A contingent of 38 North Herts Road Runners travelled round the M25 to race in the season finale of the Herts Mid Week League Division One road at Trent Park on Thursday.

Many of the runners registered for postal votes to allow them to vote in the general election and race.

The weather was ideal for running and the course took the athletes round two hilly laps of the scenic Cockfosters park.

The Squirrels did superbly with the ever-consistent women’s team securing second place and the men fourth, to take fourth overall team.

Men’s team captain John Auld said: “It was a very tight race with three clubs scoring equal points, so the individual points came into play.”

The club finished in third place for the overall league season, with the women’s team second and the men fourth. The women’s veterans came second and the male vets fifth for the season.

Rhia Botha was first female home for the club and fifth female overall, rounding off a successful season after taking part in all races, while Tom Barclay was first male for the club in 16th place.

Meanwhile, 19 men and 11 women from Fairlands Valley Spartans also competed at Trent Park.

The fastest from the club was Kirk Ndugu, with 36:47 for 25th place out of the 194 male finishers.

Adrian Busolini was 38th in 37:56, Jonathan Parr 41st in 38:02, while Brian Brackstone was 43rd in 38:14 and the third man over 50 who finished in under 40 minutes on the tough course.

Suzy Hawkins was the fastest female from Fairlands, finishing 26th in 46:56 out of the 108 women who completed the course.

Yuko Gordon won her age group with 51:14 and was 47th woman overall.

She followed this up by winning her age group F70 (and 60 and 65 as well) in a season’s best 22:20 at the Newport Pagnell Carnival 5K, near Milton Keynes, on Saturday.

More than 500 runners took part in the race on the fast, flat course over traffic-free roads.

Gerry Rosen took part in the Ware 10 (miles), comfortable beating his two-hour target in 1:52:10.

Matt Dutton ran his first-ever 10-mile race at the event, coming home in a chip time of 1:32:56.

Chris Watling was 112th in 1:21:51 and Robert Wright 65th with 1:15:30.

The fastest of the eight Spartans was Paul Shelley, 20th of the 269 finishers with 1:07:25 and third in his age group.

Alison Shelley was the first female from Fairlands at 190th with 1:33:06; Annabelle White was 198th with 1:35:09 and Fiona Clarke 212th with 1:37:47.

Jane Whitrow ran the Ware 10K, finishing 239th in 1:21:17.

Stevenage Phoenix’s Neil Homewood and Conor O’Neill also competed in Ware.

In the 10-mile event, O’Neill set a personal best of 1:14:49, finishing 60th out of the 269 finishers.

His club-mate crossed the line in 1:00:45, 135th out of the 247 finishers in the 10K.