SPRING MARATHONS START TO ROLL
10Ks at Flitwick and Cambourne as Simon Shapes Up
14th April 2013
Sun shining, felt like Spring, a week to go to the London Marathon but several Spartans were running marathons at the weekend.
Brighton Rocks As Marie and Dawn PB
It was a lovely warm day, albeit on the windy side, for Sunday’s Brighton Marathon.
MARIE COLUCCI ran brilliantly to finish in a new personal best (PB) of 3 hours 51 minutes 30 seconds; ROGER BIGGS was also inside four hours with 3 hours 59 minutes 37 seconds.
DAWN EASBY was over the finish line in a new PB 4 hours 4 minutes 33 seconds and CAROL PAUL in 4:15:18.
PAUL HOLGATE was heading for a sub five time but just drifted away towards the end to finish in 5.06.58. He reckons he got the better suntan. CLAIRE YOUNG finished in 5:22:17.
| Position | Name | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2119 | MARIE COLUCCI (F) | 3:51:30 (PB) |
| 2738 | ROGER BIGGS | 3:59:37 |
| 3463 | DAWN EASBY (F) | 4:04:33 (PB) |
| 3883 | CAROL PAUL (F) | 4:15:18 |
| 7223 | PAUL HOLGATE | 5:06:57 |
| 7903 | CLAIRE YOUNG (F) | 5:22:17 |
There were 9,067 finishers.
Hazey’s Rotter”Dam Buster
Richard Hazeldene ran the Rotterdam Marathon in 3 hours 29 minutes 40 seconds, a personal best by 3 minutes 3 seconds and 20 minutes quicker than at last year’s London Marathon. In a well organised popular race it took 2-3 miles for him to find enough space to get into his stride. The temperature rose throughout, which made the latter stages tough but to break through the sub 3.30 barrier was the target. Mission accomplished…..just.
Holland in Paris
CHRIS HOLLAND ran in the recent Paris Marathon in 4 hours 11 minutes 19 seconds. This was in improvement of just over 40 minutes on his time in London last year, a month before he joined the Spartans. He was pretty pleased with this given his fairly inconsistent training in 2013 and only getting three hours sleep the night before. The crowds were very enthusiastic, a little too much in places encroaching on to the course. All in all a very enjoyable experience.
Flitwick 10K
NICK WITCOMBE and KAREN PALMER ran Sunday’s Flitwick 10K. No personal bests but great preparation for the Mid Week League on an undulating course. Nick finished in 55:07 and Karen in 55:52.
Simon Shapes Up For London
Spartan SIMON JACKSON won the weekly St Albans 5k Parkrun on Saturday morning.
At 1k Simon was holding on to the lead pack but he slowly ate in to the competition to take the lead at 3.5k before battling with a St Albans Strider to the finish line to win by six seconds.
Simon’s time of 17 minutes 4 seconds was his best on the course & his best 5k for nearly a year, just one week before he races at the London marathon.
Cambridge Festival of Running
BARRY KING ran the Cambourne 10k on Sunday. It was a cross country race ! In very windy conditions, on a hilly hilly course, in ankle deep mud and 20 degrees heat he ran a new 10K personal best (PB) of 48 minutes 23 minutes finishing 176th from about 1,000 runners ! He ran this in 2011 finished 268th in 50.23 so is very happy to take two minutes off that today and get a new PB despite being a XC race and the difficult conditions !
Coming Events
Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:
- 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.
- Mid Week League 10K in Chingford on Wednesday 29th May.
- Mid Week League 10K in Harlow on Wednesday 12th June.
- Mid Week League Five Miles in Welwyn GC on Wednesday 26th June.
- Mob Match 9K in Trent Park, North London on Wednesday 17th July.
- 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 ÂŁ35 per year, ÂŁ25 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.