MONICA BROWN is the new British Masters Pentathlon Champion in the W50 age group. She won her hurdles race and cleared 1m 36cm in the high jump on her way to winning gold in Oxford.
TESSA STEPHENSON also brought home a medal, winning bronze in the W55 age group. STEVE MAYFIELD was a creditable 6th in his men’s category including a brilliant finish in his 1500m race. All three athletes finished with age-group PB scores for the outdoor Pentathlon.
Full event results will be available next week.
Spartans in the Triffic Trail 10k
Five Spartans headed to the beautiful surroundings of Trent Park on Sunday for the multi-terrain Triffic Trail 10k race.
KARL CLARK was first of the five to finish, crossing the line in 42nd place in 45 mins 13 secs. ANDREW JORDAN was 65th in a new course best of 47:09 and TIM SABAN was 133rd in 50:23.  DEAN CARPENTER (172nd, 53:37) and TIM ROBINSON (173rd, 53:38) were the other finishers.
South Downs Marathon – Saturday, 18th June 2016
ROGER BIGGS ran in The South Downs Marathon, the course for which leaves Slindon College in West Sussex and climbs North up into the South Downs to join the South Downs Way at 5.5 miles. The course then heads West, all the way to the finish at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, adjacent to the A3 and just in Hampshire.
With significant climbs at 4, 8, 14, 18, 20 & 24 miles, an overall ascent of 3300ft and some very stony trails, this has to be one of the toughest marathons in the country. Biggs decided it was a day to survive and finished near the back of the field in 6:24:35.
Macmillan Runathon 10k
Robert Clark was proud to have run his first ever 10k race on Sunday. He competed in the Macmillan Runathon, a new festival of running taking place in Regent’s Park. He completed the 10k route in 57:03.
parkrun Report
Spartans continued to support the Stevenage parkrun in numbers this week, and again had the first finishers for both men and women.
For the women, NATALIE LAWRENCE was running with a buggy again and knocked over half a minute off last week’s time to cross the line in 20 mins 04 secs. ALISON WOOD was second woman finisher in 20:11 and CLAIRE PULLEN 3rd woman in a new course PB of 22:03.
CRAIG HALSEY was first male finisher in 16:59 (a new course PB), IAIN MCKEAN was 5th man in 18:45 and DAVID RIDDELL was 7th man in 19:17.
There were additional course PBs for LIAM ERRINGTON, DARREN EMMERSON, MARTIN DUDLEY, CALLUM BEASLEY, CAROL PAUL, OLWEN BATTY, KAREN PALMER, LESLEY AITKINS, VICTORIA BRETT, NICK WHITCOMBE, HAZEL SMITH, CLAIRE DRAKE and EMMA MARTIN.
The full list of 36 Spartan finishers was as follows:
| Pos | Gender Pos | parkrunner | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Craig HALSEY | 00:16:59 | New PB! |
| 5 | 5 | Iain MCKEAN | 00:18:45 | First Timer! |
| 7 | 7 | David RIDDELL | 00:19:17 | First Timer! |
| 10 | 1 | Natalie LAWRENCE | 00:20:04 | PB stays at 00:18:47 |
| 12 | 2 | Alison WOOD | 00:20:11 | First Timer! |
| 23 | 21 | Liam ERRINGTON | 00:20:55 | New PB! |
| 25 | 23 | Martin WOOD | 00:21:07 | First Timer! |
| 32 | 30 | Tim SABAN | 00:21:49 | First Timer! |
| 36 | 34 | Mark BEASLEY | 00:22:01 | PB stays at 00:21:56 |
| 37 | 3 | Claire PULLEN | 00:22:03 | New PB! |
| 40 | 37 | Darren EMMERSON | 00:22:26 | New PB! |
| 42 | 39 | Martin DUDLEY | 00:22:30 | New PB! |
| 50 | 45 | Paul MAGUIRE | 00:23:04 | First Timer! |
| 51 | 46 | Callum BEASLEY | 00:23:06 | New PB! |
| 85 | 14 | Carol PAUL | 00:25:18 | New PB! |
| 90 | 17 | Olwen BATTY | 00:25:39 | New PB! |
| 109 | 89 | Lee PICKERSGILL | 00:26:34 | First Timer! |
| 110 | 21 | Karen PALMER | 00:26:36 | New PB! |
| 117 | 24 | Sue HAMER | 00:26:48 | First Timer! |
| 123 | 27 | Lesley AITKINS | 00:27:24 | New PB! |
| 135 | 32 | Victoria BRETT | 00:28:11 | New PB! |
| 143 | 108 | John WALSH | 00:28:29 | PB stays at 00:27:45 |
| 145 | 37 | Lauren HARNETT | 00:28:34 | First Timer! |
| 152 | 111 | Nick WITCOMBE | 00:29:25 | New PB! |
| 171 | 56 | Tracy PEZ | 00:30:41 | PB stays at 00:22:45 |
| 173 | 58 | Hazel SMITH | 00:30:45 | New PB! |
| 182 | 63 | Claire DRAKE | 00:31:08 | New PB! |
| 184 | 121 | Andrew SMITH | 00:31:18 | First Timer! |
| 191 | 124 | Andy PRIOR | 00:31:46 | PB stays at 00:24:05 |
| 208 | 132 | Ian ALEXANDER | 00:33:04 | PB stays at 00:32:06 |
| 228 | 89 | Vikki MEREDITH | 00:35:07 | PB stays at 00:34:46 |
| 242 | 100 | Emma MARTIN | 00:36:37 | New PB! |
| 252 | 109 | Claire COX | 00:37:09 | PB stays at 00:23:33 |
| 253 | 110 | Chloe EMMERSON | 00:37:10 | PB stays at 00:30:09 |
| 259 | 113 | Caren THAIN | 00:38:56 | PB stays at 00:38:04 |
| 265 | 117 | Janet COX | 00:43:16 | First Timer! |
Elsewhere, DARRYL STEVENS ran 39:28 at Brockenhurst to finish as 71st male, JAMES SOUTH was 12th man to finish at Pymmes parkrun in North London in 24:36.
Finally, DANIEL SUTTON was 35th male finisher at Feel Foot in the Lake District in a time of 24:40 and VERITY FISHER was 41st woman there in 30:14.
Coming Events
Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:
- Fourth event, Midweek League in Stevenage (FVS) on Tuesday 21st June.
- County Senior Championships at the Welwyn 10K on Sunday 26th June.
- Milton Keynes 10K on Tuesday 28th June.
- EMAC (Veterans Track & Field) event in Milton Keynes on Wednesday 6th July.
- County Track 10K on Sandy on Thursday 7th July.
- Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 17th July.
- Bedford 5K on Wednesday 27th July.
- Relays in the Park, our 3K Relays in Fairlands Valley on Thursday 28th July.
- EMAC (Veterans Track & Field) event in Stevenage on Wednesday 3rd August.
- Harlow 10 on Sunday 4th September.
- FVS Handicap 5 / 10 in Stevenage 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