The dawning of December gets the Christmas celebrations started for many and North Herts Road Runners are fully in the festive mood.

They will host their annual Santa Canta on Saturday, a 5k run on Norton Common in Letchworth Garden City.

A spokeswoman said: "Come and run this in Christmas fancy dress and donate to our charity of the year - Headway Herts.

"Santas, elves and nativity characters all welcome."

Andrew Leach of North Herts Road Runners with his masters medal. Picture: NHRRAndrew Leach of North Herts Road Runners with his masters medal. Picture: NHRR (Image: North Herts Road Runners) This week the Squirrels had their eyes on more serious prizes at the British Masters Road 5k Championships.

Held in Battersea Park, almost 300 athletes took part and Rob Jowett led the club home in a time of 16 minutes 29 seconds, closely followed by Andrew Leach in 16:38.

That run by Leach was good enough to make him the MV60 champion.

Jowett's effort also came with a reward as he, Shahab Ahmad (16:55) and Matt Sayers (17:24) won silver in the M35-44 team competition.

Michael Over (19:36), Peter Sibbett (20:20) and Karen Dodsworth (27:59) were the other Squirrels in action.

And there was also a fine run by Tom Barclay at the York Parkrun, finishing just two seconds behind the winner in 15:58.

Yuko Gordon of Fairlands Valley Spartans with her masters medal. Picture: FVSYuko Gordon of Fairlands Valley Spartans with her masters medal. Picture: FVS (Image: Fairlands Valley Spartans) There was another masters gold for Fairlands Valley Spartans too, Yuko Gordon coming in one second ahead of her nearest rival to take the FV70 title.

She clocked 22:45.

Martin Jacob knocked almost two hours off his 50k ultra marathon PB when he finished the St Edmund's Trail in 5:42:18.

His previous best was 1:52:20 slower, recorded at last year’s Lea Valley 50k.

Simon Haigh was also running over 50k although he chose the Lanzarotte International Running Challenge as his venue.

He clocked 4:27:10 to finish 88th out of the 380 male participants.

Normal marathons came for Robert Wright in Valencia (3:41:26) and Goodwood (3:10:58) while Jim Brown finished in 27:05 at the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5k.

There were 21 Spartans at the Stevenage Parkrun with Kirk Ndugu coming second in 17:55.

Richard Moore of Stevenage Phoenix set a parkrun PB. Picture: PHOENIXRichard Moore of Stevenage Phoenix set a parkrun PB. Picture: PHOENIX (Image: Stevenage Phoenix) There was a PB for Stevenage Phoenix runner Richard Moore at Stevenage while Katka Laughton completed the Krakow Parkrun shortly after arriving in Poland.

Two of the Phoenix men took part in the Big Ballsy Run.

The event challenged people to run or walk either 10k, 50k or 100k, all part of November being men's health month.

Every entry fee helps fund The Robin Cancer Trust’s life-saving cancer awareness, education and support for young men all across the UK.

Phil Gover took on the challenge in the form of a 10k run and John Harris set out and completed 100k. 

Jodie Kantas ran her first race with Presley the dog as part of the Grafham Water Trail & Canicross.

The 10 mile course was off-road, muddy, and passed through woods with views of the lake.

There were 70 dogs of all shapes and sizes and the pair finished in 1:25:49.