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WATFORD HALF BRONZE

Brian Qualifies For England Team

 

Eleven Spartans tackled the Watford hills for a chilly half marathon.Ā  They came back with a bronze medal and a new personal best.

ERICA GRAYSON has been running with the Spartans for twelve months and her first race last year was the Watford Half.Ā  This year she had a fantastic time running with JULIE SHADBOLT and took 5 minutes 29 seconds off last yearā€™s time coming in at 2 hours 3 minutes 40 seconds.Ā  Sheā€™s very happy with that good start to this yearā€™s running.

Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI ran a great new personal best of 1 hour 26 minutes 26 seconds.

JIM BROWN won the county BRONZE medal by 26 seconds having overtaken the fourth placed Vet 60 runner in the last 500 metres.Ā  He was exactly one minutes ahead of the fifth.Ā  The Watford Half is a popular open race but included the Hertfordshire county championship for veteran runners.

An eighty minute run is a tremendous minutes achievement on such a tough course and fastest from Fairlands GRANT RAMSAY was 49th out of the 1875 finishers in 1 hour 20 minutes 51 seconds.Ā  He was fifth in the county championships for veterans 40 plus.

RUTH REILLY ran a tremendous 1 hour 38 minutes 8 seconds for a category seventh, the same time as TIM SABAN.Ā  CHRIS HOLLAND came in with 1:47:22, JAMES KILROY with 2:01:18 and ROBERT WRIGHT with 2:03:01.Ā  Spartan SHARON CROWLEY may have been the last in for the club but she still had more than 250 runners behind her with her 2:11:34.

 

Position Name Time Comments
49 GRANT RAMSAY 1:20:51 County 5th
137 ADRIAN BUSOLINI 1:26:26 PB
449 TIM SABAN 1:38:08
450 RUTH REILLY 1:38:08 County 7th
833 CHRIS HOLLAND 1:47:22
1048 JIM BROWN 1:52:38 County Bronze
1370 JAMES KILROY 2:01:18
1409 ROBERT WRIGHT 2:03:01
1410 ERICA GRAYSON 2:03:40
1412 JULIE SHADBOLT 2:03:39
1620 SHARON CROWLEY 2:11:44

 

Brian Qualifies For England Masters

BRIAN WHITE has qualified for the England Masters team in the Birmingham 10K by beating 40 minutes and finishing third veteran 60 plus in the Chichester 10K.Ā  He was 176th overall out of 1506 in 39 minutes 58 seconds.Ā  Brian enjoyed a very flat fast course finishing with a complete lap of the Goodwood Race Circuit.

 

Winter Fun

New members JONATHAN and HAZEL JONES competed in the Cancer Research 10K Winter Fun Run in London.Ā  Jonathan finished in 56 minutes 7 seconds and Hazel in 1:25:37.Ā  GERRY ROSEN improved his personal best (PB) by more than six minutes finishing in 1:00:22.

 

Ultra John

Spartans JOHN NELMS and RICHARD HAZLEDENE finished the Thames Trot Ultra Marathon on Saturday in 10 hours 50 minutes.Ā  The event started in Oxford and followed the Thames river tow path all the way to Henley.Ā  While the point to point distance between these two locations is only 22 miles following the meandering river makes it just under 50!Ā  In cold and wet conditions, not getting about five degrees, the main feature of the run was mud.Ā  In places the mud was six inches deep and the trail only just passable.Ā  This came just three weeks after John and Richard completed the Country to Capital Ultra ā€“ a mere 43 miles from Wendover to central London.

 

Top Tens

The Spartan open club championship results will be released at the championsā€™ night, presentation evening, dinner and disco on Friday 23rd February.Ā  239 different individuals completed at least one event in the short championships and 156 in the long championships.

The long distance championships for women and men consist of the best three out of 10 miles; half marathon (13.1 miles); 20 miles and full marathon (26.2 miles).Ā  All performances must be in accredited, measured races.

The short distances are the best three from 1500 metres; 5K; 5 miles and 10K.

 

Presentation Evening, Dinner and Disco

The championship and other awards will be presented at the Fairlands Valley Spartans Champions Night in the Cromwell Hotel, Old Stevenage at 7p.m. on Friday 23rd February.Ā  Tickets Ā£25.Ā  You can find more information on www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

Coach to London

Do you have an entry to the London Marathon on 22nd April 2018? Ā Have you thought how you will get to London from Stevenage on the big day? Fairlands Valley Spartans have a coach from Stevenage and there are spare places. Ā The cost is just Ā£10. Ā If you would like to join us, please contact Roger Biggs on roger@thebiggs.net.

 

parkrun Highlights

On a wet morning DANNY SCANLON filled his recent customary ā€œfirst Spartan homeā€ position at Stevenage, finishing 7th in 19:57. Ā STUART ARCHER ran a new course PB of 21:04 in 9th and BARRY OSBORNE was 10th in 21:07. Ā MARTIN DUDLEY, MARK BEASLEY and RYAN DUNNING all made the top 30, and there was also a new course PB for DAVID SCOTT, finishing just outside the top 30 men in 23:48.

CLAIRE EMMERSON was the first Spartan woman to finish, 5th in a time of 24:30. KAREN PALMER was the third Spartan with a new course PB at Stevenage, coming home 8th in 26:11. KAREN ELLIS was 24th in 28:55. ERICA GRAYSON and JULIE SHADBOLT also finished in the top 30.

Elsewhere there were new course PBs for DAVE SMITH at St Albans (17th in 20:02), ANDY JAY at Westmill (12th in 25:00) and NICOLA KENNEDY at Nobles (2nd woman in 24:44). There were also Spartans in action at Hyndburn, Alice Holt, Forest Rec, Panshanger and Harlow.

 

Coming Events

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

  • Bramley 20/10 (20 miles or 10 miles) on Sunday 11th February.
  • St Valentineā€™s 30K at Stamford on Sunday 11th February.
  • Serpentine 5K on Friday 16th February (please note change of date).
  • Cross Country League at Royston on Sunday 18th February.
  • Fairlands Valley Spartans Champions Night on Friday 23rd February.
  • National Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday 24th February.
  • Baldock Beast on Sunday 25th February.
  • UKA Club Run at Fairlands Valley Spartans on Thursday 1st March.
  • Welwyn Half Marathon on Sunday 4th March.
  • Big London Half Marathon on Sunday 4th March.
  • Milton Keynes 5K and 10K on Sunday 11th March.
  • Finchley 20 miles (including Herts County) on Sunday 18th March.
  • Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18th March.
  • Serpentine 5K on Friday 23rd March (please note change of date).
  • Orion 15 classic cross country at Chingford (Epping Forest) on Saturday 24th March.
  • County Cross Country Championships for Veterans at Royston on Sunday 25th March.
  • Maidenhead Easter Ten on Friday 30th March.
  • Sandy Ten on Sunday 8th April.
  • London Marathon on Sunday 22nd April.
  • Flitwick 10K on Sunday 29th April.
  • Stirling Marathon on Sunday 29th April.
  • EMAC track and field event one on Wednesday 2nd May.
  • County 1500 and veteran track and field championships on Monday 7th May.
  • Pednor Five including county championships for veterans on Monday 7th May.
  • Mid Week Road Race League 10K in Epping Forest on Thursday 10th May at 7.30p.m.
  • Mid Week Road Race League 10K in St. Albans on Thursday 24th May.
  • EMAC track and field event two on Wednesday 6th June.
  • Welwyn 10K including senior county championships on Sunday 24th June.
  • EMAC track and field event three on Wednesday 4th July.
  • Fairlands Valley Challenge off road on Sunday 15th July.
  • EMAC track and field event four on Wednesday 1st August.
  • Standalone 10K on Sunday 7th October.
  • Peterborough Half Marathon (GER) on Sunday 14th October.
  • Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 4th November.
  • St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 18th November.

 

Tables

Full Spartan Parkrun results from Saturday 3rd February:

parkrun Position Gen parkrunner Time Notes
Hyndburn 14 13 Gareth COWELL 00:23:30
St Albans 18 17 Dave SMITH 00:20:02 New course PB
Westmill 13 12 Andy JAY 00:25:00 New course PB
Nobles 15 2 Nicola KENNEDY 00:24:44 New course PB
Stevenage 7 7 Danny SCANLON 00:19:57
Stevenage 9 9 Stuart ARCHER 00:21:04 New course PB
Stevenage 10 10 Barry OSBORNE 00:21:07
Stevenage 18 17 Martin DUDLEY 00:22:39
Stevenage 21 20 Mark BEASLEY 00:22:57
Stevenage 24 22 Ryan DUNNING 00:23:16
Stevenage 35 31 David SCOTT 00:23:48 New course PB
Stevenage 38 34 Lee PICKERSGILL 00:24:09
Stevenage 42 5 Claire EMMERSON 00:24:30
Stevenage 50 45 Darren EMMERSON 00:25:23
Stevenage 53 48 Simon SYPULA 00:25:28
Stevenage 59 53 Jonathan JONES 00:25:48
Stevenage 68 8 Karen PALMER 00:26:11 New course PB
Stevenage 71 62 James SOUTH 00:26:15
Stevenage 121 24 Karen ELLIS 00:28:55
Stevenage 122 25 Erica GRAYSON 00:28:55
Stevenage 123 26 Julie SHADBOLT 00:28:56
Stevenage 183 123 Peter CARPENTER 00:33:04
Stevenage 204 74 Tracy STILES 00:35:25
Stevenage 223 86 Hazel JONES 00:40:53
Alice Holt 289 182 Darryl STEVENS 00:42:57
Forest Rec 272 174 Daniel SUTTON 00:42:23
Panshanger 106 92 Tony BRADFORD 00:26:58
Harlow 70 61 Clive CANNON 00:28:11

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