On Saturday 23rd October, Fairlands Valley Spartans TIM ROBINSON and ROBERT WRIGHT ran the Beachy Head Marathon. They were joined by Tony Randfield who is one of the Stevenage parkrun event directors.
Due to heavy flooding in the Alfriston area, the course was modified to be two laps of the half marathon course. This gave the trio an ideal opportunity to examine the course on fairly fresh legs before the hills made their full effects felt.
The first lap was taken at an easy pace and the 15 miles were covered in three hours. This included four of the Seven Sisters. A long down hill between 4.4 miles and 8 miles could only mean one thing, all the serious hill work would be between 8 and 12 miles, even worse as it would be two laps, the last four miles were going to be tough. But confident they could finish in well under their 6 hour target, the three continued to eat into the mileage with tales of their previous marathons.
Sausage rolls were served at 18 miles, and a steep hill shortly after gave some time to recover and consume the rolls before the long downhill section.
The last four miles were tough, but all three stuck together and the gathering clouds threatening rain, cleared. In the final downhill section, the finish line band could be heard playing Sweet Caroline, and there was just enough energy to join in singing the chorus as all three crossed the line together in 5 hours 26 minutes 55 seconds (5:26:55).
The 2850ft of elevation gain was obviously not enough for the day and Robert and Tony then ran round the school field to make up their Garmin distance to 26.2 miles. Robert could now claim his New York marathon virtual marathon which had to be run the same day.
Jonathan Wins At EMAC 5K
Two Spartans ran in the EMAC 5K championship which was around Willen Lake in Milton Keynes on Saturday. 12 degrees with a chilly wind made for some fast times with the winner crossing the line in 15:51. JONATHAN PARR was third overall and first man over 35 (M35) in 16 minutes 16 seconds. PAUL HOLGATE finished 47th of the 48 finishers in his fastest time of his last 17 5K races, 28:41, 1:29 quicker than his Stevenage Parkrun time earlier in the day and 54 seconds faster than his previous season best time.
EMAC run competitions for veteran athletes in the East of England.
Cross Country Teams
Cross Country teams. Numbers were down a bit due to so many Spartans being distracted by other races which had been rescheduled from earlier in the year due to the pandemic but the club finished mid-table in the first race. The team results were published after the individual scores.
In the combined scores the Spartans were tenth out of the 19 qualifying clubs with 1,024 points, only just behind East London runners with 1,002. The women were 12th and the men tenth. The Spartan female and male veterans were both ninth. There were 395 finishers giving an average of 21 per club. Fairlands Valley had 27.
The Spartan men’s “A” team included five who were in the top one hundred overall. They were JONATHAN PARR eleventh who raced around the just under five miles event in 28 minutes 48 seconds, ADRIAN BUSOLINI (25th in 30:31); STEVE WELLS (81st in 32:53); DANNY SCANLON (88th in 33:18); and GRANT RAMSAY (98th in 33:41). The men’s “A” team of eight was completed by JOHN HARRIS (36:04); TOM SAUKA (37:03) and TOBY ECCLESHALL (37:50).
It was teams of five for the women’s race and the Spartans “A” team were CHRISTINE LATHWELL (10th woman in 32:30); TRACEY JACKSON (38:19); WENDY THARANI (43:38); NICOLA ANDERSSON (45:06) and PENNY SCHENKEL (47:47)
The next cross country league race will be in Trent Park, North London on Sunday 12th December.
Parkrun Highlights for Saturday 23rd October 2021
There were plenty of personal bests (PBs) this weekend for Spartans at parkrun.
ANDY JAY ran a new PB in Teignmouth (22:48) in his fifth run there. At Fareham, MIKE REYNOLDS clocked a new PB of 22:27 in his second run there.
MICHAEL O’KEEFE ran at Houghton Hall and ran a PB of (27:42) on his 8th run there. DAVID PATTMAN was at Gunpowder registering a new PB of 22:07 at his 101th parkrun and third run at that venue.
In Stevenage, there were PBs for JACKIE DOWNES (26:25) and VICKY ARCHER (28:34). FIONA CLARKE was at Dudley parkrun (26:42) and regular tourist DARRYL STEVENS was a first timer at the birthplace of parkrun in Bushy (41:12).
ASHLEY JOHNSON is one of the very few Spartans to have raced outside the UK in the last 18 months. She ran the Amsterdam Bos parkrun in 22 minutes 14 seconds. She was second woman and ninth overall in her first ever parkrun. Ashley said it was beautiful but cold. A great course.
| Position | Gender Position | Parkrunner | Run Time | |
| Bushy | 1016 | 580 | Darryl STEVENS | 00:41:12 |
| Dudley | 56 | 9 | Fiona CLARKE | 00:26:32 |
| Stevenage | 7 | 6 | Grant RAMSAY | 00:18:55 |
| Stevenage | 42 | 38 | Toby ECCLESHALL | 00:22:20 |
| Stevenage | 70 | 64 | Martin DUDLEY | 00:23:56 |
| Stevenage | 99 | 85 | Danik BATES | 00:25:25 |
| Stevenage | 111 | 96 | Mark BEASLEY | 00:25:46 |
| Stevenage | 118 | 16 | Ashley SCHOENWETTER | 00:25:59 |
| Stevenage | 119 | 17 | Gail MACKIE | 00:26:00 |
| Stevenage | 133 | 19 | Jackie DOWNES | 00:26:25 |
| Stevenage | 136 | 113 | Nick KLEANTHOUS | 00:26:33 |
| Stevenage | 139 | 115 | Darren EMMERSON | 00:26:36 |
| Stevenage | 143 | 117 | Jim BROWN | 00:26:41 |
| Stevenage | 154 | 27 | Jenny GARRETT | 00:27:05 |
| Stevenage | 163 | 30 | Chloe CHAPMAN | 00:27:30 |
| Stevenage | 172 | 35 | Penny SCHENKEL | 00:28:19 |
| Stevenage | 177 | 37 | Vicky ARCHER | 00:28:34 |
| Stevenage | 178 | 38 | Claire EMMERSON | 00:28:34 |
| Stevenage | 211 | 155 | Paul HOLGATE | 00:30:10 |
| Stevenage | 255 | 73 | Theresa KEAST | 00:32:18 |
| Stevenage | 273 | 85 | Beth FOLEY | 00:33:16 |
| Stevenage | 325 | 125 | Helen HARRIS | 00:55:42 |
| Teignmouth Promenade | 25 | 31 | Andy Jay | 00:22:48 |
| Fareham | 28 | 27 | Mike Reynolds | 00:22:27 |
| Houghton Hall | 85 | 67 | Michael O’Keefe | 00:27:42 |
| Gunpowder | 24 | 20 | David Pattman | 00:22:07 |