Fairlands Valley Spartans enjoyed an outing to Dorney Lake on Sunday. Alongside the Olympic rowing course so flat but very windy. In the half marathon PENNY SCHENKEL was fourth woman 50 plus with 2 hours 18 minutes 58 seconds (2:18:58). That’s a new season’s best and improvement on Watford 2:27:41 and 2:20:54 at Berkhamsted this year. TERRY SAWYER finished in 2:21:30.
JIM BROWN won the men 70 plus contest with 2:12:51.
CALLIE CHAPMAN ran the 5K in 32:45 and TONY RANDFIELD the 10K in 47:21.
Jim said he knew it was going to be hard before reaching the one kilometre marker. There was no protection from the westerly breeze in the first half of each of the four laps. The wind whipped across the water which was immediately on our left hand side. However if you had the legs the tailwind for the 2.7 kilometres return on a parallel route was wonderful.
Broad Oak 10K
In the Hatfield Broad 10K on holiday Monday SIMON HAIGH was 237th in 47:12 and LORRAINE HILL 617th in 56:19. There were 1,297 finishers.
Chiltern Half Marathon
On Sunday NICK GILL did the Chiltern Half Marathon in Buckinghamshire. It’s a two-lap course on the trails with a fair few hills, but beautiful scenery! He used it as a training run and to practice long run fuelling at a steadyish pace, so very happy to cross the line in 1:45:47 and to finish in fifth place!
Parkrun Highlights – Saturday 24th May – Ninth Birthday at Stevenage
There was a Where’s Wally theme at Stevenage parkrun’s ninth birthday which attracted 563 runners to Saturday morning’s 5K run in Fairlands Valley Park.
The 563 included a massive 37 from Fairlands Valley Spartans running club who had the winner and two others in the top six.
Some Spartan highlights included KIRK NDUGU won the run in 18 minutes 28 seconds. NICK GILL was fifth with 19:22 and PAUL SHELLEY sixth in 19:45. KEITH HOOKER ran a new parkrun personal best of 22:03 to come in 46th.
Then there were four deci, mini milestones. MARTIN DUDLEY ran his 240th parkrun in 24:31; STEVE TINSLEY his 70th in 28:12; ALISON SHELLEY her 160th in 29:05 and PENNY SCHENKEL a volunteer walker this time her 120th in 52:22.
This time CLAIRE EMMERSON was the fastest female from Fairlands with 28:52.
Elsewhere SIMON JACKSON won the Blandford parkrun in 17 minutes 20 seconds.
At the Henlow Bridge Lakes parkrun JAY PAPA was third in a new parkrun personal best (PPB) of 19:57. SUZY HAWKINS was fourth woman in 24:53 and JESS CLARKE fifth with a new PPB of 25:11. MEGAN SUTTON ran a new PPB of 27:02.
GRANT RAMSAY was at Wimpole Estate with 20:54.
| Position | FVS parkrunner | Time |
| 1 | Kirk NDUGU | 18:28 |
| 5 | Nick GILL | 19:22 |
| 6 | Paul SHELLEY | 19:45 |
| 12 | Perri GENTRY | 20:22 |
| 40 | Mike JEFFS | 21:35 |
| 46 | Keith HOOKER | 22:03 |
| 51 | Toby ECCLESHALL | 22:15 |
| 111 | Martin DUDLEY | 24:31 |
| 123 | Darren EMMERSON | 25:23 |
| 128 | Pete COOK | 25:37 |
| 140 | Daniel VILJOEN | 25:55 |
| 162 | Ryan DUNNING | 26:37 |
| 227 | Steve TINSLEY | 28:12 |
| 245 | Kartik SHARMA | 28:37 |
| 251 | Claire EMMERSON | 28:52 |
| 255 | Jim BROWN | 29:03 |
| 256 | Alison SHELLEY | 29:05 |
| 262 | Peter SACH | 29:15 |
| 271 | Matt CLARKE | 29:37 |
| 279 | Sharon CROWLEY | 29:55 |
| 344 | Steve PLATT | 31:47 |
| 385 | Paul JENNINGS | 33:34 |
| 403 | Pamela VILJOEN | 34:10 |
| 422 | Carole SHELDRICK | 34:56 |
| 423 | Caroline CROFT | 34:58 |
| 445 | Hannah MANTON | 36:00 |
| 472 | Karen PALMER | 37:40 |
| 488 | David SCOTT | 39:17 |
| 501 | Jane WADEY | 41:09 |
| 504 | Nicola HATHERLY | 41:33 |
| 505 | Niki PLUMB | 41:34 |
| 507 | Tracy HAYGARTH | 41:40 |
| 550 | Penny SCHENKEL | 52:22 |
| 553 | Callie CHAPMAN | 55:04 |
| 562 | Monica SMITHSON | 1:04:01 |
| 563 | Stephen SMITHSON | 1:04:02 |