Category: Newsletter

The monthly Catch a COach newsletter published by the coaching team.

HERE COMES THE STEVENAGE MARATHON

Post author By Peter Sach
Post date October 13, 2024
No Comments on HERE COMES THE STEVENAGE MARATHON

The Stevenage Marathon and 40^th Anniversary Half Marathon are this Sunday 20^th October. They will start from the corner of Grace Way and Martins Way at 10a.m.

There are 900 entries. 500 in the half and 400 in the full marathon.

Fairlands Valley Spartans are a local community running club in Stevenage and are celebrating their 40^th anniversary this year. They are the organisers. The half is organised every year but the full 26.2 miles marathon is a bit special. It only takes place every ten years.

ALL the proceeds will go to charity. This year it will be Pancreatic Cancer UK which was chosen by the club in memory of a much loved member.

The finish will be in Hampson Park. The races are open and will include county championships for Hertfordshire.

For more information please visit

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Double Double at Cross Country as season launches on 13^th October

The first cross country league race of the new season was in Hoddesdon on Sunday and 26 Spartans finished. This was on a multi-lap 7.6 kilometres course with a couple of pinch points.

GRANT RAMSAY was first in for Fairlands Valley Spartans at 26^th in 30 minutes 32 seconds. He was in the first 10% finishers. Next came JAY PAPA at 43^rd with 31:46.

TRACY PEZ was the fastest female from Fairlands with 38:02 which put her in 137^th place overall (men and women). ZOE JACKSON was the club’s next woman with her 40:27 for 182^nd.

The club were delighted to finish two complete teams in the men’s and women’s races.

Team results should be available from the event organisers in a few days.

Despite several others being committed to other events before they knew the date 26 Spartans finished. 16 men and 10 women. Eight counted in men’s teams. Five in women’s. The next cross country league race will be on Sunday 27^th October.

Position	Name	Time	Team	Comments
26	GRANT RAMSAY	30:32	Team MA	M50. Top 10%.
43	JAY PAPA	31:46	Team MA	SM
56	ADRIAN DONNELLY	32:48	Team MA	M40
66	NICK GILL	33:18	Team MA	SM
102	STEVE MAYFIELD	35:46	Team MA	M50
105	MATT GIFFORD	35:50	Team MA	M50
120	BRIAN WHITE	36:47	Team MA	M60
137	TRACEY PEZ	38:02	Team WA	W45
165	SIMON HAIGH	39:27	Team MA	M50
181	DAVID ACKERY	40:24	Team MB	SM
182	ZOE JACKSON	40:27	Team WA	W35
189	DARREN EMMERSON	41:14	Team MB	M50
196	TONY VICKERS	41:24	Team MB	M50
198	ELODIE MEAKES	41:30*	Team WA	W45
211	MARTIN WOOD	42:47	Team MB	M60
232	JON SYPULA	44:55	Team MB	M40
240	ANDY JAY	45:44	Team MB	M50
242	MARK FREEMAN	45:49	Team MB	M60
245	CLAIRE EMMERSON	46:11	Team WA	W45
263	MICHELLE HOLTON	47:00*	Team WA	W45
264	JIM BROWN	48:39	Team MB	M70
265	PENNY SCHENKEL	48:39	Team WB	W55
266	LIZ CROWLEY	48:39	Team WB	W35
278	NIKKI NATION	51:25	Team WB	W55
280	CALLIE CHAPMAN	55:55	Team WB	W35
282	SHARON CROWLEY	57:26	Team WB	W65

PBs at Peterborough Half – the Great Eastern Run

DAN HUKIN didn’t think for one second he had this in the locker but a chip time of 1:19:24 gave him a 2.5 minute PB (personal best) that he had had from 2006. Dan was 139^th out of the 3,238 finishers in the Great Eastern Run (the Peterborough Half Marathon).

In the same race Ross Gallagher’s 1:24:25 a new PB by more than four minutes.

Ross ran with Ashley Johnson and they both got exactly the same time, nice course and perfect conditions. They were 238^th and 239^th in the race with Ashley fourth in her age group.

Late News – Chicago

Just in. Spartans ALISON and PAUL SHELLEY completed the Chicago Marathon.

Paul went through half way in 1:31:42 and maintained that pace to finish in 3 hours 3 minutes 30 seconds (3:03:30). Alison went through a half marathon in 2:08:12 and then demonstrated Fairlands fortitude to finish in 4:28:14.

Lovely to Run the Royal Parks Half Marathon

HAZEL SMITH and VICKY ARCHER ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon together on Sunday. They both finished in 1:57:49.

Vicky said, “I’ve never run in London before so I really enjoyed the city part of it, especially running up the Mall towards Buckingham Palace! The parks were very pretty but the route was quite congested in places. It was so lovely to run with Hazel and enjoy it together. A lovely run.”

Club News Newsletter Race Results Races

GOLD, SILVER & BRONZE AT STANDALONE

Post author By Peter Sach
Post date October 6, 2024
No Comments on GOLD, SILVER & BRONZE AT STANDALONE

Gold, silvers, bronzes and five new personal bests were among the rewards for the 34 Fairlands Valley Spartans who ran Sunday’s Standalone 10K in Letchworth.

Spartan SIMON JACKSON was the fastest from FVS. He was the quickest man 40 plus, won GOLD in the County veteran championships and was 14^th overall out of 1294 finishers in 35 minutes 20 seconds. Suzy won silver as SUZY HAWKINS was second woman 45 plus in 43:06 and CLAIRE PULLEN took bronze in the same category with 49:11.

There were two bronze teams – Simon; ADRIAN DONNELLY (40:54); MATT GIFFORD (43:36) and DANNY SCANLON (44:07) for the men (teams of four) and Suzy, Claire and TRACY PEZ (52:25) for the women (teams of three).

SALLY REEVE was first of the brand new personal bests with 51:28, an improvement of 29 seconds. Then came PETE COOK 53:11; ANDREA WESTCOTT 54:22; MEGAN SUTTON 60:24 and ROSE SUTTON 69:49.

Birthday girl PENNY SCHENKEL enjoyed lots of birthday greetings around the course and a good 10K run taking 64:42, her best this year.

Pos	Name	Cat	5K time	10K time*	AG%	Comments
14	Simon JACKSON	MV40	17:21	35:20	83.5%	GOLD & Bronze Team
16	Simon FRASER	MS	18:02	35:35	76.8%	YB
82	Adrian DONNELLY	MV40	20:21	40:54	70.8%	Bronze Team. SB
143	Suzy HAWKINS	FV45	21:19	43:06	77.4%	SILVER Bronze Team. SB
155	Matt GIFFORD	MV50	21:59	43:36	71.0%	Bronze Team
171	Danny SCANLON	MV40	22:12	44:07	64.0%	Bronze Team. YB
219	Brian WHITE	MV60	22:47	45:50	77.9%
243	Charles ARNOLD	MV60	23:48	46:24	75.6%	YB
343	Claire PULLEN	FV55	25:18	49:11	76.1%	BRONZE Bronze Team. YB
356	John HARRIS	MV60	25:13	49:30	66.9%
357	Paul SHELLEY	MV50	25:13	49:30	62.7%
360	Nick GILL	MS	25:18	49:31	54.1%
452	Sally REEVE	FV45	26:33	51:28	68.0%	PB (0:29)
463	Martin DUDLEY	MV60	26:36	51:34	63.1%	YB
488	Tracy PEZ	FV45	26:23	52:25	65.4%	Bronze Team
489	Hazel SMITH	FV45	26:23	52:26	65.4%	SB
521	Nikki WILBY	FV35	26:40	52:57	58.2%
531	Pete COOK	MV50	26:51	53:11	59.4%	PB (0:47)
567	Jon SYPULA	MV40	28:06	54:04	53.9%	SB
595	Andrea WESTCOTT	FV45	28:26	54:22	64.3%	PB (0:51)
645	Ann TRYSSESOONE	FV55	28:37	55:30	67.3%	SB
660	Marie COLUCCI	FV45	28:02	56:00	58.5%
871	Megan SUTTON	FS	29:12	1:00:24	49.6%	PB (2:05)
968	Alison SHELLEY	FV55	32:01	1:03:11	57.1%
990	Jo COOKSLEY	FV35	33:26	1:03:01	48.0%
1050	Monica SMITHSON	FV55	32:00	1:05:34	57.8%
1052	Jim BROWN	MV70+	34:51	1:04:41	55.7%
1053	Penny SCHENKEL	FV55	34:52	1:04:42	54.8%	Birthday. YB
1147	Rose SUTTON	FU20	35:04	1:09:49	43.0%	PB (39:25)
1172	Callie CHAPMAN	FV35	36:35	1:10:11	43.6%	SB
1186	Samantha SUTTON	FV45	35:07	1:12:13	46.3%	SB
1225	Paul HOLGATE	MV60	38:14	1:14:27	45.9%
1248	Jan FRY	FV65	39:51	1:17:21	59.8%	SB
1249	Hannah SYPULA	FV45	39:51	1:17:22	42.5%	SB

20 Years of Parkrun – Parkrun Highlights 5^th October

Parkrun celebrated its 20^th birthday on Saturday and 44 Spartans joined in the celebrations.

There were 465 finishers at Stevenage parkrun and 31 of them were Spartans. They included GRANT RAMSAY fourth in 18:55 and KAREN ELLIS fastest from Fairlands in 26:08.

Spartans running other parkruns included GAIL MACKIE 21:37 at Storeys Field; PETE SMITH 22:59 at North Yorkshire Water Park; KELLY McHALE third woman and only missing her PB by five seconds with 23:34 and MIKE REYNOLDS 30:18 at Panshanger; CHLOE CHAPMAN 33:13 and ANNABELLE WHITE 33:14 at Castle Park (Bishops Stortford).

From a start with just 13 runners and five volunteers in Bushy Park on 2 October 2004 there are now more than 10 million parkrunners around the world.

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time	Comments
4	4	Grant RAMSAY	18:55	Top Ten
17	16	Simon JACKSON	20:40
46	44	Martin JACOB	22:45	parkrun PB
48	46	Paul SHELLEY	22:59
62	59	Daniel VILJOEN	23:39
84	77	Martin DUDLEY	24:41
86	79	Matt CLARKE	24:51
112	99	Toby ECCLESHALL	26:01
116	10	Karen ELLIS	26:08	Fastest FVS female
117	103	Ryan DUNNING	26:10
150	17	Fiona CLARKE	27:04
200	160	Paul JENNINGS	28:51
203	163	Nick KLEANTHOUS	28:56
218	169	Jim BROWN	29:15
224	173	Ryan RIDDELL	29:28
231	49	Sophie PARSONS	29:41
232	50	Pamela VILJOEN	29:42
246	183	Maurice BALLARD	30:05
259	60	Alison SHELLEY	30:27
311	85	Debbie BLANTERN	32:53
318	218	Paul HOLGATE	33:14
329	95	Megan SUTTON	34:01
336	101	Samantha SUTTON	34:37
343	106	Linda GEORGE	35:02
365	119	Tracy HAYGARTH	36:27	140 parkruns
385	240	Lloyd DIAS	38:10
443	261	Roger BIGGS	48:28
454	266	James SOUTH	53:13
455	173	Helen HARRIS	53:39
458	268	Tony RANDFIELD	56:47
460	176	Carolyn LINSELL	60:48

Tags parkrun, Standalone 10K

News Newsletter Race Results Racing

HITCHIN & BERLIN WINNERS

Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON won the Hitchin 5K in 16 minutes 10 seconds.

Other Spartan highlights included – on the basis of one runner one prize MIKE JEFFS took the male 40 plus award with his 18:01. He was eighth overall. BRIAN WHITE was second man 60 plus in 22:28 and ANDY JAY third in 27:36. JACKIE PERRY was second woman 60 plus in 27:36.

MARIE COLUCCI was the fastest female from Fairlands with 23:05 while HARRIET SMITH was not far behind with 23:45.

Pos	CatPos	MF	BiB	Name	Category	Time	Grade	Comments
1	1	1	3739	Andrew PATTERSON	MV40	16:10	86.5%	Winner!
8	2	8	4848	Mike JEFFS	MV40	18:01	76.0%	2^nd MV40
29	8	28	4579	Mark COLLINS	MV40	19:49	72.6%
36	16	35	2653	Nick GILL	MV30	19:56	66.8%
87	2	73	2713	Brian WHITE	MV60	22:28	76.6%	2^nd MV60
106	6	20	3072	Marie COLUCCI	FV40	23:05	68.9%
116	6	25	3697	Harriet SMITH	FV30	23:45	61.9%
137	37	103	1558	Daniel VILJOEN	MV40	24:25	58.8%
141	2	36	4021	Jackie PERRY	FV60	24:52	76.1%	2^nd FV60
194	3	129	2797	Andy JAY	MV60	27:36	57.5%	3^rd MV60
257	16	100	1469	Pamela VILJOEN	FV50	30:01	55.7%
306	39	134	1528	Callie CHAPMAN	FV40	32:29	46.3%
345	47	166	3686	Rebecca RAYNER	FV40	37:59	39.9%

Yuko’s A Winner In Berlin

At the Berlin Marathon Spartan YUKO GORDON won her age category, women 70 plus, in 3:34:45.

That makes it her third time winning out of three outings in Berlin.

SIMON FRASER was easily under three hours with 2:48:09 and KEITH HOOKER had an excellent run to come in with 4:12:02. There were tens of thousands of runners.

Great Shelford 5K

CHARLES ARNOLD took his Spartan stripes to South Cambs and the 11th annual Great Shelford 5K. An England Athletics (EA) certified out-and-back road race, flat and picturesque so no excuses for not getting at least a season’s best (SB) of 21:28.

Tags Berlin Marathon, Great Shelford 5k, Hitchin 5k

Events News Newsletter Race Results Races Racing Training

GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE

Hatfield 5 Wins

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, 53^rd 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 27^th 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 26^th November 2022 – Penny in the Cape

Numbers were back over 300 for the 266^th Stevenage with 314 completing the 5K Saturday morning run in Fairlands Valley Park. 24 were Spartans.

In Stevenage PENNY SCHENKEL ran her 50^th 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 3^rd overall in 18:15 and GRANT RAMSAY 4^th 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.

22 Spartans at the Hatfield Five:

Position	Name	Net Time	Open Category	Cat Pos	Gender	Gen Pos	Comments
53	Nick GILL	30:50	Senior	24	Male	49	PB (16:21)
86	Danny SCANLON	32:49	M40	30	Male	75	YB (year best)
106	Sam SIMMONS	33:40	Senior	37	Male	92	PB (4:13)
138	Peter SMITH	35:12	M60	8	Male	120	SB (3:05)
152	Mike JEFFS	35:32	Senior	50	Male	133	First 5 miles
153	Georgie HOOPER	35:32	Senior	4	Female	19	Team Bronze. PB (11:39)
181	Brian WHITE	36:51	M60	14	Male	151	YB
205	Marie COLUCCI	37:18	W40	10	Female	33	Team Bronze. SB (3:01)
210	Yuko GORDON	37:42	W70	1	Female	35	County Silver. Team Bronze. YB.
211	Marcus RIDLEY	37:34	Senior	61	Male	175	First five miles
213	Mark GOODWIN	37:34	M60	17	Male	177	SB (equal)
242	Harriet SMITH	38:59	Senior	12	Female	41	First five miles
266	Susan MCANENY	39:27	W40	17	Female	54	PB (0:05)
317	Nick KLEANTHOUS	42:19	M60	24	Male	230	PB (0:58)
334	Jim BROWN	42:39	M70	3	Male	239	County Gold. YB
354	Nicola ANDERSSON	43:38	W50	27	Female	105	PB (1:17)
414	Penny SCHENKEL	45:14	W50	36	Female	137	SB (1:42)
448	Matt TUTTON	46:46	Senior	80	Male	287	PB (0:37)
551	Jane WADEY	52:26	W50	65	Female	227	PB (1:48)
587	Sharon CROWLEY	55:03	W60	31	Female	257	SB (0:52)
596	Jonathan Clive JONES	56:55	M50	95	Male	331	YB
604	Dzenana TOPIC	57:40	W50	84	Female	271	YB

PB = personal best (lifetime); SB = season’s best; YB = year’s best. 655 finishers.

10 Spartans at the Bass Belle:

Position	Name	Time	Comments	BIB
27	PAUL SHELLEY	1:11:35	“SB” (2:50)	61
52	STEVEN DOBNER	1:15:04	“PB” (5:30)	19
56	DAVE PATTMAN	1:15:41	“PB” (1:50)	20
126	MATT CLARKE	1:25:11	“YB”	448
140	ALISON SHELLEY	1:27:41	“SB”	62
164	MO WARRILOW	1:29:38	“SB” (6:15)	84
206	MICHAEL O’KEEFE	1:35:00	First 10 miles	418
235	FIONA CLARKE	1:37:39	“YB”	447
236	CHLOE CHAPMAN	1:37:53	“PB” (6:19)	49
313	MONICA SMITHSON	1:51:24	“SB”	172

356 finishers

24 Spartans at the Stevenage parkruns on Saturday 26^th November:

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Run Time
3	3	Adrian BUSOLINI	00:18:15	Top ten
4	4	Grant RAMSAY	00:18:58	Top ten
11	10	Matthew NEWTON	00:20:14
32	29	Paul SHELLEY	00:22:08
54	47	Martin DUDLEY	00:23:58
89	12	Gail MACKIE	00:25:43
90	75	Toby ECCLESHALL	00:25:44
95	78	Neal MUGGLETON	00:26:08
99	81	Michael O’KEEFE	00:26:15
100	82	Steven DOBNER	00:26:16
108	17	Mo WARRILLOW	00:26:41
109	87	David PATTMAN	00:26:42
134	107	Thomas SAUKA	00:27:47
161	121	Nick KLEANTHOUS	00:29:03
162	33	Alison SHELLEY	00:29:05
169	39	Chloe CHAPMAN	00:29:12
170	123	Sam SIMMONS	00:29:13
179	43	Nicola ANDERSSON	00:29:41
194	139	Jim BROWN	00:30:48
195	47	Penny SCHENKEL	00:30:49	50^th parkrun in the cape
203	53	Nikki Katherine NATION	00:31:08
234	71	Sheryl HANN	00:33:42
257	163	Stephen SMITHSON	00:34:55
264	84	Samantha SUTTON	00:35:56

314 finishers.

Tags Cross Country, parkrun

News Newsletter

THIS WEEKS NEWS RELEASE

RELAYS IN THE PARK

Fairlands Valley Spartans hosted another successful event on Thursday evening – the 3K Relay event- when nearly 400 runners completed the relay course. There were 47 women’s teams comprised of 3 runners and 50 men’s teams comprised of 5 runners. Provisional results can be found on the Spartans website at www.fvspartans.org.uk but in the individual results the first man was James McMurray of St Albans Striders and the first woman was Lizzie Bird of Garden City Runners.

Krakow Park Run 5k, Poland.

Andy Neatham came 2^nd in this race in a time of 17.57. which is a Vet PB by 1second and broke the Age group course record by over 30 seconds.

Thunder Run 24 hour Race

Spartans enjoyed a challenging weekend on Derbyshire for a 24 hour race on a very hilly course. The torrential rain and thunder storms were very apt for the Thunder Run race name and the dark, very muddy and slippery course resulted in some long, soul searching runs through the night. The format of the race was that in teams you each ran a 10k before passing the baton on to your next team member.

Three Spartans were in a team of five who came second, these were Todd Gray, Andrew Patterson and the stand out performance by Simon Jackson who accounted for 8 of the teams 31 laps.

Other Spartans enjoying the race included Kerry, Nikki Andrews and Darren Wilby.
The race was a fantastic event and thoroughly recommended.

Spartan triple take on Northampton marathon double.

Three Spartans made the short trip to Brackmill Reservoir, just to the South of Northampton.

The trail marathon venue was at the Holiday Inn, and featured six laps each day around the reservoir on a mixture of surfaces. The big killer for running marathons is the heat, and yet again the country was blessed with warm, sunny & muggy weather. The times reflected the conditions, as the Spartan trio took on the weather to complete 26.2 miles each day.

Day 1 (Saturday 27^th)

Roger Biggs 4:28:10, Carol Paul 4:53:53 & Mike Newbitt 5:41:13

Day 2 (Sunday 28^th)

Roger Biggs 4:44:25, Carol Paul 5:09:22 & Mike Newbitt 5:15:16

Inter-County

DAVE BOWKER was selected to represent Hertfordshire in the Senior Inter County Match in Abingdon recently. He achieved a new personal best of 17 minutes 27 seconds (compared with 18:49!) and third place in the 3,000 metres walk. The men’s team placed second overall.

A few days later he won the EVAC (Eastern Veterans) Five Mile Championship for men aged 50 plus with a time of 32 minutes 13 seconds.

Monica’s Gold

After a few weeks of enforced rest due to injuries an apprehensive Monica Brown turned up at Oxford for the British Master’s W45 Heptathlon. The decision to race over the 80m hurdles in trainers, to lessen the impact on a tender Achilles, was a good one as Monica was rewarded with a pb of 16.34 seconds. This was followed by a high jump of 1.33, 6.82 for shot and 29.08 (sb) for 200m which meant she finished day one in the lead by almost 500 points.

On day two Monica knew she had to try to keep her lead going into the long jump and javelin as she would lose considerable points over the 800m, her weakest event. A long jump of 4.20 and a javelin pb of 17.71 meant she was still in the lead with just the 800m to go. Despite finishing 37 seconds behind her rival, Monica’s time of 3.17.15 for the 800m was enough to win the gold with a new heptathlon pb score of 3603.

Second claim Spartan Louise Oliver also competed in the younger W40 age group. In a very tight competition Louise did 80m hurdles in 15.40, high jump 1.39, shot 10.14, 200m 28.26, long jump 4.60, javelin 29.32 and 800m 2.57.35 for the silver medal.

Wimpole

DANIEL BATES did the Wimpole Estate Parkrun near Royston recently. He was 12th of 124 with a time of 20 minutes 46 seconds.

Then he did the Highbury Fields parkrun in Islington, London on Saturday 27 July and finished 21^st out of 94 with a time of 20:41.

On Sunday Daniel competed in the 10 mile race organised by Harlow Runners Club at Harlow. He had a great start, was a bit slow between mile 3 and mile 6 but managed to do 5km pace after that to recoup loss of time, and finished 57th out 249 runners with a time of 01.12.47.

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:

Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 5^th September
Club Five Mile Team Champs on Tuesday 10^th September
Herts Senior 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 24^th September
County 10K Championships in Letchworth on Sunday 6^th October
Herts Veterans 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 8^th October
County 10 Mile Championships for veterans on Sunday 27^th October
Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd November
County Ten Miles Championship in Buntingford on 30^th December 2013

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 £35 per year, £25 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.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509 or 01438 354505), Vivienne Honey 07702 846304 or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

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More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 / 01438 354505 or Vivienne Honey (Secretary) 07702 846304

Double Double at Cross Country as season launches on 13th October