Month: March 2013

STEVE AND LORRAINE WIN 5K

No Clouds In Cyprus

Despite the bitterly cold evening on Thursday there were some excellent performances among the 23 Spartans braving the weather in the 69^th running of the club’s Handicap 5K.  They included seven runners completing the tough course in less than 20 minutes and 19 of the 23 finishers recording personal bests (PB), season bests (SB) or year best times (YB).

Winner on the night was STEVE KEENE in a new personal best time of 22 minutes 6 seconds, 2:54 ahead of handicap, with STEVE GOUGH second in a new season’s best time of 27:13, 2:17 better than handicap.  TODD GRAY was third in 18 minutes 27 seconds, 2:03 faster than handicap and a season’s best

LORRAINE WYATT was the winning woman.  She was fifth overall in a new personal best time of 27 minutes 26 seconds, 1:49 quicker than handicap, with LISA LIVERSIDGE second in 24:50, only 5 seconds shy of her own PB time. Young ABI PEZ was third in her debut 5K with an excellent time of 31:12.

Fastest runner was RICHARD BATE in a SB 16:44, only 11 seconds short of the course record, with GRANT RAMSEY second quickest in a YB time of 17:00, and CRAIG HALSEY third quickest in a SB time of 17:43.  TODD GRAY (18:27), LIAM HERBERT (18:35), JOHN HARRIS (19:29) and DEAN CARPENTER (19:35 PB) all also recorded sub-20 minute times.

LISA LIVERSIDGE was quickest female, with LORRAINE WYATT 2^nd quickest and ABI PEZ 3^rd fastest.

The Final Handicap 5k race before the Mid Week League 10K races start will be on Thursday 25^th April.

Maidenhead Easter Ten

Starting over two minutes after the gun, STEVE MAYFIELD overtook more than 700 runners to finish 364^th in the 60^th running of this flat fast 10 miler.  His time of 1 hour 12 minutes 44 seconds was 320^th fastest on the day, quicker than he ran in 2011, though not quite as fast as in 2010!

Broadmeadow Off Road Challenge – Friday, 29^th March 2013

The Broadmeadow Off Road Challenge is a marathon from the Carriage Café (An old Railway Carriage) in the Warwickshire Countryside around Stratford Upon Avon, consisting of two 4 mile loops, one 15 mile loop and a loop around Stratford Race Course to finish.   Despite some sunshine it was a bitterly cold day, with the obligatory stiles, fences and unavoidable mud!  ROGER BIGGS finished in 5:32:45 and MARK SANDERS in 6:13:30.

Easter Around the Reservoir Trail Marathon

The Easter Around The Reservoir Trail Marathon took place on Saturday and Sunday.  On both days it consisted of six laps of the Brackmills Reservoir which is south of Northampton.  The course was 50% hard surface and 50% trail or grass paths on a cold March morning.  On Saturday CAROL PAUL finished in 4 hours 35 minutes 40 seconds;  ROGER BIGGS in 4:40:31 and MIKE NEWBITT in 5:05:30.

The weather eased a bit on Sunday and Roger completed his third marathon in three days in 4:57:41.

No Cloud In Cyprus

After the dreadful conditions of Milton Keynes in 2012 TONY ARGYROU decided to compete somewhere warm and chose the Limassol Marathon in Cyprus on 24^th March.  He finished in a time of 4:39….taking an hour of his time last year at MK, minimal training leading up to the race and arrived in Cyprus late on Saturday night the 2 hour time difference and the weather peaking at 24 degrees with no cloud cover caused regular cramp but all in all a fantastic location by the sea to run a Marathon over 300 runners from all over Europe competed finishing 136^th

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:

• Flitwick 10K on Sunday 14^th April.
• Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 21^st April.
• Handicap 5K on Thursday 25^th April.
• County Five Miles Championships in Pednor on Monday 6^th May.
• County Track and Field Championships in Stevenage on Monday 6^th May.
• County Veterans 10K Championship at St. Albans on Sunday 12^th May.
• Mid Week League 10K in Stevenage on Tuesday 14^th May.
• Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 21^st July.
• Relays in the Park in Stevenage on Thursday 25^th July.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 24^th September.
• County 10K Championships in Letchworth on Sunday 6^th October.
• Herts Veterans 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd November.
• County Ten Miles Championship in Buntingford on 30^th December 2013.
• Watch for announcements about the County Marathon Championships.

Join The Spartans

Live in or near Stevenage?  Like running?  Fairlands Valley Spartans is your local running club and is on the up!  The club was voted the UK’s Best Running Club in 2010.  It now has about 400 members and encourages participation by all.  The Spartans have a varied training programme to suit those who want to run 5 kilometres through to full marathons.

The Spartans weekday training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  Go along to the new sports centre at Marriotts School – a Sports College, Brittain Way, Stevenage (SG2 8UT) at 7p.m.  Up to five running groups go out on training nights – there will be one to suit you!

The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday (except public holidays) and 7p.m. every Thursday.

Most long Sunday morning training sessions start 9.30a.m. sharp.  Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, Stevenage most Saturdays from 9.15a.m.  There are events to enter every Sunday.  Newcomers are very welcome – those who have not done very much running yet might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.

Try a few sessions before joining.  Membership is only £35 per year, £25 without UKA membership.  Concessions are available.  Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk  Please ask if you would like a paper copy. 

 

Despite the bitterly cold evening there were some excellent performances among the 23 Spartans braving the weather in the 69th running of the club’s Handicap 5k on the 28th March, including 7 runners completing the tough course in less than 20 minutes and 19 of the 23 finishers recording personal bests (PB), season bests (SB) or year best times (YB).

Thank you to Malcolm Devis (Tracy’s dad) for his assistance with the finish and also to Sharon Crowley and Tracy Pez for their support of Abi around the course.

Winner on the night was STEVE KEENE in a new PB time of 22:06, 2:54 ahead of handicap, with STEVE GOUGH 2nd in a new SB time of 27:13, 2:17 better than handicap, and TODD GRAY 3rd also in a SB time (18:27) 2:03 faster than handicap.

Winning female was LORRAINE WYATT (5th overall) in a new PB time 27:26, 1:49 quicker than handicap, with LISA LIVERSIDGE 2nd in 24:50, only 5 seconds shy of her own PB time, and young ABI PEZ 3rd in her debut 5k with an excellent time of 31:12.

Fastest runner was RICHARD BATE in a SB 16:44, only 11 seconds short of the course record, with GRANT RAMSEY 2nd quickest in a YB time of 17:00, and CRAIG HALSEY 3rd quickest in a SB time of 17:43, while TODD GRAY (18:27), LIAM HERBERT (18:35), JOHN HARRIS (19:29) and DEAN CARPENTER (19:35 PB) all also recorded sub-20 minute times.

LISA LIVERSIDGE was quickest female, with LORRAINE WYATT 2nd quickest and ABI PEZ 3rd fastest.

Except for Simon Harris the total time between first and last finisher was only 3:58 and just 1:41 between 2nd-21st, while 91% of finishers finished within 55 seconds of their adjusted handicap and the only finishers more than 1 minute outside of their adjusted handicap were the 2 runners whose times were estimated on the night.

Final Handicap 5k before the MWL will be on the 25th April.

Results: Result_28Mar13 (2)

News Release                                                                                                                                                                        24^th March 2013

OAKLEY CANCELLED

Where’s Wally?

Our interesting Spring weather caused the cancellation of the popular Oakley 20 road race.  This 20 miles event is usually a last long run for many Spartans running the London Marathon.  However there was some race action over the weekend and several club members got some training miles done in the snow.

Dawdle With No Daffodils

Despite winter returning with a vengeance, five Spartans braved the snow and biting wind in the Daffodil Dawdle off-road marathon, just outside Newmarket in Suffolk.

Knee deep in snow, calf deep in icy water and ankle deep in very slippery mud, the run felt more like a 40 mile event, rather than the 26.7 measured miles, and while there was no sign of any daffodils there was plenty of dawdling – not least because that was the only way you could stay upright on most of the course.

CAROL PAUL finished in 5 hours 48 minutes 18 seconds; CHRIS LEIGH in 6 hours 22 minutes 59 seconds; MIKE NEWBITT in 6:42:08; PAUL HOLGATE in 6:54:54 and SHARON CROWLEY in 7:17:53.

Where’s Wally?

Where’s Wally fun run was great fun and went ahead in Victoria Park, London.  LIAM HERBERT lined up alongside hundreds of fellow Wallys, thanks to ingenious stripy costumes provided by the organizer.

The Fastest Wally

The race was a last minute sign-up for Liam, he was invited to run with a number of librarians from his work just one week ago.  On a cold, windy flat course and despite being dressed in a red and white stripy jumper, hat and glasses he would have earned a personal best time of approximately 38 minutes dead on if it had been an accurate and timed 10K race.  He was the first and fastest Wally over 10K!

In fact, over the course of the two lap circuit, which allowed runners to choose 5K or 10K options, Liam led from the combined start and opened up a big lead over the second and third placed runners that could not be closed.  At the end of lap 1 (5K), he was comfortably in the lead and maintained this with a strong finish home.  Liam’s reward for this was a novel Where’s Wally medal, his costume to take home and the satisfaction of knowing that he had raised £100 (and counting) for the National Literacy Trust in the process.  All in all, a great fun run!

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the: 

• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 28^th March.
• Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 29^th March.
• Flitwick 10K on Sunday 14^th April.
• Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 21^st April.
• County Five Miles Championships in Pednor on Monday 6^th May.
• County Track and Field Championships in Stevenage on Monday 6^th May.
• County Veterans 10K Championship at St. Albans on Sunday 12^th May.
• Mid Week League 10K in Stevenage on Tuesday 14^th May.
• Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 21^st July.
• Relays in the Park in Stevenage on Thursday 25^th July.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 24^th September.
• County 10K Championships in Letchworth on Sunday 6^th October.
• Herts Veterans 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd November.
• County Ten Miles Championship in Buntingford on 30^th December 2013.
• Watch for announcements about the County Marathon Championships.

News Release                                                                                                 10^th March 2013

 

SEVEN TRACK & FIELD MEDALS FOR SPARTANS

Silvers for Dave’s Rapid Walk And Barry’s Half

Four Spartans proved why they won the Central Eastern Veterans League last year, by competing at Lee Valley Sports Centre in the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships and winning SEVEN medals.  The two day meeting included athletes from all over England and Ireland plus guest athletes from Spain and the USA.

On Saturday MONICA BROWN carried on her good form from the British Masters Pentathlon Indoor Championships last month by winning a bronze in one of the closest 60 metres of the competition in 8.64 seconds with only tenths of seconds between second and sixth place.  

Monica then went onto win silver with a great dramatic lifetime best of 1 metre 40 centimetres in the women’s 45 to 49 year high jump which was a highlight of the Spartans afternoon.  She also completed a silver jump double by coming second in the long jump.

Tessa Stephenson started off the weekend by competing in the women’s 50 to 54 age group shot putt.  Only taking up shot putt seriously last year after injury, Tessa followed up her good form by doing a indoors personal best of 8 metres 12 centimetres with the bonus of a bronze medal.

With strong competition from other 75 to 79 year olds, John Tyrrell could not match his personal best from last month, but still recorded a great throw of 7 metres 12 metres in his age group to finish in 5th place.

Iris Hornsey had a strong run in the women’s 70 to 74 year age group to win GOLD in the 1500 metres.  Iris recorded a time of 7  minutes 18.36 seconds which is creditable considering she had to do 7 and a half laps of the short 200 metre indoor track.

Sunday 10th March

Despite it being Mothering Sunday, Iris Hornsey decided to miss lunch with her children and grandchildren to compete at the BMAF championships for the second day in a row.  Iris raced the 800 metres in style to collect the gold medal, her second of the weekend in 2 minutes 29.49, her fastest time since 2010.  Iris is a real inspiration to a lot of club members, as she competes for the Spartans on both road and track.

John Tyrrell also competed in the discus outside at the arena winning his first silver national championship medal in 18.42 metres.  A fantastic result considering John has only been with the Spartans just over a year.

A great competition for the team, leaving one more indoor competition which is the inter area match in April at Lee Valley which several Spartans will be involved in representing the Eastern area.

Summary:

Monica Brown W45

2nd High Jump – 1 metre 40 LIFETIME BEST SILVER Medal

2nd Long Jump – 4 metres 29 centimetres SILVER Medal

3rd 60 Metres – 8.64 seconds BRONZE Medal

Iris Hornsey W70

1st 1500 Metres – 7 minutes 18.36 seconds GOLD Medal

1st  800 Metres – 2 minutes 29.49 seconds BEST TIME since 2010 SILVER Medal

John Tyrrell

2nd Discus – 18 metres 42 centimetres (threw outdoors!) SILVER Medal

5th Shot Putt 7 metres 12 centimetres

Tessa Stephenson W50

3rd Shot putt 8 metres 12 centimetres Personal Best (indoors) BRONZE Medal

Milton Keynes Half Marathon

The eleven Spartans at the Milton Keynes Half Marathon contended with temperatures around 2^oC and sleet throughout the race.

In the view of some a change in course from previous years slowed the race a bit due to more undulations, twists and turns but that plus 10k “walkers” to navigate around in the early stages did not stop DAVE SMITH, STEPHEN BLOCK and KAREN PALMER running new personal bests.  Dave finished in 1 hour 38 minutes 29 seconds; Stephen in 1:52:05 and Karen in 1:58:54.

CHRIS WESTCOTT was the fastest Spartan on the day, 104^th out of the 2,734 finishers in 1 hour 25 minutes 40 seconds.  STEVE MAYFIELD was slightly disappointed with his 1:37:36.  The other Spartan finishers were VISHAL SHAH (1:41:39); SUZY HAWKINS (1:48:17); JORDAN MILLER (1:54:02); PAUL HOLGATE (2:04:59); SHARON CROWLEY (2:20:12) and ANDREA BROWN (2:23:57).

The new course takes in parts of the Wolverton 5 route around Willen Lake and the last mile is now even tougher than before, with a short sharp climb to negotiate above the lake just after the 12 mile point.

 

Position	Name	Time	Comments
104	CHRISTOPHER   WESTCOTT	1:25:40
493	STEVE MAYFIELD	1:37:36
537**	DAVE SMITH	1:38:29	PB
597	VISHAL SHAH	1:41:39
941	SUZY HAWKINS   (F)	1:48:17
1190	STEPHEN BLOCK	1:52:05	PB
1278	JORDAN MILLER	1:54:02
1540	KAREN PALMER   (F)	1:58:54	PB
1876	PAUL HOLGATE	2:04:59
2364	SHARON CROWLEY (F)	2:20:12
2449	ANDREA BROWN   (F)	2:23:57

In the associated Milton Keynes 10K SIMON BELL was second veteran and 15^th overall in 38 minutes 22 seconds.

Dave’s Fast Walk

DAVID BOWKER took part in the National 10 Kilometres Walk Championship in Victoria Park, London at the weekend.  It included the Hertfordshire County Championship.  He was second in the county championship and 16^th overall out of the 52 finishers in 1 hour 46 minutes 20 seconds.

Dean Minus Five And Barry Silver At Lydd Half Marathon

DEAN CARPENTER managed to knock 5 minutes 21 seconds off his personal best as well as finishing in under 1 hour 30 min for the first time at Sunday’s Lydd Half Marathon.  He finished 72^nd in a time of 1 hour 28 minutes and 58 seconds and was raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Care.

Dean thanks the other Spartan in the race who passed him at about the 11 mile mark and gave lots of encouragement when he was flagging.  It was certainly welcomed and at the time very much needed.  Dean says it’s nice to be part of such a fantastic club with such suportive members.

The other Spartan was BARRY OSBORNE on his way to second place in the British Masters’ Athletic Federation Half Marathon Championship for runners aged 60 plus.  He was 67^th in 1 hour 28 minutes 37 seconds.

Sydney Park Run 5km

Roger Biggs completed his tour ‘Down Under’, with a 5km race in the Southern Suburbs of Sydney, Australia on Saturday.  The race took place at St Peters in Sydney Park, on good quality paths within the park, featuring a rather nasty hill around halfway.

After a slow start, Roger pulled through to 68^th place in a time of 25:18.

Club 20

The Club 20 mile training run will be from Marriotts on Sunday 17th March 2013, meet 9.15am for a 9.30 start. The run will consist of 5 separate sections each of 3.5-5.2 miles, so even if you are not in training for a marathon please do come along and join in for the amount of mileage that your training requires. The run is suitable for all abilities. No pre-notification is required, simply turn up and join in. Guests are also very welcome, so if you are looking for a 20 mile training run to help your marathon preparations please do come along and join us, no entry fee is required.

Coming Events:

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:  

• County Veterans Cross Country Championships at Willian, Letchworth on Sunday 17^th March 2013.
• Club Training Twenty on Sunday 17^th March 2013.
• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 28^th March.
• Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 29^th March.
• Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 21^st April.
• Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 21^st July.
• Relays in the Park on Thursday 25^th July.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd November.

 

Here is this week’s What’s On newsletter, the source of all your information for club activities coming up!!

217 9th March 2013

News Release                                                                                                 3^rd March 2013

 

CROSS COUNTRY MEDALS FOR SPARTANS

Silver for Iris; Bronze for Julie, Rhiannon and Simon

 

Fairlands Valley Spartans made a real leap forward in this season’s cross country league series.  This was emphasised by some great news in the individual results.

SIMON JACKSON won BRONZE as third senior man; RHIANNON GRIFFIN won BRONZE as third senior woman in only her first season; JULIE SIMMONS took BRONZE in the women (55 plus) category and IRIS HORNSEY took SILVER in the women (65 plus) competition.

Other top twenty Spartan finishers included TONY OSBORNE 5^th veteran (70 plus); HANNAH DAVISON tenth woman (35 plus); ANN TRYSSESOONE tenth woman (45 plus); NIKKI ANDREWS 12^th senior woman; KAREN LIDDLE 12^th woman (45 plus); JIM BROWN 13^th veteran (60 plus) man; TRICIA HOPPER 13^th woman (45 plus); ADRIAN DONNELLY 15^th senior man; MARK CHEADLE 20^th senior man.

All those taking part had great fun and look forward to encouraging others to join in next time.  The very last fixture of the 2012-2013 season will be the Hertfordshire County Cross Championships for veterans at Willian, near Letchworth, on 17^th March.  Entries should be submitted now.

Silverstone Half Marathon

Ten Spartans joined more than 6,000 other runners for the 13.1 miles around Silverstone Circuit.  Despite a chilly breeze it was otherwise a good day for the half marathon.

PETE SMITH was the first Spartan, 452^nd out of the 6,188 finishers in 1 hour 35 minutes 22 seconds.

Davie Stafford 482 1:35:53; Craig Bacon 853^rd in 1:41:04; Katy Jinks 1,033^rd in 1:43:01; Vishal Shah 1,193^rd in 1:44:21; Paul Forde 2,001^st in 1:52:11; Andy Ingram-Tedd 3,107^th in 2:00:59; Paul Holgate 3,369^th in 2:03:35 (5 mins faster than Watford); Craig Snowden 4,042^nd in  2:11:04 ; and Doug Hall 5,155^th in  2 hours 27 minutes 15 seconds.

Downhill for the Most Distant Race?

Sunday saw ROGER BIGGS running the Mountain to Surf Marathon in New Zealand.  This was based in New Plymouth on the West Coast of North Island.

The course ran from the Edge of Egmont National Park at 460 metres (the gateway to Mount Taranaki at 2518 meters) to sea level at Waitara.  While the course still provided some testing climbs, the net loss of height made this a fast course.

After a week of wall to wall sunshine, the weather relented, and the race actually started in the rain, although 2 hours past the 7:10am start, the weather was back to normal, providing a sticky 2^nd half.

Roger was pleased to finish in 3:48:32, his best marathon since April 2010.

Roger asks if this was the furthest race from Stevenage run by a Spartan?  The total distance from Stevenage to New Plymouth was approx 12,300 miles.

Chiltern Kanter

SHARON CROWLEY, KAREN LIDDLE, TRISH HOPPER, CHRIS LEIGH and BARRY KING all ran together in the off road Chiltern Kanter to finish in 6 hours 45 minutes !  It was very hilly, very muddy and certainly a very tough marathon !

It was Sharon’s 185^th marathon, Trish’s 31^st, Chris’ 30^th, Karen’s 16^th and Barry’s 6^th Marathon!

Grant Doubles Back

GRANT RAMSAY was fifth in the Swavesey Village Half Marathon, near Cambridge on Sunday.  His excellent time of 1 hour 21 minutes 38 seconds included an extra 0.7 miles, as one of the marshals sent the lead runners the wrong way.  This was at 3 miles and Grant had to double back.

Pitsford Trail Marathon

On Sunday CAROL PAUL and MIKE NEWBITT ran the Pitsford Trail Marathon which was 4 laps of the Pitsford Reservoir which is just north of Northampton.  A lovely event and the sun even came out.  Carol completed the course in 4:42:02 and Mike in 5:03:50

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:  

• County Veterans Cross Country Championships at Willian,  Letchworth on Sunday 17^th March 2013.  Enter now.
• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 28^th March.
• Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 21^st April.
• Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 21^st July.
• Relays in the Park on Thursday 25^th July.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd November.

 

 

Here is this week’s What’s On newsletter, the place to go to see all of the up and coming Spartan’s activities for the week ahead!

216 2nd March 2013