Month: January 2014

Spartan RICHARD BATE broke the course record in Thursday’s 5K handicap race in Stevenage. His fantastic new course record is 16 minutes 19 seconds. That’s 14 seconds faster than the record set in April 2012 and nine seconds quicker than Richard’s own previous personal best (PB).

Despite the cold evening, 20 Spartans still turned out to take part in the January event.

The winner on the evening was new member Nicola Haberland, beating her handicap by 3 minutes 15 seconds to finish in a time of 24 minutes 15 seconds. Her partner Richard Kennedy was first man home in 2nd position overall as he closed to within 23 seconds of Nicola despite starting 2½ minutes behind on handicap, to finish in a time of 22:03.

Rosie Canham was second woman (third overall), running her fastest 5k in the last couple of years to finish in 22:10, 2:49 ahead of handicap and just three seconds behind Richard at the finish.

Paul Pickard was just two seconds behind Rosie. He was second man in a new PB time of 22:11, 15 seconds quicker than his previous best. Record breaker Richard Bate was third man (5th overall).

Kirsty Callan was third female, in her third 5k with the club and running her third PB to finish in 24:19, 56 seconds quicker than her previous PB run last month.

Fastest runner on the evening was of course Richard with his new course record time of 16:19, closely followed by Carlos Vasquez in a new PB time of his own with 16:44, and Grant Ramsay was third in 17:13. Rob Willis also finished in less than 20 minutes with a time of 19:46.

The fastest female was Rosie Canham with her time of 22:10, with Lucy Field, another woman running her third PB in as many 5Ks was second with 22:54, 15 seconds faster than in December. Nicola was third quickest with her race winning time of 24:15.

There was also a PB by Daniel Bates who improved his 5k time by 2 seconds to 20:15 and a Season Best time for Iris Hornsey in 30:48, 2:23 faster than her race winning time of last month, while Adrian Donnelly also improved on his December Handicap 5k time by 1:26 to 20:12, as also did Robert Shaw by 9 seconds to 26:56 and Paul Holgate by 1 minute 17 seconds to 28:45.

The next handicap 5K will be on Thursday evening 20th February.

Wet For Bromley Marathon

Three Spartans Tricia Hopper, Karen Liddle and Barry King, braved the wet weather to complete their first marathons of 2014 in Bromley, squelching their way around the five-lap course in 4 hours 52 minutes 14 seconds. Paul Holgate continued his return to training with 18 miles in 3:36:00.

Ashford Parkrun

DANIEL BATES was sixth out of 86 runners in Saturday’s Park in Victoria Park, Ashford with his time of 20 minutes 33 seconds.

London Indoor Games

John Harris was third in his heat in the London Indoor Games. He ran the 800 metres in 2 minutes 26.43 seconds. A new indoor personal best.

Presentation Evening

Fairlands Valley Spartans Presentation Evening, Dinner and Disco will be on Friday evening, 28th February. Tickets are £23. More details from www.fvspartans.org.uk

Coming Events

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

• Serpentine 5K race on Friday lunch time 31st January
• Cross country race five at Watford on Sunday 16th February
• Handicap 5K on Thursday 20th February
• Presentation Evening on Friday 28th February
• Veterans Cross Country Championships in Royston on 16th March
• Off Road Challenge in Stevenage on Sunday 20th July
• Relays in the Park in Stevenage on Thursday 31st July
• Stevenage Marathon and half marathon on Sunday 2nd November

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 hundreds of 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.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Vivienne Honey 07702 846304 or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S

More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 or Vivienne Honey (Secretary) 07702 846304

www.fvspartans.org.uk

The original course for Sunday’s Fred Hughes 10 mile road race including the county championship was flooded but the race, involving several Fairlands Valley Spartans, went ahead on an amended course.

STEVE GREEN was 190th in 1 hour 14 minutes 8 seconds; MICHAEL CONNELL 295th and eighth veteran (60 plus) in 1:19:40; ISABEL GREEN improved her personal best (PB) by a massive 6 minutes 33 seconds to finish 352nd in 1:23:24; ROGER HARDMAN was 424th in 1:26:58 (13th veteran (65 plus); KAREN PALMER 427th improving her PB by 1 minute 22 seconds to 1:27:01; and BEV HARLOW improved her PB by a similar amount to 1:27:21 – she was 434th and eighth female veteran (55 plus). PAUL HOLGATE was 598th in 1:41:07 and SHARON CROWLEY 621st in 1:44:29.

Cartoon Marathon

LIAM HERBERT realised a longstanding dream by taking part in the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in Orlando, Florida recently. Liam had signed up to running the ‘Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge’ which involved running a half marathon on Saturday 11th January, followed by a full marathon on Sunday 12th January. Liam’s challenge would see him cover 39.3 miles across the weekend, by travelling between four Disney Theme Parks, around a motor car Speedway, through a multi-sports complex that featured a lap of the athletics track and a circuit of the Baseball stadium, and past a parade of Disney characters, screaming spectators, exotic animals, brass bands, cheerleaders and gospel choirs amongst others! Both events started at 5:30am in the morning, conditions were very humid (and got warmer!) but the atmosphere was electric, the best race experience Liam has experienced yet, with almost 40,000 participants finishing over the two days. The support around the course was incredible, and there was never a dull moment or quiet spot on the course which helped everyone keep going. Liam’s target was to run each race at a decent pace, and potentially to PB on the marathon: he made a good start by running the half in 1:38:20, finishing in 237th place out of 20245 finishers, and started well on the marathon, but suffered in the final 4 miles due to the warm conditions and a lack of energy, but kept pushing on to finish in 3:40:52, and placed 756th out of 19198 finishers. To give further perspective, Liam finished in the top 2% of all half marathon finishers, and in the top 4% of all marathon finishers at the event. Liam describes the racing weekend as the toughest yet most rewarding thing he was done so far, but also the most fun he has had as a runner: he made the most of his experience by running in and out of staged set pieces to get photographs done with Disney characters, and he completed the half marathon by leaping into the air and high-fiving Mickey Mouse to make a memorable finish! Liam was rewarded with three fantastic medals, wonderful race memories and a long sought, more relaxed holiday immediately after!

Eastleigh Parkrun

Official results from Danik’s run at EASTLEIGH (hampshire) Parkrun on 18th January 2018 on their standby course next to the runway of Southampton Airport which was more like a cross-country course with all the small hills, muds and puddles placed DANIEL BATES in 28th position out of 138 runners with a time of 23:32.

Presentation Evening

Fairlands Valley Spartans Presentation Evening, Dinner and Disco will be on Friday evening, 28th February. Tickets are £23. More details from www.fvspartans.org.uk

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 on Thursday 23rd January
• Serpentine 5K race on Friday lunch time 31st January
• Cross country race five at Watford on Sunday 16th February
• Presentation Evening on Friday 28th February 2014
• Veterans Cross Country Championships in Royston on 16th March 2014.
• Off Road Challenge in Stevenage on Sunday 20th July 2014.
• Stevenage Marathon on Sunday 2nd November 2014.

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 hundreds of 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.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Vivienne Honey 07702 846304 or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S

More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 or Vivienne Honey (Secretary) 07702 846304

www.fvspartans.org.uk

Twenty two Fairlands Valley Spartans competed in Sunday’s Cross Country League race on Therfield Heath. Running the undulating 5.5 miles course in 35 minutes 40 seconds SIMON JACKSON was first finisher for the club in 17th position overall. The club’s fastest woman, CHRISTINE LATHWELL was 51st and second Spartan in just 39 minutes 19 seconds.

ADRIAN DONNELLY was 102nd in 42:43; TRACY PEZ 118th in 43:29; STEVE MAYFIELD 137th in 45:16; DANIEL BATES 152nd in 46:39 and RHIANNON GRIFFIN 162nd in 47:06.

The rest of the men’s team consisted of JOHN ROXBOROUGH, 174th in 48:15; ANDY JAY, 177th in 48:17; MARK CHEADLE, 215th in 51:23; BARRY KING, 218th in 51:23; ANTHONY WHITE, 239th in 54:24; DAVID CADOGAN, 258th in 56:22; NICK WITCOMBE, 285th in 60:05; MARK FREEMAN, 290th in 60:20 and PAUL HOLGATE, 299th in 64:26.

The women’s team was completed by JULIE SIMMONS, 178th in 48:23; PETA WILSON, 243rd in 54:50; KAREN LIDDLE, 249th in 55:08; SHARON CROWLEY, 282nd in 60:00; LORRAINE THOMAS, 297th in 63:39 and LIZ CROWLEY, 300th in 64:29.

Men’s Team

Position Name Time
17 SIMON JACKSON 35:40
102 ADRIAN DONNELLY 42:43
137 STEVE MAYFIELD 45:16
152 DANIEL BATES 46:39
174 JOHN ROXBOROUGH 48:15
177 ANDY JAY 48:17
215 MARK CHEADLE 51:23
218 BARRY KING 51:23
239 ANTHONY WHITE 54:24*
258 DAVID CADOGAN 56:22
285 NICK WITCOMBE 60:05*
290 MARK FREEMAN 60:20
299 PAUL HOLGATE 64:26

Women’s Team

Position Name Time
51 CHRISTINE LATHWELL 39:19
118 TRACY PEZ 43:29
162 RHIANNON GRIFFIN 47:06*
178 JULIE SIMMONS 48:23
243 PETA WILSON 54:50*
249 KAREN LIDDLE 55:08
282 SHARON CROWLEY 60:00
297 LORRAINE THOMAS 63:39
300 LIZ CROWLEY 64:29

The fifth and final race in the series will be in Watford on Sunday 16th February.

Presentation Evening

Fairlands Valley Spartans Presentation Evening, Dinner and Disco will be on Friday evening, 28th February. Tickets are £23. More details from www.fvspartans.org.uk

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 on Thursday 23rd January
• Cross country race five at Watford on Sunday 16th February
• Presentation Evening on Friday 28th February 2014
• Veterans Cross Country Championships in Royston on 16th March 2014.
• Off Road Challenge in Stevenage on Sunday 20th July 2014.
• Stevenage Marathon on Sunday 2nd November 2014.

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 hundreds of 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.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Vivienne Honey 07702 846304 or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S

More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 or Vivienne Honey (Secretary) 07702 846304

www.fvspartans.org.uk

Sunday’s Hertfordshire Cross Country Championships were run in extremely difficult conditions but every Spartan that ran did the club proud.

In the senior women’s race over 8,000 metres TRACY PEZ was the first Spartan home. She was 19th in 35 minutes 45 seconds. RHIANNON GRIFFIN was 30th in 38:45; PETA WILSON 45th in 42:52 and SHARON CROWLEY 56th in 57:23. The club’s women’s team were seventh.

The senior men’s race was over 12,000 metres. ANDREW PATTERSON was the first finisher from the club and was closely followed in by SIMON JACKSON and IAN YENNEY. Andrew was 27th in 44:59; Simon 31st in 45:26 and Ian 34th in 46:09. TODD GRAY, 57th in 50:10; ANDREW BENNETT, 81st in 54:36; DANIEL BATES, 89th in 56:23; THOMAS SAUKA, 90th in 56:42; JAMES SEALS, 98th in 58:35 and ANDY JAY, 106th in 63:18 made up the rest of the Spartans nine man team which was eighth overall.

The championships were in Cassiobury Park, Watford.

Grant Wins Enigma

On Saturday GRANT RAMSAY won the Milton Keynes Winter Enigma (New Year) Marathon won in 2 hours 43 minutes 33 seconds. His time was a bit slower than expected due to the awful conditions, but Grant was very happy with the way things went – it was a national championship qualifying time and a new course record! Due to flooding the venue was switched and the race involved 17 laps round a lake! Very challenging but enjoyable!

This was Grant’s fourth race victory in succession.

First Saturday 5K
LISA GRAY was the third woman over the line in the North Herts first Saturday of the month 5K race on Saturday morning with a time of 25 minutes 54 seconds. JOHN HARRIS was fourth overall in 21:16. Lots of mud and water to contend with!

New Year IndoorLea Valley hosted an indoor open graded meeting on New Years Day. The competition followed the usual format of heats seeded on expected performances, which made for some very close races over the first event of 60m. In round 1, STEVE MAYFIELD ran a personal best of 8.50 seconds earning second place in Heat 2. In round 2 he clocked 8.50 again, this time coming fourth in a race where just 0.04 separated 2nd and 5th. Next up was the 800 metres where JOHN HARRIS continued his return from injury coming 5th in heat 5 in 2:33.70. In the final event of the day, the 200m, STEVE MAYFIELD won his heat in an indoor personal best of 27.72 seconds.

Ely
Just two Spartans saw out the old year at a very windy Ely 10k. Despite the strong headwind from 4k to 8k, MADELEINE PRITCHARD was within 17 seconds of her personal best time, recording a new best time for 2013 of 46 minutes 8 seconds to finish 19th female of 211 finishers (149th of 553 finishers overall), with PAUL HOLGATE slowly recovering from his repetitive calf injury finishing in 495th position in a time of 63:05.

Pirton
ANDREW PATTERSON tried the Pirton Boxing Day Run for the first time. It was good fun and nice to get out in the fresh air and work off some of the overindulgence of the holidays. 3.2miles doesn’t take over the whole day either. The route was around Pirton Recreation Ground a couple of times before a loop around the countryside and a final lap of the rec. It was all offroad and due to the recent rain it was rather boggy and slippery; which made it good cross country training. He was third overall in 18 minutes 46 seconds.

ADRIAN DONNELY was 18th in 22:09: TRACY STILES 155th in 32:20 and MELISSA TYLER 192nd in 39:04.

GRANT RAMSAY won the short course race taking 14 minutes 4 seconds for the 2.5 miles off road event.

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

• Cross country race four on Therfield Heath on Sunday 12th January
• Handicap 5K on Thursday 23rd January
• Cross country race five at Watford on Sunday 16th February
• Presentation Evening on Friday 28th February 2014
• Veterans Cross Country Championships in Royston on 16th March 2014.
• Off Road Challenge in Stevenage on Sunday 20th July 2014.
• Stevenage Marathon on Sunday 2nd November 2014.

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 hundreds of 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.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Vivienne Honey 07702 846304 or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S
More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 or Vivienne Honey (Secretary) 07702 846304

www.fvspartans.org.uk