GRANT RAMSAY and THOMAS SAUKA both won medals at the main County Championships at the weekend. In the 5,000 metres Grant won SILVER in 16 minutes 53 seconds and Thomas BRONZE in 20:40. Both times were season’s bests.
Maine Coast Marathon – Sunday, 15th May 2016
ROGER BIGGS third weekend in the States, brought him to the South Maine Coast, to run a marathon starting in Kennebunk, and finishing at the New England University at Biddeford.
Other than the cold wind, it was a reasonable day for marathon running, but the undulating nature of the course took its toll, and Roger finished with a time of 5:22:18, for 812th of 874 finishers. True to its name, the course was often right by the coast with stunning views.
Parkrun Reports
In the week that parkrun announced it had surpassed 1 million unique runners in UK events DANNY SUTTON notched a milestone of his own and became the second Spartan to complete a century of parkruns. Â He and VERITY FISHER both ran at Yeovil Montacute, Danny finishing 90th of 320 in 25:58 and Verity finishing 233rd (78th woman) in 33:26.
Half a dozen Spartans headed to Panshanger Park with two runners bagging new course personal bests (PBs) for their efforts.  TIM ROBINSON’s 23 mins 38 in 75th place was a six second improvement over the mark he set in September and JOHN MCCALL’s 27:50 in 166th position knocked almost a minute off his previous best here.  Other Spartans crossing the line with a barcode were: TIM SABAN (42nd) in 22:00, DAVE SMITH (45th)in 22:06, HEATHER MALONEY (218th, 55th woman) in 29:48 and CAROLINE CROFT (233rd, 66th woman) in 30:25.  396 runners took part here as the popularity of this venue continues to grow now the good weather has arrived.
Finally, DARRYL STEVENS again ran at Brockenhurst this week, finishing 111th of 114 runners in 38:12.
Midweek Challenge Starts Tuesday
Fairlands Valley Spartans won promotion to the top division in the Mid Week League last year. This year’s challenge starts with a 10K race in St. Albans on Tuesday evening 17th May.
Coming Events
Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:
- First event, Midweek League at St. Albans on Tuesday 17th May.
- Second event, Midweek League at Chingford (Orion) on Thursday 26th May.
- Hatfield Broad Oak 10K on Monday 30th May.
- Third event, Midweek League in Trent Park on Thursday 9th June.
- Fourth event, Midweek League in Stevenage (FVS) on Tuesday 21st June.
- Milton Keynes 10K on Tuesday 28th June.
- County Track 10K on Sandy on Thursday 7th July.
- Bedford 5K on Wednesday 27th July.
- Relays in the Park, our 3K Relays in Fairlands Valley on Thursday 28th July.
- Handicap 5 / 10 on Sunday 25th September.
- Standalone 10K including County Vets Championships on Sunday 2nd October.
- Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 9th October.
- Abingdon Marathon on Sunday 23rd October.
- Stevenage Half Marathon, a Stevenage 70 event, on Sunday 6th November.
- St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 20th November.
- County Five Miles Open Championship in Hatfield on 27th November.
- Spartans Christmas Social on Saturday 10th December.
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, Telford Avenue, 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 9a.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 yet done very much running might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.
Try a few sessions before joining. Membership is only £37 per year, £25 without UKA affiliation. Concessions are available. Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk Please ask if you would like a paper copy. You can also join online.
If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Andy Neatham 0777 197 5499 and 01438 816889; or Karen Palmer (07734678566) or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk