It may not have had the biggest concentration of Garden City Runners but Sussex certainly had some of the bravest.

The Beachy Head Marathon got the attention of Nadine Dwyer and Nick Genever.

Dwyer said: "They don't exactly ease you into this race. You start off on a very steep hill but once up, we were in for some lovely trail running around the South Downs.

"Nice and easy apart from a particularly nasty muddy stretch and a couple of seemingly endless steep sections to conquer.

"And once we reached the 30k mark, we were really in for a treat/challenge. The last 10k were epic but that scenery comes with a price.

"The course led us up the Seven Sisters cliffs and then followed the coastline up and down the cliffs towards Birling Gap.

"Another big push and we finally finished that hilly rollercoaster up on Beachy Head and could look forward to the downhill finish.

"I loved it. Even though I was well over the target time I hoped for, I still had a great day and I'm happy with how it went."

She finished in seven hours 24 minutes 30 seconds.

For Genever, it was 13th visit to the event and his 13th marathon or ultra in the last 15 weeks and he finished in 4:29:30

Three more from the club decided to go one step further, taking on the Beachy Head Ultra.

Martin Mitchell, Dom Thomas and Chris Baylis had to contend with another 10k loop bolted on to the marathon course.

Mitchell said: "We had an early start, which started with a very steep hill, then a loop of the 10k course followed by the marathon course.

"The marathon runners started an hour after us.

"Chris and I started well, maybe too well, Chris had the lead for the first 17k but then we hit some nasty steep steps and the Seven Sisters that killed our quads and reined us in a bit.

"Dom was doing his first ultra, a tough one considering all the hills, but he finished strong."

Baylis finished 12th in 4:46:10, with Mitchell 17th in 4:49:37 and Thomas in 6:02:30.

The second round of the Sunday Cross-country League went ahead despite Therfield Heath being off limits due to rain, Natural England not supplying a licence.

However, a farmer in the village of Barley, just down from Royston, offered to host the event and the sun shone on the GCRs and the rest of the field that ran.

Results are not yet available but the WGC club will be looking to bolster their performance from round one in Hoddesdon which saw them come away second in the combined standings behind St Albans Striders.

Round three is at Trent Park on Sunday.

The damp conditions did not deter GCRs from taking on parkruns in Herts and beyond.

Zoe Stephens was second lady at Stevenage, while Katharine Farrell was fourth female at Thetford.

At Panshanger, Paul Guy was fifth and Jamie Rose ninth.

Sam Males took sixth at Manor Fields, Whittlesey, where Katy Healy was seventh lady.

John McDowall (eighth) and Richard Somerset (10th) were at Millennium County Parkrun while at Henlow, Thom Buzzard was fifth overall and Jess Buzzard seventh woman.