21 BEAT BUNTINGFORD BUMPS - Fairlands Valley Spartans

The Buntingford 10 has a reputation for being a tough race with its one mile climb out of Westmill village and record of icy patches but on Sunday there was sunshine, temperatures nudging up towards double figures and many of the 21 Fairlands Valley Spartans finishing the race enjoyed some great runs.

Super veteran YUKO GORDON won her second prize in four days taking the women’s 65 plus award in 1 hour 14 minutes 25 seconds. She was 105^th out of the 522 finishers. PAUL HEWETT ran his fastest ten of the year. He was 27^th in 1:03:17 while STEFFAN FORD was 39^th in 1:06:08. TODD GRAY ran a season’s best 1:09:16 for 56^th and PAUL SHELLEY improved his personal best by 3 minutes 29 seconds to 1:09:58. He was 68^th. Despite nursing a troublesome hamstring throughout DANNY SCANLON came in 101^st with 1 hour 14 minutes exactly.

Despite the hillier course MADDIE PRITCHARD improved on her Bassingbourn time by 1 minute 24 seconds to 1 hour 19 minutes 23 seconds. Next in was JIM BROWN in 1:23:53 pursued by LIZ SMITH in 1:24:37 for her first ten mile race.

ED HARE ran in a new personal best (PB) of 1:26:26, an improvement of 1 minute 15 seconds and STEVEN DOBNER cut his PB by 2:28 to 1:35:15.

CAROL PAUL ran a 2018 best of 1 hour 39 minutes 5 seconds, DEBBIE BLANTERN ran her first “ten” in 1:43:33 while ANDY JAY and PAUL HOLGATE ran new season’s bests of 1:29:55 and 1:37:44.

(All 21 Spartan results can be found near the end of this release).

Pirton Boxing Day Run

ANDREW PATTERSON was the only Spartan at the Boxing Day Run at Pirton. He says the course was quite slippery but great fun. The 3.25m route starts with a couple of laps of the recreation ground before heading out on the fields for a big loop.

It was his fifth year doing the race and he secured his fifth top three position, taking the win in 18 minutes 12 seconds just over 10 seconds ahead of a fell runner in second place who made him work hard and helped him work off the over indulgence of Christmas Day.

Win In Witham

YUKO GORDON was among 432 who Beat the Pud at the Witham Boxing Day Five. She won her age category, women over 65, with 36 minutes 3 seconds and was 120^th in the whole five mile race.

Velo Park Ten

GRANT RAMSAY was second in his best ten mile time for over a year at the Lee Valley Velo Park Ten on Saturday. This was part of the Run Through Race Series and consisted of ten one mile laps.

Grant says he had a well paced run with a frantic final mile put in to get under 61:00 mins and an age grading scoring over 80%. He finished in 60 minutes 55 seconds.

Serpentine Last Friday

It was a lovely mild, sunny and still day in Hyde Park for the Last Friday of the Month Serpentine 5K. In a race with some amazing runners at the fast end JIM BROWN improved slightly on last month with 24 minutes 47 seconds and was 175^th out of the 222 finishers. He finished the overall championship year long championship with 68.1%. To qualify runners need to run at least six of the twelve races.

Parkrun Highlights Christmas Day 25^th December and Saturday 29^th December

Spartans were out in force on Christmas Day, with 43 running across seven locations. Suzy HAWKINS was second lady and achieved a new PB in Stevenage of 21:17. Adrian BUSOLINI also ran a new parkrun PB in Stevenage of 19:17 and was 11^th finisher.

Top finishers included Jonathon PARR 17:51 second at Stevenage, Stuart ARCHER 19:25 13^th Stevenage, Ros INGRAM 24:52 20^th Congleton, Isabel GREEN 24:04 28^th Newcastle, Verity FISHER 27:42 28^th Torbay Velopark and Alison SHELLEY 27:43 29^th Stevenage. Several including CAROLE SHELDRICK (30:37); PENNY SCHENKEL (30:42) and JIM BROWN (30:42) were in full Santa gear.

Saturday 29^th December

Top finisher at Stevenage was Jonathon PARR in a time of 17:59. He was followed by Danny SCANLON who ran his 110^th parkrun in 21:03 and Martin DUDLEY in 22:41. Top finisher for the females went to Kerstin WEINER in 25:55 followed by Karen PALMER 27:49 and Liz CARVELL 28:45.

Further afield, Kelly McHALE was 7^th at Panshanger in 25:13 and Erica GRAYSON was 14^th in her home town parkrun at Ford, Ulverston in 28:46. John ROXBOROUGH finished 16^th in Clare Castle 22:50 and James MCSWEENEY finished 31^st 24:22 at Brandon County Park.

Tables

Spartans at Buntingford

Position	First Name	Last Name	Time	Comments
27	PAUL	HEWETT	1:03:17	YB (year’s best)
39	STEFFAN	FORD	1:06:08
56	TODD	GRAY	1:09:16	SB (season’s best)
68	PAUL	SHELLEY	1:09:58	PB (personal best 3:29)
101	DANNY	SCANLON	1:14:00
105	YUKO	GORDON	1:14:25	Winner FV65
168	MADDIE	PRITCHARD	1:19:15	YB (1:24). 7^th FS
230	JIM	BROWN	1:23:53	9^th MV60
237	LIZ	SMITH	1:24:37	First 10 mile race
254	ED	HARE	1:26:28	PB (1:15)
298	ANDY	JAY	1:29:55	SB (5:05)
311	SAM	SIMMONS	1:30:48
353	JENNY	GARRETT	1:35:06
357	CLAIRE	EMMERSON	1:35:15
358	KAREN	PALMER	1:35:15
359	STEVEN	DOBNER	1:35:15	PB (2:28)
385	PAUL	HOLGATE	1:37:44	SB (3:54)
401	CAROL	PAUL	1:39:05
427	DEBBIE	BLANTERN	1:43:33	First 10 mile race
447	ANGIE	KEELING	1:46:25
480	SHARON	CROWLEY	1:51:56

(There were no “chip times” – start line to finish line times available at Buntingford)

Parkruns: Christmas Day and Saturday 29^th December

Parkrun	Pos	Gen	Parkrunner	Time	Notes
Cheltenham	290	86	Liz CARVELL	00:30:01
Congleton	82	20	Ros INGRAM	00:24:52
Lymington Woodside	217	122	Darryl STEVENS	00:48:42
Newcastle	44	42	Steve GREEN	00:19:59
Newcastle	176	28	Isabel GREEN	00:24:04
Stevenage	2	2	Jonathan PARR	00:17:51
Stevenage	11	11	Adrian BUSOLINI	00:19:17	PB
Stevenage	13	13	Stuart ARCHER	00:19:25
Stevenage	24	2	Suzy HAWKINS	00:21:17	PB
Stevenage	47	42	John ROXBOROUGH	00:22:43
Stevenage	59	51	Ryan DUNNING	00:23:26
Stevenage	64	53	Barry OSBORNE	00:23:36
Stevenage	65	54	Chris HOLLAND	00:23:38
Stevenage	70	58	Gareth COWELL	00:24:02
Stevenage	71	59	Paul SHELLEY	00:24:03
Stevenage	73	61	Jonathan JONES	00:24:06
Stevenage	99	82	Ken JUDE	00:25:42
Stevenage	108	89	Edward HARE	00:25:54
Stevenage	130	105	Nick GILL	00:27:14
Stevenage	143	115	Steven DOBNER	00:27:36
Stevenage	145	29	Alison SHELLEY	00:27:43
Stevenage	177	45	Debbie BLANTERN	00:29:54
Stevenage	183	48	Carole SHELDRICK	00:30:37	Santa
Stevenage	184	136	Jim BROWN	00:30:42	Santa
Stevenage	185	49	Penny SCHENKEL	00:30:42	Santa
Stevenage	186	137	Paul JENNINGS	00:30:42
Stevenage	187	50	Erica GRAYSON	00:30:43
Stevenage	197	57	Carol PAUL	00:31:00
Stevenage	198	58	Karen BROOM	00:31:00
Stevenage	199	59	Rowena RUTLEDGE	00:31:01
Stevenage	204	144	David SCOTT	00:31:12
Stevenage	208	63	Dzenana TOPIC	00:31:15
Stevenage	206	145	Dave SMITH	00:31:15
Stevenage	210	64	Jenny GARRETT	00:31:20
Stevenage	211	65	Claire EMMERSON	00:31:21
Stevenage	212	147	Darren EMMERSON	00:31:21
Stevenage	220	68	Karen PALMER	00:31:34
Stevenage	227	71	Sharon CROWLEY	00:32:12	10th parkrun
Stevenage	228	157	Roger BIGGS	00:32:15
Stevenage	236	76	Tracy STILES	00:33:20
Street	131	33	Sally MCBRIDE	00:31:49
Torbay Velopark	109	82	Daniel SUTTON	00:27:40
Torbay Velopark	110	28	Verity FISHER	00:27:42