It was a busy weekend for St Albans Striders with action all over the country.

Andrew McKillop ran a new personal best at the Abingdon Marathon in Oxfordshire, going under three hours for the first time.

Mckillop started running with the club at a beginner’s session in 2011 and has improved massively since then. And his time of two hours 59 minutes 26 seconds was 15 minutes quicker than last year.

Also competing in Abingdon were Daniel Langton, finishing his first marathon in an impressive 3:14:53, Shusanah Pillinger in 3:52:29 and Carol Ransom in 3:55:38.

Completing marathons elsewhere were Richard Evans in Snowdonia in a very creditable 3:49. Ian Hirth finished the Niagara Falls International Marathon in freezing and very windy conditions in 3:25. Penny Habbick was eighth lady at the Beachy Head Marathon.

Closer to home, many St Albans Striders took advantage of the cool but dry autumnal weather to take on the challenge of the Love Luton Half Marathon. First in was Paul Adams in 1:12 for second place overall while Ed Bailey set a new PB of 1:23 for 13th.

Richard Harry finished just behind in 1:24, Mandy Attree was second in her age category, with Julianne Nightingale, who also achieved a new PB, and Lucy Stern coming fourth and fifth in theirs. Chris Davies completed the course in 1:41 in his first race back having not been able to run for some time. Michael Jack finished in 1:46, with wife Carole coming in just under the two-hour mark.

In Rickmansworth, 11 Striders ran the hilly 10-mile Ricky Road Run and got three men in the top 10; Joe Dunn was fourth, James Turner seventh and Justin Phillipps eighth. Wendy Walsh took the ladies’ crown with Deirdre Heydecker second FV55 with 1:16:57. Walsh, Heydecker and fellow Strider Caroline Bailes won the first Hertfordshire County team, with all three winning individual county medals too.

Blake Vivian, Martin Whitworth and Tom Crouch all claimed first-place at parkruns in Cassiobury, Aldenham and St Albans respectively. Howard Bull became the first Strider to complete all 10 parkruns in Hertfordshire, by coming fourth at Barclay in Hoddesdon.

St Albans Striders is a friendly club for all types and abilities of runners which meets inside the Westminster Lodge Athletics Track building at 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Entries for the Fred Hughes 10-mile race on 22nd January 2017 are now open. More info about this and the club in general can be found at www.stalbansstriders.com