Garden City Runners put the glitz of London and the marathon behind them for a 10k closer to home - but they still managed to have a huge amount of fun and top-class performances.

The Hitchin 10k was blessed with perfect weather on Sunday and with it being one of the counting races for the club's Avery competition, it was well attended too.

Peter Harvey was the first GCR to complete the race with a time of 37 minutes 20 seconds, enough for sixth overall, while Chris Baylis (37:36) and Simon Bostock (38:41) made up the rest of the male podium from the Welwyn Garden City club.

Zoe Stephens was third female and first of the GCR ladies in 43:01 with Lucy Iles (48:22) and Sophie Packman (49:35) behind her.

Nick Genever added another marathon to his impressive list of long-distance runs at the Euston Estate Marathon.

He said: "It was a two-lap marathon around the Euston Estate near Thetford, run mainly on soft sandy tracks.

"At the half-way point after the leading half-marathon runners finished, I could see four runners ahead of me, and then overtook three of them in a few miles and finished in second place in 3:35:57 for 26.4 miles."

One of the newer Garden City Runners, Alison Paterson travelled to Harlow on Saturday to support the 5k Your Way initiative.

She said: "5k Your Way takes place at some parkruns on the last Saturday of the month to provide people with cancer, and their families or carers or friends, a community to walk or run with.

"It was a gorgeous morning for a run and a chat with coffee afterwards.

"Being a 2.5-lap course means people can stop if needed."

Elsewhere there were more than 100 City Runners at parkruns.

Asa Moberg-Grout and Steve Grout travelled to Coventry while David Edwards and John Davies were at Hyndburn in Accrington.

Andrew Knight was fourth overall at Peacehaven, in 19:44, the same venue as Stephanie Kearns.

Lucy Iles and Tom Casserley were in north London at Oak Hill parkrun, the former finishing as fifth lady, while five GCRs were at Gunpowder in Waltham Abbey.

They were Richard Somerset, Barbara Kubis-Labiak, Ann Hayden, Gemma Sloan and Jess Buzzard with Hayden setting a PB.

Alex Faulkner was first lady at Southwick Country in Wiltshire while Johan Preis and Caroline O'Dwyer completed the Northala Fields event in Northolt.

At Thurrock parkrun Jamie Rose was fourth overall while at Panshanger, Bruce Judge was sixth and Helen Stafford first lady.

Further afield, Samantha Hastie, Jacqueline McCallum and Jane Molloy were at the at Løvstien Parkrun in Bergen, Norway.