Four females from Fairlands ran the Milton Keynes Half Marathon and NATALIE LAWRENCE was fourth woman in the race. Her time of 1 hour 26 minutes 59 seconds gave her 63rd position out of the 1,556 finishers.
JENNY GARRETT was running her first half marathon as a Spartan. She finished in 2:07:43. LOUISE NEWTON finished in 1:56:26 and WENDY THARANI in 1:59:19.
| Position | Name | Time | Comments |
| 63 | NATALIE LAWRENCE | 1:26:59 | 4th woman |
| 705 | LOUISE NEWTON | 1:56:26 | |
| 768 | WENDY THARANI | 1:59:19 | |
| 1082 | JENNY GARRETT | 2:07:43 | 1st FVS Half |
Also at the Milton Keynes Festival of Running HAYLEY FAULKNER raced a great new personal best in the MK 10K. She was 202nd of the 1,196 finishers in 51 minutes 5 seconds, completing the Spartans Six LINDA GREENE ran the MK 5K in 36:44.
Berkhamsted Bates.
DANIEL BATES ran the Berkhamsted half marathon. On the very tough hilly course he finished 154th out of the 883 runners in 1 hour 37 minutes 10 seconds.
Mill Hill Mud
Karen Liddle, Tricia Hopper and Barry King ran the Mill Hill off road Marathon in north London on Sunday. On a chilly winter day they ran the hilly four lap course together. It had ankle deep mud in parts. They averaged the first two laps in one and half hours before coming in quicker the last two laps to go sub 6 hours with a finish time of 5 hours 52 minutes 46 seconds.
Wrexham Marathon – Sunday, 6th March 2016
Fortunately, the snow weather warning did not materialise, and conditions, although quite cold, were very good for marathon running at Wrexham on Sunday. Starting/finishing in the town centre, the race spent most of the miles in the local countryside. It was mildly undulating throughout, although the last mile proved the toughest and ROGER BIGGS had to dig in to sneak over the line in just under 5 hours in 4:58:37.
Boundary Run
On Sunday CAROL PAUL ran the Cambridge boundary run trail marathon. On a combination of footpaths and muddy fields carol completed the 26.2 miles in 5:24:06
Parkrun Report
There was just the one Spartan in parkrun action on Saturday. At Panshanger Park DEBBIE RAINES finished 99th of 197 (and was the 20th woman to finish) in a time of 28:59. In doing so she knocked 58 seconds off her previous best round the challenging course.
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 on Sunday 13th March.
- Finchley 20 on Sunday 13th March.
- Handicap 5K on Thursday 17th March.
- Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 18th March.
- Essex 20 including Intercounties on Sunday 20th March.
- Sport Relief on Sunday 20th March.
- Maidenhead Easter Ten on Friday 25th March.
- Club Training 20 on Sunday 27th March.
- County 20 Miles Championships at Oakley on Sunday 3rd April.
- Flitwick 10K on Sunday 17th April.
- London Marathon on Sunday 24th April.
- County 1500 metres open and veteran track and field championships in Stevenage on Monday 2nd May.
- Pednor Five (including County five miles championship for veterans) on Monday evening 2nd May.
- Halstead Marathon, including Hertfordshire County Championships for seniors and veterans, on Sunday 8th May.
- 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.
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