sunday.

They were 39th and 40th out of 436 finishers in the same time of 2-12:47 after running the whole race together in preparation for the London Marathon.

Todd Gray recorded 2-24:53 - yet another personal best - and he was 105th overall.

While dozens of Spartans battled the wind and hailstones on 20-mile races and training runs in England, Michaela and Mark Sanders got hot at the Rome Marathon.

Michaela finished in 5-04:36 and Mark in 5-11:58.

Roger Biggs tackled the Sevenoaks Circular 30 on Sunday.

It was nominally 30 miles but probably a bit more of paths, fields, tracks and even the odd road in and around the North Downs.

Biggs finished in 7-39:08 in some rain, some sun and lots of wind!

There were 25 Spartans taking part in Thursday's handicap road race on the Grace Way course, Stevenage.

Nine were rewarded with personal bests and first runner home in a time of 32:20, beating her previous January personal best time by an enormous 4:27, was Maria Thorne who smashed her handicap by 3:21.

Fastest runner on the night, for the fourth consecutive handicap 5k, was Andrew Patterson who beat his February time by six seconds, with 18:19.

FVS TRI's Kerri Renshaw and Mike Utton battled around the Finchley 20-mile road race in bright but blustery, cold conditions. Kerri was seventh female and 64th overall in 2-17:29 with Mike 83rd in 2-20:28 from 436 finishers.

Chris Yuill ran the Silverstone Half Marathon on the famous race circuit as part of her London Marathon build up.

Getting the worst of the weather with a midday start, she finished in 1-39:43 - 54th female and 748th overall from the incredible 6,041 finishers!