Month: June 2021

Dozens of Fairlands Valley Spartans have registered times for the second Mid Week Road Race League fixture for 2021. Fifty ran in the club’s “Wave 10K” run from Fairlands Valley Park on Tuesday and many others have submitted times which were achieved in other events or virtually. As the pandemic restrictions made it impractical for all the clubs to come together for real race, fixtures one and two were run locally in limited size waves, in other secure events or virtually. Altogether 89 times will be submitted to the league – 37 women and 52 men.

Thirteen men finished in less than 42 minutes and nine women in less than 50 minutes.

Some stand out performances included ANDREW PATTERSON with 34 minutes exactly; SIMON JACKSON improving by three seconds on race one with 34:05 and JONATHAN PARR with 34:53.

SUZY HAWKINS took 1 minute 11 seconds off her race one time with 40:39 and HEATHER JONES a whopping 3 minutes 19 seconds off hers with 44:28. MICHELLE REEVES was also under 45 with 44:40.

The wave format was a great solution and enjoyed by those that took part.

The league result for race two will be declared in a few days. All Spartan times for race two can be found in a table near the end of this release.

Participation in the Mid Week Road Race League is an important free benefit when members join Fairlands Valley Spartans.

Solstice 10K

There was not much chance of chasing the sunset at Monday evening’s Summer Solstice 10K as conditions were appalling with continuous rain, failing light and some dark off road sections.

However five Fairlands Valley Spartans made good work of the race with SIMON JACKSON third overall and second veteran in just 34 minutes 5 seconds; SAM SIMMONS 53^rd in 43:44; DAVID PATTMAN narrowly missing a personal best with 44:19 for 59^th; STEVE DOBNER 139^th in 50:19 and JIM BROWN 146^th in 51:12.

It’s just as well all five finished at least thirty minutes before the cut off time of 9.30p.m. By then it was dark in St Albans.

Position	Name	Time	Comments
3	SIMON JACKSON	34:05	2nd male veteran
53	SAM SIMMONS	43:44
59	DAVID PATTMAN	44:19
139	STEVEN DOBNER	50:19
146	JIM BROWN	51:12

There were 338 finishers. The Spartan times also counted towards their mid week league performances.

Spartans at the Milton Keynes Running Festival

Spartans ran 5Ks, a Half and Full Marathons during the Milton Keynes Marathon Weekend. In the Rocket 5K YUKO GORDON ran what would have been a world record for women aged 70 plus in a ratified event. She finished 113^th overall in 21 minutes 58 seconds.

THOMAS SAUKA was a bit quicker than he expected. 75^th in 20:34. There were 628 finishers.

Yuko said, “The race started at 7am by staggered start. It was like a leisurely Parkrun atmosphere but with much less people. The start area looked pretty empty. I started with only five other ladies but soon I was on my own along the traffic free quiet highway. It was lovely to have the big empty road all to myself but I found it difficult to sustain racing intensity. As it sounds ‘Rocket 5K’, it was a fast course of basically a down hill but there was a little catch of a few twists and turns going in and out of under passes.

My time was 21 minutes 58 seconds, unofficially the new world record for W70, previous record was 12:06 but my time is unlikely be ratified due to the A to B course.”

Have Fun With Fairlands

In Saturday’s Milton Keynes half marathon JAMES UTTING was 34^th out of the 1,073 finishers in 1:26:45. Not only was he fast, he was having fun.

Not only was this a PB (personal best) for James but also a world record time for the fastest half marathon dressed in Lederhosen! His time to beat was 1:36:39 and although waiting to be ratified by the team at Guinness it’s certainly a time well beaten!

SAM SIMMONS and MARCUS RIDLEY came in at 196^th and 197^th with 1:45:08 and 1:45:09. Still in the top third JIM BROWN was 285^th in 1 hour 51 minutes 46 seconds and edging closer to his 70% target. He was encouraged when the official website said his age corrected time was 1:22:49!

Then on Sunday despite completing a 100 mile race only two weeks ago ADRIAN BUSOLINI went sub three in the Milton Keynes Marathon. He finished in 2 hours 56 minutes 5 seconds and was an excellent 44^th out of the 847 finishers. TIM ROBINSON was 711^th in 4:58:27.

All of the races started in waves of up to 24 people and, very unusually, the race finished indoors which was a bit disconcerting on Saturday when you ran in from bright sunshine. Chip timing took care of the fact that different people started at different times.

North Downs 30K

Two Spartans went off road in the North Downs 30K trail race from Gravesend in Kent. JOHN HARRIS finished in 2:43:34 and DAVID BOWKER in 3:20:30. They said it was very tough and hilly on a humid day but enjoyable. It incorporated steep hills, gates, stiles, cattle and the British Masters Championship.

Flying On Number 58

The Spartans are still flying. Despite the return of more or less normal racing there were 185 runners in Saturday morning’s Fly 5K #58. NICOLA ANDERSSON ran 25:49; JIM BROWN recorded 26:14 for 5K during his half marathon; NICK KLEANTHOUS finished in 28:10 and PAUL HOLGATE in 33:00.

(Not) Parkrun

In addition to those using the same effort to record Fly 5K times on Saturday some other Spartans ran (not) parkruns on other days. For example this week JIM BROWN ran a 25:20 on Monday; NICK KLEANTHOUS 26:08 on Tuesday and PAUL JENNINGS 29:48 on Friday.

(Not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week.

Parkrun Roundup 26^th June 2021 – we have a runner!

We have a Spartan who has run an official Parkrun! Well done JUDY KING, the first for many months, who celebrated her birthday by completing the Guernsey Parkrun in 33 minutes 51 seconds.

Racing Round England

The Spartans have a winner in their Bristol to Bristol virtual run, cycle and walk challenge around the coasts and borders of England. PENNY SCHENKEL crossed the finish line during the Spartans Wave 10K run on Tuesday 25^th May with all 2,970 kilometres done.

She was 434 kilometres ahead of JIM BROWN (2536) who ran across the virtual finish line in Bristol to claim second place. She was also 789 ahead of BRIAN WHITE (2181) who is currently in third place.

BRIAN WHITE maintained his third place and was on the Lytham Road, Warton heading for Preston with 2412 kilometres done. SHARON CROWLEY, fourth, was near Grange-over-Sands with 2334 and KEN JUDE, fifth, was near Scots Gap with 2,071. On Sunday Brian was on 2446 and approaching Southport.

The other nine Spartans are still clicking up the kilometres and have until December to finish the event. Many other clubs are participating in the Virtual Coast Challenge.

Entries Open for the Stevenage Half Marathon

Entries for the Stevenage Half Marathon are open. This club and community event has a history going back 37 years and is organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans. With a break due to Covid 19 in 2020 it’s back for 2021 and this year will be on Sunday 21^st November.

The Stevenage Half Marathon began in 1984 and takes place annually with a full marathon every 10 years (the next Stevenage marathon is due 2024)

To enter have a look at https://stevenagehalfmarathon.org.uk/

Before that the club’s Fairlands Valley Challenge (off road) is coming up fast and will be on Sunday 18^th July. It’s a classic trail event with several distance options – half marathon, 18 miles, marathon or a 50 kilometre ultra. See http://www.fvchallenge.org.uk/ 

Tables

Here are all 89 Spartan times from race two with the race one times for the same people for comparison:

Position*	Name	Surname	MWL2	MWL1	Improvement from race one
1	Andrew	Patterson	34:00	33:36
2	Simon	Jackson	34:05	34:08	0:03
3	Jonathan	Parr	34:53	34:20
4	Adrian	Busolini	36:37	36:37
5	Alexander	Boddy	37:15	36:35
6	Danny	Scanlon	39:51	39:45
7	Jason	Anderson	40:07
8	Suzy	Hawkins (F)	40:39	41:50	1:11
9	Todd	Gray	40:49	40:40
10	Adrian	Donnelly	41:08
11	Stuart	Haycroft	41:15	41:34	0:19
12	Steve	Wells	41:18	41:55
13	Nick	Gill	41:19	41:39	0:20
14	Danny	Hukin	41:43	42:32	0:49
15	Brian	White	42:30
16	Sam	Simmons	43:44	43:20
17	David	Pattman	44:19
18	Heather	Jones (F)	44:28	47:47	3:19
19	Michelle	Reeves (F)	44:40
20	Pete	Smith	44:45	44:15
21	Yuko	Gordon (F)	45:18	46:30	1:12
22	Toby	Eccleshall	45:50	46:51	1:01
23	Claire	Pullen (F)	46:28	48:39	2:11
24	Barry	Osborne	46:29
25	David	Price	46:31	50:24	3:53
26	Mark	Goodwin	46:37	47:04	0:27
27	Jon	Sypula	46:46	49:53	3:07
28	Craig	Bacon	47:04	46:34
29=	Joanne	Bowdery (F)	47:38	46:54
29=	Marie	Colucci (F)	47:38	47:57	0:19
31	Lee	Pickersgill	47:55	47:07
32	Stuart	Archer	47:58	44:18
33	Martin	Blackburn	48:41	40:41
34	Gail	Mackie (F)	49:01
35	Mike	Reynolds	49:21	51:50	2:29
36	Nigel	Strongitharm	49:22	48:35
37	Martin	Jacob	49:24
38	Darren	Emmerson	49:29	51:22	1:53
39	Luke	Gurney	49:33	50:22	0:49
40	Tracy	Pez (F)	49:48	48:40
41	Martin	Dudley	49:53	50:38	0:45
42	Andy	Jay	49:56	51:54	1:58
43	Steven	Dobner	50:19	47:36
44	Claire	Emmerson (F)	50:22	54:36	4:14
45	Zoe	Jackson (F)	50:30	51:14	0:44
46	Terry	Sawyer*	50:32
47	William	Morley	50:35	45:07
48	Ben	Peachey	50:38	45:05
49	Matt	Clarke	50:56
50	John	Harris	50:59
51	Jim	Brown	51:12	50:45
52	Graham	Blackburn	51:34	49:31
53	James	McSweeney	51:37	51:34
54	Carolyn	Linsell (F)	51:48	52:38	0:50
55	Wendy	Tharani (F)	52:14	54:40	2:26
56	Ken	Jude	52:22
57	Tim	Robinson	52:37	52:05
58	Nick	Kleanthous	52:42	53:21	0:39
59	Vicky	Archer (F)	53:21	54:36	1:15
60	Charlotte	Smith (F)	53:45	46:50
61	Jenny	Garrett (F)	54:01	52:22
62	Ed	Hare	55:31
63	Debbie	Blantern (F)	55:51	55:06
64	Nicola	Andersson (F)	56:26	52:44
65	Alice	Poole (F)	56:42
66	Helen	Harris (F)	56:54
67	Steve	Pike	57:44
68	Karl	Shreeve	59:28	57:11
69=	Penny	Schenkel (F)	59:55	1:02:00	2:05
69=	Celia	Taylor F)	59:55
71	Mo	Warrillow (F)	1:00:00	1:04:55	4:55
72	Kartik	Sharma	1:00:17
73	Jonathan	Jones	1:01:18	58:11
74	Jan	Fry (F)	1:01:41	1:00:11
75	Dzenana	Topic (F)	1:02:00	1:00:04
76	Paul	Holgate	1:02:16	1:01:59
77	Linda	George (F)	1:02:54
78	Monica	Smithson (F)	1:02:56	1:04:03	1:07
79	Christine	Zverev (F)	1:03:30	1:01:08
80	Angie	Keeling (F)	1:06:54	1:09:58	3:04
81	John	Harding	1:07:38	57:33
82	Toni	Nicolls (F)	1:07:58	1:03:51
83	Callie	Chapman (F)	1:12:51	1:02:00
84=	Nicola	Hatherley (F)	1:15:25
84=	Judy	King (F)	1:15:25	1:11:45
86	Hazel	Smith (F)	1:16:13	56:11
87	Sharon	Crowley (F)	1:21:44	1:40:01	18:17
88	Anne-Marie	Neatham (F)	1:33:00
89	Elizabeth	Crowley (F)	1:53:00

89 so far (37F; 52M)

Teamwork makes the dreamwork!! Karen Ellis, Jackie Downes, Neal Muggleton, John Nelms and Hazel Smith ran the Race to the King (RTTK), part of the South Downs Way, in 13 hours 53 minutes and 51 seconds. The route was undulating with 5278 feet of elevation across the 55 miles route. The route started at Goodwood Race Course, Chichester and finished at the beautiful Winchester Cathedral with stunning views along the way.

Altogether Seven Spartans completed the Ultra Marathon in the very humid conditions. This route has around eight quite steep hills and some rough, stony paths. One hill seemed to go on forever and at times only walking was possible. It was Karen Ellis’s longest race, so she was happy to finish strongly. The rest of her team of five consisted of Hazel Smith, Jackie Downes, John Nelms and Neal Muggleton. They finished together at around 9pm, just as a torrential downpour started and darkness began to fall.

The other two Spartans, Sharon Crowley and Cathy Craig finished in 16 hours 30 minutes at around 11.30. For them, running in the dark, with the muddy, slippy conditions underfoot was quite a challenge. Sharon had been injured in 2019, so it was an amazing achievement to train from not being able to run at all to be able to complete such a tough Ultra. Everyone was pleased with what they did and extremely thankful for the support of fellow Spartans Mike Crowley, Jenny Garrett and Julie Shadbolt.

MK24

As if 55 miles wasn’t enough DAVID BOWKER won the Milton Keynes 24 hour race. Here the target is to see how many 6.55 mile laps can you complete in 24 hours. He ran 15 laps in 23 hours and 45 minutes. He won by one lap.

Hampshire Hoppit

The Hampshire Hoppit marathon and half marathon are both multi-terrain trail races, i.e. predominantly off-road and are approximately 26.2 miles and 13.1 miles long. They use routes that are clearly marked and marshalled, and include local sections of famous long distance footpaths, the Wayfarers Walk and (for the marathon) the Harrow Way. Both are scenic single-lap courses that start and end at Kingsclere on the Hampshire/Berkshire border, reaching some of the highest points in Hampshire with views across the county. There is about 650 metres of elevation gain in the marathon. There are occasional quiet road sections or road crossings that have marshals.

Unlike road races, it is accepted that the actual distance for trail races is difficult to measure.

Spartans CHARLOTTE SMITH and ROBERT WRIGHT together with Charlotte’s sister Harriet tackled the full marathon. Robert finished in 4:59:54 and Charlotte in 5:31:30.

The race start had a new location this year. It was on a part of the Kingsclere Stables estate that is around two miles south of the village.

Victoria Park 10K

The Victoria Park 10K started warm and dry but very humid early morning in a quiet London park. It was more like a time trial, with one runner starting every 10 seconds. The Spartans’ YUKO GORDON was seventh woman overall in 45 minutes 18 seconds.

Flying On Number 57

The Spartans are still flying. On Saturday morning total numbers were a down a bit to 185 due to the return of “real” racing but three Spartans were “there” to enjoy the 57^th Fly 5K.

JIM BROWN was second in his category with 26 minutes 24 seconds at 65^th overall; NICOLA ANDERSSON 90^th in 28:39 and PAUL HOLGATE 139^th in 31:57.

(Not) Parkrun

In addition to those using the same effort to record Fly 5K times on Saturday some other Spartans ran (not) parkruns on other days. For example this week ALISON SHELLEY ran a 28 minutes 48 seconds 5K on Wednesday.

(Not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week.

Racing Round England

The Spartans have a winner in their Bristol to Bristol virtual run, cycle and walk challenge around the coasts and borders of England. PENNY SCHENKEL crossed the finish line during the Spartans Wave 10K run on Tuesday 25^th May with all 2,970 kilometres done.

She was 434 kilometres ahead of JIM BROWN (2536) and 789 ahead of BRIAN WHITE (2181).

By Sunday 20^th June JIM BROWN, in second place, had less than a parkrun to go, 2.73 kilometres and was 99.91% done. BRIAN WHITE has maintained his third place and is by the Pleasure Beach in Blackpool with 2396 kilometres done. SHARON CROWLEY, fourth, has done some catching up and is near Haverthwaite in the Lake District on 2324.

Meanwhile KEN JUDE is the fifth Spartan through 2,000 kilometres. He’s on 2047 at West Chevington heading west to Carlisle.

This virtual event was another great distraction and motivation during the months of restrictions on racing and training together. It started in Bristol and followed the coasts and borders of England in an anti-clockwise direction. The other nine Spartans are still clicking up the kilometres and have until December to finish the event. Many other clubs are participating in the Virtual Coast Challenge.

Grant on Track

In the Southern League Meet at Lee Valley, London GRANT RAMSAY ran the 1500 metres in 4:44:18 and the 2000 metres steeplechase in 7:25:65. These were his best performances since 2018.

Fairlands Valley Spartans WON the first Mid Week League fixture of 2021 and not only on performance but also participation.

Winning a fixture in division one, the top division, is a huge achievement.

The Spartan men won with a score of 298 giving them six points while their women were third with 184 for four points. That meant they tied on points with North Herts Road Runners but won with a lower total score 482 compared with 576. Remember that in running events the winner gets one point for first place so low totals are better.

The Stevenage club was helped hugely by ANDREW PATTERSON coming second overall with just 33 minutes 36 seconds; SIMON JACKSON sixth in 34:08 and JONATHAN PARR seventh in 34:20. SUZY HAWKINS was ninth in the women’s race with 41:50. There was a stack of women’s category winners with Suzy first woman 45 plus; YUKO GORDON first woman 65 plus in 46:30; ABBIE PEZ first under 20 in 47:45 and CLARE PULLEN first 55 plus in 48:39.

WILLIAM MORLEY was first under 20 in the men’s race with 45:07.

All of the Spartan women’s “A” team of eight runners finished in under 48 minutes. The others were GEORGIE HOOPER 46:08; CHARLOTTE SMITH 46:50; JOANNE BOWDERY 46:54; HEATHER JONES 47:47 and GRACE COVENTRY 47:54. And MARIE COLUCCI led in the “B” team with 47:57.

All twelve of the men in the Spartan men’s “A” team finished in less than 41 minutes. Eight were under 40.

Nearly 100 Spartans ran – 46 women and 51 men. That means FIVE complete Spartan teams, teams of eight, finished the women’s race and FOUR complete teams, teams of twelve, finished the men’s race. Altogether 156 women from six clubs ran in division one. There were 173 men.

They were the only Stevenage based club to finish with complete teams in any division. Free participation in the mid week series is part of the club’s offer. With 97 members finishing between 33 minutes and 1 hour 40 minutes you can see that a wide range of abilities was very welcome.

Full results for all 46 women (eight per team) and all 51 men (twelve per team) can be found at the end of this release.

St Albans Hot and Hilly Half Marathon

The temperature was pushing 26 degrees and the 13.1 miles course nothing like flat but that did not stop Spartan HEATHER JONES running an amazing new personal best of 1 hour 43 minutes 50 seconds at Sunday’s St Albans Half Marathon. That’s an improvement of about six minutes.

DANNY SCANLON was so close to beating the “magic” one and a half hours but 1:30:26 was impressive in those conditions. He was 61^st out of about 1600 finishers.

Meanwhile after his efforts last week JIM BROWN considered the temperature and thought he’d be pleased to get round with a nine minutes per mile average, giving say 1:58 so just under two hours; but he used all four water stations, carried a bottle for more than half the miles, and felt good enough at ten miles “only a parkrun to go” to speed up a bit for 1:55:36 and got in the top half of the field at 582^nd despite another birthday coming along on Monday.

LUKE GURNEY said it was the hardest race he had ever done but came in with 2:05:33. KELLY EVANS was held up while an accident was sorted but came in with 2:07:13. JONATHAN JONES, DZENANA TOPIC and CHRISTINE ZVEREV kept in sight of each other almost all the way round and finished with 2:50:00; 2:50:03 and 2:51:09. New member Christine said, “it was great to finally join in all the fun in a big event. Lovely atmosphere and great encouragement.”

Position	Name	Time	Comments
61	DANNY SCANLON	1:30:26
269	HEATHER JONES	1:43:50	PB (6th F 20-29)
582	JIM BROWN	1:55:36
887	LUKE GURNEY	2:05:33
922	KELLY EVANS	2:07:13
1526	JONATHAN JONES	2:50:00
1527	DZENANA TOPIC	2:50:03
1531	CHRISTINE ZVEREV	2:51:09

SDW 100 – a Century on the South Downs Way

ADRIAN BUSOLINI ran the SDW100 on Saturday, in 21 hours 30 minutes 54 seconds. That’s 100 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne along the South Downs Way. 

This was his first real 100 mile race, which he completed almost 7 hours faster than last year’s virtual CR1C around Stevenage, comfortably achieving the 24 hour target he had set myself. 

The morning brought perfect running weather, but this soon developed into the heatstroke-inducing conditions that had been predicted for the afternoon (whilst it wasn’t all that hot in absolute terms, there’s almost no shade on the South Downs Way). Correspondingly, there was a high rate of DNFs (did not finish) this year. Adrian said, “Whilst I held up well through much of the afternoon, I really began to struggle late afternoon into the evening, with my pace faltering, muscles failing, hydration and fuelling strategy becoming confused, and willpower and self-belief waning. 

Sunset eventually brought the respite I needed, and soon after I regained my physical and mental form, and an acute determination to break 24 hours. With this, there was strong running, including relentlessly assaulting the hills, all the way to the finish. The only real hiccup was getting somewhat lost after following some incorrect route signage at the summit of the final hill before the descent to Eastbourne. After considerable backtracking and path exploration, I eventually spotted some headlights descending in the distance, which gave me the direction I needed to locate the correct path.

The race finished at the running track at Eastbourne Sports Park, which presented an opportunity to properly open the taps for a sprint finish lap. The legs felt like they were ticking over like clockwork as I gratuitously chased down the runner half a lap ahead (who spotted the danger last minute and surprisingly replied with a stonking 25m sprint finish himself – there were smiles all round at the finish line!) It was an immensely satisfying finish to a successful day on the trails. I was very happy with the PB, and have a lot of positives to take forward into the summer season.”

Peterborough 10K

PAUL HOLGATE reports that the postponed 10K at Ferry Meadows, Peterborough was very well organised.

STEVE WELLS was 82^nd out of the 892 finishers and third man 55 plus with 41 minutes 58 seconds and Paul 711^th in 1:06:19.

Racing Round England

The Spartans have a winner in their Bristol to Bristol virtual run, cycle and walk challenge around the coasts and borders of England. PENNY SCHENKEL crossed the finish line during the Spartans Wave 10K run on Tuesday 25^th May with all 2,970 kilometres done.

She was 434 kilometres ahead of JIM BROWN (2536) and 789 ahead of BRIAN WHITE (2181).

On Sunday 13^th June JIM BROWN, in second place, had crossed the River Severn and is closing in on Bristol with 2,805 kilometres (94.45%) done. BRIAN WHITE has maintained his third place and is approaching Fleetwood with 2376 kilometres. SHARON CROWLEY, fourth, is through ~Carlisle and starting to head down the west coast with 2192 kilometres.

This virtual event was another great distraction and motivation during the months of restrictions on racing and training together. It started in Bristol and followed the coasts and borders of England in an anti-clockwise direction. The other ten Spartans are still clicking up the kilometres and have until December to finish the event. Many other clubs are participating in the Virtual Coast Challenge.

Flying On

The Spartans are still flying. On Saturday morning five took part in the 56^th virtual Fly 5K. NICK KLEANTHOUS ran a Fly PB (personal best) of 24 minutes 48 seconds. With the next day’s half marathon on his mind JIM BROWN was 114^th in 27:58. NICOLA ANDERSSON was 129^th in 28:50; PAUL HOLGATE 166^th in 32:54 and PENNY SCHENKEL 178^th in 34:32. There were 217 runners from 48 clubs and several different countries.

(Not) Parkrun

In addition to those using the same effort to record Fly 5K times on Saturday some other Spartans ran (not) parkruns on other days. For example JIM BROWN took 26 minutes 50 seconds to run the first 5K of Sunday’s St Albans Half Marathon.

(Not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week.

The Fairlands Valley Spartans (FVS) Track Teams are back in Action.  Despite the unpredictable weather, it was great to get back to competing in the EMAC (Eastern Veterans Track and Field) league in Sandy on Wednesday evening.  The FVS ladies team won the fixture, finishing 10 points ahead of their major rivals, Marshall Milton Keynes AC.

Four women made their debut for FVS – Marian Morley (2nd place discus throw (DT)), Stephanie Biggar (3rd place in both shot (SP) and DT), Karen Dodsworth (2nd place long jump (LJ), and winner in both triple jump (TJ) and DT), and Joylyn Saunders-Mullins (winning both 100 metres and 400 metres in a younger age group!) while others tried events for the first time – Callie Chapman (3rd place 100m) and Sheryl Hann (2nd place 800m).  Other winners on the night were Suzy Hawkins (800m and 2nd place 400m), Tessa Stephenson (100m and 400m and 2nd place SP), and Monica Brown (LJ and 4th place SP).  The remaining points were won by Andrea Westcott (2nd place 800m, 3rd place LJ, and 2nd place TJ), Yuko Gordon (2nd place 1 mile walk) and Sharon Crowley (4th place 1 mile walk)

The men’s team had six competing, including debutante Steve Gough who did the walk to get his bearings!

Dave Stephenson finished first (400m), 2nd place (100m), and 3rd place (SP). Steve Mayfield contributing to our points tally with his usual four events finishing 3rd (LJ) and 4th (TJ, SP, 100m), Andy Patterson finished 3rd on his debut in triple jump and 4th in 800m.  Ron ‘Pops’ Westcott placed 4th (SP) and 5th (DT), the winner was 15 years his junior! Mark Freeman placed 3rd (1 mile walk) and 5th (100m), Chris Westcott nursing his hamstring to a very respectable 4th place in 400m and Steve Gough finished in 4th place on his debut in the walk.

The competition is fierce as Andy Patterson ran 2.09.07 which is close to the club record to finish fourth!!!  EMAC is great fun and a huge learning curve for all involved!!!

Due to COVID restrictions, there were no relays to round off the evening, but everyone enjoyed the tasty homemade triple chocolate brownies.  The next fixture is in Cambridge on 30th June, where Captain’s Cake of the Day will be lemon drizzle……….

 

Hertfordshire Half and 10K

The Hertfordshire Half and 10K, based on Knebworth House, are – politely – undulating.  This time the challenge was slightly greater with the switch from a cool end of year to summer.  Indeed this was the postponed by pandemic 2020 event.

Three Spartans took on the full 13.1 miles.  Looking at the course and conditions beforehand JIM BROWN thought he’d struggle to get under two hours but he maintained a steady pace throughout to finish in 1 hour 53 minutes 30 seconds.  That gave him third in his category and 394^th out of the 1,096 finishers.  Next at 479^th came CHARLOTTE SMITH in 1:56:48 with club secretary WENDY THARANI coming in with 2:09:29 (728^th).

There was a socially distanced wave start for both races.

In the 10K JAMES McSWEENEY came in with 51 minutes 34 seconds; JONATHAN JONES with 1:02:03 and DZENANA with 1:06:06.  There were 319 finishers.

The even more local Stevenage Half Marathon, organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans, is on Sunday 21^st November and entries are open.

 

Yuko at Boston (UK)

On the public holiday Monday Fairlands Valley’s YUKO GORDON ran the Boston (UK) Marathon in 3 hours 26 minutes 29 seconds.  She was first woman 70 plus and 265^th out of the 693 finishers.

 

Jonathan WINS Fly 5K Anniversary Run

JONATHAN PARR took Spartan participation in Fly 5K to a new level when he won Saturday’s Fly 5K anniversary race with 16 minutes 49 seconds in his first Fly race.

This was Fly 5K’s first birthday and the 55^th event.  There were 220 runners from 48 clubs.  Also on Saturday morning NICOLA ANDERSSON was 101^st in 27:32; PENNY SCHENKEL and JIM BROWN were 119^th equal with 29 minutes exactly and PAUL HOLGATE was 181^st in 33:32.

The first Fly 5K virtual race was on 6^th June 2020 and the Saturday morning events, including the window when parkrun would have been, has helped keep many runners motivated and involved during the long months of lockdown.

 

Racing Round England

The Spartans have a winner in their Bristol to Bristol virtual run, cycle and walk challenge around the coasts and borders of England.  PENNY SCHENKEL crossed the finish line during the Spartans Wave 10K run on Tuesday 25^th May with all 2,970 kilometres done.

She was 434 kilometres ahead of JIM BROWN (2536) and 789 ahead of BRIAN WHITE (2181).

On Sunday 6^th June JIM BROWN had reached Woodcroft in the Wye Forest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  Soon he will briefly cross into Wales as he heads to Chepstow Castle / Cas – gwent.  Jim is on 2,738 kilometres (92%).

This virtual event was another great distraction and motivation during the months of restrictions on racing and training together.  It started in Bristol and followed the coasts and borders of England in an anti-clockwise direction.  The other twelve Spartans are still clicking up the kilometres.  Many other clubs are participating in the Virtual Coast Challenge.

 

(Not) Parkrun

In addition to those using the same effort to record Fly 5K times on Saturday some other Spartans ran (not) parkruns on other days.  For example JIM BROWN ran a 5K in 26 minutes 51 seconds, two minutes 9 seconds faster than his Saturday effort during Sunday’s Hertfordshire Half Marathon and on Tuesday ALISON SHELLEY registered qa (not) parkrun in 30:29.

(Not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week.