A lot of water had fallen from the sky but 15 from Fairlands Valley Spartans made the trip to Bedford on Sunday morning.
ALICE WELCH ran a brilliant new personal best (PB) in the 10 miles event. She improved by more than ten minutes to 1:24:12. That bodes well for a sub two hour half marathon in the Spring. The quickest Spartans were NICK GILL 22nd out of the 455 finishers with 1:05:17 and JAY PAPA 39th with 1:09:23.
The second female from Spartans was SAM TOPHILL with 1:29:49 while SOPHIE PARSONS was third with 1:32:15. SIMON HAIGH beat 90 minutes with 1:29:41.
JIM BROWN had been under the weather, to put it mildly, for two weeks and having decided to start decided the best plan was to try to stick to an average of six minutes for every kilometre. Mission accomplished with 1 hour 35 minutes 34 seconds despite a slip on a muddy hairpin bend at about 11.3 kilometres. He was second in his age category.
JACOB and JOHN NELMS ran together with Jacob coming in at 1:37:29 and John at 1:37:43. Jacob was second male under 23. There were 455 finishers.
One or two tricky bits on the amended 10 mile course but basically flat and fast and great on the sections when you could see other Spartans going in the opposite direction.
Unfortunately getting around the floods meant the Bedford five mile event was shortened to 7.5 kilometres.
There were 317 finishers including six Spartans in the 7.5 kilometres event with GRANT RAMSAY coming in 20th with 29 minutes 44 seconds (29:44). Grant was second man 50 plus. ROSS GALLAGHER was 23rd with 30:33.
BECKY RAYNER was on for a very good five mile time but finished in 46:13. Great potential for another attempt.
MARTIN HAIGH came in with 42:34; DAVID ACKERY with 44:27 and PENNY SCHENKEL with 47:33.
Linda Shield
LINDA GEORGE won Fairlands Valley Spartans handicap ten event and was recently presented with the Bryan Moore Sheild.
Parkrun Highlights
54 Spartans ran parkruns on Saturday and 32 were in Stevenage for the 438th event. There was another high overall turnout with 576 finishers including 227 women.
LEE PICKERGILL ran his 120th parkrun in 24:52. LEE POTTER a new parkrun personal best (PPB) of 36:53. JAMES SOUTH has one to go to his century milestone. He ran his 99th in 30:21.
JAY PAPA and JESSICA CLARKE ran the very first Holywell King George V playing fields parkrun. It’s in West Watford. Jay finished in 25:42 and Jessica in 28:41. There were 206 finishers.
Altogether 54 Spartans ran parkruns on Saturday.
| Position | Gender Position | FVS parkrunner | Time |
| 37 | 31 | Elliott WHITE | 21:56 |
| 64 | 56 | Toby ECCLESHALL | 22:58 |
| 82 | 72 | Tony RANDFIELD | 23:58 |
| 98 | 86 | Matthew COOKE | 24:24 |
| 109 | 95 | Lee PICKERSGILL | 24:52 |
| 136 | 114 | Peter SACH | 25:56 |
| 156 | 132 | Darren EMMERSON | 26:39 |
| 171 | 23 | Lorraine HILL | 27:18 |
| 175 | 144 | Matt CLARKE | 27:24 |
| 201 | Fiona CLARKE | 28:06 | |
| 252 | 45 | Annabelle WHITE | 29:13 |
| 257 | 46 | Claire EMMERSON | 29:16 |
| 267 | 208 | Jim BROWN | 29:32 |
| 268 | 209 | Daniel VILJOEN | 29:33 |
| 294 | 224 | James SOUTH | 30:21 |
| 296 | 226 | Nick KLEANTHOUS | 30:22 |
| 307 | 68 | Monica SMITHSON | 30:55 |
| 331 | 83 | Sarah ILLINGWORTH | 31:44 |
| 351 | 96 | Debbie BLANTERN | 32:26 |
| 386 | 115 | Hannah MANTON | 33:21 |
| 397 | 264 | Kartik SHARMA | 34:00 |
| 396 | 263 | Ahaan SHARMA | 34:00 |
| 407 | 127 | Julie SHADBOLT | 34:23 |
| 418 | 137 | Nicola PATTMAN | 34:54 |
| 457 | 162 | Jayne DYMOKE | 36:25 |
| 469 | 289 | Lee Francis POTTER | 36:53 |
| 470 | 166 | Sally PICKLES | 36:54 |
| 471 | 167 | Rebecca RAYNER | 36:55 |
| 475 | 291 | Keith MANTON | 37:28 |
| 489 | 176 | Penny SCHENKEL | 38:25 |
| 505 | 188 | Julie MANTON | 40:05 |
| 519 | 196 | Stephanie GAJIC | 41:08 |
| 521 | 198 | Tracy HAYGARTH | 41:38 |
| 572 | 327 | Roger BIGGS | 56:22 |
| 576 | 227 | Sharon CROWLEY | 62:21 |