Jo Pavey and Julia Bleasdale finished seventh and eighth respectively in the women's 10,000m final, but deservedly took a lap of honour after both recorded massive personal bests behind Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba, who successfully defended her title.
Pavey clocked 30:53.20 to take more than 19 seconds off her previous best, while Bleasdale finished in 30:55.63 to slice more than half a minute off her best.
The former only returned to track running after missing out on a place in the marathon, but said: "It was a blessing in disguise. The crowd was just awesome. I didn't think I would be getting PB's at this stage of my career. Next year I am 40, but I am still going.
"Julia and I are great friends and we're just so thrilled we just ran massive PB's in front of a home crowd at a home Olympics, you can't ask for more than that.
"You could hear the crowd, if we overtook one person there was a big roar. We really enjoyed it."
Bleasdale added: "To come away with such a fast time was fantastic. It's been a long long journey to get here. I have always been capable on the track, I've just been dogged with injuries and not always made it to the track each summer."