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 69th 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 2nd quickest and ABI PEZ 3rd fastest.
The Final Handicap 5k race before the Mid Week League 10K races start will be on Thursday 25th April.
Maidenhead Easter Ten
Starting over two minutes after the gun, STEVE MAYFIELD overtook more than 700 runners to finish 364th in the 60th running of this flat fast 10 miler. His time of 1 hour 12 minutes 44 seconds was 320th fastest on the day, quicker than he ran in 2011, though not quite as fast as in 2010!
Broadmeadow Off Road Challenge – Friday, 29th 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 24th 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 136th
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 14th April.
- Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 21st April.
- Handicap 5K on Thursday 25th April.
- County Five Miles Championships in Pednor on Monday 6th May.
- County Track and Field Championships in Stevenage on Monday 6th May.
- County Veterans 10K Championship at St. Albans on Sunday 12th May.
- Mid Week League 10K in Stevenage on Tuesday 14th May.
- Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 21st July.
- Relays in the Park in Stevenage on Thursday 25th July.
- Herts Senior 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 24th September.
- County 10K Championships in Letchworth on Sunday 6th October.
- Herts Veterans 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 8th October.
- Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3rd November.
- County Ten Miles Championship in Buntingford on 30th 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.