Stevenage Striders praised for latest Stevenage 10k event

Runners took to social media to give it two thumbs up.

One wrote "loved this, the support was amazing" while another called it a "cracking race, well organised and very friendly".

The winners of the men's and women's races, Dominic Howarth and Nat Rowland, both run for Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC.

And both expressed how much they enjoyed running through the muraled underpasses and the support, Rowland adding "the atmosphere was fantastic, like a family full of cheers".

The event started and finished in Hampson Park.

Striders continued that feelgood factor with this week's challenges.

Archie Brown and Daniel Meadows both took on another 10k, the London Vitality 10k, finishing in 50:26 and 51:38.

Peter Monk had his first competitive run post knee surgery at the Westminster Mile, finishing in 8:15, while Jon Renney completed the Sarajevo Half Marathon in Bosnia in a PB of 1:29:38.

Marc Hagland was busy, running the Ricky Races Half at Rickmansworth in 2:31 before clocking 2:12 at the Ipswich Half Marathon.

North Herts Road Runners in front of Buckingham Palace after the London Vitality 10k. Picture: NHRR (Image: North Herts Road Runners) North Herts Road Runners also had a team at the London Vitality 10k.

Mike Roberts led them home in 33:24 followed by Shaun Allin 36:59 while there was a PB of 47:56 for Daniel Wrigley, fresh from the Great North Run two weeks earlier.

The Chas Avis Harvest Trail was described by Lucy O’Conner "as the hardest half I've ever done".

Ploughed fields and wet weather around Royston and Therfield added to the difficulty and a slip down a muddy hill broke a wrist.

She did finish after 14 miles with a time of 2:17:38.

Fairlands Valley Spartans had two in London for the 10k, Charles Arnold finishing in 46:51 and Becky Rayner in 1:23:21.

A quartet took on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge.

Starting and finishing at Chapel Le Dale, near to the Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales, they climbed and descended Ingleborough, Pen Y Gent and Whernside, all trying to beat the target time of 12 hours.

And they did so comfortably.

Trudie King came in at 9:42, five minutes ahead of Barry King and a further six ahead of Karen Liddle and Tricia Hopper.

Both The Spartans and the Striders held handicap races too.

These see runners given target times based on form with the winner being the one who can beat that by the most.

The slowest target runner goes off first and the fastest last, the idea being that if the handicap is correct, everyone will finish together.

Striders did their run over 10k with 33 out in wet weather.

Spartans meanwhile had 22 running over 5k with Sally Pickles the winner on the night, beating her time by 1:16.

Charles Arnold was the fastest in 22:59 with Yuko Gordon next in 23:17.

Kristian Atanasov and Yuko Gordon at the Spartans' one-hour time trial. Picture: MATT GIFFORD/FVS (Image: Matt Gifford/FVS) FVS also tried something new, a one-hour time trial challenge on the track at Ridlins.

The idea was to see how far someone could run in the time and the winner was Kristian Atanasov with 15.68km.

There were 17 runners for the first running of the event.

There were a few parkrun milestones for the Striders too.

Matthew Robinson (18:28), Eden Hudson (28:32) and Felix Azagbadah (26:47) all set PBs while Steve Moore, Helen Moye and Lina Mi were first in their age groups.

It was also the 50th parkrun for Azagbadah.

Stevenage Phoenix head coach, Emma Mead, ran the Equinox24, a 24-hour running event in the grounds of Belvoir Castle.

She ran solo and after a day of high heat and then thunderstorms, she was forced to retire at 1am after 50 miles.

Deputy head coach Lisa Liversidge also completed 50 miles, running at the self-navigated Surrey Tops.

She completed the course at 2am in 16:09, well inside the 20-hour time limit.

Mark Legate completed the Lucky Horseshoe event, an out and back course in Suffolk.

He had intended to do the 50k option but instead chose to complete the marathon distance.

Phoenix had a number at the London 10k, including James Woodcock who completed the one-mile distance with his young son.

Seven ran the full 10k, Alex Wasley leading them home in a senior men's club record of 38:52.

Neal Crawley also managed a PB of 48:31 while Zoe Shreeve and Jo Heasman were the first club females in 1:07:34.

Chis Leigh completed the Royston Harvest Trail half in 2:23:17.