TIPTREE ROAD RUNNERS chairman Graham Byford made a great return to the marathon distance with a new personal best at London.

He clocked three hours 34 minutes and 48 seconds, taking almost three minutes off his previous best performance.

This tops a good season in which he returned to more regular racing, despite long-term injury problems.

James Haskey-Jones was the fastest Tiptree runner on the day, completing his 26th marathon in 3h 17m 40s.

Calum Peterson was under the four-hour mark, enjoying the cooler conditions this year with a run of 3h 53m 04s, almost 18 minutes faster than his 2007 time in very high temperatures.

Paul Shewbridge, in his third marathon, was agonisingly close to his personal best, running 4h 20m 36s, just 20 seconds short of his best time.

Paul Youngman made his marathon debut with a run of 4h 29m 20s.

Gerry Dolden completed his second marathon and first London in a time of 4h 35m 48s, while Francesca Haque ran her first marathon in 4h 39m 16s.

Carol Lodge was Tiptree's other marathon debutant with a run of 5h 39m 23s. In other earlier events, Les Childs completed the Bedford Park orienteering event, held in snowy conditions, in 1h 35m 32s.

The first in the annual Crown-to-Crown series of evening multi-terrain 5Ks was held on a night where darkness came quickly for many of the competitors.

Roger Duffield avoided the worst of it, finishing in 23m 55s to take first place in the V65 category.

Duffield then went from darkness to a snow storm at the Welling 5K in Kent, where he finished in 23m to be first V65.