4.9 miles/8K of park land. The course is a three lap course around the Showground side of Fairlands Valley Park.
Surface: Grass. Trail shoes recommended.
Facilities: Temporary toilets will be available near the start.
Kit: Unsupervised area to leave belongings around the start and finish.
Travel: Parking is available within the showground carpark – Broadhall Way, Stevenage, SG2 8RH. This is directly opposite Stevenage Football Club and the Lamex Stadium. This is 1.1 miles from the train station. If you do intend to drive, please car-share as much as possible as there are not sufficient spaces for every runner to park a car.
Many thanks to all of our helpers and marshals who have been working hard to put this event on and GOOD LUCK to all of the runners, we hope you enjoy the course and have a great race!
Fairlands Valley Spartans came home with GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE from the Hertfordshire County Five Mile Championships for veterans which were incorporated in the Hatfield Five on Sunday morning.
GEORGIE HOOPER (35:32 – a personal best PB by 11 minutes 39 seconds!); MARIE COLUCCI (37:18 – a season’s best SB by 3:01) and YUKO GORDON (37:42) won BRONZE in the women’s team competition.
Yuko took individual SILVER in the championship for women aged 65 plus.
The GOLD medal went to JIM BROWN who won the county championship for men aged 70 plus with exactly two minutes to spare in a year’s best (YB) time of 42 minutes 39 seconds.
Good fast five-mile races are pretty rare, and 22 Spartans took the opportunity. There were some outstanding performances in the open race as well as the county event. Every single Spartan that ran achieved a milestone. NICK GILL was fastest from Fairlands, 53rd out of the 655 finishers in 30 minutes 50 seconds – an outstanding personal best by 16 minutes 21 seconds.
SAM SIMMONS improved his PB by 4:13 to 33:40. PETE SMITH took 3:05 off his SB to 35:12. SUSAN McANENY reduced her PB by five seconds to 39:27 and NICK KLEANTHOUS by 58 seconds to 42:19. NICOLA ANDERSSON sliced 1:17 off her life-time best with 43:38 and PENNY SCHENKEL improved her SB by 1:42 to 45:14.
MATT TUTTON took 37 seconds off his PB with 46:46 and JANE WADEY ran the PB bell with her new personal best of 52 minutes 26 seconds. An improvement of 1:48.
SHARON CROWLEY took her season’s best down by 52 seconds to 55:03 and BRIAN WHITE, JONATHAN JONES and DZENANA TOPIC ran their best five-mile times this year with 36:51; 56:55 and 57:40.
Three Spartans were running their first ever five-mile races – MIKE JEFFS in 35:32; MARCUS RIDLEY in 37:34 and HARRIET SMITH 38:59.
MARK GOODWIN equalled his five-mile time with 37:34 and DANNY SCANLON was in the top 100 with a year’s best time of 32:49.
Bests At Bass Belle Ten
Another ten Spartans were at the Bass Belle Ten, a partly off-road event based in Bassingbourn.
STEVEN DOBNER said “Rain greeted us but luckily had passed through before the start. After setting an unofficial PB in last week’s half marathon in Gosport I had a time to aim at and felt comfortable throughout. Starting quickly to find some space and to try to get the best of the tricky 1.5miles muddy and slippery off-road section in road shoes, we settled into our rhythm ticking off the kilometers and judging the effort. The little hill proved less of an obstacle this year and I was very happy to come home in a time of 1:15:05, knocking 5 minutes 31 off my previous best 10-mile race.”
DAVE PATTMAN also came home with a new personal best of 1:15:41 shaving 2 minutes off his PB. MO WARRILOW said she enjoyed the run, finished with a smile on her face and beat 90 minutes by 22 seconds.”
PAUL and ALISON SHELLEY ran Bass Belle again and said as always it was well organised and well supported. The 1:5 mile off road section was a bit tricky but otherwise a nice route. It was great to see so many Spartans.
Paul was 27th 1:11:35 – 27th overall. Alison finished in 1:27:41.
The other Spartans were MATT CLARKE 1:25:11; MICHAEL O’KEEFE 1:35:00 in his first ten-mile race; FIONA CLARKE 1:37:39; CHLOE CHAPMAN 1:37:53 and MONICA SMITHSON 1:51:24.
Serpentine
Runners were so lucky with the conditions again for the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5K in Hyde Park, London. It was sunny, mild and with a light breeze for the lunch-time event. JIM BROWN ran his best 5K of the year with 26 minutes 8 seconds and second in his age category.
Canicross
TRACY PEZ (and her dog) enjoyed a Canicross event at Grafham Water which they completed in 1 hour 21 minutes 7 seconds.
Parkrun Highlights 26th November 2022 – Penny in the Cape
Numbers were back over 300 for the 266th Stevenage with 314 completing the 5K Saturday morning run in Fairlands Valley Park. 24 were Spartans.
In Stevenage PENNY SCHENKEL ran her 50th parkrun in the red celebration cape with a time of 30 minutes 49 seconds. MATTHEW NEWTON ran new PB of 20:14. ADRIAN BUSOLINI was 3rd overall in 18:15 and GRANT RAMSAY 4th in 18:58.
Elsewhere DARRYL STEVENS continues his tour of many different parkruns. He was a first timer at Eastville, Bristol and finished in 39:30. MATT and FIONA CLARKE were first timers at Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire with 31:07 and 31:11.
JULIET FULLWOOD was a first timer at Alexandra, Moss Side in Manchester on her first parkrun. She was fourth women in 21:59.
It was seriously hot, an estimated 30 degrees at the finish line, for the St. Albans Summer 10K but Danny SCANLON ran it in a quick 42 minutes 57 seconds for 39th place overall. At Saturday’s parkrun Jim BROWN was nervous about the heat but come Sunday he won his age category by more than thirteen minutes with 56:38. Michael O’KEEFE was close to his personal best with 58:22.
Parkrun Highlights Saturday 13th August
The summer holiday period saw thirty two Fairlands Valley Spartan members travelled to 10 different parkrun venues across the country.
Simon JACKSON took first place at Stevenage and was the fastest Spartan this week finishing in 17:13. Jonathan PARR took first place at Hunstanton promenade finishing at 17:59 and Susan MCANENY was the fastest female Spartan with a time of 26:46, 8th female at Stevenage.
Other top ten finishers are Adrian DONNELLY at Malahide (6th, 19:20), John HARRIS at Letchworth (5th, 20:40), Claire PULLEN at Stevenage (9th female, 26:46).
Cathy CRAIG travelled to Blandford park run and achieved a new seasons best in 25C heat of 30:40.
LUKE GURNEY thoroughly enjoyed his first marathon which was at Brighton. He said it was a difficult final few miles but the gorgeous sea views and the mass crowds kept him going. He finished in 4 hours 28 minutes 6 seconds.
Tom Happy in the New Forest
Spartan THOMAS SAUKA said “I’ll have that” after running the off road New Forest Marathon in 5 hours 41 minutes 53 seconds. He added, “43.13 kilometres of beautiful New Forest trails, well happy and they even had beer at the finish line.”
Great North Run Half Marathon
STEVEN DOBNER said the Great North Run was an awesome race. He loved every second and really enjoyed this year’s out and back course. He ran at his planned marathon pace but kicked on as he felt good and finished in 1 hour 54 minutes 47 seconds.
ADRIAN DONNELLY ran 1:28:01 in the Great North Run, and was thrilled to beat my personal best (PB) by four minutes. The route was changed to an out and back finishing back in Newcastle so we had the added bonus of crossing the iconic Tyne bridge twice. He said, “It was great to get also get unexpected cheer from another Spartan going in the opposite direction.”
Baldock Rat Run 5K
Spartan JOHN HARRIS ran the Baldock Rat Run 5K in 21 minutes 59 seconds. He was 11th overall whilst TIM ROBINSON completed in 30:27.
SUE HAMER and ERICA GRAYSON also did the Baldock Rat Run.
Sue finished in 29 minutes and 32 seconds and Erica in 29:35.
Sue said it was an interesting run, the dark tunnel being an interesting challenge, especially if you were still wearing sunglasses!!
Richmond Run Festival
FIONA CLARKE ran her second road marathon finishing in 5:48:55 whilst SAM SIMMONS finished in 3:41:58.
MATT CLARKE and CHLOE CHAPMAN completed the half marathon in 1:31:58 and 2:13:38 respectively.
Parkrun Highlights
Thirty Fairlands Valley Spartans ran in Parkrun Events across the UK this week. A total of 324 people ran at Stevenage.
ANDREW PATTERSON dominated the Hove Promenade event coming first overall in a time of 16 minutes 18 seconds. While JONATHAN PARR demonstrated similar flair coming second, in 17 mins 13 secs, at the Cassiobury run. Finishing in the top 20 on the Sandy water course, CRAIG BACON ran a time of 21 mins and 33 secs (16th).
In Stevenage, four Spartans finished in the top 40 females, GAIL MACKIE was 13th in 25 minutes 51 seconds closely followed by JULIE SIMMONS (17th) in 26 minutes and 14 seconds, DEBBIE BLANTERN (28:45) and PENNY SCHENKEL (29:34).
NICK KLEANTHOUS ran his 90th parkrun.
(You can find all the Spartan parkrunners in a table near the end of this release).
The 70th Fly 5K
Four Spartans enjoyed the 70th Fly 5K on Saturday. They were NICK KLEANTHOUS 70th in 28:02; JIM BROWN 84th in 29:30; PENNY SCHENKEL 85th in 29:34 and PAUL HOLGATE 87th in 29:50.
Fly 5K was one of the stars of lockdown keeping runners moving and in touch during the restrictions. The first virtual race was in June 2020.
Entries Open for the Stevenage Half Marathon
Only just over two months to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon and it’s time to start getting ready and entered. This year the race will be on Sunday 21st November (a couple of weeks later than usual). You can enter here: Stevenage Half Marathon
Each Year the Spartans nominate a charity to support and the chosen charity for 2021 is Feed Up Warm Up.
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
Six Spartans raced in the Lee Valley regional park near Waltham Cross on Sunday. Starting and finishing by the White Water Rafting Centre in the half marathon DANNY SCANLON was 20th out of the 227 finishers in 1 hour 30 minutes 34 seconds. SAM SIMMONS was 52nd in 1:41:22.
JIM BROWN “got the miles in” with 2:04:07 and PAUL JENNINGS came in with 2:19:50.
In the 10K Spartan THOMAS SAUKA ran a sub fifty with 48 minutes 38 seconds and NICK KLEANTHOUS got within seconds of a new personal best with 53:36.
Nick said, “The course was quite hilly and uneven in places. However the event was very well organised and I was only 11 seconds away from a personal best. I’m happy with that.”
There were 227 finishers in the half marathon and 129 in the 10K.
Burnham Beeches Half Marathon
Spartans WENDY and TAHER THARANI were at the scenic Burnham Beeches Half Marathon. Wendy finished in 2 hours 1 minute 49 seconds and Taher in 2:38:18. There were 453 finishers.
Abbathon – Thank You For The Music
JENNY GARRETT and HAZEL SMITH had a fantastic time singing their way around the Abbathon trail marathon in Cambridge. Undulating with difficult terrain, they both finished with a respectable time of 5 hours 14 minutes 1 second, including completing one 5.3 kilometre lap in full Abba costumes.
The event was run by Zigzag, they were fantastic organisers. Jenny came away with a special Happy Birthday badge after being sung to by all competitors whilst Hazel won the lucky race number with free entry to a future event – winner takes it all!!!
Letchworth 5K
JOHN HARRIS ran the North Hertfordshire first Saturday of the month 5K in 21 minutes 16 seconds on 7th August. He was seventh out of 52 runners. The event is run monthly by NHRR with the next event taking place on 4th September.
10K Times
Many Spartans spent the week recording 10K times for the fourth and final round of this year’s Mid Week League. So far there are 57. The full results and league standings in a few days but it’s looking pretty certain that Fairlands Valley Spartans are comfortably in second place in Division One. Second place in the top division – pretty good going.
24 Spartans have run all four midweek 10K races.
Parkrun Highlights 14th August 2021 – fourth week back
This week there were 19 Spartans out of the 290 finishers at the Stevenage Parkrun.
Staying close to home with the rest of the country, twenty-nine Fairlands Valley Spartans ran at seven UK Parkrun Events this week.
Impressively parkrun PBs were recorded for four runners from the group. The Stevenage course saw SAM SIMMONS record a time of 22 minutes and 3 seconds, STEVE ELDER run in 26 minutes and 58 seconds and STEPHANIE GAJIC in 35 minutes and 37 seconds, on her second ever parkrun. In addition, SALLY PHILLIPS conquered the Wimpole Estate event in 36 minutes and 37 seconds.
In other achievements STEVE WELLS (19:48) was 9th overall in Stevenage and recorded an impressive age related score over 80%. GAIL MACKIE (25:42) and KAREN ELLIS (25:49) finished as the 11th and 12th females, respectively. EVA RAMSEY (23:11) was the first female to finish the Aldenham course and JONATHAN PARR (16:54) finished fourth at the Norwich event.
(All the times for all 29 Spartan parkrunners can be found near the end of this release).
Flying On Number 65
Just one Spartan ran in last week’s Fly 5K. JIM BROWN finished in 28:57 and was second his age category. He was 95th out of the 159 finishers (83 women and 76 men) and this was his 46th virtual Fly 5K.
Battle for Bronze in the Virtual Coast Challenge
With less than 100 of the 2,970 kilometres to go SHARON CROWLEY has edged ahead of BRIAN WHITE and is now in bronze medal position amongst the Spartans in the club’s virtual race around the coasts and borders of England. On Wednesday Sharon was on 2,850.7 kilometres and Brian on 2845.6 – “only a parkrun” apart, by Saturday Sharon opened the gap a little more by reaching 2885.4 when Brian was on 2859.7. However, on Sunday the battle for bronze tightened up again with Sharon on 2890.9 and Brian on 2888.2 only 2.7 kilometres behind.
PENNY SCHENKEL and JIM BROWN have completed and were seventh and tenth nationally.
The other Spartans through the 2,000 kilometre mark by Sunday were JON SYPULA 2,291.2; KEN JUDE 2,255.6; CATHY CRAIG 2,160.8 and HAZEL SMITH 2,154.3.
Tables
Spartans in parkruns. Full results for 14th August are below:
It isn’t long until the ever popular FVS 3k relays which take place on Thursday 31st July this year.
The event incorporates the Hertfordshire Road Relay Championship for Seniors and Veterans and also incorporates the Herts County and ARC short relay championships.
If you wish to enter a team to compete in the ARC Short Relay Championships you need to enter before the day. Please refer to the ARC website for the conditions of entry.
Well done to everyone who ran the 2012 Paul Maguire 5 mile race: the final results, including Herts County Champs, are detailed in the spreadsheet (linked below).
Please contact pm5@fvspartans.org.uk if you spot any errors or omissions.
A big thank you to everyone involved, who either organised or who helped us out at the event in any small way. Another big thank you to everyone who made donations to our nominated charity, Garden House Hospice, Letchworth, in memory of Paul Maguire. Your generosity and support is much appreciated.
Spartan runners: the winner of the FVS Paul Maguire Trophy will be revealed in due course.
A massive thank you to everyone who took part in our 5K race, and especially to all our volunteers who helped us to stage a good, safe and successful race.
FAIRLANDS VALLEY CHALLENGE 2012 was a HUGE success, and that’s all down to YOU … by supporting our event this year, and for the past 17 years! Our race directors would like to take the opportunity to say a very big thank you to all the runners, walkers, spectators, stalls and service providers, volunteers and race officials who came down to spend a very nice Sunday in July with us (we were blessed to have great weather!).
ALMOST FINALISEDresults from our 2012 event are here:
(Updated 18th July – there are still a few names missing – please contact us if you see your number but not your name!)
Please check through and let us know if you spot any amendments that we need to make. We are relying on our runners, and especially our walkers, to let us know their START TIMES if they started earlier or later than the advertised times below. This will allow us to correct the positions and finish times of all entrants to ensure that our results are as accurate, full and fair as possible.
If you notice anything about your time which is not quite correct, or can provide your own recorded finish time, we would be very grateful to hear from you. Please contact Mr Paul Holgate by email at paul.holgate@bt.com to let him know.
With your help, we hope to finalise our results by the middle of this week. Thank you very much for your assistance, in advance (and thank you to Paul for his help in compiling these results!)
START TIMES:
08:00 – 08:15 – Walk 50K Ultra
08:45 – Trail Run 50K Ultra *Massed Start
08:00 – 09:00 -Walk 26.2 Miles
09:30 – Trail Run 26.2 Miles Marathon *Massed Start
09:00 – 10:00 -Walk 18.7 Miles
10:00 – Trail Run 18.7 Miles *Massed Start
10:00 – 11:00 -Walk 12.3 Miles
10:30 – Trail Run 12.3 Miles *Massed Start
We hope you enjoyed our event and would love to hear your feedback, suggestions, stories and see your photos from the day.
Fairlands Valley Challenge is an off-road challenge event using footpaths, tracks, bridleways and some minor roads. Navigated by written route descriptions through some beautiful Hertfordshire Countryside. Usually blessed with lovely sunny weather and famous for its bread pudding at the check points and free BBQ after! See you in 2013!!!
A very big well done to everybody who braved the weather last night to take part in the 63rd running of the club’s Handicap 5k.
Thank you to Graham Blackburn, Mike Crowley, Jim Brown and Jayne Pinner for their superb organisation and support at the start and finish, Barry King, Sharon Crowley, Kerry Setterfield and Lee Reynolds for their support for runners around the course, and also to the Starter Group for their vocal encouragement also. A massive thank you, as always, to Paul Holgate for his organisation, support and work behind the scenes in getting the results out so promptly every month for this club event.
First of the 31 runners to finish was Lyndsey Carlisle to claim her second Handicap 5k victory in a new personal best (PB) time 31:51, 1:40 quicker than her previous PB and 4:39 ahead of handicap. 2nd female, in 3rd place overall, was debutee Louisa Bill in 28:46, 2:29 ahead of handicap, and with Victoria Sealy 3rd lady, in a new PB of 27:33, 53 seconds faster than previously.
Winning man, in 2nd position overall, was newcomer James Cooper in 27:33, 3:26 faster than handicap, with another debutee, Chris Hilton, 2nd male, in 5th position overall, in a new handicap 5k course record time of 16:33, 3 seconds quicker than the previous record, and with Richard Bate 3rd man in a new seasons best (SB) time of 16:57, 5 seconds quicker than previously.
Chris and Richard were also fastest and 2nd fastest runners on the night, with Rob Willis 3rd quickest in a new PB time of 18:31, and with Liam Herbert (18:41 YB) and Steve Williamson (19:11) also inside 20 minutes.
Fastest female was Tracy Pez, equalling her year’s best (YB) time of 22:22, with Maddie Pritchard 2nd quickest in a new YB time 23:21, and with Sarah Pike 3rd fastest in 26:03.
In addition to those already mentioned above, Sarah Sapstead also took 29 seconds off her PB time to 30:05 and Amanda Vickers +0:51 to 36:58, while there were SB times for Steve Pike (+0:05) and James Day (+0:07), and YB times for Selvan Naicker (+0:26), Matthew Holgate (+0:38) and Andy Jay (+0:16).
The difference between the fastest runner and slowest time was 23:22, while the difference between the 2nd runner to cross the finish line and the 30th was only 3:46, and just 2:20 between 3rd-29th, and 77% of finishers crossed the line within 1 minute of their adjusted handicap time (90% within 1:36).
Next up is the first midweek league race, in Stevenage, on Tuesday 15th May, and the Handicap 5k’s will return at the end of this year’s MWL in the Summer.
It’s never an easy place to go to (acknowledgements to Harry Redknapp for the quote).
You will have seen emails over the past few weeks about the Cross Country League Fixtures. These races are primarily team events with 8 men required to make a team, and 4 ladies.
Unfortunately, we have struggled recently to get a good number of Spartans to participate, so this is a direct appeal to give it a try at Royston – you never know you might like it! Put the 19th February 2012 in your diary now!
Good Things About Running Cross-Country Races
It is very, very good for you – building up strength, stamina and overall fitness
If you want it to be competitive, you can race as hard as you like. BUT it is also perfectly acceptable to treat it as a slow, sociable training run – lots of people are there just to jog round and there is absolutely no pressure!
There is a real spirit about running team events like this – you are doing it for yourself, but also for your team-mates and for the Club
You can wear lots and lots of warm clothing to keep out the effects of the weather – people run in hats, scarves, gloves, leggings, tracksuit bottoms, ear muffs – the lot! The only mandatory thing is that you wear a club vest on top of everything else!
You see some really good scenery – the Royston event is run across the Heath and it really makes a pleasant change from the cycle ways of Stevenage!
When you have finished, you will have a warm glow of satisfaction for the rest of the day!
So, if you think you might want to give it a try, then let us know by either replying to this email and I will add you to the list or add your name to the thread on the forum at http://forum.fvspartans.org.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1307118016). If you are unsure about anything, no matter how silly you feel your question might be, just ask any of the coaching team and they will be happy to help.
Full details on the Royston event below. The good thing about Royston is that it is not far too travel and it is never very wet or muddy (unlike some cross-country courses!). Yes, it is pretty hilly but if you want to walk up the hills – that’s absolutely fine. You definitely will not be the only one to do that!
Royston Details
The fourth Sunday League race for this season in on Sunday 19th February 2012.
The event will be hosted by Royston Runners and will be held on Therfield Heath, Royston.
The Race HQ will be The Heath Sport Centre, Baldock Road, Royston, SG8 5BG. The Centre has ample changing and showering facilities. It also has a licensed bar that serves food.
The race starts at 10.30am. The course is mostly across open downland and is hilly. It is suitable for spikes, studs or trail shoes.
Travel: Car there is plenty of car parking on the Heath. I suggest meeting at Sainsburys Coreys Mill to leave at 9:00 if you want to car share.