Although she said she wasn’t in the best shape despite it being the hottest day of the year so far ASHLEY JOHNSON ran the Hackney Half Marathon in 1 hour 37 minutes 32 seconds. 1439th out of 13,089.
Met Police Battersea 10K
On Wednesday ZOE JACKSON took part in the Met Police Battersea 10k which is a race for serving or retired officers. It was three laps of the park and a nice flat course. The heat got to her in the second half but she still managed a personal best (PB) of 51:08, so pleased with the result. Zoe was 90th out of the 239 runners.
Zoe with her well earned medal!
Wheathampstead 10K
Spartan SIMON FRASER whizzed round the Wheathampstead cross country 10K in 38 minutes 38 seconds and was fifth out of the 343 finishers.
JIM BROWN didn’t find it so easy and wilted in the unexpected May temperatures which reached 24 degrees on the finish line. He was 241st in 65:20. Oh well not last by 102.
Simon smiling in his stripes and Jim at Wheathampstead.
Parkrun Highlights 21st May
In this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit, we have members running at home around Fairlands and around the country as far as South Wales and the South Coast this week.
In Stevenage ROB WRIGHT was first Spartan home finishing top ten in a parkrun personal best of 20 minutes 18 seconds and 10th out of 264. TONY RANDFIELD was second Spartan home in 21:03 at 15th.
Other results for the 24 Spartans at the lakes were: Martin Dudley 23:32 (50th), Ryan Dunning 23:54 (61st), Toby Eccleshall 24:05 (63rd), Matt Clarke 24-:4 (69th), Darren Emmerson 24:58 (79th), Alison Shelley 26:12 (99th), Jim Brown 80th parkrun and a parkrun year’s best in 26:30 (104th), Mark Beasley 26:55 (111th), Nick Kleanthous 27:05 (114th), David Pattman 27:30 (120th), Steven Dobner 27:33 (122nd), Mo Warrillow 27:47 (126th), Debbie Blantern 28:50 (140th), Fiona Clarke 29:42 (158th), Chloe Chapman 29:50 (160th), Kartik Sharma 30:08 (165th), Jane Wadey in a new parkrun personal best of 31:31 (181st – PB), Caroline Croft 31:48 (187th), Tracy Haygarth 32:36 (196th), Simon Sypula 38:53 (239th) and Roger Biggs 45:25 (253rd).
A selection of this weeks Parkrunners!
Parkrun away day results:
Monica and Steve SMITHSON celebrated Steve’s 50th park run at Colby park run. It was on a lovely scenic three lap route near Tenby. Steve finished in 31:50 and Monica in 32:10.
Letchworth (Herts): John Harris 20-47 (6th out of 117 runners and a season’s best), Georgie Hooper 31-13 (91st) and Nick Gill 31-14 (92nd).
Colby (near Tenby, South Wales): Stephen Smithson 31-50 (83rd out of 107 runners), Monica Smithson 32-10 (86th).
Henlow Bridge (Beds): Michael O’Keefe 31-26 (77th out of 116 runners).
Durlston Country Park (Dorset): Darryl Stevens 1-16-57 (80th out of 81st runners).
Mid Week racing is back for the first time in three years. 409 raced in Wednesday evening’s Mid Week League race and 79 of them were from Fairlands Valley Spartans. The six mile race started and finished at the showground end of Fairlands Valley Park in Stevenage.
There was some amazing running at the front end of the race which was won in 31:25 and the Spartans were fifth on the night.
First in for the Spartans was SIMON JACKSON 15th out of 259 men in 32:59. Not far behind came JONATHAN PARR at 17th in 33:03; SIMON FRASER 23rd in 33:39 and ANDREW PATTERSON 26th with 33:52.
Top four finishers for the men.
PETE SMITH was third man 60 plus in 41:44.
The quickest woman completed the largely Gunnels Wood Road cycleway based course in 34 minutes 54 seconds. SUZY HAWKINS 16th woman out of 151 at 40:38 was the fastest of the 34 females from Fairlands and GABRIELLE O’BRIEN was 26th in 41:41 with ASHLEY KING just two seconds behind her 27th in 41:43.
MARIE COLUCCI (45:27); ABBIE PEZ second under 20 (45:31); GEORGIE HOOPER (46:50), CLAIRE PULLEN (47:09) and TRACY PEZ (also 47:09) completed the FVS women’s “A” team.
Marie, Tracy, Abbie and Gabrielle being chased down by Pete.
KELY McHALE led in the women’s “B” team with 47:56.
VICKY ARCHER did a magnificent job as tail runner bringing the last runner in at 1 hour 21 minutes 57 seconds.
Men’s teams consisted of twelve runners while women’s teams had eight so there were three men’s teams and four women’s from FVS. The race was organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans and North Herts Road Runners.
The second Mid Week Road Race League event will be in St. Albans on Wednesday evening 25th May.
(For all the Spartan MWRRL results please look near the end of this release).
Hertfordshire County Championships
JONATHAN PARR raced in the 5,000 metres Hertfordshire County Championships at the weekend and won the trophy.
He said it wasn’t the fastest race in the wind and the rain but he was really pleased with the result. He won the GOLD medal in 16 minutes 28 seconds.
The event was at the Bedfordshire International Athletics Track.
Jonathon with his trophy!
Oxford Town & Gown 10K
SITA CHITAMBO ran the Oxford Town and Gown 10K in 63 minutes 11 seconds.
Mammoth Half
EMMA SOUTHERINGTON and SAMANTHA SUTTON ran the Mammoth Half in Norfolk on Sunday. On a very tough course from Mundesley to Sheringham Emma finished in 2 hours 49 minutes 28 seconds and Samanth in 2:55:07. There were 823 feet of climbs.
Emma and Sam smiling with their well earnt medals!
Parkrun Highlights
Thirty-three Fairlands Valley Spartans entered Parkrun Events in the May sunshine this weekend.
SIMON FRASER was first to finish the Stevenage event in a time of 17 minutes and 41 seconds. He was closely followed by GRANT RAMSAY who was third overall in 18:46, and ALISON SHELLEY was the first Spartans female to finish with 26:35. Completing his 100th Parkrun event on the same course, TONY RANDFIELD ran in 31 minutes and 50 seconds.
NICK KLEANTHOUS ran a parkrun PB time at the Gunpowder Parkrun of 24:52. On the Westmill run, DAVID ACKERLEY finished fifth in 21:34.
Stevenage parkrunners including Tony in his 100 cape!
Thirteen Spartans STEPHANIE BIGGAR, MONICA BROWN, CALLIE CHAPMAN, SHARON CROWLEY, KAREN DODSWORTH, YUKO GORDON, CHRISTINE LATHWELL, CAROLYN LINSELL, JOYLYN SAUNDERS-MULLINS, TESSA STEPHENSON,WENDY THARANI, ANDREA WESTCOTT and NIKKI WILBY started the track and field season by WINNING at the first league event on Wednesday.
The FVS Ladies track and field team kicked off their defence of the EMAC (East of England) title in style on Wednesday night. Thirteen team members travelled to Milton Keynes and won the competition, beating rivals Marshall Milton Keynes by an amazing 13 points. Other teams in the division struggled to field full teams on the night, but that does not detract from the brilliant performances of FVS. The team welcomed newcomers Wendy Tharani (second place W50 3k) and Carolyn Linsell (third place W60 3k). Wins on the night came from Tessa Stephenson (W60 100m and 400m), Christine Lathwell (W35 3k, also 3rd place W35 400m), Sharon Crowley (W60 Hammer Throw, also second place 1 mile walk A string), Monica Brown (W50 Shot Put and W50 High Jump), Joylyn Saunders-Mullins (W60 Shot Put), Andrea Westcott (W50 Triple Jump, also 2nd place W50 100m and 2nd place W50 Hammer Throw), Karen Dodsworth (W60 Triple Jump, also 2nd place W50 400m), Nikki Wilby (W35 High Jump, also 3rd place W35 Triple Jump). Valuable points were also picked up by Callie Chapman (4th placed W35 100m), Yuko Gordon (1st place 1m walk B string), Stephanie Biggar (3rd place in both W35 Hammer Throw and W35 Shot Put).
An exciting 4x100m relay event rounded off the evening with Carolyn, Sharon, Karen and an excellent last leg by Monica just pipping Milton Keynes to the finish line by 0.2 seconds in the W50+ race. The W35 team of Nikki, Tessa, Callie, and Christine finished second in the W35 event.
The FVS Men’s team were bolstered by newcomers and returners, finishing in a very respectable fourth place on the night. Wins from Tim Saunders-Mullins (M60 Hammer Throw) and Anton McCalla (M35 Triple Jump, also 4th place M35 100m, 5th place M35 Shot Put). Points were also scored by newbie Nick Kleanthous (5th place M60 100m and 400m, 3rd place 1mile B string walk, 4th M60 Shot Put), Chris Westcott (2nd place M35 400m and M35 3k), Pete Smith (2nd place M60 3k and M60 Triple Jump, 3rd place M60 High Jump), John Harris (3rd place 1m A string walk, 4th place M35 High Jump), Steve Mayfield (3rd place M50 Hammer Throw, 4th place M50 Shot Put, and 4th place M50 Triple Jump). The men’s relay team finished 4th.
EMAC in action!
Bedford 10K
Spartan DAVID HARRIS-CHERGUIT WON the Run Bedford Super Fast 10 kilometre race in 35 minutes 7 seconds, a new 10K PB (personal best)and a first place result for Spartans.
He says his training is clearly paying off and looking good for the Edinburgh Half Marathon at the end of the month and that it was great to see fellow Spartan KELVIN BEYIOKU, who had another great run after the Hitchin 10km last week. Kelvin was third in 37:04.
Super speedy’s – Kelvin and David.
Greenway Challenge
Fifteen Spartans ran the Greenway Challenge Half Marathon from Standalone Farm, Letchworth on Sunday. Nearly all the 13.1 miles were off road.
Their fastest was ADRIAN DONNELLY fourth overall in 1 hour 28 minutes 29 seconds.
Next in was JOHN HARRIS, second male 50 plus in 1 hour 33 minutes 16 seconds for 11th place. NICK GILL came in with 1:42:27 then TONY RANDFIELD who was first man 60 plus with 1:48:01.
TRICIA HOPPER and CLAIRE PULLEN were Fairlands first females in 2:17:00.
SAM SIMMONS and MARCUS RIDLEY came in 87th and 88th with 1:56:51 and 1:56:53.
Attempting his first long run after an encounter with Omnicron at the start of April JIM BROWN carefully paced himself round in 2 hours 9 minutes 17 seconds. CLAIRE EMMERSON, WENDY THARANI, TIM ROBINSON, SIMON SYPULA and VICKY ARCHER all ‘skipped’ around the greenway in about 2 hours 20 minutes.
Vicky said, “We never set out to ‘race’ today. The aim of the game was to be chatty and have some fun which we achieved beautifully! The sun shone and we had a lovely morning out with cake at the end.”
SAMANTHA SUTTON enjoyed a lovely morning with 2:53:15.
Wendy, Claire, Tim, Simon and Vicky enjoyed the sun!
Pednor
DARREN and CLAIRE EMMERSON took part in the Pednor Five road race on Holiday Monday. In the Chilterns and not flat Darren was 109th in 39 minutes 59 seconds and Claire 151st in 43:27. There were 197 finishers.
Darren and Claire leaving the Chiltern hills behind them on Bank Holiday Monday.
Stort Five
DAVE PATTMAN and STEVE DOBNER ran the Stort5 on Sunday. Dave finished sixth overall and second in his age category in 39:39 and Steve was ninth and fourth in his age category in 41:36. The course is almost completely off-road and luckily the farmer had kindly rolled a section after the rain this week to take away the worst of the ruts. Beautiful morning but you cannot really takes your eyes off the ground as it was so uneven so Steve said he had I no idea what the countryside looked like. A brilliant relatively local event.
Fun in the sun – Steve and Dave.
Blesma 11K
After a delay of six months NICOLA ANDERSSON, CAROLYN LINSELL and KAREN ELLIS ran their 11K for the Blesma charity on Saturday morning. Their total time, they ran together, was 1 hour 8mins and 56 seconds for the 6.81 miles.
Saturday morning’s stripey running at Stevenage parkrun concluded the Blesma 11k with Nicola, Carolyn, and Karen incorporating parkrun (no.95 for Nicola) with medal presentation at the finish. lt’s a first having medals at parkrun…
The charity run was last November for Remembrance Sunday but Carolyn unfortunately broke her foot a few days beforehand. Karen then kindly stepped up to run this with Nicola instead. When Blesma heard about Carolyn’s accident etc. they kindly sent a third medal for Karen back in December.
Several months on with Carolyn fully recovered and still improving on her stamina and strength they chose Saturday… They raised a total of £151 for Blesma The Limbless Veteran’s and want to thank those again who donated. After all this time it was lovely to give Karen her medal for running the 11K a second time with us, a total of two and a bit parkruns runn in one.
The girls finally with their medals!
John runs another 100
JOHN NELMS finished his fifth 100 mile event Sunday on the Centurion running Thames Path 100. Starting in Richmond, London at 0930 Saturday morning, John ran / walked through the day and night to finish in Oxford at 1100 Sunday morning.
Amazing John still smiling after 100 miles!
Parkrun Highlights 7th May
Fairlands Valley Spartan members were out in force wearing their club vests on the first Parkrun of the month, aka Stripey Saturday. Thirty two members took part at six different venues across the country.
JANE WADEY ran a personal best (PB) of 32:28 at Stevenage after joining FVS in January this year. She has improved her 5K time by 8 minutes since her first Parkrun in August 2021, crediting track training and Monday starters sessions which helped her achieve this amazing improvement.
There were a few Year Best achieved this weekend, including MARTIN DUDLEY (23:49), SALLY PHILLIPS (34:01), SAMANTHA SUTTON (34:27), JAMES MCSWEENEY(24:04) and MICHAEL O’KEEFE (32:19) having ran their best times for this year.
The title of fastest Spartan in Stevenage went to GRANT RAMSAY, crossing the line at 18:59 at Stevenage and fastest female Spartan of the week was ALISON SHELLEY (26:54) both at Stevenage. The fastest Spartan anywhere was CHRIS WESTCOTT running in Bangor, Northern Ireland with 18:26. Also running in Bangor ANDREA WESTCOTT finished in 28:35.
Although there were no official milestones achieved by members this week, MATT CLARKE has completed his 90th and TIM ROBINSON his 170th Parkrun at Stevenage.
Fairlands Valley Spartans WON the team award at Sunday’s Hitchin 10K. They had 25 out of the 518 finishers with several top twenty positions.
JONATHAN PARR was second overall and first in his category with a fantastic 34 minutes 24 seconds. KELVIN BEYIOKU was fifth in 36:42.
In her first ever 10K race ASHLEY JOHNSON won her category and was fourth woman overall in 42 minutes 37 seconds.
NICK GILL took eight seconds off his 10K personal best finishing in 41 minutes 28 seconds and he was 18 seconds quicker than the same race last year.
ADRIAN DONNELLY was 13th man in 39:33; MARIE COLUCCI 18th woman in 47:51 and GEORGIE HOOPER was twentieth woman in 48:28.
Hitchin 10K speedy’s
SHARON CROWLEY ran her first official 10k in a very long time! She finished in 1 hour 5 minutes 21 seconds. JIM BROWN improved his St Albans 10K time by exactly one minute when he finished in 56:29. He said it was great seeing so many Spartans at an event again.
The 25 Spartans were JONATHAN PARR 34:23; KELVIN BEYIOKU 36:41; ADRIAN DONNELLY 39:33; ROSS GALLACHER 40:19; NICK GILL 41:28; ASHLEY JOHNSON (F) 42:37; MARIE COLUCCI (F) 47:51; GEORGIE HOOPER (F) 48:28; ANDY JAY 50:28; VISH SHAH 50:49; LUKE GURNEY 51:29; ZOE JACKSON (F) 51:43; NIKKI WILBY (F) 51:51; KARK SHREEVE 54:46; SARAH ILLINGWORTH (F) 55:52; STEVE PIKE 55:54; JIM BROWN 56:29; MONICA SMITHSON (F) 1:02:01; CHRISTINE ZVEREV (F) 1:03:27; NICOLA PATTMAN (F) 1:04:13; STEVEN DOBNER 1:04:14; SHARON CROWLEY (F) 1:05:21; JONATHAN JONES 1:09:38; DZENANA TOPIC (F) 1:10:10 and SAMANTHA SUTTON (F) 1:12:40.
Lots of stripes at the Hitchin 10K
Milton Keynes Sub Four and PBs (Personal Bests for Hazel and Rob)
TIM ROBINSON and HAZEL SMITH ran the Milton Keynes marathon which was hotter than expected and had some sneaky hills towards the end. Both were very pleased with their times, Tim 4:35:22 and Hazel 3 hours 59 minutes 40 seconds. It was a massive PB (personal best) of around 24 minutes from Hazel’s last marathon in October. Hazel says that joining the Spartans peak performance group and following the training plan from Steffan Ford has improved her overall fitness and pace. Hazel was over the moon to dip under 4 hours for the first time ever.
Our amazing Hazel and superb Tim!
Also TRICIA HOPPER, KAREN LIDDLE and BARRY KING ran and completed the Milton Keynes Marathon. As with many people/runners this was their first marathon since Covid.
Tricia Hopper ran the 26.2 miles in 4:28:30, this was her 87th marathon.
Karen and Barry ran together in 5.55.34. Karen has now completed 76 marathons and Barry 56.
Happy Spartans pleased to be back racing again.
Spartan ROB WRIGHT ran a new personal best (PB) of 1:35:31 at the Milton Keynes Half Marathon 2022.
Rob being very cool with his medal.
Belfast
CATHY CRAIG ran the Belfast Marathon on a cold dull day. All went well until around mile 17 when she was a bit sick and the queasiness never really left her. Still, she managed a watch time of 5:29:47, which was just within her second target time of 5:30.
This lady never ceases to amaze us!
Vitality London 10k
DEBBIE BLANTERN ran the Vitality London 10K, her first race since December 2019. She was super happy with her time of 58 minutes 41 seconds.
She said this will give her a big confidence boost to get more races booked this year.
Having run the Hitchin 10K in 1:12:40 on Sunday SAMANTHA SUTTON ran the Vitality 10000 in a time of 1 hour 11 minutes 55 seconds.
Also in the London 10000 CHARLIE WHITE ran a new personal best (PB) of 38 minutes 46 seconds and ANNABELLE WHITE a “pregnant best” of 55:41.
A well earned medal by Debbie!
Serpentine
JIM BROWN was at the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5K. Some amazing runners show up for these lunch-time races. Jim was 146th out of 166 with 27 minutes 46 seconds. Slowly knocking off a few seconds since coming back from illness. It was dry but cold and breezy.
Good News for YUKO
YUKO GORDON is out of action at the moment but received some good news from British Masters last week. Her half marathon record has been ratified as a new British record for women over 70.
She ran a gun time of 1:40:02 (chip time 1:39:58) at Bedford on 27th March this year. Yuko did run 1:37:50 last summer but it was a chip time (and not ratified) as a gun time was not available with Covid restrictions. The previous record was 1:40:43 (chip time 1:40:33) held by Angela Copson.
Parkrun Highlights 30th April
First Spartan home at Stevenage parkrun was TONY RANDFIELD on his 98th parkrun in 20.59.
SAM SIMMONS took a trip to Bedford and ran 25:51 on his first outing there. Sam may have clocked the longest “parkrun” this week running just over 16 miles with parkrun included.
A parkrun “first timer” event for JAMES MCSWEENEY at Letchworth (25:55)
MIKE REYNOLDS was at Panshanger (25:12) and ED HARE was at Lee on the Solent (23:25). DARRYL STEVENS was at Brockenhurst running 45.34.
Three Spartans took part in the iconic 126th Boston Marathon in the USA last week.
The Boston weather can be unpredictable. You can experience four seasons in one day, to the infamous headwind blowing up from the sea to storms and glorious sunshine.
. As far as Boston weather was concerned, MICHELLE REEVES, STUART HAYCROFT and JACKIE DOWNES struck it lucky with glorious sunshine lighting up the New England streets bringing incredible support all the way!
Stuart and Michelle boarded the yellow school buses to transport them to the streets ready to start their race in Hopkinton just after 10am, with Jackie Downes starting after 11:15.
Michelle and Stuart ran the first 20 miles together to the sound of “Way to go Stuart” “Keep it up Stuart” from the crowds, and were focused on taking in the whole experience.
At mile 16, there’s the Newton Hills. A series of mini crests in prime position when a marathon just starts to feel tough, finishing with the infamous “Heartbreak Hill” at mile 20.
Michelle, feeling good after the hills pushed on in the last six miles to finish in 3 hours 6 minutes 21 seconds. A result she was really pleased with after the main goal of “enjoying the experience”.
Stuart finished in 3:18:16, spending a bit longer to high five the crowds who loved the guy with “Stuart” and a Union Jack on his top. Jackie finished in a great 4:15:23.
All celebrated with a pint in the famous Cheers pub after!
Golds Galore at County Track and Field Championships
There were seventeen (17) GOLD medals and one silver for Fairlands Valley Spartans in the Hertfordshire County AAA Veteran Championships at Ridlins on Saturday.
TESSA STEPHENSON and ANDREA WESTCOTT each won three GOLD medals. Tessa in the 100 metres, 200 metres and shot, Andrea in the shot, javelin and high jump.
The other multiple GOLD medal winners were SHARON CROWLEY in the hammer and 1500 metres; JIM BROWN in the 1500 and 5000 metres.
STUART ARCHER won GOLD in the senior men’s 1500 with 5 minutes and half a second (5:00:5), PAUL SHELLEY gold in the male 50 plus 1500 with 5:19.0 and THOMAS SAUKA took silver in the male 45 plus with 5:45.4.
The Spartan men running 1500m
SUZY HAWKINS won GOLD in the women’s 45 plus with 5:46.8; SUSAN McANENY gold in the women’s 40 plus with 6:24.9 and Sharon Crowley taking gold in the women’s 60 plus with 8:14.6.
Our 1500m women
DAVE STEPHENSON won the male 55 plus 100 metres in 14.2 seconds and CIARAN McANENY won the male 45 plus 5,000 metres in 17 minutes 57.3 seconds.
CAROLYN LINSELL and JIM BROWN provided entertainment for some of the officials and spectators by running sensibly but side by side all the way round 12.5 laps to finish in exactly the same time of 28 minutes 2.8 seconds and win two gold medals in their 65 plus categories in the 5,000 metres.
Birthday Boy at Dorney Lake
Birthday Boy PETE SMITH turned sixty and won his age category at the Dorney Lake Marathon on Sunday. He finished in 3 hours 24 minutes 40 seconds and was 46th male and 49th overall.
Happy Birthday Pete!
SAM SIMMONS and CHLOE CHAPMAN ran the half marathon at Dorney. Sam finished in 1:44:49 and Chloe in 2:05:50
Chloe was pleased with that three weeks after the Manchester Marathon.
Chloe and Sam all smiles at Dorney Lake!
Parkrun Highlights 23rd April
In this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit, we have members running at home around Fairlands as well as far afield as the weather starts to brighten up and the temperatures are rising.
Stevenage: 311 runners took on the course and GRANT RAMSAY managed to finish fourth with a time of 18:48. Afterwards Grant said: Would have won it if it was not for those meddling kids half my age!! It was my best 5K time since February 2020. With no barriers and water jumps, it was relatively easy compared to last weekend’s 3K steeplechase.
Other results at the lakes were: Craig Bacon 24-31 (72nd), Darren Emmerson 24-42 (77th), Nick Kleanthous 25-00 (89th), Alison Shelley 26-26 (119th), Nicola Andersson 28-08 (153rd), Debbie Blantern 29-07 (180th), Mark Beasley 30-03 (204th), Chloe Chapman 30-39 (216th), Tracy Haygarth 33-29 (241st), Simon Sypula 38-28 (283rd) and Roger Biggs 50-39 (305th).
Stevenage Parkrun
Other away day results:
Panshanger (Hertford, Herts): Mike Reynolds 26-39 (93rd out of 201 runners).
Letchworth (Herts): Nick Gill 21-44 (14th out of 126 runners), Georgie Hooper 28-10 (66th).
Wimpole Hall Estate (Cambs): David Pattman 28-34 (134th out of 249 runners), Mo Warrillow 28-35 (135th), Steven Dobner 28-36 (136th).
Henlow Bridge (Beds): James McSweeney 26-05 (18th out of 79 runners).
Squerryes Winery (Kent): Michael o’Keefe 31-15 (109th out of 145 runners).
Rugby (Warwickshire): Darryl Stevens 37-01 (125th out of 134 runners).
Fairlands Valley Spartans SIMON JACKSON was fifth overall and first veteran in the St Albans 10K on Good Friday. He was under 35 minutes with 34 minutes 37 seconds. There were 633 finishers.
ROSS GALLAGHER also beat 40 with 39 minutes 18 seconds for 35th place.
Thirteen Spartans enjoyed the run the others being ANDREW VAUGHAN 41:08; SAM SIMMONS 45:46; TRACY PEZ 48 minutes exactly; ABBIE PEZ 48:04; DAVID PATTMAN 49:16; GEORGIE HOOPER 50:10; STEVEN DODNER 54:13; NICOLA ANDERSSON 56:06; JIM BROWN 57:29: DZENANA TOPIC 1:15:52 and JONATHAN JONES 1:15:57.
Happy Spartans in the sun
Ramsay Top Of The Euros
On Saturday GRANT RAMSAY took part in the first London Inter Club Challenge (LICC) meeting of the season. All members of running clubs outside of London are also welcome. He got a very good result in the 3000 metres steeplechase and achieved high positions in World & European Masters Rankings. (No 1 in Europe)! This was over 35 barriers which included 7 water jumps. Grant won his event in 12 minutes 1 second which shot him up to the number one spot in the rankings.
Winning Grant!
Ten Marathons in Ten Days for Davie
On Monday DAVIE STAFFORD today completed his 10 marathons in 10 days challenge in Walton on Thames with Phoenix Running. His average time over the 10 days was 4 hours 1 minute and 16 seconds. His fastest marathon was on day 5 when he ran a 3.55.40. Every day had a different name – Fortitude; Gauntlet; Dauntless; Resolute; Perseverance; Adversity; Intrepid; Indomitable; Unbreakable and Invincible
Davie and his amazing collection of medals!
Boston UK Marathon
ROB WRIGHT ran the Boston Marathon, the UK one, in a new personal best (PB) of 3 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds.
Rob reminding us that the best part of racing is the chilling afterwards!
Parkrun Highlights 16th April
The Saturday of the Easter weekend saw thirty Fairlands Valley Spartans run in Parkrun events worldwide.
Running in Stevenage’s Spring sunshine resulted in a first-place finish and parkrun PB for Ciaran McANENY in a time of 17 minutes and 23 seconds. With Vishal SHAH also running a PB of 25:01 and Suzy HAWKINS completing the course as the first female in 20:16.
Paul MAGUIRE joined those running PBs with a time of 23:46 at the Westmill event.
Trying out new courses for the Bank holiday were Monica SMITHSON (31:20) and Steve SMITHSON (34:34) at the Thomas Mills event. Darryl STEVENS headed all the way to the Netherlands for his 193rd Parkrun to complete the Kralingse Bos course in 37:07.
301 finishers at Stevenage including nineteen Spartans.
Fairlands Valley Spartans JONATHAN PARR has won another race. He won the Kew Gardens 10K on Saturday with a time of 33 minutes 54 seconds. It was part of the Richmond Running Festival and he beat 1886 other runners.
Great Welsh Half
Carmarthenshire was the setting for a great result for JOHN HARRIS. He ran the Great Welsh Half Marathon in 1 hour 31 minutes 4 seconds, was 38th out of the 576 finishers and first runner aged 55 plus. The event started and finished in Pembrey Country Park and was along the Welsh scenic coastal path.
John enjoying his Welsh half marathon!
Essex
THOMAS SAUKA completed the Essex walker LDWA challenge marathon, in 5 hours 47 minutes. He said the event is run in a lovely area, starting at Galley Wood Heritage Centre, which is a lovely wooded area, going out to Ingatestone and back to the start, some lovely villages and lanes around the course as well as woodland.
This was his first marathon of the year. He said he’s a bit out of practice but looking forward to the next one.
Ibiza Relay Marathon
Callie CHAPMAN and Hazel SMITH ran the relay marathon in Ibiza. Hazel ran the first half then handed over to Callie before they both reunited to cross the finish line together.
It was hot and hilly but both were over the moon with their combined time of 4 hours 35 minutes 18 seconds.
The girls living their best lives in Ibiza!
Flitwick
CATHY CRAIG had to run her 20 miles training run on a very windy Thursday instead of the weekend after discovering midweek that she had an entry in Sunday’s Flitwick 10K. Sunday was a perfect day for a run in beautiful hilly countryside with a nice downhill finish. She ran it in 63:31, third in her age category, a nice way to start tapering for her marathon.
Cathy enjoyed her 10k with friends.
Brighton Marathon and 10K
WENDY THARANI completed the Brighton marathon in 5.12.22 only a week after running the Manchester Marathon! She now deserves a massive rest! EMMA SOUTHERINGTON finished in 6 hours 20 minutes 18 seconds.
The amazing Wendy and Emma all smiles in sunny Brighton!
SAMANTHA SUTTON took part in the Brighton 10K on Sunday and finished with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes 54 seconds.
Sam getting stuck into the running life of a Spartan!
Calderdale Hike
On Saturday Sharon and Mike Crowley took part in the 42nd Calderdale Hike back after a break of two years. The walk started and finished in Sowerby Bridge, the suggested route followed part of the Pennine Way and over the M62. The route involved over a 1000 metres of climb, the pair completed the short walk of 27 miles in 8 hours and 45 minutes, Sharon being second lady home.
Spartan legend Sharon and her husband Mike taking on the Calderdale Hike together!
Parkrun Highlights 9th April
SIMON JACKSON won the Stevenage parkrun in 17 minutes 2 seconds, a parkrun PB for him.
Twenty six Spartans headed out to nine different venues for Parkrun last Saturday with Darryl STEVENS running at Stadspark, Netherlands!
Grant RAMSAY also achieved a top ten finish at Stevenage, with a time of 19:24.
Stevenage parkrun winner Simon with other Spartans.
Congratulations to Jenny GARRETT and Michael O’KEEFE who have achieved unofficial milestones of 40th and 130th Parkruns. Jim BROWN achieved his own unofficial milestone of 75 parkruns, halfway to his next T shirt, and this was his first run of any kind since an encounter with Omnicron.
There were 211 runners at Stevenage including 18 Spartans.
John ROXBOROUGH tried out another new venue at Bury Field, Newport Pagnell. That’s John’s 101st different parkrun venue.
Spartan STUART ARCHER ran the Manchester Marathon in 3 hours 4 minutes 59 seconds. He was 1,538th out of the 14,168 runners in the super flat but chilly race.
Stuart says his preparation for this one wasn’t great. It included a rolled ankle in January, Achilles issues in February and Covid in March. Not the best prep for a marathon but these things don’t stop us 😉
So, he said, “not really knowing what I could do I chose a different game plan. Went at a faster pace and tried to hang on for the last 10K. Hoping to sneak under 3 hours…
Finished in 3:04:59. Not sub 3 But still six minutes off my previous best in Liverpool two years earlier.”
Next in was MATT CLARKE, 5,062nd in 3:45:09. That was a 4 minutes 35 seconds improvement. Matt and FIONA CLARKE had both run Manchester in October. One of the impacts of the race calendar being affected by the pandemic.
Fiona finished in 4:46:45 which is six minutes quicker than the last attempt and her second fastest marathon. Considering this was two weeks post Covid recovery, she was very happy with it.
Matt and Fiona with their medals
CHLOE CHAPMAN ran Manchester marathon. She was chuffed with her time of 4:43:29. She said it didn’t quite go to plan but she cut her PB (personal best) by 39 minutes (previously 5:22:12). The course was a lot hillier than she expected. Chloe said the Spartan support was great.
Chloe all smiles are completing the marathon
WENDY THARANI said it was a very cold Manchester. She finished in 4:49:43.
Amazing Wendy!!
Fast At Saffron Walden
The power of a flat course said LUKE GURNEY after finishing the Essex Half Marathon in a new personal best of 1 hour 44 minutes 25 seconds. He was proudly wearing his Spartan stripes as he beat his previous time by 12 minutes. His previous PB was 1:56:09. Over the moon with this as he had a target of reaching sub 1:50. Lovely sunny morning and flat course. Started to tire around the 10 mile mark but got there! Really happy with this!
Luke ringing the PB bell!
RICKY PEARCE finished the full marathon in 3 hours 14 minutes 6 seconds. He was seventh senior man.
Regents Park 10K
Regents Park was lovely, beautiful sunshine and nice cafés afterwards for YUKO GORDON’s 10K. She won her category and was fourth out of all the women in the race with 46:27.
Zig Zag Cirque du Sore Leg
CIARAN McANENY won the Zig Zag 6 hour Track Race at Wodson Park in Ware on Sunday. Official results show that he completed 200 laps of the track (80km) which is a 25 lap personal best over six hours.
In fact he’s validating the result as he recorded 202 laps on his Garmin and in Strava which would bring his distance over 50 miles in 6:01:50 (6 hours plus the final lap).
Ciaran and his flying feet!
ELLIE McDERMOTT did the Zig Zag six hour challenge at Ware Track on Sunday. She covered 25 miles in the Cirque du Sore Legs.
You’ll be pleased to know they changed direction after three hours!
First Saturday
In Letchworth JOHN HARRIS ran the NHRR First Saturday of the month 5K in 20 minutes 34 seconds. He was seventh overall.
Parkrun Highlights 2nd April
Stripey Saturday rolled around again on a chilly morning at Fairlands Valley, Stevenage. ROGER BIGGS celebrated his 100th parkrun donning the 100 parkrun cape. Well done Roger!
Roger in his 100 parkruns cape!
SUZY HAWKINS was first woman in 20:14. GRAHAM and MARTIN BLACKBURN clocked 24:26 and 21:25 ahead of their move to pastures new. Congratulations to DEBBIE BLANTERN on her new PB of 27:47 and also JANE WADEY 34:15 on her 25th parkrun.
KELLY MCHALE ran a new personal best (PB) of 24 minutes 29 seconds at Wimpole Estate.
There were a trio of Spartans at Gunpowder parkrun: StEVE DOBNER (24:03) plus MO WARRILLOW and DAVID PATTMAN both in 27:07.
Three Spartans were on the podium at the Lee Valley Half Marathon.
ABBIE PEZ won the under 20 category with 1 hour 44 minutes 11 seconds; MARK GOODWIN was second, only missing first by seven seconds, in his with 1:43:45 and CLAIRE PULLEN second in hers with 1:44:29.
TRACY PEZ finished in an excellent time of 1:45:46.
All on a two lap flat course from the Lee Valley white water centre, Waltham Cross.
In the Lee Valley 10K NICHOLA DURRENT teamed up with her running partner in crime STEPH BIGGAR to finish in 1 hour 23 minutes 35 seconds. JONATHAN JONES came in at 68 minutes 59 seconds and DZENANA TOPIC at 69 minutes 17 seconds. They said it was a lovely course.
Lots of smiles and stripes at Lee Valley
TIM ROBINSON was at a similarly named Olympic venue but this was the Lee Valley Velopark in the Olympic Park. He was there on Saturday for the Velopark Ten.
He said poor pacing for the first three 1 mile laps meant the last five miles were too hard, especially as the sun came out on the hottest day of the year so far. Tim finished the ten miles in 1:38:14 for 15th place and first MV50 (men 50 plus).
Tim at the Velopark 10
Herts Veteran Cross Country Championships
ROGER HARDMAN was nearest to the medals in the Hertfordshire Veteran Cross Country Championships. He was fourth in the men over 70 race with 40 minutes 1 second for the 6.4 kilometres course.
This was the last cross country race of the season and run at Trent Park the reverse way to the Sunday League event. Women and men aged 60 and above ran 6.4 kilometre (four miles). Younger veteran men ran 9.6 kilometres (6 miles). The Spartan results were:
MARTIN WOOD was 15th in the men 50 plus race with 47 minutes 55 seconds for 9.6 kilometres. LINDA NOLAN sixth female 60 plus in 39:26 and SHARON CROWLEY 14th female 60 plus in 43:57 both over 6.4 kilometres.
NICK KLEANTHOUS was 16th male 60 in 36 minutes 15.
Our cross country veterans!
Sibling Fun
There was Sibling fun at the Bedford Autodrome Marathon. Ashley Pearson, GRANT RAMSAY’s sister, smashed it to win the ladies race. Her 3 hours 12 minutes 35 seconds (3:12:35) was a 12 minutes personal best and qualifies her for the London Marathon Championship race for the first time.
GRANT RAMSAY says he was well out of sorts and not race fit over 26 miles. Although he was averaging 45 to 50 miles a week in training, the lack of races over 5K and no speed work, (sciatic nerve issues) did show up. He did test positive for Covid 13 days ago, but can’t use that as an excuse, as the effects on him were minimal.
Only a week after the Great Yarmouth cycle sportive YUKO GORDON was also at Bedford Autdrome but for the half marathon.
She says she didn’t quite get the result she hoped for though she won her age group and was ninth out of all the women in race. Yuko says the temperature was cool and perfect but it was windier than last year. The smooth tarmac was wonderful but making pace and keeping concentration were the difficult part in this kind of venue and event. It was like a personal time trial, each runner was aiming for a different distance and knowing nobody to hang on, so the only way to go was to listen her breathing. Yuko said she felt better after half way when she caught up with another woman and changed her strides to match her rhythm. The other runner kept pushing against the head wind and left Yuko along the windy side of course. She might have paid the price for that as Yuko passed her at three miles to go. Yuko was two minutes slower than last year in 1:39:58 and was first woman 70 plus.
Grant and his sister.
Orion 15
Spartan JOHN HARRIS completed the classic Orion 15 cross country race in 2 hours 12 minutes 22 seconds (2:12:22) finishing 52nd out of 148 .
It was a tough challenging 15 miles course through Epping forest with many hills (1500 feet of elevation), knee high mud pools, stiles and lots of twists and turns. John highly recommends the event.
John taking on the epic cross country course.
Parkrun Highlights 26th March
In this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit we have a first female finisher at Stevenage, a fourth place finish at Cassiobury and some members running in university and castle grounds.
5th female and a new personal course pb of 24:09 for SUSAN McANENY at Stevenage parkrun this weekend.
Stevenage: Ashley Schoenwetter was first female runner home on Saturday with a time of 21-44, finishing 12th out of 251 runners. Other finishers: Tony Randfield 22-40 (28th), Susan McAneny 24-09 (51st – Parkrun PB), Steven Dobner 24-11 (52nd), Alison Shelley 25-03 (64th – Parkrun PB), Andy Jay 25-05 (65th), Jim Brown 27-00 (92nd), Nicola Andersson 28-12 (114th), Chloe Chapman 28-15 (116th), Vicky Archer 28-16 (117th), David Pattman 28-34 (124th), Mo Warrillow 28-34 (125th), Debbie Blantern 28-56 (130th), Toby Eccleshall 29-25 (140th), Luke Silver 31-06 (161st), Helen Harris 36-20 (209th), Samantha Sutton 36-44 (215th), Angie Waters 39-35 (230th), Roger Biggs 48-41 (240th).
Sunny Parkrun at Stevenage
Other away day results:
Cassiobury (Watford, Herts): Jonathan Parr finished fourth out of 405 runners on the two and half flat lap course. Jonathan finished with a time of 16-26, gaining a Parkrun PB in the process. Jonathan also finished thirteen seconds behind the first finisher, six seconds behind second and five seconds behind third. Very tight at the business end of the field.
Daventry (Northamptonshire): Darryl Stevens 39-05 (178 out of 192 runners).Fareham (Hampshire): Mike Reynolds 31-39 (146 out of 223 runners).
Millfield (North Yorkshire): Caroline Croft 32-08 (66 out of 107 runners).
Panshanger (Hertford): Jane Whitrow 52-51 (222nd out of 222 runners).
There were perfect conditions for NICK GILL and GEORGIE HOOPER at the Stafford Half Marathon. They made the most of a fast course and both achieved substantial personal bests. Nick ran a 1:34:01 PB. His previous best was 1:37:50 at the Stevenage Half Marathon in 2017. Georgie ran a 1:48:58 PB. Her previous PB was 1:54:22 at the Richmond Half in 2019.
Great Yarmouth Endurance Weekend
Several Spartans enjoyed a weekend of running at Great Yarmouth.
After several disappointing runs this year JIM BROWN was a bit happier with his half marathon at Great Yarmouth managing to get under two hours with 1 hour 57 minutes 3 seconds, a year’s best by 5 minutes 22 seconds.
ELLIE McDERMOTT ran the half in 2 hours 28 minutes 18 seconds. A bit of a cold north easterly breeze but it stayed dry.
In the Great Yarmouth 10K CHRISTINE ZVEREV raced up and down the seafront and finished in 64 minutes 29 seconds.
Happy campers at Great Yarmouth!
Ashridge Boundary Run
SUSAN McANENY and ZOE JACKSON had a beautiful spring day to enjoy the scenic and very undulating course of the Ashridge Boundary trail run.
They thoroughly enjoyed the run, taking it at a casual pace and walking some of the bigger hills. They enjoyed reaching Ivinghoe beacon and the views that rewarded them with.
They finished the 16.5 miles in 3 hour 10 minutes and enjoyed the homemade cake at the finish!
THOMAS SAUKA finished in 2:42:39 and WENDY THARANI in 3:42:36.
Blue skies and sunshine at Ashridge!
Parkrun Highlights 19th March
Twenty-four Fairlands Valley Spartans ran in the Spring sunshine at Parkrun events this weekend, making it a Saturday morning of milestones.
TOBY ECCLESHALL ran his 100th event on the Stevenage course in a time of 23 minutes and 26 seconds while DARRYL STEVENS ran for the 190th time at the Brockenhurst event in 45 minutes and 48 seconds.
At Woodhouse Moor, Leeds PAUL MAGUIRE ran a parkrun PB times of 23 minutes and 9 seconds. Paul said, “This was a three lap run around the park with a hill climb at the end of each lap and the end. It was a big field of 450 runners and I was very pleased with my time of 23:09. I was 97th overall and third in my age category.”
NICK KLEANTHOUS ran a parkrun PB at Preston Park with 25 minutes and 25 seconds.
In addition, STEVE WELLS was third overall in Thetford running a time of 20 minutes and 24 seconds.
If you thought last week was good this week was amazing for Spartan results.
Seven Victories in Seven Days for Adrian Busolini
It’s hard to describe the achievement of Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI who ran seven marathons in seven days, WON all seven of them and broke the event record by more than 30 minutes. He is the Enigma Week @ the Knees Champion following an incredible week in Milton Keynes. Adrian’s total time was 22 hours 56 minutes 11 seconds, so he took 39 minutes 24 seconds off of the course record.
His average time for each of the seven marathons was 3 hours 16 minutes 36 seconds. His fastest: 2:53:11, and his slowest 3:33:58.
Here’s his story:
“Seven marathons in seven days with 7 wins and a new7 in 7 record (finishing the last one in 3:05:09). Enigma Week @ the Knees Champion.
After the Arc of Attrition, I felt I could use a different sort of challenge. One that didn’t involve wading through bogs, or slipping down rocky paths in the middle of the night. The answer popped up on my Facebook feed: Foxy from Enigma Running had one place remaining on his “Week at the Knees” 7 marathons in 7 days race.
The journey started on Monday at Willen Lake. I planned to run easy 3:30s. However, once I got going, I was delighted with my free-flowing gait and got a bit carried away, finishing in 2 hours 53 minutes – barely five minutes shy of my personal best (PB). This seemed to raise a few eyebrows amongst the competition. Unfortunately, this was immediately followed by my picking up a flat tyre on my return journey, which threw a major spanner in the works for my recovery plan!
On Tuesday, I paid for Monday’s hard effort and impaired recovery with a 3:19 finish. Still quick enough to secure first place, but the effort it took felt significantly greater than my 2:53. Wednesday followed a similar pattern, with muscular tightness and fatigue taking its toll, resulting in a 3:33 finish, my slowest of the week. By this point, I was sensing I might have blown my chances on the very first day. Would I be able to recover and complete the week?
Thursday brought a change of venue to Caldecotte Lake. The different scenery, coupled with fantastic sunny conditions, on-site support from FVS’ own ultra legend John Nelms, and a friend who joined the race alongside me (taking first female spot), all helped raise my mood. I kept it fairly slow & steady, and at least managed a more consistent race, finishing in 3:28. This felt much better than the previous two days. Was I recovering?
Post-race, John dropped the idea to Foxy and I that the course record of 23 hours 35 minutes, set back in 2014, might be achievable. Back at home, I calculated it would take an average of 3:26 on the remaining days for me to break it. The seed had been planted.
So on Friday I set out with the goal of running 3:15, to give myself 5 minutes more leeway heading into the weekend. It was, frankly, a horrible day: I was battling intermittent muscular problems, a caloric deficit, and all without knowing whether I was, as I hoped, recovering from Monday. Despite not looking at my watch for the last half, I ran 3:14:45, hitting my target pace more or less dead on.
Saturday revealed a mysterious problem with my tibialis anterior. It could have been anything from a muscular injury to a nasty bite. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to complete, and was prepared to bow out if need be, but otherwise set myself a target of 3:25 to give myself another eight minutes leeway on Sunday. Fortuitously, whatever it was resolved itself over the first 10k, enabling me to dig in and secure a 3:21 finish. Going into Sunday, so long as I completed, I was guaranteed the overall win. The question was whether I could break the course record by running sub 3:44.
Frankly, Sunday felt like a formality, but it was still a marathon that needed to be run. There were lots of fresh faces today, and even though I set off at pace, two of them sat alongside me for the first couple of kilometres. I feared I might have to settle for a third place finish today, but when I tested them by increasing the pace by some 20 secs/k, they both dropped off. That was the last I’d see of them.
The rest of the race was a case of focussing on the task at hand. I vaguely fancied the sub-3, but was cautious about applying too much speed, just in case I pulled something in the final furlong. So it was a case of keeping the pressure on to keep my two rivals at bay, whilst juggling gels, electrolytes and pace changes to make it as comfortable as one can on the seventh day of marathoning. I finished the final race in 3 hours 5 minutes 9 seconds taking 39 minutes 24 seconds off the event record with a total of 22 hours 56 minutes 11 seconds.
And with that, I won the Week at the Knees, breaking the course record by over 30 minutes. For good measure, I won each individual day too. This was my first attempt at the multiday format, and I think it went fairly well.”
Milton Keynes Festival of Running
There were two Spartans at the Milton Keynes Festival of Running. STUART ARCHER ran a great new 20 mile personal best of 2 hours 20 minutes 13 seconds and JOHN HARRIS completed the 10K in 42 minutes 45 seconds for 37th out of the 576 finishers. John commented it was a great course with a sting in the tail – a horrible hill in the last mile.
Stuart and John tackling Milton Keynes
Oundle 20 Miles
There was a new (personal best) PB for ROBERT WRIGHT at Oundle. He ran the 20 miles in 2:36:40 for 67th overall.
Robert with his medal after achieving a pb!
Burghley 7
ROB EVANS took part in the Burghley 7 mile race that took place in and around the Burghley House Estate in Stamford, near Peterborough, which is best known for hosting the Burghley Horse Trials each year.
Burghley House is the ancestral home of the Cecil family and the house provided a stunning backdrop to the event. Weather conditions were good and Rob completed the seven mile race in 59:34 despite a nosebleed at mile 3!
Rob and a friend proudly showing off their medals!
Inter County Cross Country
JONATHAN PARR finished sixth scorer, i.e. counted for the team, for Hertfordshire, 211th overall, in the Inter County Cross Country men’s senior race on Saturday.
Jonathan (third from the right) with his team mates.
Yuko Is A National Champion
Spartan YUKO GORDON is a national champion. She won GOLD at the British Masters Cross Country Championship (National) in Tonbridge, Kent on Saturday
Yuko won W70 over one of the toughest cross country courses 6km (for all women 35+ and men 65+, 8km for men 40-64). If the boggy Parliament Hill is a 10, this was 9, probably Royston Heath is much kinder by comparison at 7.5. It was a long up slope followed by steep up hill, down to catch up the speed before next up with ditches and slippery mud between. The top three of Yuko’s age group W70 were very competitive and all faster than the winner of younger category W65. It was very competitive race and winning it was fantastic.
Our amazing Yuko!
Parkrun Highlights 12th March
CIARAN MCANENY leads the way this week as the fastest parkrun Spartan running at Holy Cross College parkrun in Northern Ireland, finishing at 18:07.
Fastest lady goes to HAZEL SMITH who completed Stevenage Parkrun in 23:41 which was a year best (YB).
Hazel said, “A week after my 20 miler and I’m over the moon to have a year’s best at Stevenage parkrun today. I was fourth female and first in my age category with 23:41.”
Flying Hazel – amazing work!
There were plenty of unofficial milestones achieved by members this week, with LUKE SILVER completed 40 Parkruns, PAUL SHELLEY with 50, ALISON SHELLEY with 80 and MO WARRILLOW with 150.
GRANT RAMSAY ran his eleventh sub 20 minutes parkrun in succession at Stevenage with 19 minutes 39 seconds.
There were some fantastic performances from many of the thirteen Fairlands Valley Spartans racing the Cambridge Half Marathon on Sunday morning.
The fastest from Fairlands, and wow it was fast – he set a phenomenal new personal best, was SIMON JACKSON with 1 hour 12 minutes 30 seconds. 90 seconds is a lot at that standard. He was 48th out of about 10,000 finishers in the whole race AND third in his age category. The fastest female from the club was MICHELLE REEVES in 1:30:24.
VICKY ARCHER took about ten minutes off her Half Marathon personal best (PB) which was set at Hampton Court two years ago. On Sunday she was well under two hours with 1 hour 56 minutes 18 seconds. She said she trained so hard and is feeling quite proud of herself.
MARIAN MORLEY was delighted to report a new half marathon PB of 1:58:35 – improving by over nine minutes. Her previous best HM was 2:07:36 at the London Big Half in 2021. She surprised herself by running without stopping with an even cadence throughout and splits that only varied by 30 seconds – perhaps helped by being a fairly flat course. Her son William volunteered as a helper for the event and cheered all the runners on from the side.
LINDA GEORGE had a great time. On her way to a new half marathon PB of 2 hours 8 minutes 27 seconds she ran her best time ever for 5K, under 30 minutes, and her best time ever for 10K, under 60 minutes.
Then ELLIE McDERMOTT improved by 24 minutes 27 seconds in a week. She ran the Welwyn Half in 2:43:04 but Cambridge in 2:18:37.
Want to improve? Fairlands Valley Spartans offer training sessions on five days a week and now can arrange one to one coaching sessions. All are free to members.
Meanwhile JIM BROWN was content to continue his recovery, proving to himself that he can again run 13.1 minutes without stopping and trimmed his 2022 time by 26 seconds to 2:02:25.
The other Spartans included STUART HAYCROFT in 1:28:55 and MARTIN JACOB in 1:54:14.
Spartans at Cambridge.
Essex 20
WENDY THARANI, CATHY CRAIG and HAZEL SMITH travelled to Debden Airfield, near Saffron Walden to compete in the Essex 20. Hazel said it was a lovely course with five loops of four miles each. Some sections were quite exposed with a chilly headwind but it was basically flat.
Hazel had a fantastic run. She cut her 20 mile time by 49 minutes and her personal best is now 2 hours 49 minutes 13 seconds.
Wendy Tharani had an outstanding run finishing in 3:45:39 after being ill all week and completing a 20 mile training run the previous week. Cathy Craig won her age category with 3:55:24.
Three happy ladies after doing fantastically well in Essex!
Silver for Andrew
It was silver for Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON in the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday. He was taking part in the 1500m. It was Andrew’s first race back after a hamstring tear two weeks ago. He’d worked really hard with the physio to get to the start line, albeit he said he was being held together by tape.
He finished in 4:19.43, took the silver medal and said he was very happy to just get through the race and not to make the hamstring worse.
Speedy Andrew never ceases to amaze us!
Second in Surrey 5K
It was second in Surrey for JONATHAN PARR in the Surrey 5K at Woking on Saturday. Morning. He was second overall and first male 35 plus in 16 minutes 9 seconds.
Parkrun Highlights 5th March
Anticipation of some hard races on Sunday meant there were only Spartans at three parkrun venues on Saturday and 18 stripes at Stevenage. This week there was a total of 259 finishers.
NICK GILL got a new personal best PB) of 20:06 on the occasion of his 80th parkrun. GRANT RAMSAY was in eighth position in another nineteen (19:29). Another top ten and sub 20 at Stevenage.
SUZY HAWKINS was first female in 21:11 on her 18th parkrun.
Nick, Grant and Suzy at Parkrun
Further afield PETER CARPENTER was at Squerryes Winery parkrun running a new PB of 42:57. DARRYL STEVENS was in Minehead clocking at time of 37:11.
Smiling Parkrunners at Stevenage.
53 Times Round a Lake
A big shout out for Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI who, as this was being written on Monday, was setting out on his quest to run seven marathons in seven days. That’s round and round Willen Lake in Milton Keynes.
There was clapping, eating and dancing on Friday evening as 88 Spartans enjoyed their presentation evening the first that’s been possible for two years.
This was a fantastic celebration of two years of achievements and an opportunity to enjoy each others’ company after so long.
Happy, Chatty Spartans
YUKO GORDON’s achievements at national and international level are well known and she is the club’s overall champion for 2021. She scored 96.7% in the short distance championship and 98.9% in the long. She was also voted Spartan of the Year.
SIMON JACKSON won the men’s championship.
Runners aren’t always clad in lycra!
As well as 27 awards based on the long and short distance championships the evening recognised the most improved Spartans – SAM SIMMONS and FIONA CLARKE; the Lisa Potter Starter of the Year SUSAN MURPHY and many of the club members whose voluntary efforts have made the club possible over a difficult period. They included WENDY THARANI (Chair’s Award); MARK FREEMAN (President’s Award; PETE SMITH (Head Coach’s Award) and SHARON and MIKE CROWLEY (Captains’ Awards).
Everyone had a lovely evening
A great night at the Cromwell Hotel, Old Stevenage which finished with some very energetic dancing.
(All the presentation evening winners can be found near the end of this release).
Welwyn Half
The Welwyn Half Marathon is a bit of a hybrid with 1.5 miles of trail including some quite slippery sections and narrow footpath and pavement which caused some delays in the busy middle third of the field. However the cold start turned into a pleasant sunny morning with a tailwind finish and there were some massive efforts from the thirteen Spartans.
For a flattish course SUZY HAWKINS was surprised how hard the Welwyn Half Marathon felt with off road sections and narrow bumpy pavements that seemed busy with non runners. She said she was disappointed with her time, but collecting third placed female was nice. Suzy finished in 1 hour 32 minutes 46 seconds (1:32:46).
Smiling Spartans with their medals!
DAVID HARRIS – CHERGUIT said it was great to see so many smiling Spartans out Sunday morning. He was sixth overall out of the 387 finishers in the race and third man 40 plus with 1 hour 21 minutes 35 seconds.
ANDREW VAUGHAN was second male 50 plus in 1:31:38. ASHLEY KING took a third place in the women 35 plus contest with 1:45:40.
There was a personal best (PB) of 1 hour 37 minutes 59 seconds for ROBERT WRIGHT. A great achievement on a tricky course.
JIM BROWN said it was a good quality Sunday 13 mile training run and although a little disappointed he improved his 2022 half marathon time by ten minutes to 2:02:51.
Thirteen Spartans ran. Others were MIKE JEFFS 1:34:39; JOHN NELMS 1:46:21; MARK GOODWIN 1:47:10; LUKE SILVER 1:54:45; NEIL ROBINSON 2:07:31; SIMON SYPULA 2:17:08 and ELLIE McDERMOTT 2:43:04
A few Spartans in action.
(Detailed results for all the Spartans can be found near the end of this release).
Baldock Beast
The Spartans that tamed the Baldock Beast
Six Spartans raced the Baldock Beast Multi-Terrain and Spartan JOHN HARRIS excelled by winning the male 50 plus category with 1 hour 34 minutes 53 seconds. He was 13th out of the 154 finishers.
John said six Spartans tamed the beast, which included 14 hills and 856 feet of ascent. It was definitely a run of two halves with negative splits, on a cold but sunny morning that warmed up during the race. He said he faded over the last mile and was passed by three quicker runners but very happy with a trophy at the end.
NICK GILL came in 25th with 1:40:38 and SUSAN McANENY comfortably beat the two hour barrier with 1:57:45. GEORGIE HOOPER and SUE HAMER came in with 2:04:49 and 2:11:47.
Despite running the National Cross Country the previous day TIM ROBINSON went round in 2 hours 11 minutes 47 seconds.
National Cross Country
Four Spartans went to Parliament Hill Fields, London for the National Cross Country Championships on Saturday. In the ladies race SHARON CROWLEY covered the eight kilometres (8K) in 59 minutes 18 seconds.
The men ran 12K with CIARAN McANENY taking 59 minutes 47 seconds; ANDY JAY 1:25:42 and TIM ROBINSON 1:28:05.
The usual generous helpings of liquid mud on that course.
Mud, glorious mud!
Battersea Park Chase the Sun
JONATHAN PARR came third overall and first man 35 plus in the RunThrough Battersea Park Chase The Moon 5K event on Wednesday. His time was 16 minutes 26 seconds.
Sunny Serpentine
It was mild, dry and sunny for Friday lunch-time’s Serpentine 5K run in Hyde Park and thinking about Sunday Spartan JIM BROWN was happy going round the two lap course in about nine minutes per mile to finish in 27 minutes 17 seconds. The winner took 15:27!
Parkrun Highlights 26th February
Eunice cancelled last Saturday’s race but there were 320 runners at this week’s Stevenage parkrun. Spartan GRANT RAMSAY was sub 20 and in the Top Ten again with 19 minutes 18 seconds and 6th Place.
Stevenage Parkrun
The Paignton parkrun was right next to where YUKO GORDON was staying for the weekend so she popped out to join. This was her first ever park run outside Hertfordshire. The course was supposed to be a mixture of velo park and the adjacent grass field which was boggy and swampy. So, Yuko was surprised to see many of the runners come in squeaky clean Nike alphafly. She was in Inova8 Mudcrow XC shoes. They changed the course just to three laps of the velo park and gravel path, no field. Yuko was first woman 70 plus, eighth woman and 61st overall out of 258 in 23 minutes 49 seconds.
Tables
All the winners at the FVS Presentation Evening:
Female Open Short – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Suzy Hawkins 73.0% 2nd Tracy Pez 61.4% 3rd Hazel Smith 59.0%
Female Age Graded Short – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Yuko Gordon 96.7% 2nd Cathy Craig 70.5% 3rd Alison Shelley 68.6%
Female Open Long – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Suzy Hawkins 72.3% 2nd Marie Colucci 62.1% 3rd Fiona Clarke 56.0%
Female Age Graded Long – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Yuko Gordon 98.9% 2nd Cathy Craig 65.1% 3rd Alison Shelley 63.8%
Male Open Short – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Andrew Patterson 80.3% 2nd Adrian Busolini72.8% 3rd Grant Ramsay 71.6%
Male Age Graded Short – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Simon Jackson 84.1% 2nd Brian White 82.2% 3rd Barry Osbourne 81.5%
Male Open Long – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Andrew Patterson 79.4% 2nd Danny Scanlon 66.6% 3rd Paul Shelley 63.5%
Male Age Graded Long – 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1st Simon Jackson 82.2% 2nd Grant Ramsay 75.0% 3rd Pete Smith 72.2%
Overall Champion – Male Simon Jackson
Overall Champion – Female Yuko Gordon
Overall Club Champion Yuko Gordon
Most Improved Spartan – Male – Sam Simmons Most Improved Spartan – Female – Fiona Clarke Lisa Potter Starter of the Year Award- Susan Murphy Chairs Award – Wendy Tharani Presidents Award – Mark Freeman Head Coaches Award – Pete Smith Captains Awards – Sharon Crowley and Mike Crowley Spartan of the Year – Yuko Gordon
Spartans at the Welwyn Half Marathon (27th February):
The individual results are out for the cross country league and Spartan CHRISTINE LATHWELL won the women 45 plus (45 to 54) category with just five points. She won all but one of the races she ran, in the other one she was second. TRACEY JACKSON was eighth with 51 points.
Tracey Jackson
In the senior race (up to 39) JONATHAN PARR was fifth with 26 points and ADRIAN BUSOLINI eighth with 56.
Jonathan and Adrian
(In these league events those with the lowest scores are the winners as your positions in your four best counting events are added up).
In Memory Of Lisa
Fairlands Valley Spartans past and present walked ten kilometres on Sunday in memory of Lisa Potter.
Lisa Potter was a very kind hearted Spartans who sadly lost her battle with cancer last year.
The starters award which will be given out at Friday’s presentation evening has been renamed The Lisa Potter Starters Award in her memory. Lisa attended the very first Spartan starters session and was a keen to be there every week. She was always friendly and very welcoming with new members.
Team Lisa!
Parkrun Highlights 19th February
The aftermath of Storm Eunice cancelled the Stevenage parkrun as there just wasn’t time to clear and check the course.
So this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit consists of a few stripes on tour. The biggest result comes from South Africa as STUART HAYCROFT took on the Grey Goose course at the Grey Goose Game Lodge in the North-East of the country. Stuart completed the 5km course in 20-33 finishing first out of 126 runners.
St Albans Parkrunners
Other away day results:
St Albans (Hertfordshire): DAVID PATTMAN 25-06 (52nd out of 207 runners), MO WARRILLOW 33-33 (170th) and STEVEN DOBNER 33-34 (171st).
Letchworth (Hertfordshire); GEORGIE HOOPER 30-38 (65th out of 108 runners), NICK GILL 30-39 (66th).
Panshanger (Hertford, Hertfordshire): TONY RANDFIELD 42-13 (184th out of 193 runners).
Westmill (Ware, Hertfordshire): ANDY JAY 26-13 (14th out of 76 runners).
Ifield Mill Pond (Crawley, East Sussex): DARRYL STEVENS 383-9 (108th out of 117 runners).
Fairlands Valley Spartan Jonathan Parr to Represent Hertfordshire!
As a result of doing so well in the County Cross Country race, speedy Spartan Jonathan has been selected to represent Hertfordshire Senior Men at the Inter Counties Cross Country race in Loughborough on the 12th March!
Subsequent to his selection he scored another top ten place in Sunday’s cross country league race on Therfield Heath.
Up, Down and Around Therfield for the Cross Country League
The final race in this season’s cross country league took place on Sunday and 32 Spartans were on Therfield Heath for the encounter. JONATHAN PARR and ADRIAN BUSOLINI were both in the top twenty with Jonathan tenth with 36:31 and Adrian 15th with 37:36.
Spartans in action!
CHRISTINE LATHWELL had a fantastic run. She was third Spartan to finish and fifth woman in the whole race with 39 minutes 56 seconds.
In this the last race the Spartan men were sixth out of 19 and their masters (or veterans) team eighth. The club’s women were mid-table at 10th out of 19.
It was a windy and very hilly course
Over the whole series the men were also sixth and the women tenth. In the combined scores, women and men, the Spartans were sixth.
Sprinting to the finish!
Love Welwyn 10K
Not quite the 14th February but fourteen Spartans enjoyed the Love Welwyn 10K and six were under 50 minutes. MIKE JEFFS and ANDREW VAUGHAN were pretty much locked together for the last couple of kilometres but Mike got away by just seven seconds at the very end to be 22nd overall in 41 minutes 35 seconds with Andrew 23rd in 41:42. NICK GILL was also in the top thirty at 27th in 42:30.
MARK GOOWIN just missed out on a podium place with fourth in the 60 plus category with 47 minutes 53 seconds.
CAROLE SHELDRICK was the fastest woman from Fairlands with 53 minutes 46 seconds.
The Spartans loved this race!
The other Spartans were CRAIG BACON 46:10; DAVID KENNEDY 48:34; CHRIS SAUNDERS 56:06; JIM BROWN 56:18; SUE HAMER 57:38; ERICA GRAYSON 58:43; MONICA SMITHSON 63:04; JONATHAN JONES 67:15 and DZENANA TOPIC in 68:40.
Happy and smiling!
Stamford 30K – Yuko
YUKO GORDON went to one of her annual fixtures. The Stamford 30K.
This was a very very hilly road race and one of the toughest road races in the region. The only positive was the beauty of the course. Yuko said she had often run poorly in this event in the past and Sunday was no exception. The wet and gusty condition over the uphills made her really think ‘why am I running?’ Still she was glad that she didn’t drop out but was 10 minutes slower than two years ago with 2 hours 30 minutes 7 seconds – still wining the 70 plus category.
41st Fat Choi
The 41st Fat Choi run celebrates the year of the tiger and YUKO GORDON ran this with CATHY CRAIG at Fairlands Valley Park.
It was a virtual 8k run and you could run between the 1st and 15th February. Yuko came in with a time of 52.51 and Cathy 53.23. Yuko used to belong to the Hong Kong Ladies Road Runners Club and it was a race that they did annually. Yuko has kept up the tradition.
Cathy and Yuko in their custom t-shirts
Parkrun Highlights 12th February.
There were only four venues covered this week but lots of Spartans were out getting their parkrun fix in Stevenage on Saturday.
GRANT RAMSAY was second in Stevenage in 19:10 and Alison Wood was first woman with 21:47. MARIAN MORLEY got a new PB of 25:47 on her 43rd parkrun. SAMANTHA SUTTON completed her 99th parkrun in 36:23. Former Chair and recently returned to the Club, TONY WILLSON, ran his first parkrun in 34:57.
Our colourful parkrunners at Stevenage
Further afield DARRYL STEVENS was at Brockenhurst (39:03).
A Spartan trio of PAUL SHELLEY, GEORGIE HOOPER and NICK GILL made a trip to Letchworth. Paul was 3rd overall in 21:46. Georgie and Nick finished in 28:55.
There were 29 Spartans at the Stevenage parkrun where there was a total of 303.
Our four legged Spartans also like to take part in Parkruns!
Tables
All 32 Spartans at Sunday’s Cross Country League Fixture:
Big hills and big puddles faced the seven Spartans who ran the Watford Half Marathon on Sunday. They splashed through to the finish.
On that course and in those conditions ROBERT WRIGHT ran an excellent 1 hour 42 minutes 27 minutes for the lumpy 13.1 miles. Five minutes later MATT CLARKE came in with 1:47:58.
FIONA CLARKE ran a well judged event to get close to two hours with 2:03:36. JIM BROWN said he had a terrible day in his running office but was in the middle of a little cluster with SUE HAMER 2:11:18; Jim at 2:12:23 and WENDY THARANI at 2:13:18.
SHARON CROWLEY ran a good steady half marathon and came in smiling with 2:33:30. There were 1,083 finishers.
Stripy smiles at Watford Half despite the big puddles!
Parkrun Highlights 5th February.
Fairlands Valley Spartan members were out in force on the first Parkrun of the month, aka Stripey Saturday. Forty four members took part at seven different venue across the country.
NICOLA ANDERSSON ran a Personal best of 26:01 at Stevenage in her 90th Parkrun, also taking the title of fastest Spartan lady this week. JONATHAN PARR was the fastest Spartan crossing the line at 17:01 at Stevenage and was first in the event.
Happy Spartans on Saturday morning!
New Spartan JANE WADEY completed her 20th Parkrun in 34:19, a new PB!
DARRYL STEVENS ran at Great Salterns Parkrun, Portsmouth, for the first time finishing with a time of 40:00. Astonishingly, this was the 94th venue he has tried out!
Special mention to TONY RANDFIELD who achieved the highest age grade percentage this week with 80.26%, getting into national class level.
Although there were no official milestones achieved by members this week, CHLOE CHAPMAN has reached 70 runs at Stevenage.
At least 32 out of another great total of 346 finishers at Stevenage were Spartans. Well done all!
Spartan YUKO GORDON broke the British road 5 kilometres age record for women on Friday. Running at the Last Friday of the Month Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park she finished in 21 minutes 53 seconds beating the previous record for women aged 70 plus of 22:08 set by Angela Copson by 15 seconds. It was also a race record. While many runners would be happy with an age related score around 70% Yuko achieved 96.5%!
There was also a good run by new Spartan ASHLEY JOHNSON who won her category and got a new personal best (PB) of 21 minutes 5 seconds.
Speedy Spartan Ashley Johnson.
Completely outshone by the two Spartan women JIM BROWN was nevertheless pleased to get under 28 minutes for the first time in what seemed like ages. In fact with a dash for the line he beat 27 minutes with 26:58.
Jim was pleased with his time.
The Serpentine 5K is a long established running club event. Great to enjoy on a Friday lunchtime or if you are after a personal best or even a record it’s accurately measured and properly timed.
It was a good day to run – mild, dry and with a modest breeze. The next Serpentine 5K will be on Friday 25th February.
Adrian’s Arc of Attrition
Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI completed the 100 miles Cornish Coastal Path “Arc of Attrition” ultra marathon in 28 hours 12 minutes 31 seconds.
Adrian’s amazing weekend in Cornwall!
Here’s his story:
“I didn’t even know what the Arc was when I added my name to its waiting list sometime last year; it was just “some legendary race” that I should probably run at some point. So it wasn’t until I was offered a place in November, that I read the website and learned the basics. January, 100 mile, Cornwall, coast path. I’d already run part of the route in the 70k Classic Quarter back in May. I rated that as one of the toughest runs I’d done, and for some reason I assumed I’d likely experienced the worst bits of the coastal path.
I learned a bit more about it in the weeks preceding the race; notably the infamous Pendeen-St Ives section, and consequently bought an awful lot of new kit. Also, only having 4 aid stations, and 1 drop bag, presented some real challenges for an uncrewed runner like me. The most kit I’d carried before was during the CCC; but even there, I hadn’t needed to carry 5kg of supplies in a 12l pack. Water resupply was an open question.
The weather conditions were described as unusually favourable, and we joked about course PBs on the start line, before the drums rang out and the blue smoke was deployed to signal the start of the Arc.
The Arc is a bit of a beast. The section through Lizard to Marazion is technical, tough coastal running. In May, when I ran the Classic Quarter, it was slippery. In January, it’s more slippery. And it’s pretty relentless up-and-down stuff. The downs in particular are awkward; you can’t easily use them to regenerate, as their awkwardness means you’re usually having to break, and thus pummel your quads, which you know you’ll pay for later.
Marazion to Mousehole (via Penzance) is flat and easy, a nice period to recover & pile on the miles. But Mousehole to Land’s End is extremely technical. It’s only runnable in very short bursts. It was tough in the Classic Quarter, and it’s tougher in the Arc when it’s at night. In places, one’s foot and entire lower leg disappear into mud. When the shining lights of Land’s End Hotel rise like the sun over the crest of the hills, they act like a beacon of hope in the loneliness of the mizzley night. At this point, my shoes were full of water, mud, sand, and stones; so my drop bag, and fresh pair of shoes and socks, at Land’s End made the world of difference.
Pendeen to St Ives is a borderline ridiculous race section. There’s about 20km of night-time rock-hopping, mud-wading, clambering, scrambling, slipping and sliding. In places, my knees were swallowed up by the mud. Progress was painfully slow. Meanwhile, time ticks away.
Arriving into St Ives was a huge relief, where I did my best to dust the worst of the debris from my socks (a lost cause), before getting back to the job of polishing off the last 35km. An easier section; initially road, then back to the coastal path, interrupted by the infamous “Dunes of Doom”, before I finally focussed back on my finishing time and place, and began to rein in those ahead of me. I must have gained 5-10 places in the final 10km.
The finish through Porthtowan, ending with a brilliant hill climb up to the Eco Park, was a thoroughly enjoyable end to what was an extremely tough race. I got a gold buckle for a sub-30 hour finish, which I’ll take with pleasure. It was a race I was simply happy to finish uninjured. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my two pairs of socks: I fear they are both ‘beyond economical repair’.
I finished in 28:12:31, putting me around 31st place.”
Parkrun Highlights 29th January.
Late January and it was amazingly mild and sunny for the 227th Stevenage parkrun. Many runners were in shorts and running vests without the extra layers that might be expected at this time of the year. 326 finishers this time including 24 Spartans.
Altogether thirty-nine Fairlands Valley Spartans ran at Parkrun events around England.
PB times were recorded at the Westmill course for Danny SCANLON. Danny completed the event in 21 minutes and 36 seconds, finishing sixth overall.
Also hitting milestones were both MATT CLARKE and TONY RANDFIELD who ran in Stevenage. Here they completed their 80th and 90th Parkruns respectively, in times of 26 minutes and 47 seconds and 21 minutes and 6 seconds. MIKE REYNOLDS also hit 80 runs with a time of 26 minutes and 8 seconds at the Panshanger event.
GRANT RAMSAY was fourth overall in Stevenage in a time of 19 minutes and 15 seconds.
The next stripy Saturday will be this Saturday 5th February.
Fairlands Valley Spartans sent men’s and women’s teams to the county road 10 mile championships for veterans in St Albans on Sunday. Veterans start at age 35 for women and 40 for men with age category breaks every ten years. The championships were incorporated into the open Fred Hughes 10 race.
There were 415 women and 410 men in the race.
Clearly ABIGAIL PEZ could not count towards a veterans’ team but she did WIN the race for women under 20 with a new personal best (PB) of 1 hours 18 minutes 53 seconds. That’s seven and a half minutes faster than her previous ten miles PB!
The fastest Spartan was ADRIAN DONNELLY in the first 100 of the 825 finishers with 67 minutes 16 seconds. At 99th he led in the Spartan men’s team with JOHN HARRIS 135th in 1:09:49; PETE SMITH 193rd in 1:13:01; and MARK GOODWIN 293rd in 1:18:32.
It was teams of three in the women’s race and YUKO GORDON and ASHLEY JOHNSON were well up there at 54th and 62nd out of 415 women. Yuko, running against people several years younger than her, was second in the 65 plus category in 1 hour 15 minutes 35 seconds and took SILVER in the County Championships. She had a higher age related score which was 95.00%! MARIE COLUCCI impressed at 83rd woman and was the Spartans third counter with 1:18:45.
A selection of our 10 milers with Abi winning in the first square!
Ten women were running for the Spartans. The others were TRACY PEZ, 90th woman in 1:19:26; WENDY THARANI 1:31:37; CAROL PAUL 1:35:45; SUE HAMER and ERICA GRAYSON both in 1:42:37 and SHARON CROWLEY 1:51:10.
The other three men were ANDY JAY 1:31:40; JIM BROWN happy to get round “steady state” in 1:33:48 and recovering after recent mishaps and PAUL HOLGATE 1:49:26.
In addition ANN TRYSSESOONE was not eligible for the Spartan teams but finished in 1 hour 26 minutes 40 seconds.
All this on the undulating roads and lanes to the south west of St. Albans including Potters Crouch, Chiswell Green and a favourite climb up past mile six to the edge of Bedmond. So good to see this classic club organised race back.
These were the mildest conditions many veterans of the Fred Hughes Ten could remember. It’s usually notorious for icy patches, snowing during the event, freezing winds or just chucking down large amounts of very cold rain.
The next county road championships will be at the Watford Half Marathon on Sunday 6th February.
(The Spartans results table can be found near the end of this release).
Spartan Women Jump In Cross Country
Much greater participation helped boost the Fairlands Valley Spartans women’s team to fourth out of nineteen clubs in the latest cross country league race which was at Watford. They won the veteran women’s team race.
This time there were five Spartan women in the top fifty and eighteen running. They were twelfth, eleventh and eleventh in the first three races so this is a tremendous improvement. The women’s “A” team were CHRIS LATHWELL, SUZY HAWKINS, TRACEY JACKSON, YUKO GORDON and HAZEL SMITH.
The Spartan men were seventh at Watford with JONATHAN PARR in the top ten out of 405 finishers. In the combined scores over the series so far the Spartans are seventh. The final event will be on Therfield Heath, Royston on Sunday 13th February.
A WIN for Jonathan – RunThrough Olympic Park 5k
On Saturday morning Spartan JONATHAN PARR WON the Olympic Park 5K with a time of 16 minutes 9 seconds.
Another great win for Jonathan!
Ciaran At Peddars
CIARAN MCANENY got fifth place overall at the 48 mile Peddars Way Ultra in a time of 6 hours 52 minutes.
The race follows the Peddars Way Trail from Knettishall Heath, just north of Bury St Edmunds, to Holme-next-the-Sea on the North Norfolk coast; on a mix of forest path, bridleways and road.
Beautiful, crisp, sunny weather kept the trails firm and the late morning sun was just warm enough to make for comfortable running temperatures.
All went to plan in terms of pacing and nutrition with Ciaran finishing 24 minutes faster than his previous outing on the course.
Ciaran was very happy and, after missing most of last year’s racing due to niggling injuries, it was great to be back on such a nice course and in a really well run and friendly event
Ciaran still smiling after an impressive 48 miles!
Fast Five for Feetham
Three laps 33:40 52nd out of 680.
KIERAN FEETHAM did the Romsey 5 mile race on Sunday. Although it’s classed as multi-terrain with a 700 metres non-tarmac section for each of the three laps it’s flat and fast.
The race was delayed by 15 minutes and Kieran had to warm up again as it was cold. He said he found a good group to stay with for the first three miles but then unfortunately got held up trying to pick his way through some back markers and lost that group. So he ended up on his own into a headwind. The last mile marker was in the wrong place so Kieran was slightly panicking why it was taking so long to complete it but he was happy to hold on for a new PB (personal best) of 33 minutes 40 seconds. An improvement of 1 minute 42 seconds. He was 52nd out of the 680 finishers.
Speedy Kieran with his well earned medal!
Parkrun Highlights 22nd January 2022
Yet another record was set at Saturday’s Stevenage parkrun. This was the 27th since parkrun restarted for the 200th local run and this time there were 365 finishers. The highest number since lock down. Despite some holding back for a ten mile championship race on Sunday twenty five Spartans completed a Parkrun this week, on a cold, crisp, sunny morning.
GRACE COVENTRY ran a parkrun personal best (PB) of 24 minutes 22 seconds at Stevenage, also taking the title of fastest Spartan lady this week. GRANT RAMSAY was the fastest Spartan crossing the line at 19:24 at Stevenage.
Some of our Stevenage Parkrunners.
DARRYL STEVENS ran at Great Salterns Parkrun, Portsmouth, for the first time finishing with a time of 40:00. Astonishingly, this was the 94th venue he has tried out!
ANTON McCALLA (27:46 at Market Harborough) and PETER CARPENTER (44:29, Squerryes Winery) completed their first parkruns of the year.
JIM BROWN (28:45) won his category and KARL SHREEVE (28:47) achieved a year best at Stevenage.
Although there were no official milestones achieved by members this week, three Spartans have reached 70 runs at Stevenage with LEE PICKERSGILL finishing at 24:23, TRACY HAYGARTH at 31:51 and HELEN HARRIS finishing at 52:44.
It’s stripy Saturday on Saturday, 5th February.
Tables
Spartans at the Fred Hughes 10 (including a county championship).
These are chip times, the time from when the runner crosses the start line to when they cross the finish line. Gun times are “bang” to finish line and it can take those at the back several minutes to start.
Fairlands Valley Spartan JONATHAN PARR was in the top ten for a cross country race for the second week in a row. Last week he was eighth in the county championships. This time he was seventh in the cross country league fixture in Cassiobury Park, Watford covering the six undulating miles in 36 minutes 12 seconds.
The club had a good turnout of 24 men and 18 women in the race of nineteen clubs and 405 runners. That meant they had three men’s and three women’s teams finish the race. League teams consist of eight men and five women.
Their fastest woman was CHRIS LATHWELL, 45th overall in 40 minutes 22 seconds. She was fifth woman out of 169. Next came SUZY HAWKINS, 124th in 45:17 and TRACEY JACKSON, 186th in 49:31. YUKO GORDON was 198th in 50:12 and HAZEL SMITH fifth counter for the women’s “A” team in 225th with 51:57. This time the Spartans had five women in the top fifty female runners.
In addition to Jonathan Parr the Spartan men had a strong team this time with ADRIAN BUSOLINI 17th in 37:58; KELVIN BEYOKU 39th in 39:47; GRANT RAMSAY 61st in 41:48; STEVE WELLS 104th in 44:10; DANNY SCANLON 106th in 44:17; STUART ARCHER 121st in 45:13 and NICK GILL in 46:48.
(All 42 Spartan times are near the end of this release. The team scores will be released by the league later this week).
Parkrun report for 15th January
34 Spartans took part across nine different parkuns including the Spartans’ homebase of Stevenage.
Grant and Ashley both clocking fantastic times!
Numbers at Stevenage were still high with 27 Spartans contributing to a new post lockdown record of 353 people taking part. GRANT RAMSAY was fifth overall in 19 minutes 13 seconds; ASHLEY JOHNSON was second woman and got a new parkrun personal best (PB) of 21:48 as did NICOLA ANDERSSON with 26:34. MO WARRILLOW was absent from her marshal position of “Mo’s corner” as she was running her second parkrun after returning from injury. She finished in 46:52 which was great after such a long absence from running. JIM BROWN reached an unofficial milestone of 70 parkruns.
It may of been damp and foggy but the weather doesn’t put the Spartans off from what they do best!
MARTIN WOOD was a “first timer” in Sheffield at Endcliffe parkrun (22:53) for his 15th parkrun. Another first timer, CATHY CRAIG joined a large field of 546 runners at Bournemouth parkrun (31:04). Cathy said, “I was second in the WV65 age group with a time of 31:04. Due to temporary works on the path, the course had been changed this week to a mainly off road one which had teething problems – a long bottleneck after half a mile. They are likely to reroute again to avoid this problem.”
Smiles all round at Stevenage Parkrun.
DARRYL STEVENS was “tail walker” at Brockenhurst (47:09). MIKE REYNOLDS was at Panshanger (29:37); JOHN HARRIS was fifth at Letchworth (22:41),
Fred for the Championship
Fairlands Valley Spartans will be sending mens and womens teams to the county road 10 mile championships for veterans in St Albans this Sunday. Veterans start at age 35 with category breaks every ten years. The championships are incorporated into the open Fred Hughes 10 race.
Tables
All 42 Spartans at the cross country league race in Watford on Sunday 16th January.
Position
Name
Official Time
Gender / Cat
Comments
7
JONATHAN PARR
36:12
MS
MA
17
ADRIAN BUSOLINI
37:58
MS
MA
39
KELVIN BEYOKU
39:47
MS
MA
45
CHRIS LATHWELL
40:22
W45
FA. 5th woman.
61
GRANT RAMSAY
41:48
M40
MA
104
STEVE WELLS
44:10
M50
MA
106
DANNY SCANLON
44:17
M40
MA
121
STUART ARCHER
45:13
MS
MA
124
SUZY HAWKINS
45:17
W45
FA..18th woman.
141
NICK GILL
46:48
MS
MA
142
WILLIAM MORLEY
46:57
MS
MB
182
MARTIN WOOD
49:14
M50
MB
186
TRACEY JACKSON
49:31
W45
FA. 34th woman.
198
YUKO GORDON
50:12
W65
FA. 41st woman.
216
DAVID KENNEDY
51:25
MS
MB
218
MARK GOODWIN
51:31
M60
MB
225
HAZEL SMITH
51:57
W45
FA. 49th woman.
228
DANIEL BATES
52:16
MS
MB
232
MATT CLARKE
52:29
M40
MB.
254
LUKE GURNEY
54:00
MS
MB
261
DARREN EMMERSON
54:23
M50
MB
293
TIM ROBINSON
56:34
M50
MC
304
NICK KLEANTHOUS
57:15
M50
MC
306
CAROLE SHELDRICK
57:22
W45
FB
307
MARK FREEMAN
57:35
M60
MC
319
WENDY THARANI
58:27
W45
FB
330
FIONA CLARKE
60:05
W35
FB
337
NICOLA ANDERSSON
61:14
W45
FB
359
MARIAN MORLEY
64:33
W55
FB
360
JIM BROWN
64:36
M60
MC
361
JENNY GARRETT
65:20
W45
FC
362
VICKY ARCHER
65:20
W35
FC
371
KEN JUDE
66:21
M50
MC
374
JONATHAN JONES
66:59
M50
MC
380
SHARON CROWLEY
68:38
W55
FC
381
JAMES KILROY
68:52
M40
MC
384
PAUL HOLGATE
69:29
M60
MC
392
CHRISTINE ZVEREV
73:03
W35
FC
393
SHERYL HANN
73:04
W55
FC
395
MONICA SMITHSON
73:25
W55
398
CALLIE CHAPMAN
74:24
W35
403
NICOLA HATHERLY
78:41
W45
24 Spartan men. 18 Spartan women. 405 finishers. 169 women. FA means women’s (female) “A” team and so on.
Fairlands Valley Spartans at the Stevenage parkrun
Spartan JONATHAN PARR was a top ten finisher in Sunday’s Hertfordshire County Cross Country Championships for seniors (aged 20 and over). Fifteen Fairlands Valley Spartans tackled the championships which were at Stanborough Park, Welwyn Garden City.
Our County Men’s runners looking fresh before the race.
The county championships are a real step up in standard and this was a chance for Spartans to test themselves against many of the best in Hertfordshire.
First the women went on an eight kilometres (about five miles) course. NICOLA ANDERSSON was the fastest female from Fairlands with 43 minutes 38 seconds and in 53rd place. Next came LINDA NOLAN 67th in 51:45. SHARON CROWLEY came in 71st with 55:23; CATHY CRAIG 73rd with 57:23 and NIKKI NATION 74th in 60:43. Women’s teams consisted of the four fastest runners.
Our county lady runners having fun!
The men raced 11.25 kilometres (about seven miles) over five full laps. Jonathan Parr came in eighth in 46 minutes 48 seconds. Six men counted towards the team championships. Despite missing some of their faster runners the Spartans men’s team were 13th.
PAUL HEWETT was 58th in 53:45 and STUART ARCHER 69th in 55:16. The other “counters” were JOHN HARRIS 90th in 58:57; MARK WILLIAMS 99th in 60:13 and MARTIN WOOD 111th in 63:25. There were 127 finishers.
A selection of the stripy men in action!
(Result tables towards the end of this release).
There’s another opportunity to try cross country this weekend. The league race at Watford on Sunday morning 16th January.
Victoria Park Half
Both GERRY ROSEN and ROB WRIGHT competed in the Victoria Park Half Marathon on Sunday. Gerry said it wasn’t pretty. Rob helped get him round after a non existent few weeks running. They both finished in 2 hours 39 minutes 26 seconds.
Tony at the Essex Run Fest
New member TONY RANDFIELD ran the 5K at the Essex Runfest at Carver Barracks, Debden near Saffron Walden. He was fourth on chip time with 21 minutes 50 seconds and first in the men 60 plus category. There were 27 finishers. Tony said icy conditions prevented a really fast time but it is a flattish and fast course normally.
Parkrun report for 8th January
In this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit, two Spartans get a top ten place finish at Stevenage – GRANT RAMSAY fifth in 19 minutes 35 seconds and DANNY SCANLON 10th in 20:10. ASHLEY JOHNSON was third woman at Stevenage in a course PB (personal best) of 22:06. STEVE WELLS just missed out on a sub-20 minute time at Poole.
A few Spartans enjoying a damp Parkrun!
Stevenage Parkrun Results where 326 runners including 31 Spartans took part. GRANT RAMSAY 19 minutes 35 seconds (5th), DANNY SCANLON 20-10 (10th), ASHLEY JOHNSON 22-06 (32nd and third female finisher, plus course PB), TONY RANDFIELD 22-52 (38th), SAM SIMMONS 24-13 (60th), HAZEL SMITH 24-14 (61st, 5th female and 1st in her age category), MARTIN DUDLEY 24-30 (70th), DARREN EMMERSON 24-40 (72nd), MARIAN MORLEY 26-23 (106th and course PB), NICK KLEANTHOUS 26-39 (111th), MATT CLARKE 26-55 (114th), LEE PICKERSGILL 27-21 (124th), NICOLA ANDERSSON 28-18 (138th), DEBBIE BLANTERN 28-46 (154th), GRACE COVENTRY 29-00 (167th), SUSAN MCANENY 29-08 (168th), ZOE JACKSON 29-08 (169th), JIM BROWN 29-30 (175th), MIKE REYNOLDS 29-32 (176th), CLAIRE EMMERSON 31-08 (212nd), DAVID SCOTT 31-08 (213th), CAROLE SHELDRICK 31-43 (224th), CAROLINE CROFT 31-46 (226th), CHARLOTTE KEARNEY 32-42 (240th), PAUL JENNINGS 32-59 (243rd), CALLIE CHAPMAN 34-11 (255th), MO WARRILLOW 39-39 (302nd), STEVEN DOBNER 48-48 (322nd), DAVID PATTMAN 48-48 (323rd) and ROGER BIGGS 49-42 (324th).
Smiles and concentration all the way for the Spartans – was good to see some returning for the first time since injury.
Away days:
Poole (Dorset): STEVE WELLS 20-08 (26th out of 508 runners). Brockenhurst (Hampshire): DARRYL STEVENS 46-56 (124th out of 124th runners).
Four Fairlands Valley Spartans took on the New Year’s Eve 10K race at Peterborough. A congested start and muddy course slowed times but STEVE WELLS was second male 60 plus and 60th overall in 41 minutes 40 seconds; JOHN HARRIS 97th and fourth male 55 plus in 44:15; MARIA SWIFT 439th overall in 58:22 and PAUL HOLGATE 670th in 1:06:00.
There were 875 finishers. John Harris ran 2001 miles in the year 2021.
Steve crossing the finishing line!
Parkrun Highlights on New Year’s Day 1st January 2022
New Year’s Day 2022 and a lovely morning brought forty-five Fairlands Valley Spartans out to the first Parkrun events of the year.
JONATHAN PARR was first overall to finish the Stevenage course in a time of 16 minutes and 59 seconds, closely followed by GRANT RAMSAY and DANNY SCANLON with times of 19 minutes and 41 seconds and 20 minutes 8 seconds respectively. ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER was the second female at the event in 21 minutes and 39 seconds, and YUKO GORDON third woman in 23 minutes and 33 seconds.
Parkrun winner Jonathan!
Yuko won her age category as did CATHY CRAIG with her 34 minutes 16 seconds and JIM BROWN with his careful return to racing 29 minutes 56 seconds.
A few of our Spartan parkrunners
The 39 Spartans at Stevenage contributed to a post lockdown record of 351 parkrunners in Fairlands Valley Park.
Festive holidays meant a first time visit to Thetford for JAMES MCSWEENEY who completed the run in 25 minutes and 50 seconds, and to Haverhill for BARRY OSBORNE who ran the course in 25 minutes and 57 seconds.
The first Saturday of the month meant that the club stripes were out in force!
(Parkrun times for all 45 Spartans can be found near the end of this release).
Flitch Way for Tim
On New Year’s Eve TIM ROBINSON took part in the Flitch Way Marathon. The trail Marathon followed the Flitch Way from Felsted Eastwards to Rayne, then west as far as Takeley Street and back to Felsted. Following a lot of rain the old railway track was extremely boggy in parts, particularly miles 13 to 20. Although the warmest New Year’s Eve on record meant less layers the track seems flat but rises and falls continuously and is very wearing on the legs. Tim finished in 43rd place with a time of 5:25:07.
Tim looking as fresh as a daisy after his marathon!
Magnificent Seven Spartans Complete the Coasts and Borders
By the deadline of 31st December seven Spartans had completed the virtual challenge to run the coasts and borders of England, a total of 2,970 kilometres “starting” and “finishing” in Bristol.
They were PENNY SCHENKEL who finished in a moving time of 170 hours 51 minutes 5 seconds; JIM BROWN; BRIAN WHITE; PAUL HOLGATE; CATHY CRAIG: LIZ CROWLEY and SHARON CROWLEY.
This was one of the virtual events that kept Spartans going during the pandemic restrictions.
The Spartans of the Month for December were VICKY ARCHER and HAZEL SMITH. Vicky, FVS Vice-Chair, for all her work on Spartan social media and Hazel for encouraging so many people during training sessions and at cross country.
All twenty seven Fairlands Valley Spartans wanted for Christmas was to join in the festive Parkrun fun at six different locations around the country on Christmas Day.
Christmas number one goes to JONATHAN PARR finishing as first man with a time of 16:51. Spartans took one two at Stevenage with ADRIAN BUSOLINI (18:16) taking second place.
Adrian in his stripes had Jonathan’s green elf vest in his sights
The fastest female Spartan this week was TRACEY JACKSON who finished with a time of 23:43 and was the fifth fastest lady also at Stevenage.
Tracey leading the pack of Christmas cheer!
There were Santa, elves, Christmas crackers, little helpers, even grinches and most of the 22 Spartans at Stevenage stepped into Christmas Parkrun fun, dressed in festive clothing with a special shout out to CAROL SHELDRICK and CAROLINE CROFT dressed as elves.
Spartans two good elves!
Other Spartans were parkrun volunteers to help make it a special morning. There were 325 parkrunners in Stevenage.
Visiting relations GRANT RAMSAY enjoyed the Edinburgh parkrun which he finished in less than twenty minutes with 19:47 and 40th position out of 568.
All smiles for Grant after a sub 20 in Edinburgh!
There will be a New Year’s Day parkrun in Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage at 9a.m. on Saturday. It’s free but you need to register with parkrun beforehand.
Andrew Wins On Boxing Day
There was a lower attendance than usual at the Pirton Boxing Day run and miserable weather but spirits were high. Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON won the very muddy 3.2 mile event in 17 minutes 48 seconds.
Speedy Spartan Andrew never ceases to amaze us!
Cross Country Update
Fairlands Valley Spartans finished the cross country league fixture in Stevenage with more than three complete men’s and three complete women’s teams. In the participation table the club swept into second place with 45 with only Garden City Runners getting more round with 63. This time FVS overtook Royston Runners 42 and got well ahead of Trent Park 35; North Herts Road Runners 33; St Albans Striders 26; Team Trident 25 and Watford also 25. There are 19 clubs in the league.
This time in the race the Spartan men were again fifth out of nineteen but not far behind Garden City Runners. Their women were eleventh but only three points behind Ealing who were tenth. Now the Spartans are seventh out of nineteen in the combined team score following three races.
It was a murky and misty morning on 19th December but that didn’t stop more than 400 people enjoying five miles of cross country running around Fairlands Valley Park in the race which was organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans.
Let’s see what the club can do at the next league fixture which will be in Watford on Sunday 16th January.
The county cross country championships are in Welwyn Garden City on 9th January.
Paul Completes His Coasts and Borders
With more than four days of the year still to go PAUL HOLGATE completed his virtual coast of England challenge running the full 2,970 kilometres in a moving time of 383 hours, 53 minutes and 43 seconds.
Tables
Spartans at parkruns on Christmas Day:
Position
Gender Position
Name
Run Time
Stevenage parkrun
1
1
Jonathan PARR
16:51
2
2
Adrian BUSOLINI
18:16
20
18
Steve WELLS
20:27
60
5
Tracey JACKSON
23:43
61
53
Thomas SAUKA
23:44
70
59
Andy JAY
24:10
138
100
Tim ROBINSON
27:29
174
43
Ann TRYSSESOONE
29:05
176
119
Ken JUDE
29:09
184
48
Jo BOWDERY
29:31
189
126
Matt CLARKE
29:35
190
51
Fiona CLARKE
29:36
192
53
Claire EMMERSON
29:38
193
127
Darren EMMERSON
29:38
194
54
Debbie BLANTERN
29:45
235
72
Monica SMITHSON
31:51
236
73
Tracy HAYGARTH
31:58
242
77
Carole SHELDRICK
32:15
243
78
Caroline CROFT
32:15
244
79
Harriet PACE
32:19
272
96
Sharon CROWLEY
34:51
317
123
Helen HARRIS
44:53
Edinburgh parkrun
40
33
Grant RAMSAY
19:47
Houghton Hall parkrun
87
63
Michael O’KEEFE
29:30
Panshanger parkrun
83
72
Mike REYNOLDS
26:02
Lee-on-the-Solent parkrun
174
119
Edward HARE
27:24
Bartley Park parkrun
117
64
Darryl STEVENS
39:51
All 45 Spartan finishers at the Stevenage cross country (19th December):
Position
Name
Official
Gender
Category
Team
4
ANDREW PATTERSON
27:33
M
40
MA
9
SIMON JACKSON
28:30
M
40
MA
10
JONATHAN PARR
28:32
M
S
MA
46
CHARLIE WHITE
30:56
M
S
MA
57
KELVIN BEYOKU
31:32
M
S
MA
70
STUART ARCHER
32:27
M
S
MA
99
STEVE WELLS
33:30
M
50
MA
104
DANNY SCANLON
33:34
M
40
MA
142
MARK COLLINS
35:23
M
40
MB
146
JOHN HARRIS
35:30
M
50
MB
150
PETE SMITH
35:37
M
50
MB
164
THOMAS SAUKA
36:33
M
40
MB
186
STEVE MAYFIELD
37:27
M
50
MB
201
MARTIN WOOD
38:00
M
50
MB
210
YUKO GORDON
38:20
F
65
FA
218
TRACEY JACKSON
38:34
F
45
FA
226
CRAIG BACON
38:56
M
50
MB
236
MARK GOODWIN
39:15
M
60
MB
249
ANNABELLE WHITE
39:38
F
S
FA
273
MATT CLARKE
40:50
M
40
MC
276
TIM ROBINSON
41:02
M
50
MC
280
LUKE GURNEY
41:07
M
S
MC
284
TRACEY PEZ
41:16
F
45
FA
291
DAVID KENNEDY
42:02
M
S
MC
300
ZOE JACKSON
42:27
F
35
FA
301
DARREN EMMERSON
42:28
M
50
MC
306
ANDY JAY
42:44
M
50
MC
319
CAROLE SHELDRICK
43:47
F
45
FB
325
JON SYPULA
44:02
M
40
MC
326
MARK FREEMAN
44:04
M
60
MC
335
NICK KLEANTHOUS
44:55
M
50
338
FIONA CLARKE
45:12
F
35
FB
345
MARIAN MORLEY
45:49
F
55
FB
346
NICOLA ANDERSSON
45:50
F
45
FB
360
SIMON SYPULA
47:04
M
40
368
ROGER HARDMAN
48:01
M
70
382
MICHAEL O’KEEFE
49:43
M
50
396
CATHY CRAIG
52:11
F
65
FB
399
SHARON CROWLEY
53:07
F
55
FC
400
PAUL HOLGATE
53:18
M
60
411
JENNY GARRETT
56:03
F
45
FC
412
CALLIE CHAPMAN
56:12
F
35
FC
418
CHRISTINE ZVEREV
57:05
F
35
FC
419
HAZEL SMITH
57:05
F
45
FC
420
CLAIRE EMMERSON
57:06
F
45
16 women and 29 men. There were 421 finishers, 165 women and 256 men, altogether.
It was a murky and misty morning on Sunday but that didn’t stop more than 400 people enjoying five miles of cross country running around Fairlands Valley Park in a race organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans.
Increased participation by club members between races one and two in the Sunday cross country league lifted Fairlands Valley Spartans from tenth to seventh out of the 19 clubs taking part. Then on Sunday at the third race, in Stevenage, there was a season’s record of 45 Spartans finishing the race and dozens of others helping.
With well over 400 finishers it was easily the biggest turnout so far in this season’s league as well the biggest for the Spartans.
Stripes in the mist.
This time there were three Spartans in the top ten – ANDREW PATTERSON fourth in 27 minutes 32 seconds; SIMON JACKSON ninth in 28 minutes 29 seconds and JONATHAN PARR tenth in 28:36. Their eighth counter for the men’s “A” team was only just outside the top one hundred.
The Fairlands women put in a good performance with YUKO GORDON 210th overall (women and men) at 38 minutes 17 seconds; TRACEY JACKSON 218th at 38:21; ANNABELLE WHITE 249th at 39:35; TRACEY PEZ 284th at 41:12 and ZOE JACKSON completing the women’s “A” team of five in 300th at 42:26.
Spartans in action!
A good women’s “B” team is coming together as there was CAROLE SHELDRICK at 43:38; FIONA CLARKE at 45:00; NICOLA ANDERSSON at 45:40; and MARIAN MORLEY at 45:44. Others were helping with the event.
The other counters in the men’s “A” team were CHARLIE WHITE 46th at 30:54; KELVIN BEYOKU 57th at 31:40; STUART ARCHER 70th at 32:27; STEVE WELLS 99th at 33:23 and DANNY SCANLON 104th at 33:33.
Happy stripy runners having fun!
Not everyone can be in the “A” team but the way the league works having a good turnout means many Spartan runners can push other clubs back by getting in front of their slower “A” runners.
With the start and finish near the showground the eight kilometre race consisted of three laps of the southern part of Fairlands Valley Park. Not the liquid mud of the previous week but by hugging the park boundary runners found some tough climbs to test them.
It was good to welcome some new members trying their first cross country. A great event organised by race director WENDY THARANI and a good team of volunteers.
Our fantastic race director Wendy and her megaphone!
(All the Spartan finishers can be found in a table near the end of this release).
It’s unfortunate there is a delay waiting for the team results to be published but at Trent Park the combined Spartans jumped from tenth to seventh and their women from twelfth to eleventh (though only two points off tenth) while the men leapt from tenth to fifth. Let’s see what Sunday’s results bring and what the club can do at the next league fixture which will be in Watford on Sunday 16th January.
The county cross country championships are in Welwyn Garden City on 9th January.
Parkrun Highlights for Saturday 18th December 2021
It was a relatively quiet week for Spartans at Saturday’s parkrun the day before the cross country league race and as we approach Christmas and the end of 2021.
DARRYL STEVENS was a first timer at Bath Skyline parkrun (with a challenging uphill flight of 37 steps to negotiate!) in his 177th parkrun which he finished in 39:05. PAUL MAGUIRE was another first timer, this time at Exmouth parkrun completing the course in 26:01.
ED HARE was at his “home” parkrun of Lee-on-the Solent finished in 23:07. Just one Spartan representing FVS at Panshanger: MIKE REYNOLDS clocking 26:28.
Stevenage parkrun (14 Spartans; 221 runners)
There were 14 Spartans at the Stevenage parkrun. GRANT RAMSAY won a top ten place at sixth, and fifth man, with 20 minutes 33 seconds.
A big increase in Fairlands Valley Spartans participation meant the club did much better in race two of the Sunday Cross Country League which was in Trent Park, north London.
This time five of the first seven Spartans were seniors, the 18 to 34 age category, and there were eight Spartans in the first 100 finishers in the race. There were about 400 finishers from nineteen clubs and 37 of the 400 were Spartans.
Two complete Spartan men’s teams, teams of eight, and three complete women’s teams, teams of five, finished having survived Trent Park’s traditional helpings of liquid mud.
Muddy Spartan feet after the run – We wonder if they all clean their own shoes…
SIMON JACKSON led in the Spartan men’s “A” team. He was 16th taking 28 minutes 24 seconds for the 7.5 kilometres event. It was tight between JONATHAN PARR and ADRIAN BUSOLINI but Jonathan got it by nine seconds at 25th in 29:19 while Adrian was 26th in 29:28. New member KELVIN BEYOKU and PAUL HEWETT were racing round together. Kelvin was 52nd in 31:22 and Paul 54th in 31:25.
STUART ARCHER came in with 32:29 and 79th and STEVE WELLS was 88th with 33:08. DANNY SCANLON made it count in the “A” team at 123rd in 34:33.
CHRISTINE LATHWELL was the fastest female from Fairlands at 32 minutes 8 seconds and 74th. Christine was the sixth woman out of 154 in the race. TRACEY JACKSON came in next, 203rd at 38:10, with YUKO GORDON close up behind her, 206th at 38:14. WENDY THARANI came in at 306th with 45:19 and FIONA CLARKE completed the women’s “A” team at 320th with 46:08.
CHLOE CHAPMAN and VICKY ARCHER have improved hugely recently. Chloe was 339th in 47:49 and Vicky 340th also in 47:49. The last time Vicky ran this course, it was before the first lock down, she took over 50 minutes. They were the first two in the women’s “B” team.
(The team results are not yet available from the league organisers).
The next cross country league race will be this Sunday (!) and it’s in Stevenage. It will be three laps of Fairlands Valley south park (the showground end) and starts at 10.30a.m.
Happy smiling Spartans despite the lovely mud!
Harriet Chases The Moon
Wednesday evening new Spartan HARRIET PACE ran the Chase the Moon 5km at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, finishing in 29 minutes and 12 seconds – a 35 second PB (personal best).
Massive congratulations on your PB Harriet!
Yuko Won In Spain!
It’s been confirmed that Spartan YUKO GORDON won her age category at the Valencia Marathon with her 3 hours 29 minutes 2 seconds. That’s a big boost to her chances of qualifying for next year’s Age Group World Championships.
Apparently the woman originally declared the winner in the 70 plus category did not complete the full 26.2 miles.
A Track Half
53 laps of Wodson Park running track in Ware saw PAUL HOLGATE complete the Ware Track Half Marathon in 2:24:16.
Parkrun Highlights for Saturday 11th December 2021 – centuries
Three Spartans KEN JUDE, NICK KLEANTHOUS and KAREN PALMER ran their 100th parkruns on Saturday morning. Ken was 101st in 27:25; despite a penguin outfit Nick was 111th in 28:03 while Karen was showing off the century cape and was 179th in 33:44.
Our three Centenarians!
ASHLEY JOHNSON ran a new personal best (PB) of 22 minutes 10 seconds and was second woman in the race and 23rd out of the 224 runners. She almost certainly would have got under 22 minutes for the first time if it were not for the intervention of a loose dog at a critical moment.
BARRY OSBORNE won his age category with 22:22 and was 26th in the race. JIM BROWN won his with 27 minutes exactly achieving a target to get in the first hundred with 85th.
New member HARRIET PACE was first junior woman (15 to 17) in 31 minutes 16 seconds.
VICKY ARCHER new parkrun PB of 27:24 and was 100th.
The fastest Spartan was JOHN HARRIS with 21 minutes 2 seconds and 16th place. This week there were 28 Spartans.
A selection of our Stevenage Parkrunners.
Stevenage Parkrun Results where 224 runners took part.
John Harris 21-02 (16th), Ashley Johnson 22-10 (23rd), Barry Osborne 22-22 (26th), Sam Simmons 23-40 (40th), Martin Dudley 23-58 (46th), James McSweeney 24-39 (56th), Lee Pickersgill 26-30 (76th), Jim Brown 27-00 (85th), Vicky Archer 27-24 (100th), Ken Jude 27-25 (101st), Claire Pullen 27-38 (104th), Gail Mackie 27-40 (105th), Nick Kleanthous 28-03 (111th), Fiona Clarke 28-33 (120th), Matt Clarke 28-34 (121st), Chloe Chapman 28-57 (124th), Nicola Andersson 29-41 (133rd), Debbie Blantern 30-05 (139th), Andy Prior 30-19 (145th), Harriet Pace 31-16 (156th), Caroline Croft 21-21 (157th), Tracy Haygarth 32-11 (171st), Karen Palmer 33-44 (179th), Kerstin Weiner 33-45 (181st), Claire Emmerson 33-46 (182nd), Jenny Garrett 33-46 (183rd), Tim Robinson 37-05 (198th) and Helen Harris 51-26 (219th).
Cranbrook County (Devon): Darryl Stevens 37-19 (78th out of 86 runners).
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
Spartan SIMON JACKSON won the Festive Five road race at Welwyn Garden City on Sunday morning. He took just 27 minutes 56 minutes, a new personal best, to get round the tricky two lap course and finished nine seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
Simon Jackson at the Festive 5
Next in was JOHN HARRIS at 23rd with 35:05.
NICK KLEANTHOUS was one of many in fancy dress. He said it was a very well organised event with great marshalling. He finished in 43:47, that’s just over three minutes faster than last time, then enjoyed a lovely cake stall at end and the a box of chocolates handed out at the finish line.
ANDY JAY was delighted to maintain an average of eight minutes per mile and finished 45th with 39 minutes 54 seconds.
The fastest female from Fairlands was HAZEL SMITH in 42 minutes 20 seconds. ERICA GRAYSON and SUE HAMER went round in 48:25 and 48:30. Then there was a little Spartan procession of three with CATHY CRAIG in 50:40; PENNY SCHENKEL smiling in 50:50 and JIM BROWN in 50:51. Soon along came JONATHAN JONES in 51:54 and DZENANA TOPIC in 51:56. Twelve Spartans ran the event.
Nick, Hazel and Andy looking pleased with their winning choclates!
Pretty miserable and damp on the way to the start but the rain held off during the race itself and only started again on the way home.
(The full result for all twelve Spartans is near the end of this release).
Andrew Wins At Goodwood
Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON raced and WON the Goodwood Marathon on Sunday. It consisted of a short out and back followed by 11 laps of the motor racing circuit.
The wind was 18mph, whilst it was Glorious Goodwood with it behind him, the cross winds and facing the wind was tough going. The first nine laps were consistent at 13:59 to 14 minutes 12 seconds. But the last couple of laps were a slog. He could feel his legs cramping so it wasn’t until the final mile that he knew he would finish with a new personal best (PB).
The first half Andrew was in fourth place, but in the second half he moved up on to the podium and on the penultimate lap moved in to first. He took the race victory in 2 hours 37 minutes 26 seconds (2:37:26) beating his previous best marathon time by 4 minutes 20 seconds.
It was a great end to the race year for Andrew with PBs at 1500, 3000, 5K, 10K, 10 miles, half and marathon. He won the Stevenage Half Marathon two weeks ago.
Triumphant Andrew after his big win!
Yuko In Spain
YUKO GORDON ran the Valencia marathon. The course was flat, nice and warm but windier later in the morning. She managed an amazing time of 3:29:02.
Yuko had to run under 3 hours 48 minutes to claim the points she needed to qualify for next year’s Age Group World Championships, so she’s OK with 3:29. Yuko says she will rest from marathons till next spring, hopefully have a good rest from the distance and back to basic conditioning over this winter.
Three Canta With Santa
JOHN HARRIS and deer friend took part in the Santa Canta 5K in Letchworth and ran it in 26:06.
John and his friend Rudolph!
CAROLE SHELDRICK and new FVS member DAVID KENNEDY also enjoyed some festive fun at the NHRR Santa Canta 5K. David ran as a Christmas cowboy with a time of 25:56 and Carole as a Christmas Elf with a time of 33:25.
They said it was such a fun event and topped off with a medal and mince pie to finish.
Spartans getting into the festive spirit!
Running in the Chapel
A bit earlier than some years due to running calendar complications but many other Spartans enjoyed a festive Sunday trail run to Minsden Chapel. There were three choices of distance – 11 miles; 8 miles or 4.5 miles.
The annual Spartans ‘bench shot’ whilst running Minsden Chapel.
Parkrun Highlights for Saturday 4th December 2021
As we head towards the end of another year, the first Saturday of December saw twenty-four Fairlands Valley Spartans head out to represent the club at Parkrun events.
New personal best times were set by two runners on the Stevenage course. ASHLEY JOHNSON finished as the first female, at only her third Parkrun, with a new parkrun personal best (PPB) time of 22 minutes and 22 seconds; and CHLOE CHAPMAN was the 12th female to complete the run in her new PPB of 26 minutes and 39 seconds.
Also in Stevenage, both MARK BEASLEY and KAREN PALMER edged ever closer to attending 100 events with their 99th runs in times of 28 minutes and 47 seconds and 34 minutes and 31 seconds respectively.
Other milestone runs saw JAMES MCSWEENEY complete the Littleport parkrun and his 80th event in 24 minutes and 23 seconds; MIKE REYNOLDS finish his 75th Parkrun in 27 minutes and 58 seconds on the Endcliffe, Sheffield course; MICHAEL O’KEEFE ran at Houghton Hall in 28 minutes and 40 seconds to complete 125 events; and, DARRYL STEVENS reached his 175th run at Lancing Beach Green, West Sussex in 37 minutes and 14 seconds.
(You can find all the Spartan parkrun times near the end of this release).
Spartans Committee for 2021 / 2022
Fairlands Valley Spartans held their Annual General Meeting on Tuesday. There was a tremendous enthusiastic turnout at Stevenage Hockey and Cricket Club. The club’s chair David Scott reported that the Spartans recovery from the Covid period was good with 48 new members in just the last few months.
It was possible to organise a very successful Stevenage Half Marathon and the club’s five and ten mile handicap races. Now the Spartans are looking forward to two cross country leagues races before Christmas including the one they are hosting in Stevenage on 19th December. Then next year they are already planning for the return of the mid week 10K league; the 3K Relays in the Park; the off road challenge; the remaining fixtures in the 21/22 cross country league and they already have a date for the 2022 Stevenage Half Marathon – Sunday 6th November.
Brian White, head coach, added that despite the interruptions caused by COVID Fairlands Valley Spartans still organised 384 free coached sessions between 1st January and 30th November 2021. The Spartans train at 7p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays with up to five groups going out. Then there is the Spartan Starter group on Mondays; track based sessions on Saturday mornings and longer steady runs (typically about 10K and 10 miles) from various locations on Sunday mornings. Plus access to a host of events including county championships some of which are free and many where club membership brings a discount.
The new Fairlands Valley Spartans committee is Chair David Scott; Vice Chair Vicky Archer; Secretary Wendy Tharani; Treasurer Andrew Patterson; Head Coach Brian White; Men’s Team Captain & Committee Mark Freeman; Ladies’ Team Captain & Committee Callie Chapman; Press Officer & Committee Jim Brown (0793 968 7509); Membership Secretary Debbie Blantern; President Sophie Cowan with the additional committee members Steffan Ford, Sue Hamer, Paul Holgate, Tim Robinson, Hazel Smith, Tessa Stephenson and Hannah Sypula.
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
Spartans at the Festive Five
Pos
Name
Cat
Cat Pos
Gen Pos
Chip Time
%
1
Simon JACKSON
MV40
1
1
27:56
82.7%
23
John HARRIS
MV50
5
20
35:05
73.9%
45
Andy JAY
MV50
10
37
39:54
63.7%
59
Hazel SMITH
FV45
4
13
42:20
62.7%
67
Nick KLEANTHOUS
MV50
14
51
43:47
59.1%
88
Erica GRAYSON
FV45
8
28
48:25
57.4%
90
Sue HAMER
FV45
10
30
48:30
56.7%
107
Catherine CRAIG
FV55+
7
44
50:40
68.7%
108
Penny SCHENKEL
FV45
19
45
50:50
54.7%
109
Jim BROWN
MV60+
12
64
50:51
55.8%
112
Jonathan JONES
MV50
18
65
51:54
48.6%
114
Dzenana TOPIC
FV55+
8
48
51:56
55.6%
Spartans at parkruns on Saturday 4th December.
Parkrun
Position
Gender Position
Parkrunner
Time
Stevenage parkrun
25
1
Ashley JOHNSON
22:22
1st Fem. PPB
(18 Spartans)
27
24
Barry OSBORNE
22:46
33
30
Toby ECCLESHALL
22:59
42
37
Martin DUDLEY
24:16
48
42
Lee PICKERSGILL
24:43
87
12
Chloe CHAPMAN
26:39
PPB
88
70
Jim BROWN
26:42
1st Age
91
14
Gail MACKIE
26:57
101
18
Fiona CLARKE
27:11
119
87
Mark BEASLEY
28:47
121
88
Matt CLARKE
28:51
99th PR
132
32
Debbie BLANTERN
30:15
163
49
Sharon CROWLEY
32:12
168
109
Stephen SMITHSON
32:53
169
52
Judy KING
33:01
185
60
Karen PALMER
34:31
99th PR
227
84
Helen HARRIS
56:49
228
127
Roger BIGGS
58:04
Endcliffe parkrun (Sheffield)
239
154
Mike REYNOLDS
27:58
75th PR
Houghton Hall parkrun
60
49
Michael O’KEEFE
28:40
Evesham parkrun
24
21
Nigel STRONGITHARM
24:37
Letchworth parkrun
2
2
Grant RAMSAY
20:22
2nd in race
Littleport parkrun
16
15
James MCSWEENEY
24:23
80th PR
Lancing Beach Green parkrun
62
34
Darryl STEVENS
37:14
175thPR
(PPB = Parkrun personal best; 175th PR = 175th parkrun).
21 Fairlands Valley Spartans competed in two races on Sunday. Despite the cold three ran new personal bests (PB) and 16 ran new season’s bests (SB).
Hatfield Five
At the Hatfield Five which started and finished at the University of Hertfordshire’s College Lane site DAN HUKIN ran well under thirty minutes to finish 40th out of the 545 with 29 minutes 28 seconds. MARK GOODWIN was well up in the men 60 plus category with 37 minutes 34 seconds and 209th overall.
VISH SHAH was pleased how fast his race was and his 42:26 finish time.
Image courtesy of ATW
PENNY SCHENKEL improved her season’s best time to 47:55; MONICA SMITHSON to 48:45; and SHARON CROWLEY to 55:55 but DZENANA TOPIC took the limelight with a brand new personal best of 53 minutes 4 seconds. There were four Spartan women and four Spartan men.
There were 545 finishers who also included JIM BROWN with 47:55.
Image courtesy of ATW
Five mile races are quite rare these days but there will be another one in Welwyn Garden City this Sunday – the Festive Five.
Bassingbourn Bass Belle
Thirteen Spartans ran the Bass Belle Ten. Two DARREN EMMERSON and JACKIE DOWNES ran new personal bests and ten others ran new season’s bests.
GRANT RAMSAY was first finisher for the club with 67 minutes 25 seconds (SB). He was 25th out of the 331 finishers. YUKO GORDON was eighth women with 1:15:09 (SB).
Darren Emmerson’s new personal best is 1 hour 22 minutes 51 seconds and Jackie Downe’s new PB stands at 1:27:20.
HAZEL SMITH said, “It was bitterly cold with patches of ice. I’m super pleased with my time as it was my first long run in a few weeks.
KAREN ELLIS ran a season’s best (SB) of 1:28:53 and Hazel a SB of 1:28:54.
1:43:52 was good enough for PAUL HOLGATE to beat his Ware Ten time by 19 seconds to set a new season’s best. He said it was a bitterly cold bright day with lots of ice on the 1.5 miles off-road section so very pleased.
The others with new season’s bests for ten miles were CLAIRE EMMERSON 1:36:22; CATHY CRAIG 1:44:19; ERICA GRAYSON 1:45:08; SUE HAMER also 1:45:08 and JONATHAN JONES 1:52:51.
The 331 finishers also included JENNY GARRETT in 1:36:23.
Warming up after a chilly run.
Parkrun Highlights for Saturday 27th November 2021
Storm Arwen caused havoc around the UK but it didn’t stop 19 Spartans completing their Parkruns. All their parkrun milestones and best positions were achieved at Stevenage on Saturday.
NIC PATTMAN and HARRIET PACE both achieved personal bests with 28:23 and 29:56 respectively. SUZY HAWKINS was first lady in the race finishing with a time of 20:05.
GRANT RAMSAY was the fastest of the 17 Spartans, completing in 19:14 and finishing third overall.
GRACE COVENTRY finished in 25:02 and was 5th lady, achieving her best time this year (YB). THOMAS SAUKA (21:26) and CAROLE SHELDRICK (27:20) also ran year’s bests.
DEBBIE BLANTERN achieved an unofficial milestone of 70 Parkruns.
MIKE REYNOLDS was the only Spartan at Panshanger this time. He finished 43rd in 24:44.
At the Kingdom Parkrun in Penshurst, Kent MICHAEL O’KEEFE was 48th in 31:52.
Tables
Spartans at the Hatfield Five (Sunday 28th):
Pos
Name
Gun
Chip
Category
Cat Pos
Gender
Gender Position
Comments
40
Dan HUKIN
29:33
29:28
Ages 40 – 49
9
Male
36
SB
209
Mark GOODWIN
38:02
37:34
Ages 60 – 69
11
Male
160
SB
304
Vishal SHAH
43:20
42:26
Ages 30 – 39
42
Male
213
SB
408
Jim BROWN
49:25
47:55
Ages 60 – 69
24
Male
238
409
Penny SCHENKEL
49:26
47:55
Ages 50 – 59
46
Female
162
SB
417
Monica SMITHSON
49:52
48:45
Ages 50 – 59
48
Female
168
SB
470
Dzenana TOPIC
54:22
53:04
Ages 50 – 59
65
Female
207
PB
500
Sharon CROWLEY
57:27
55:55
Ages 60 – 69
22
Female
233
SB
There were 545 finishers.
Spartans at the Bass Belle 10 Sunday 28th November):
Sunday’s Stevenage Half Marathon was a huge success and Fairlands Valley Spartans took first and second in the 13.1 miles races.
Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON won the event overall in a new personal best (PB) of 1 hour 12 minutes 53 seconds and also took GOLD in the Hertfordshire County Championships. SIMON JACKSON was second in 1 hour 15 minutes 48 seconds and took SILVER in the county champs. Together with DAVID HARRIS CHERGUIT (PB 1:19:25) and STUART ARCHER (PB 1:26:27) they won GOLD in the County team competition and won the team contest in the race.
Mens Gold County team winners!
The Spartans won GOLD in the county team competition with LIZ SMITH after a rapid acceleration in the last five miles finishing with 1 hour 53 minutes 59 seconds; ALISON SHELLEY (PB 1:57:22) and WENDY THARANI (1:57:50). Three to count in the women’s competition.
Our smiling Ladies Gold County team winners!
And Bronze for Women and Men
Then there were County team BRONZE medals for the women’s team of ANN TRYSSESOONE (2:01:14), CHLOE CHAPMAN (improving her PB by more than nine minutes to 2:01:39) and KERSTIN WEINER (2:04:07) and the men’s team of GRANT RAMSEY (1:27:32); DANNY SCANLON (1:28:56); TONY RANDFIELD (1:33:34) and PAUL SHELLEY (1:36:57).
Ladies Bronze County team winners!Mens Bronze County team winners!
David Harris Cherguit was first man aged 40 plus in the race and Tony Randfield, running his first half as a Spartan, was first man aged 60 plus.
The Spartans topped and tailed the event with a total of 38 runners. Dozens more Spartans and their friends marshaled, rode lead and sweep bikes, provided water stations, supervised the shuttle buses and did the other jobs that made it a success.
A handful of our wonderful marshals, chief marshal, lead bike and yummy cakes that were for sale (there were lots more!)
On a cold but mainly sunny morning the race started on Ridlins Athletics track then followed two equal laps on cycleway and footpaths via Gresley Way, Six Hills Way, Fairlands Valley Park north and south, football club, Broadhall Way to cross Woodcock Road and into the second lap before finishing on the track.
This time there was a welcome tailwind in the south part of Fairlands Valley Park. After a one year gap due to Covid it was back and it was great.
There were several half marathon first timers including MIKE JEFFS (1:31:22); NICK KLEANTHOUS (1:57:45); CHRIS SAUNDERS (2:12:32); NICHOLA DURENT (3:16:32) and JUDY KING (3:18:39). LEE PICKERGILL ran a new PB of 1:47:45; NIGEL STRONGITHARM ran a new PB of 1:48:08, and NICHOLA ANDERSSON a new PB of 2:04:48. STEPH BIGGAR ran her first ever real race, everything else has been virtual, and finished in 3:16:32.
TIM ROBINSON was aiming for sub 2 hours and managed to improve on his target and achieve 1:54:33 in his fastest half since 2017. The long incline at mile 8 was hard going, sapped a lot of energy and lost some time but was the only part of the course that presented any real difficulty.
JIM BROWN was apprehensive after two recent disaster half marathons including a DNF (did not finish) but improved his time from August (2:04:05) by 5 minutes 56 seconds to 1:58:09 to get under two hours by maintaining almost exactly nine minute miles all the way round.
The first woman in the race was ELIZABETH PARRY from Garden City Runners in 1 hour 22 minutes 45 seconds with KERRIE HAMLIN from Ampthill and Flitwick Flyers second in 1:26:38 and JUSTINE LYNCH from Belgrave Harriers third in 1:26:50.
The Last Fly
Fairlands Valley Spartans were represented in the last Fly 5K in the current series on Saturday. This virtual free run anywhere event on a Saturday morning helped to get a lot of people through lockdown when all in person events were cancelled. More than 15,000 Fly 5K runs have been recorded since the series was launched. This was race 80.
In the MARIAN MORLEY was 55th and first woman aged 55 plus in 26 minutes 41 seconds; NICOLA ANDERSSON was 71st in 29:02 and PENNY SCHENKEL and JIM BROWN went round together to finish 100th equal in 30:56. This was Jim’s 58th Fly 5K and he received a special not (virtual) T-shirt for running at least fifty.
There will be a Christmas edition and a real reunion in 2022.
St Neots
CRAIG BACON said, “Sunday at the St Neots Half Marathon was my first mass event since February 2020. There have been months of solo running and virtual events since the last time I lined up at the start of a race with over 1000 people ready to complete the 13.1 miles.
There was a chill in the air as I made my way to the start and so I was glad that I had put my woolly hat and gloves in my kit bag. We gathered at the line and at 10 o’clock we were sent on our way out of St Neots and along the Huntingdonshire country roads. The route was a figure of eight course with a rise at about 3 miles, another before half way and then a final hill at 9 miles. The hills did mean there was an opportunity to go downhill too, so every cloud has a silver lining.
I finished in a time of 1 hour 41 minutes 16 seconds, which is 2 minutes 19 seconds faster than my pre-pandemic Half in 2020. It was also my fastest Half since May 2016. I finished 303rd overall, 233rd male and 54th male vet 50.”
Fellow Spartan John Harding finished in 2:11:10 to finish 823rd overall and 535th male.
Parkrun Highlights
This week 30 Spartans participated across 8 different parkrun venues.
A couple of first timer mentions: KIERAN FEETHAM at Plymvalley in 23:18 and EVA RAMSEY at Cassiobury in 23:21.
PETER CARPENTER was at Squerryes Winery parkrun at Westerham running a new PB of 44:19. GRAHAM HOARE also got himself a new PB 23:29 at Southsea parkrun and YUKO GORDON was second female at Letchworth in 23:50.
GRANT RAMSAY was first Spartan home out of the 21 Spartans at Stevenage in 19:06. KEN JUDE was running his 99th parkrun at Stevenage. MARK GOODWIN was the sole Spartan at Panshanger this week clocking 23:43.
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
Spartan Gun Times At The Stevenage Half Marathon
Pos
Race No
Name
GunTime
Category
Cat Pos
Gender
Gen Pos
1
321
Andrew PATTERSON
01:12:55
Top3
1
Male
1
PB
2
218
Simon JACKSON
01:15:50
Top3
2
Male
2
YB
8
179
David HARRIS-CHERGUIT
01:19:30
Ages 40 – 49
1
Male
8
PB
26
13
Stuart ARCHER
01:26:33
Ages 20 – 39
12
Male
25
PB
29
346
Grant RAMSAY
01:27:35
Ages 40 – 49
8
Male
26
31
369
Danny SCANLON
01:29:00
Ages 40 – 49
10
Male
28
37
224
Mike JEFFS
01:31:22
Ages 20 – 39
15
Male
33
New
46
347
Tony RANDFIELD
01:33:39
Ages 60 – 69
1
Male
42
New
79
375
Paul SHELLEY
01:37:02
Ages 50 – 59
17
Male
69
YB
82
384
Peter SMITH
01:37:07
Ages 50 – 59
18
Male
71
SB
87
178
John HARRIS
01:37:29
Ages 50 – 59
20
Male
75
SB
100
277
Reece McCULLAGH
01:40:42
Ages 20 – 39
32
Male
65
SB
121
140
Nick GILL
01:44:47
Ages 20 – 39
33
Male
102
SB
135
110
Toby ECCLESHALL
01:48:06
Ages 20 – 39
36
Male
112
YB
136
399
Nigel STRONGITHARM
01:48:08
Ages 50 – 59
31
Male
113
PB
137
329
Lee PICKERSGILL
01:48:08
Ages 20 – 39
37
Male
114
PB
184
387
Liz SMITH
01:54:30
Ages 40 – 49
16
Female
38
YB
189
357
Tim ROBINSON
01:54:56
Ages 50 – 59
38
Male
150
SB
206
376
Alison SHELLEY
01:57:42
Ages 50 – 59
7
Female
47
PB
211
241
Nick KLEANTHOUS
01:58:10
Ages 50 – 59
41
Male
163
New
218
411
Wendy THARANI
01:58:26
Ages 40 – 49
20
Female
50
SB
219
50
Jim BROWN
01:58:27
Ages 60 – 69
9
Male
169
222
118
Robert EVANS
01:58:37
Ages 40 – 49
59
Male
170
SB
243
419
Ann TRYSSESOONE
02:01:30
Ages 50 – 59
8
Female
59
YB
244
62
Chloe CHAPMAN
02:02:15
Ages 20 – 39
20
Female
60
PB
254
437
Kerstin WEINER
02:04:30
Ages 50 – 59
9
Female
67
SB
257
406
Jon SYPULA
02:05:10
Ages 40 – 49
66
Male
189
SB
259
12
Nicola ANDERSSON
02:05:23
Ages 50 – 59
11
Female
70
PB
270
323
Carol PAUL
02:07:41
Ages 50 – 59
13
Female
75
SB
288
367
Chris SAUNDERS
02:13:02
Ages 20 – 39
59
Male
207
New
309
202
Paul HOLGATE
02:23:16
Ages 60 – 69
15
Male
216
SB
312
362
Gerry ROSEN
02:27:19
Ages 50 – 59
60
Male
218
SB
313
458
Robert WRIGHT
02:27:19
Ages 20 – 39
62
Male
219
320
378
Karl SHREEVE
02:32:46
Ages 50 – 59
62
Male
223
SB
334
444
Jane WHITROW
03:17:05
Ages 50 – 59
22
Female
109
SB
335
36
Steph BIGGAR
03:17:09
Ages 40 – 49
49
Female
110
336
107
Nichola DURENT
03:17:10
Ages 40 – 49
50
Female
111
New
337
236
Judy KING
03:18:39
Ages 50 – 59
23
Female
112
New
Chip times were not available at the time of writing.
Spartans at parkrun
Stevenage parkrun
A total of 291 runners took part including 21 Spartans.
The Remembrance Runs were held at Debden Airfield near Saffron Walden around the perimeter of the airfield. The airfield is in remote rural countryside in Essex and it was a challenging drive to get there.
The course was flat, mainly dry and the surface was concrete and tarmac. Five Spartans joined the run, Jonathan Jones, Paul Shelley, David Pattman, Dzenana Topic and Yuko Gordon.
Yuko Gordon running the 5K finished first in her age category with 22 minutes 25 seconds The other four Spartans ran the 10K. Paul was sixth overall and second man 50 plus in 39 minutes 21 seconds. David came in with 49:27, Jonathan 1:01:16 and Dzenana 1.04.55
The Stevenage Half is this Sunday, 21st November.
The Stevenage Half Marathon is this Sunday and it’s full but you can turn out to cheer on the hundreds of runners on 21st November. The race starts at 10am and is two laps of the course noted in the picture below.
Choose your favourite spot to cheer on the runners!
Escape From Meriden, the Centre of England
Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI has escaped from Meriden. Starting from the stone cross in Meriden which marks the traditional centre of England, he was given a bright orange boiler suit, and 24 hours to ‘escape’ from Meriden – to get as far as one can, as the crow flies. Adrian wound up at Heathrow Airport; quite a way short of his target, but nonetheless a novel self-supported run along a mix of roads, towpaths and trails for 100+ miles. The canal sections were a highlight, along with various cries of “what the **** is he wearing” in Coventry city centre (the orange boiler suit was a hit!)
Adrian looking extremely happy in his boiler suit!
Alton Towers
FIONA, MATT, ETHAN and TALA CLARKE had a great family weekend at Alton Towers. On Saturday they all did the 10K race.
The lead up to the race was a bit messy but once they got going it was a fun race, passing all the major attractions through the theme park.
The entry fee got them a medal, a t-shirt and park entry for the rest of the day. Great value if like them you enjoy running and rollercoasters. Best of all said Fiona it was easy to get the kids involved.
Someone recognised their Spartan vests and acknowledged that they were a long way from Stevenage. It was lovely to get a shout out 130 miles from home.
Ethan and Tala both finished with new personals bests (PBs) – Tala with 57 minutes 40 seconds and Ethan with 1:06:59. Tala was 619th and Matt 621st in 57:41. Ethan was 1,107th and Fiona 1,110th in 1:07:03. Fiona added it was so good to have this shared experience.
On Sunday Matt ran the half marathon in 1 hour 49 minutes 37 seconds and was 395th out of the 1,865 finishers.
The Clarke family enjoying their adventure at Alton Towers.
Blesma 11K
CAROLYN LINSELL should have been running the BLESMA 11k Remembrance Day virtual event with NICOLA ANDERSSON.
However due to her little ‘misadventure’ last Sunday she could no longer take part. KAREN ELLIS very kindly took her place and ran with Nicola. Carolyn met them at the start for two minutes silence and to cheer them on.
Carolyn’s son pushed her in the wheelchair to the football ground side of the park and then she hobbled on her crutches all the way back to the start point. The girls caught her right near the end so they finished together!
Well done ladies! Happy smiles all round and we wouldn’t expect to see anything less!
The Last Fly
The last Fly 5K in the current series will be the 80th on Saturday 20th November. This virtual free run anywhere event on a Saturday morning helped to get a lot of people through lockdown when all in person events were cancelled. More than 15,000 Fly 5K runs have been recorded since the series was launched. There will be a Christmas edition and a real reunion in 2022.
In the penultimate and 79th Fly 5K JIM BROWN was second in his age group and 25th overall in 26 minutes 31 seconds; NICK KLEANTHOUS was just behind at 26th in 26:33 and NICOLA ANDERSSON 48th in 27:15.
Nick and Jim ‘flying’ round their Fly 5K at Stevenage Parkrun.
Parkrun Highlights
In this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit, Grant Ramsay grabs a top five finish and Ashley Schoenwetter was first female home at Stevenage.
Stevenage Parkrun Results where 283 runners including 17 Spartans took part. GRANT RAMSAY 19 minutes 18 seconds (4th), TOBY ECCLESHALL 22:04 (20th), ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER 22:43 (33rd), JAMES McSWEENEY 24:45 (65th), SUSAN McANENY 25:34 (84th), GRACE COVENTRY 25:47 (88th); JIM BROWN, first in age group with 26:31 (105th), NICK KLEANTHOUS 26:33 (106th), MARK BEASLEY 26:43 (110th), NICOLA ANDERSSON 27:15 (121st), GAIL MACKIE 27:19 (123rd), CATHY CRAIG 30:39 (173rd), TRACY HAYGARTH 31:02 (179th), BETH FOLEY 33:10 (210th), SALLY PHILLIPS 33:50 (217th), ROGER BIGGS 57:37 (280th), HELEN HARRIS, the volunteer tailwalker 61:01 (283rd).
Away days:
Brockenhurst (Dorset): Darryl Stevens 47-56 (133rd out of 133 runners)
Gunpowder (North London): Paul Jennings 31-40 (101st out of 152 runners).
Letchworth (Hertfordshire): John Harris 21-46 (11th out of 108 runners), Georgie Hooper 29-23 (67th), Nick Gill 29-24 (68th).
Panshanger (Hertfordshire): Mike Reynolds 27-31 (95th out of 229 runners).
Squerryes Winery (Kent): Peter Carpenter 44-46 (90th out of 98 runners).
Fairlands Valley Spartans woke up to sunshine but a moderate breeze from the west for their Bryan Moore Shield and Paul Maguire Memorial 10 and 5 mile handicap road race events in Stevenage on Sunday morning.
48 Spartans took part. 28 in the 10 and 20 in the five mile race. 21 women recorded a time. There were some close finishes between people who may have started more than half an hour apart.
ROBERT EVANS beat his handicap time by a substantial 6 minutes 36 seconds to win the 10 mile Bryan Moore event just 18 seconds ahead of his nearest rival with a net time of 1 hour 30 minutes 24 seconds.
In the five mile race VICKY ARCHER beat her handicap by 2 minutes 14 seconds to win the Paul Maguire trophy. She beat second placed PAUL SHELLEY by just 28 seconds. Vicky completed her run in 45 minutes 46 seconds.
In the ten CHARLIE WHITE came in second with a 6:18 improvement and a total time of 68 minutes 42 seconds. Two others were less than two minutes behind – ANDREW PATTERSON with a fantastic time of 55 minutes 33 seconds, the fastest on the day and an improvement of 5 minutes 27 seconds, 1 minute 9 seconds behind the winner and JIM BROWN improving by 4:41 to 1:26:19 and 1:55 behind Robert.
KELLY EVANS was first woman in the ten and eighth overall. She improved by 1 minute 18 seconds to 1:31:12. TRACY PEZ was second female and tenth overall almost matching her handicap time of 1:22:30 with 1:22:27. SUZY HAWKINS was third and 14th overall but went round in a rapid 1 hour 11 minutes 21 seconds.
Bryan Moore was a founding, in 1984, and life member of Fairlands Valley Spartans.
First Ten in Ten – Bryan Moore Shield
Position
Name
1st lap
2nd lap
Total
Behind Winner
1
ROBERT EVANS
45:01
45:23
1:30:24
Zero
2
CHARLIE WHITE
35:28
33:14
1:08:42
@ 18 seconds
3
ANDREW PATTERSON
27:48
27:45
55:33
@ 1:09
4
JIM BROWN
42:52
43:27
1:26:19
@ 1:55
5
ADRIAN DONNELLY
32:32
34:59
1:07:31
@ 2:07
6
SIMON JACKSON
28:14
29:02
57:16
@ 2:52
7
ADRIAN BUSOLINI
30:00
31:10
1:01:10
@ 4:16
8.
KELLY EVANS (1st F)
46:46
44:26
1:31:12
@ 5:18
9.
JON SYPULA
46:27
46:36
1:33:03
@ 6:19
10.
TRACY PEZ (2nd F)
41:50
40:37
1:22:27
@ 6:43
14.
SUZY HAWKINS (3rd F)
35:23
35:58
1:11:21
@ 7:57
Paul Shelley’s time in the five was 32 minutes 14 seconds. Three others were less than a minute behind the winner – THOMAS SAUKA at 36 seconds with 36:52; STUART ARCHER at 42 seconds in 32:28 and STEVE MAYFIELD at 58 seconds in 38:44.
ALISON SHELLEY was second woman and seventh to finish. She was 2 minutes 17 seconds behind the winner in 41:03. The third woman and tenth overall was PENNY SCHENKEL at 3:03 with 48 minutes 19 seconds.
First Ten in Five – Paul Maguire Memorial Five
Position
Name
Time
Behind Winner
Comments
1.
VICKY ARCHER (1st F)
45:46
Zero
1st woman
2.
PAUL SHELLEY
32:14
@ 28 seconds
3.
THOMAS SAUKA
36:52
@ 36 seconds
4.
STUART ARCHER
32:28
@ 42 seconds
5.
STEVE MAYFIELD
38:44
@ 58 seconds
6.
BARRY OSBORNE
35:31
@ 1:15
7.
ALISON SHELLEY (2nd F)
41:03
@ 2:17
2nd woman
8.
VISHAL SHAH
46:11
@ 2:25
9.
MICHAEL O’KEEFE
47:35
@ 2:49
10.
PENNY SCHENKEL (3rd F)
48:19
@ 3:03
3rd woman
In handicap events estimated times are based on recent performances. The slowest runners start first with others following at intervals that should, in theory, get everyone over the finish line together. First over the line, the best improver, is the winner even if they weren’t the fastest in the race.
This is not an easy event to organise. A huge thanks to STEFFAN FORD and the event team for making it happen. And it raised hundreds of pounds for Feed Up, Warm Up.
Paul Maguire was an inspirational Spartan, a former Spartan of the Year, who passed away a few years ago. He lost a long battle with cancer, still running for several years following his diagnosis, in 2008 at the age of 42.
Chilly looking Spartans at the end of the Handicap races – The sun shone and the wind even helped drive them up the hills!
Here Comes The Stevenage Half! It’s on 21st November
The Stevenage Half Marathon is almost full.
Entries for the Stevenage Half Marathon are open but going fast! To secure your place please follow this link to enter Stevenage Half Marathon
Fast Parr At Dorney Lake
JONATHAN PARR came second at the Dorney Lake 5K Sunday morning with a time of 16 minutes 20 seconds.
The Last Fly
The last Fly 5K in the current series will be the 80th on Saturday 20th November. This virtual free run anywhere event on a Saturday morning helped to get a lot of people through lockdown when all events were cancelled. More than 15,000 Fly 5K runs have been recorded since the series was launched. There will be a Christmas edition and a real reunion in 2022.
This time JIM BROWN was third in his age category with 26 minutes 43 seconds. Wonder how many people will register with Fly 5K and run on the 20th.
Knebworth House
Five Spartans were at the Knebworth House events.
Luke casually showing us all how a PB is achieved!
ROBERT WRIGHT; LUKE GURNEY, MARK WILLIAMS and new member TONY RANDFIELD ran the Hertfordshire Half Marathon. Tony was 80th out of the 1,065 runners with a new personal best (PB) of 1 hour 35 minutes 54 seconds. He was second man 60 plus. Robert was 190th in a new course best 1 hour 43 minutes 55 seconds and Luke was 477th in a new PB of 1:56:08. Mark Williams ran round the half at what he called a gentle pace for 1:58:46 and was 559th but then he had run the Thames Meander Marathon the previous day, Saturday, which he finished in a new personal best of 3 hours 46 minutes 1 second.
JANE McFARLANE was encouraging friends new to running and ran the 10K in 68 minutes 20 seconds. The Stevenage Half Marathon is on Sunday 21st November.
Tony and Robert proudly showing off their medals after both getting a PB!
Parkrun Highlights
On Spartan stripey Saturday, the first Saturday of November, thirty Fairlands Valley Spartans ventured out to represent their club at Parkrun events around the country.
EVA RAMSEY was the first female to finish the Stevenage course in 22 minutes and 42 seconds, closely followed by ASHLEY JOHNSON, running her second Parkrun, who was the fourth in a time of 23 minutes and 2 seconds. ANDREW MCGUINNESS was the fastest of the 23 Spartans, finishing in 22 minutes and 18 seconds.
Continuing the trend, in Letchworth GEORGIE HOOPER was the third female to finish with a time of 26 minutes and 22 seconds. A Top 20 finish was also recorded by TIM SABAN in 23 minutes and 48 seconds on the Bideford course (19th male).
CATHY CRAIG did the Brockenhurst parkrun, a New Forest trail which is described as undulating. Although there were lots of horses hanging around at the start, luckily none were actually on the gravel path route. Since she was on my holidays, she just walked up the hills, and finished first in her age group in 32 minutes exactly.
(You can find all the Spartan parkrun times near the end of this release).
It was brutal for the beast on Sunday. Fairlands Valley Spartans NEIL ROBINSON, KAREN ELLIS, TIM ROBINSON, MICHAEL O’KEEFE, TRISH HOPPER and KAREN LIDDLE ran the Baldock Beast half marathon.
Weather conditions were terrible with a yellow warning issue by the Met office, the organisers were considering cancelling the event but the forecast was for it to clear at around 11am and with five minutes to go, the runners were called to the start line.
The first mile and a half are up hill and the runners were exposed to horizontal rain and high winds, with ankle deep water, but once over the brow of the hill and into Wallington the conditions improved and running was easier.
Tim still had the Beachy Head Marathon in his legs and adopted a strategy of walking up the steep hills.
The last couple of miles the sun came out and the rain stopped but the wind still made running very difficult.
Tim said it was another superbly organised event by local runners.
Neil Robinson was first back for the Spartans with 1 hour 58 minutes 58 seconds. The first female from Fairlands was Karen Ellis in 2:05:23. Tim Robinson came in with 2:07:35 and Michael O’Keefe with 2:20:28. Tricia Hopper and Karen Liddle finished together in 2:31:47 and 2:31:48. Not a race for personal bests!
“Actually the hardest things I’ve ever done” said WENDY THARANI about Sunday’s Lulworth Cove Marathon. This was off road either going steeply uphill or steeply downhill for almost 30 miles. She said there was typical coastal changeable weather weather but some lovely sunshine and stunning scenery including Lulworth’s Cove and Durdle Door. Wendy completed the 29.41 miles in 8 hours 58 minutes 20 seconds.
Amazing Wendy at Lulworth Cove!
Serpentine
There were two Spartans at the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5K in Hyde Park.
Spartan YUKO GORDON scored the highest age graded score in the race 94.2% with 22 minutes 25 seconds.
The fastest woman raced round in 18:28. She was an FV50 but that ONLY scored 93.5%.
The fastest man went round in 15:26 but that was only good enough for 85.5%.
The Last Friday 5K can be an amazing event at the top end but also a great way to spend a Friday lunch-time. Of course several went for coffee in the Serpentine Kitchen afterwards.
Conditions were described by the organisers as mild, dry but wet underfoot and windy.
Compared with recently JIM BROWN made a marginal gain of seven seconds to finish with 26 minutes 44 seconds. A bit disappointing but his quickest “real” 5K for a long time (real in the sense of an accurately measured and properly timed race with other people).
Position
Name
Time
Comments
75
YUKO GORDON
22:25
Best age graded
115
JIM BROWN
26:44
Seven second improvement
Two Weeks To Go! Here Comes The Stevenage Half! It’s on 21st November.
Inspired by the London and Manchester Marathons? Now you can be one of hundreds running in Stevenage on Sunday 21st November as entries for the town’s half marathon are open. This year the race is a couple of weeks later than usual.
Entries for the Stevenage Half Marathon are open but are going fast! To make sure that you secure your place visit the following link to enter the race! Go to https://stevenagehalfmarathon.org.uk/
This years medal is awesome!
Parkrun Highlights for Saturday 30th October 2021
Twenty two Spartans headed out to run at seven different Parkrun venues on Saturday.
Congratulations to JONATHAN PARR who came first at Stevenage with a time of 17 minutes 7 seconds. This was Jonathan’s 16th win. He is currently at third place for the most first place finishes at Stevenage.
There were four other top ten gender positions this week with GRANT RAMSAY third (19:20, Stevenage), KELLY EVANS 6th (26:34, Erddig, near Wrexham), DAVID PATTMAN 10th (19:58, Gunpowder, Waltham Abbey) and GAIL MACKIE 10th (26:30 , Stevenage).There were no official Parkrun milestones this week but MONICA SMITHSON and BETH FOLEY have both reached an unofficial milestone of 40 Parkruns at Stevenage.Well done and congratulations to all.(You can find all the Spartan parkrun times near the end of this release).
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.
Cross Country is back and despite many other races elsewhere 27 Spartans, 15 men and 12 women, ran the first Sunday League fixture of 2021 at Cheshunt on Sunday morning. A little bit of rain loosened up what is usually a very dry event at the start of the season.
The fastest Spartan, eleventh of about 400 runners, was JONATHAN PARR who raced around the just under five miles event in 28 minutes 48 seconds. Four other Spartans were in the top one hundred overall. They were 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 (32:30); TRACEY JACKSON (38:19); WENDY THARANI (43:44); NICOLA ANDERSSON (45:06) and PENNY SCHENKEL (47:47).
FVS men at cross country (teams of eight):
Overall Position
Name
Time
Comments
11
JON PARR
28:48
A team
25
ADRIAN BUSOLINI
30:31
A team
81
STEVE WELLS
32:53
A team
88
DANNY SCANLON
33:18
A team
98
GRANT RAMSAY
33:41
A team
145
JOHN HARRIS
36:04
A team
164
TOM SAUKA
37:03
A team
178
TOBY ECCLESHALL
37:50
A team
213
DAVE PATTMAN
39:35
214
STEVE DOBNER
39:36
290
ANDY JAY
43:19
303
NICK KLEANTHOUS
44:26
336
JIM BROWN
47:36
351
KEN JUDE
48:29
368
SIMON SYPULA
51:30*
Steve and Dave enjoying the mud!
FVS women at cross country (teams of five):
Overall Position
Name
Time
Comments
74
CHRISTINE LATHWELL
32:30
A team
195
TRACEY JACKSON
38:19
A team
293
WENDY THARANI
43:44
A team
309
NICHOLA ANDERSSON
45:06
A team
341
PENNY SCHENKEL
47:47
A team
371
CATHY CRAIG
53:19
B team
375
SHARON CROWLEY
54:33
B team
384
CALLIE CHAPMAN
57:11
B team
385
KAREN ELLIS
57:11
B team
386
HAZEL SMITH
57:11
B team
387
BETH FOLEY
57:11
390
JANE WHITROW
59:27
Callie, Hazel & Karen are all smiles as usual!
The next cross country league race will be in Trent Park, North London on Sunday 12th December.
Chelmsford Marathon
PETE SMITH said the Chelmsford Marathon was a well organised race, great marshals (like ours) a touch undulating and with a few tight turns, but generally a good course. Pete was well happy with his 3 hours 26 minutes 24 seconds. MARIE COLUCCI just wanted to get round but got a brilliant 4:03:10.
Marie & Pete both ran a fabulous marathon!
Paris Marathon
JOHN NELMS travelled to Paris to run his 102nd lifetime marathon and his 16th and probably last of 2021.
Hot, sunny and surprisingly humid conditions slowed the times and he finished in a comfortable 4 hours 19 minutes. A beautiful course passing most of the famous Parisian sights and a VIP tent at the finish line (thank you Tom Robinson )
Bedford Autodrome
STUART ARCHER ran Bedford Autodrome on Sunday. He did the half marathon distance in 1:29:15, under one and a half hours. He said that it was a breezy course but he enjoyed it and even got a picture with the Stig afterwards.
Stuart was all smiles after meeting The Stig!
Oxford Half
Spartan RICHARD COWLISHAW completed the Oxford Half on Sunday in 1 hour 33 minutes and 32 seconds. That’s his fastest ever competitive half marathon. He was 491st out of 12932 runners.
Richard said, “This is one of the best half marathons I have run. It was flat, perfect weather, great crowds and a good wide route, with a park run towards the end. I would recommend this event to anyone.”
Cambridge Half
CAROLYN LINSELL ran the Cambridge Half Marathon in 2 hours 26 minutes 12 seconds. Carolyn said, “On Sunday I ran my fourth Cambridge Half Marathon with my friend Hannah Morgan Gray (we ran the virtual VLM – Virtual London Marathon together two weeks ago). We were going well when Hannah felt a niggle in her ankle/foot & we had to slow right down & she had to walk several times. I kept running & zig zagging as I promised we would run this together & I would not leave her.”
Great South Run
JENNY GARRETT ran the Great South Run ten miles event in 1 hour 31 minutes 33 seconds.
She said there were perfect running conditions on Sunday with lots of support around the whole course and it was nice to be out showing off the Spartan stripes. ED HARE finished in 1 hour 26 minutes 17 seconds and JONATHAN JONES in 2:00:51.
Inspired by the London and Manchester Marathons? Here Comes The Stevenage Half!
Inspired by the London and Manchester Marathons? Now you can be one of hundreds running in Stevenage on Sunday 21st November as entries for the town’s half marathon are open.
With only five weeks to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon 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).
Entries for the Stevenage Half Marathon are open. Go to https://stevenagehalfmarathon.org.uk/ This club and community event has a history going back 37 years and is organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans. With a break due to Covid 19 in 2020 it’s back for 2021.
Parkrun report for Saturday 9th October 2021
In this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit, SUZY HAWKINS just missed out on a sub-20 minute at Stevenage and was second female to finish (finishing eight seconds behind the first female runner).
Stevenage Parkrun Results where 327 runners took part. SUZY HAWKINS 20-05 (8th), ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER 22-14 (24th and 4th female), CRAIG BACON 23-38 (47th), MARTIN DUDLEY 23-48 (51st), HAZEL SMITH 24-22 (63rd), DANIK BATES 25-14 (83rd and with a buggy), MATT CLARKE 26-46 (126th), NICK KLEANTHOUS 27-34 (137th), JIM BROWN 28-01 (141st), PENNY SCHENKEL 28-11 (142nd), TOBY ECCLESHALL 28-35 (150th), CHLOE CHAPMAN 28-42 (155th), ERICA GRAYSON 29-13 (172nd), JO BOWDERY 29-18 (176th), STEVE SMITHSON 29-34 (184th), PAUL JENNINGS 30-16 (195th), TRACEY HAYGRATH 31-34 (231st), CAROLINE CROFT 31-41 (237th) and BETH FOLEY 33-53 (266th).
Parkrun Away days:
Gunpowder (Waltham Abbey): STEVEN DOBNER 23-34 (40th out of 152 runners), DAVID PATTMAN 23-34 (41st).
Letchworth (Hertfordshire): NICK GILL 21-48 (12th out of 94 runners), GEORGIE HOOPER 26-01 (38th).
Panshanger (Hertford): MIKE REYNOLDS 25-06 (62nd out of 207 runners).
Rushmere (Bedfordshire): MICHAEL O’KEEFE 29-31 (73rd out of 141 runners).
Rutland Water (Rutland): DARRYL STEVENS 41-39 (210th).
Eight Spartans In Manchester! Entries are open for our own Stevenage Half Marathon!
Eight Spartans excelled themselves by finishing the Manchester Marathon on Sunday.
For PAUL and ALISON SHELLEY it was their second ever marathon. It was warmer than they’d expected it to be and they both gave it their all. Paul improved his personal best by 14 minutes and finished in 3 hours 13 minutes 36 seconds. He was 1,098 out of the 9,473 men and 61st out of 929 men aged 50 plus. Alison took 23 minutes off her personal best (PB) with 4 hours 13 minutes 16 seconds and was 84th out of the 415 women aged 50 plus.
MATT CLARKE was pleased to get under four hours, 3:58:01, despite disruptions to his preparation. For FIONA CLARKE it was an emotional run but she completed her target of three marathons this year with 4 hours 52 minutes 21 seconds. Fiona was raising money for the East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust. She said that for her it was an ugly race, very scrappy, the hardest of the three but she did it!
WENDY THARANI ran the London Marathon only a week earlier but she still finished Manchester in 4 hours 38 minutes 55 seconds. DAVID PATTMAN came in with 4:01:07 and STEVEN DOBNER with 4:12:53.
Wendy and Fiona are all smiles at the Manchester finish line!
For LIZ SMITH it was an experiment to see if her prodigious cycling fitness could get her round a marathon. It did. She finished with a smile in 5 hours 10 minutes 34 seconds.
Position
Name
Time
Comments
1148
PAUL SHELLEY
3:13:36
PB (13 minutes)
4948
MATT CLARKE
3:58:01
5366
DAVID PATTMAN
4:01.07
6476
STEVEN DOBNER
4:12:53
6527
ALISON SHELLEY
4:13:16
PB (23 minutes)
9036
WENDY THARANI
4:38:55
Ran London
10130
FIONA CLARKE
4:52:21
Three Done
11402
LIZ SMITH
5:10:34
Metropolis
On Sunday, ADRIAN BUSOLINI participated in the inaugural running of Metropolis, a story-driven night time ultra experience through central London. Starting with some properly engaging & atmospheric immersive theatre, runners were given new identities and tasked with completing a range of mandatory and optional missions to help the RUN resistance network.
Guided by What 3 Words locations, they had to devise optimised route choices on the fly, accounting for factors such as time windows, deadlines, water supply, and the practicalities of navigating around London on a Saturday night; all the while evading ‘The Eyes’ who were trying to hunt us down with the help of GPS tracking. Ultimately we had to connect with a resistance leader to learn of our extraction location, and make it to the rendezvous point before ‘the last transport from Metropolis’. Billed as a 50 kilometres race, Adrian ended up exceeding 75 from targeting a number of the bonus missions.
The race directors Richard and Mark put a lot of effort into devising this experience, crafting the backstory, preparing the theatrical elements & actor roles, the technological live tracking for the missions, and practicalities of the Eyes hunting participants; down to the details such as the witty mission locations, origami birds, and the extraction location embedded in a fortune cookie. If you fancy a memorable, immersive experience that also happens to involve a fair amount of running, then keep an eye out for what Richand and Mark come up with next.
Results are yet to be finalised, but according to the current state of the leaderboard I finished in second, somehow…
Adrian taking on Metropolis
Jonathan Second At Windsor
Spartan JONATHAN PARR was second at the Windsor Autumn 5K around Dorney Lake in 16 minutes 7 seconds.
Yuko Is World Champion
YUKO GORDON from Fairlands Valley Spartans is a marathon world champion. She won the World Age Group Championships which were incorporated in the London Marathon. Her time was 3 hours 25 minutes 30 seconds. She was 6 minutes 54 seconds ahead of her nearest rival Sharon Smith (3:32:24) and 13 minutes 8 seconds ahead of third placed Jeannie Rice from the USA 3:38:380.
Having cleaned up Yuko went straight back into London for the WANDA age group marathon party.
(Yuko’s victory was confirmed after last week’s release had been distributed. Twenty Spartans finished the race).
Yuko, our very proud World Champion celebrating in style!
Royal Parks Half
GERRY ROSEN has had a really difficult year with Covid and other issues but he beat his half marathon personal best by seven minutes with 2 hours 35 minutes 30 seconds at the Royal Parks Half Marathon.
Run With Willow
Two Spartans CAROLYN LINSELL and JIM BROWN ran the Willow Foundation 10K at Hatfield House on Sunday. Jim said it was a really relaxed and friendly wind down after the previous week’s London Marathon though he was woken up by a cattle grid at about five kilometres. Carolyn finished in 55 minutes 26 seconds, her third fastest 10K, and Jim in 58:20. Carolyn was 39th and Jim 51st out of the 131 runners. This was a mixed terrain event with the start very close to Hatfield Station.
Carolyn & Jim at the Willow 10K
Inspired by the London and Manchester Marathons? Here Comes The Stevenage Half!
Inspired by the London and Manchester Marathons? Now you can be one of hundreds running in Stevenage on Sunday 21st November as entries for the town’s half marathon are open.
With only six weeks to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon 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).
Although many were enjoying an England Athletics track training session at Ridlins or preparing for races the next day a warm October morning saw twenty two Fairlands Valley Spartans attend Parkrun events.
In Stevenage, CHARLOTTE KEARNEY ran a personal best (PB) time of 29 minutes and 44 secondss, completing the course in the top 40 females. On her 75th Parkrun outing, GAIL MACKIE finished as the 8th female in 25 mins and 32 secs closely followed by ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER in 25 mins and 33 secs (9th female). TOBY ECCLESHALL was the first male Spartan to complete the course in 22 minutes and 13 seconds.
Elsewhere MICHAEL O’KEEFE and JAMES McSWEENY respectively ran the Henlow Bridge Lakes and Hillsborough Forest routes for the first time in 28 mins and 48 secs and 24 mins and 08 secs.
HELEN HARRIS and JIM BROWN were both running their 60th parkruns.
(All the Spartans running parkruns on Saturday are included near the end of this release).
Time To Get Muddy
The cross country season starts this Sunday 17th October with a Sunday League race at Cheshunt.
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
After an absence of 889 days the massed start London Marathon returned to the streets of London on Sunday and dozens of Fairlands Valley Spartans were there either running or helping as volunteers in the finish area. The Spartan finish line volunteers were still handing out bags at 6.45p.m!
Twenty Spartans finished the 26.2 miles race.
Among them was YUKO GORDON who missed a world record by less than a minute. Yuko’s time was 3:25:30 and she beat the current world W70 record holder Jeannie Rice (USA) who was also running. She missed the world record by 43 seconds but she said the London course is not easy particularly from the red start which is hillier. Having cleaned up Yuko went straight back into London for the marathon party.
SUZY HAWKINS enjoyed her run. She set a new record of 3 hours 11 minutes 36 seconds for women over 45 and has qualified for another championship place. Her mum Eileen said… “This amazing young woman has just completed the London Marathon in 3 hours 11 minutes even though she said she was not fit having completed a ¾ Ironman triathlon two weeks ago and a full Ironman just a few weeks before that. We are so proud of you. You are truly awesome Suzy Hawkins.”
New Spartan ASHLEY JOHNSON was delighted to beat her 3 hours 40 minutes target with 3:39:09 in her first “real” marathon. She ran the virtual London Marathon in the rain last year.
DANNY SCANLON ran 3 hours 6 minutes 22 seconds in his first ever marathon.
There was a new personal best (PB) by 23 seconds for HAZEL SMITH with 4 hours 23 minutes 24 seconds. It’s unusual for a mother and daughter to come out of the same London Marathon ballot but Hazel’s mum CATHY CRAIG went round in 5 hours 40 minutes 21 seconds.
JIM BROWN also qualified for the Age Group World Championships but after some running setbacks in the last few weeks he adopted a “sensible” get round strategy. He was determined to get round his twentieth London Marathon.
ADA JANUSIENE said her first London Marathon was a truly wonderful experience. She finished in 5 hours 3 minutes 5 seconds.
Three Spartans beat the three hour barrier – SIMON JACKSON in 2:44:54; ANDREW PATTERSON in 2:47:58 and ADRIAN BUSOLINI in 2:48:52.
This was a different London Marathon with changed starting and finish arrangements and many entries dating back to 2019 but it was great to see the thousands back to running the usual course from Blackheath, past the Cutty Sark, over Tower Bridge, around East London, then back passing the Tower of London to finish on the Mall. All the Spartan runner were extremely grateful to the volunteers, many from running clubs, that worked for many hours to make the event possible.
ADA JANUSIENE 5.03.05, ADRIAN BUSOLINI 2.48.52, ANDREW PATTERSON 2.47.48, ASHLEY JOHNSON 3.39.09, CATHY CRAIG 5.40.21, DANNY SCANLON 3.06.22, DAVID PRICE 4:38:32 , HAZEL SMITH 4.23.24, JAN FRY 5.49.14, JIM BROWN 4.44.11, JOHN NELMS 4.19.57, JON SYPULA 4.19.20, MARTIN DUDLEY 4.40.50, PAUL JENNINGS 5:32:59, SIMON JACKSON 2.44.54, STUART HAYCROFT 3.01.44, SUE HAMER 4.40.38, SUZY HAWKINS 3.11.36, WENDY THARANI 5.00.22, YUKO GORDON 3.25.30
(A table of all the Spartan finishers can be found near the end of this release).
Inspired by the London Marathon? Here Comes The Stevenage Half!
Inspired by the London Marathon? Thousands running round London. Now you can be one of hundreds running in Stevenage on Sunday 21st November as entries for the town’s half marathon are open.
With only seven weeks to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon 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).
SUSAN and CIARAN McANENY ran Dorney Lakes Marathon together, coming in pretty much bang on the 4 hour mark; 4:00:08. Annoyingly close to that attractive sub 4 hour for Susan (Ciaran is usually a sub 3 when he’s not keeping his wife company on a course!!) but still a 36 minute PB (personal best) for her!
It’s well organised and a great spectator course. They said it was good to see friendly Spartan Ken Jude working there for the event too!
ROBERT WRIGHT ran the same event in 3 hours 47 minutes 11 seconds.
Virtual Carolyn and Marian
CAROLYN LINSELL and MARIAN MORLEY ran Sunday’s virtual London Marathon nearer home. Despite some problems with the tracking app Carolyn and Marian both completed the 42.2 kilometres.
Marian Morley ran her virtual London Marathon at a 5.3k laps event run by ZigZag at Hinchingbrooke Country Park. She said, “The course was mostly trail and in parts was very muddy. I could have done with trail shoes as some areas very slippery after the rain. The London Marathon App didn’t work properly. The GPS was faulty and my time was filed as 4 hours 12 minutes. The more realistic reality was 5 hours 30 minutes – I’m not sure I could have done better as I’ve had a bad cold all week, although at the half way point I was on track for a sub 5 hour run but faded in the second half – the glitching with the Marathon App was not emotionally helpful once I’d realised it was faulty.
Parkrun Highlights – Saturday 2nd Oct 2021
This week saw a less than usual number of Spartans running at various Parkrun likely due to a packed Autumn racing calendar, with the London Marathon and many others taking place on Sunday3rd October. Despite the reduced number, the enthusiasm for the ones who turned up was as high as usual.
NIC and DAVID PATTMAN were tourists at Sizewell Norfolk, taking on this scenic seaside parkrun finishing in 22:55 and 31:37 respectively.
MICHAEL O’KEEFE tried out Banbury parkrun for the first time (30:36), having tried out 35 different venues previously.
The fastest Spartan was STEVE WELLS finishing with a time of 19:44 (10th male) at Stevenage. The fastest Spartan lady was ASHLEY KING (4th female) also at Stevenage, completing in 22:27.
(All the Spartans running parkruns on Saturday are included near the end of this release).
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
Spartans at the London Marathon
First Name
Last Name
Time
Position
SIMON
JACKSON
02:44:54
631
ANDREW
PATTERSON
02:47:48
791
ADRIAN
BUSOLINI
02:48:52
3,574
STUART
HAYCROFT
03:01:44
2,163
DANNY
SCANLON
03:06:22
2,586
SUZY
HAWKINS
03:11:36
299
YUKO
GORDON
03:25:30
766
ASHLEY
JOHNSON
03:39:09
1,539
JON
SYPULA
04:19:20
12,084
JOHN
NELMS
04:19:57
12,174
HAZEL
SMITH
04:23:24
5,093
DAVID
PRICE
04:38:32
14,670
SUE
HAMER
04:40:38
6,679
MARTIN
DUDLEY
04:40:50
14,968
JIM
BROWN
04:44:11
15,375
WENDY
THARANI
05:00:22
8,625
ADA
JANUSIENE
05:03:05
8,884
PAUL
JENNINGS
05:32:59
49,353
CATHY
CRAIG
05:40:21
11,552
JAN
FRY
05:49:14
11,995
(Women’s positions are gender positions)
Spartan Parkrun Results:
There were eighteen Spartans at the Stevenage parkrun.
11 10 Steve WELLS 19:44
29 4 Ashley KING 22:27
48 39 Mike REYNOLDS 23:52
59 48 James MCSWEENEY 24:20
87 70 Barry OSBORNE 25:47
88 71 Steven DOBNER 25:48
133 106 Nick KLEANTHOUS 27:57
142 23 Fiona CLARKE 28:13
158 29 Chloe CHAPMAN 29:20
179 36 Erica GRAYSON 30:12
182 138 Tim ROBINSON 30:25
185 140 Toby ECCLESHALL 30:31
187 141 Stephen SMITHSON 30:33
188 39 Gail MACKIE 30:39
189 40 Monica SMITHSON 30:41
203 48 Tracy HAYGARTH 31:31
231 67 Karen PALMER 33:04
239 72 Beth FOLEY 34:14
MICHAEL O’KEEFE completed the Banbury parkrun in 30 minutes 36 seconds which gave him 113rd place.
Ed HARE was 89th at the Lee-on-the Solent parkrun in 26 minutes 7 seconds.
In Sizewell DAVID PATTMAN was eighth in 22:55 and NICOLA PATTMAN 47th (and eighth woman) in 31:37 and at the Charlton parkrun DARRYL STEVENS was 320th in 44 minutes 14 seconds.
Twenty two Spartans raced around the Standalone 10K in Letchworth on Sunday and their women won prizes at opposite ends of the age spectrum. ABBIE PEZ was first junior lady (under 20) with 50 minutes 2 seconds and YUKO GORDON was first woman over 65 with 45 minutes 53 seconds. CLAIRE PULLEN was first woman over 55 with 47:12.
The Standalone 10K included the Hertfordshire County Championships for veteran runners and the Fairlands Valley Spartans first team of four consisted of DEAN CARPENTER 100th out of 747 overall (including seniors) in 44 minutes 10 seconds; JON FILBY 110th in 45:06; MARK GOODWIN 157th in 47:19 and ANDY JAY 227th in 50:21.
Yuko Gordon led in the Spartan women in 120th in 45:53 with Claire Pullen 153rd in 47:12; TRACY PEZ 171st in 47:47. It was teams of three for the women’s event. A second women’s team was brought in by KAREN ELLIS and NICOLA ANDERSSON 326th and 327th in 53 minutes 31 seconds and completed by CAROL PAUL 401st in 56:29.
(All the Fairlands Valley Spartan times can be found in a table towards the end of this release).
Spartan Women Win In The East
The ladies track and field team saw off competition from the best athletics clubs across the East of England to regain the masters (veterans) championship trophy they last won in 2017. The team dominated from start to finish, cruising to victory with 255 points. Second placed Peterborough/Nene Valley AC scored 235.5 points, and Marshal Milton Keynes AC placed third with 232.5 points.
The team were out in force, fourteen Spartan women, and really enjoyed the competition and great conditions.
Wins came from JOYLYN SAUNDERS-MULLINS (once again dropping down an age group) – W50 (women aged 50 plus) 100 metres and W50 javelin throw (also finishing a very close second in the W50 200m). TESSA STEPHENSON – W60 200 metres (also finished 2nd placed W60 100m and W60 shot put). ALISON WOOD – W50 800m (also 2nd placed W50 in the 1500m). CHRISTINE LATHWELL – winning both W35 1500m and W35 3k. NIKKI WILBY – W35 high jump (also 2nd W35 pole vault, 2nd W35 triple jump, and 2nd W35 400mH). ANDREA WESTCOTT – W50 triple jump (also 4th place W50 high jump and 6th place W50 long jump).
YUKO GORDON won an additional trophy having clocked an amazing age graded 99.5% in the W60 3km and also easily won the W60 800m.
The team’s strength in depth meant that all events were covered, earning vital points.
Team members bolstering the tally were CALLIE ‘Cocktail’ CHAPMAN – third place W35 long jump, 5th placed W35 100m, and 6th place W35 200m. SUZY HAWKINS – 3rd place in both W35 400m and W35 800m. KAREN DODSWORTH – dropping down an age group to cover W50 400m and finishing 5th, also placed 5th in W60 discus throw and W60 long jump, and 4th place in W60 triple jump. SHERYL HANN – also dropped down to cover W50 3km and placed 7th. SHARON CROWLEY – first place B string 2km walk and 6th placed W60 hammer throw. CATHY CRAIG – fourth place in the A string 2km walk (also bravely covered the W50 300mH, finishing in 5th place). STEPHANIE BIGGAR – 2nd place W35 hammer throw, 3rd place W35 shot put, 4th place W35 javelin throw, and 5th place W35 discus throw. MARIAN MORLEY – 2nd place in both W50 shot put and discus throw, and 4th place W50 hammer throw.
A full day of events, which started at 10:30 am, finished with the (usually) all important relay races. In reality, victory had already been sealed! The W35 team (Suzy Hawkins, Cocktail Chapman, Nikki Wilby, and Christine Lathwell) still battled well and finished second. The W50 team (Joylyn Saunders-Mullins, Sharon Crowley, Karen Dodsworth, and Tessa Stephenson) finished third.
It was a truly excellent day, with great team spirit and support throughout. Mike Crowley and Chris Westcott should also get a mention for their help and support during a very long day.
Jonathan Second In Surrey
JONATHAN PARR finished 2nd in the Mercer Surrey 5k at Woking on Sunday morning with a time of 16 minutes 18 seconds.
Happy Spartan at Bedford Autodrome
CAROLE SHELDRICK was the solo Spartan at the Bedford Autodrome 10K on Sunday.
She said, “What an amazing event they put on. I have got to say, I wasn’t too sure how this run would go for me. I felt under trained, so was just hoping I’d manage to get round in one piece so I was very happy with my time of 56:28. One happy Spartan.”
Running Through The Glen
ZOE JACKSON was celebrating in the sun after completing the Robin Hood Half Marathon. Pacing someone with a target time of 125 minutes she finished, on target, in 2 hours 3 minutes 16 seconds. Zoe said it was a great course with fantastic support the whole way round the city, and we were very lucky with the weather!
Serpentine 5K
Sunny, warm, light breeze, the odd parakeet and a cafe near the finish. “What’s not to like?” said JIM BROWN after finishing the second of the revived Last Friday of the Month 5Ks – the Serpentine 5K?
Jim achieved a marginal improvement on last month in this lunch-time race in Hyde Park.
His official time was 26:53 and 123rd. Last month was 26:58. Both on the two lap version of the Serpentine course.
Jim commented it was very enjoyable, more should try it, but I seem to be the wrong sort of consistent at the moment.
Parkrun Highlights 25th September 2021
Members of Fairlands Valley Spartans took part across 10 different UK parkruns this week. There were PBs for ANTON McCALLA on his second appearance at Market Harborough (26:30). It was PB o’clock for ED HARE at Lee-on-the-Solent (23:03) in his fourth run at that venue.
In Stevenage ADRIAN DONNELLY clocked a new PB of 20:26. Eighteen Spartans were running in Stevenage while several others were helping this week.
(The full list of Spartan parkrun times will be near the end).
The 72nd Fly 5K – Saturday 25th September.
Lots of “real” races going on including the London Marathon this Sunday (3rd) but the virtual Fly 5K races continue and two Spartans were in the action. NICOLA ANDERSSON was 65th in 28:34 and PAUL HOLGATE 78th in 30:27. He was third veteran man 60 plus and this was his 70th Fly 5K.
Fly 5K was one of the stars of lockdown keeping runners moving and in touch during the restrictions. The first of the free virtual races was in June 2020.
Entries Open for the Stevenage Half Marathon
With only eight weeks to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon 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).
Entries for the Stevenage Half Marathon are open. You can enter by following this link: Stevenage Half Marathon
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
28 Spartans took part in Thursday evening’s Handicap 5K around Stevenage.
Winner on the night was DAVID PRICE in a time of 24 minutes 34 seconds 3:26 better than handicap with FIONA CLARKE firstfemale in 26:14, 2:46 better than handicap. NICOLA HATHERLY was second female in 34:44 and CAROLYN LINSELL third female in 26:24, while CHLOE CHAPMAN was fourth female in 26:58. MATT CLARKE was 2nd male in 23:02 with DANNY HUKIN 3rd male in 18:34 and STUART ARCHER 4th male in 19:27.
The winners are, in effect, the best improvers. In a handicap event the slowest go off first with the faster ones following according to recent performances. In theory if everyone runs to form they will all finish together. In practice the first ones over the finish line will be those that have improved the most, or those that have slowed down the least.
DANNY HUKIN was fastest on the night with his 18:34 and STUART ARCHER second quickest with his 19:27, while BRIAN WHITE was third quickest in 21:15 and PETE SMITH fourth fastest in 21:40. MARIE COLUCCI was quickest female in 22:56, with TRACEY JACKSON & TRACY PEZ second and third fastest in 23:32 and FIONA CLARKE fourth quickest with her 26:14.
There were Season Best times for Chloe Chapman, Matt Clarke, Danny Hukin, Andy Jay, Marie Colucci, Jane McFarlane, Tracey Jackson, Tracy Pez, Peter Smith, Nigel Strongitharm and Sharon Crowley, and Year Best times for Fiona Clarke, Nicola Hatherly, Stuart Archer, Dean Carpenter, Mark Beasley, Sally Pickles, Nick Kleanthous, Kelly Evans and Dzenana Topic.
The race was in Stevenage on the Fairlands, Verity, Martins, Grace and back to Fairlands Way course with the start near Webb Rise and the finish under Douglas Drive.
The club thanked Paul Holgate, Cathy Craig, Mark Freeman, Angie Keeling and Adrian Busolini for their much appreciated support, assistance and photos which made the event a success.
Spartans at the Stevenage 10K
After months of cancellations and postponements it was great to enjoy the company of others at a “real” race in Stevenage. Twenty Spartans ran the Stevenage 10K on Sunday.
The Spartan men’s team of four consisted of BRIAN WHITE in 42 minutes 21 seconds; LUKE GURNEY 50:12; JAMES McSWEENEY 51:19 and, to his surprise, JIM BROWN in 55:21.
Brian was third runner aged 60 plus and 23rd out of the 393 finishers. Luke said it was hilly but worth it for the cake and was 100th. James was 118th and Jim 171st.
NICOLA ANDERSSON was the fastest female from Fairlands. She was 168th in 55 minutes 11 seconds. CAROLYN LINSELL was second woman aged 65 plus and 177th with her 56 minutes 8 seconds. SARAH ILLINGWORTH was third Spartan woman and 188th overall with 56:59. Sarah said “It was certainly not a PB (personal best) but given the lack of races over the last 17 months and sporadic training not too bad. Great race, well organised, friendly and only five minutes from my front door. Post race cake is always a bonus!” PENNY SCHENKEL was fourth female from Spartans in 1:02:15. Penny, SUE HAMER and ERICA GRAYSON were 262nd, 263rd and 264th.
CHRISTINE ZVEREV recorded a chip time of 1 hour 8 minutes 40 seconds for the Stevenage 10K. She said, “The course was a bit hilly in places but I still kept the time under 1 hour 10minutes and I did manage a 5K PB of 29 minutes 5 seconds on the way round. That’s a win in my book.”
The County Championships for veteran runners (those aged 35 and over will be in the Standalone 10K this Sunday.
(All the Spartan results from the Stevenage 10K can be found near the end of this release.
Adrian’s Century Run
ADRIAN BUSOLINI ran the Cotswold Way Century, finishing in 25 hours, in ninth place. The Cotswold Way Century is a 102 miler along the Cotswold Way walking path, which runs north to south through the hills and villages of the Cotswolds, finishing outside the Abbey in Bath. It’s incessantly hilly, and navigation requires constant vigilance; however, weather conditions were favourable, there was great camaraderie out on the course, and the vegan chili at Painswick aid station was awesome.
Swansea 10K
Spartan ROBERT EVANS had a good run in the Swansea 10K with 52 minutes 54 seconds.
Parkrun Highlights 18th September 2021
In this week’s roundup of Spartans on the Parkrun circuit, there was a first finisher (event winner) at Exmouth in Devon where Jonathan Parr powered home in a time of 16-46 whilst Steve Wells took on the Great Notley course near Braintree, Essex and tackled the ‘big hill’ twice to finish in third with a time of 20-11
Stevenage Parkrun Results: SAM SIMMONS 21-50 (31st) – Parkrun PB, EVA RAMSEY 23-02 (49th), PAUL SHELLEY 23-14 (56th), ASHLEY KING 23-16 (57th), CLIVE CANNON 23-40 (65th), DARREN EMMERSON 24-44 (83rd), GAIL MACKIE 25-23 (98th), JULIE SIMMONS 26-10 (117th), DAVID PATTMAN 26-52 (137th), STEVE DOBNER 26-52 (138th), JIM BROWN 27-41 (157th), MATT CLARKE 29-00 (183rd), CHLOE CHAPMAN 29-05 (187th), NICOLA ANDERSSON 29-07 (192nd), DEBBIE BLANTERN 29-31 (202nd), STEPHEN SMITHSON 31-51 (254th), FIONA CLARKE 33-28 (281st) and BETH FOLEY 33-34 (286th). In its ninth week back Stevenage parkrun was up to 358 runners.
The Spartans on parkrun away days were:
Brockenhurst (Dorset): DARRYL STEVENS 53-47 (156th out of 156 runners).
Canons Park (North London): TIM SABAN 24-46 (37th out of 192 runners).
Exmouth (Devon): JONATHAN PARR 16-46 (1st out of 313 runners).
Great Notley (Essex): STEVE WELLS 20-11 (3rd out of 221 runners).
Lee-on-the Solent (Hampshire): ED HARE 27-39 (175th out of 418 runners).
Letchworth (Hertfordshire): NICK GILL 21-49 (14th out of 128 runners), GEORGIE HOOPER 25-11 (33rd), CAREN THAIN 38-31 (113th).
Luton Wardown (Bedfordshire): MICHAEL O’KEEFE 28-18 (94th out of 280 runners).
Medina (Isle of Wight), NICK KLEANTHOUS 28-29 (83rd out of 199 runners).
University of Stirling (Stirlingshire, Scotland): STUART STABLES 22-31 (18th out of 131 runners).
The 71st Fly 5K – Saturday 18th September.
Four regular Spartans competed in the 71st run anywhere Fly 5K on Saturday. JIM BROWN was 70th in 27 minutes 41 seconds; NICK KLEANTHOUS 79th in 28:23; NICOLA ANDERSSON 86th in 29:05 and PAUL HOLGATE 97th in 30:55.
Fly 5K was one of the stars of lockdown keeping runners moving and in touch during the restrictions. The first of the free virtual races was in June 2020.
Entries Open for the Stevenage Half Marathon
With only two months to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon 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).
Entries for the Stevenage Half Marathon are open and you can enter by clicking this link: Stevenage Half Marathon. This club and community event has a history going back 37 years and is organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans. With a break due to Covid 19 in 2020 it’s back for 2021.
Each Year the Spartans nominate a charity to support and the chosen charity for 2021 is Feed Up Warm Up.
Tables
Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 16th September
Pos
FIRST NAME
LAST NAME
OWN TIME
R
F
H’CAP
TIME
COMP H’CAP
PB
Impr
1
DAVID
PRICE
24:34
12
17:00
41:32
3:26
PB
2
FIONA
CLARKE
26:14
15
4
16:00
42:17
2:46
YB
1:52
3
NICOLA
HATHERLY
34:44
26
13
7:30
42:20
2:46
YB
4
CAROLYN
LINSELL
26:24
17
6
16:15
42:33
2:21
5
CHLOE
CHAPMAN
26:58
19
8
15:45
42:43
2:17
SB
0:33
6
MATT
CLARKE
23:02
7
19:45
42:45
2:13
SB
0:13
7
DANNY
HUKIN
18:34
1
24:15
42:51
2:11
SB
8
STUART
ARCHER
19:27
2
23:30
42:59
2:03
YB
0:22
9
ANDY
JAY
23:46
10
19:30
43:19
1:44
SB
1:40
10
DEAN
CARPENTER
21:53
5
21:30
43:23
1:37
YB
11
MARK
BEASLEY
25:39
13
18:00
43:41
1:21
YB
0:04
12
MARIE
COLUCCI
22:56
6
1
20:45
43:42
1:19
SB
13
SALLY
PICKLES
36:12
27
14
7:30
43:43
1:18
YB
14
JANE
McFARLANE
27:42
21
9
16:00
43:45
1:18
SB
15
TRACEY
JACKSON
23:32
8
2
20:15
43:47
1:13
SB
16
TRACY
PEZ
23:32
9
3
20:15
43:48
1:13
SB
1:09
17
PETER
SMITH
21:40
4
22:15
43:56
1:05
SB
0:54
18
NICK
KLEANTHOUS
25:58
14
18:00
43:58
1:02
YB
0:04
19
BRIAN
WHITE
21:15
3
22:45
44:00
1:00
20
VISHAL
SHAH
27:26
20
16:30
44:19
1:04
21
NICOLA
ANDERSSON
26:21
16
5
18:00
44:22
0:39
22
NIGEL
STRONGITHARM
24:07
11
20:15
44:22
0:38
SB
0:33
23
STEPHANIE
BIGGAR
36:45
28
7:45
44:30
0:30
24
JUDY
KING
33:29
25
12
11:30
45:05
0:01
25
KELLY
EVANS
26:54
18
7
18:30
45:24
(0:24)
YB
26
DZENANA
TOPIC
31:52
23
10
14:45
46:37
(1:37)
YB
27
SHARON
CROWLEY
32:20
24
11
14:45
46:53
(2:05)
SB
2:21
28
TIM
ROBINSON
28:29
22
18:45
47:13
(2:14)
Stevenage 10K – Sunday 19th September (394 finishers)
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.
Spartan JOHN NELMS has run one hundred marathons. That’s 100 full marathons of 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometres) or even longer Ultra Marathons. He ran his 100th at the St Albans Stampede on Saturday. John was escorted across the finish line by his wife Sharon and son Jacob then welcomed to the 100 Club reception by a large number of Spartans.
St Albans Stampede
Altogether twenty Spartans completed at least four four mile laps at the St Albans Stampede.
The Stampede was a 12 hour event around a four mile loop. Runners completed as many laps as they could within the time limit.
TRICIA HOPPER was the leading Spartan with an incredible 11 laps (44 miles).
ADRIAN BUSOLINI ran nine laps or 36 miles in 6 hours 16 minutes 34 seconds while KAREN LIDDLE and BARRY KING did eight (32 miles). Not surprisingly four Spartans did seven as that got them past the significant 26.2 miles. They were YUKO GORDON, JOHN NELMS, HAZEL SMITH and SHARON CROWLEY.
Six laps (24 miles) were completed by CLAIRE EMMERSON, NEAL MUGGLETON and JACQUELINE DOWNES. SUE HAMER, ERICA GRAYSON and DARREN EMMERSON did five (20 miles) while JENNY GARRETT and GERRY ROSEN did four (16 miles).
(Times for all the Fairlands Valley Spartans can be found in a table near the end of this release).
Fairlands Fantastic 4 at the Stampede
There was also a relay team, the Fairlands Fantastic Four at the St Albans Stampede. In the four person team relay event TRACY PEZ (4 laps), ANDY JAY (4), CHRIS HOLLAND (4) and TIM ROBINSON (5) came in 12th out of 28 teams. A total of 17 laps with a time of 11 hours 50 minutes 5 seconds.
The course was four mile lap over undulating off road terrain. Chris started the team off with his first lap under 36 minutes followed by Tim with another 36 minutes lap. Then Andy Jay, who is training for the Manchester Marathon ran four consecutive laps in just under three hours through the hottest part of the day. The team took a short break to greet John Nelms as he finished his 100th marathon, before resuming with more laps. Tim finished his last running lap at 7:50 and it was agreed that two more sub 40min laps would not be achievable to finish before 9pm. The decision was taken to walk one final lap all together as a team by torchlight. Tracy, Chris and Tim completed the lap to finish just inside the cut off – in time for pizza and beer refreshments. A superb local event, recommended.
Bedford Twenty and Half
In the Bedford Running Festival ALISON and PAUL SHELLEY ran their first official twenty mile race. Paul finished in 2 hours 49 minutes 43 seconds and Alison in 3:15:07. They said it was a tough, hot race. DANNY SCANLON was 28th in 2:23:21 and DAVID PATTMAN ran a new personal best (PB) of three hours and thirty seconds (3:00:30).
STEVEN DOBNER came in with 3:03:18; MATT CLARKE with 3:15:43 and FIONA CLARKE with 3:23:12.
In the Bedford “Spring” half marathon KAREN ELLIS said she started too fast but she was third in her age category with 2:07:54.
Spartan Ladies Finish On Top – East of England Track and Field
The Fairlands Valley Spartans women’s team consisting of SUZY HAWKINS, CHRISTINE LATHWELL, STEPHANIE BIGGAR, CALLIE CHAPMAN, ASHLEY JOHNSON, NIKKI WILBY, MONICA BROWN, MARION MORLEY, ALISON WOOD, ANDREA WESTCOTT, TESSA STEPHENSON, CATHY CRAIG, JOYLYN SAUNDERS-MULLINS, KAREN DODSWORTH, SHERYL HANN, IRIS HORNSEY, SHARON CROWLEY and YUKO GORDON have WON their division in the East of England track and field league for veterans (35 plus, EMAC).
Spartan Ladies sealed victory in the EMAC Central Division on Wednesday by winning the last league fixture at Milton Keynes. It was a close run thing, but gutsy performances and the return of two stalwarts saw the team win on the evening by 4 points and take the division by a 77 point margin.
Christine Lathwell and Alison Wood both returned from injury to run the mile, with Christine finishing second woman 35 plus (W35) and Alison winning the W50. Cathy Craig won the W60 mile race after warming up with a victory in the W60 300 metres hurdles! Sharon Crowley also used the hurdles as a warm up, finishing second in the W50 before throwing the hammer and finishing third W60.
Joylyn Saunders-Mullins and Tessa Stephenson continue to dominate the sprint events, both winning the 200m and Joylyn once again dropping an age group to compete in the W50 category. Joylyn also scored points in the javelin, finishing 2nd in W60 with a throw that would have won the W50 category!
Regular training sessions at the track are paying off for Stephanie Biggar, who threw personal bests (PBs) in both hammer (second place) and javelin (third place). Marion Morley also threw a new PB in the hammer (second place) and also finished second in the javelin.
Other individual points were won on the night by Nikki Wilby, who stayed true to form by winning the W35 high jump, and Callie Chapman, who finished second in the W35 200m.
The ladies relay teams – Nikki, Callie, Cathy, Christine and Tessa, Sharon, Marian, Alison rounded off the evening in style, winning both races and setting us up nicely for the final on 25th September.
A slightly depleted men’s team battled bravely, finishing fourth on the night and fourth overall in the Central Division. Wins on the night came from DAVE STEPHENSON (M50 200m) and TIM SAUNDERS-MULLINS (M60 hammer). Other points were scored by ANTON McCALLA (third placed in M35 200m, javelin, and triple jump), GRANT RAMSAY (4th placed M35 mile), BARRY OSBORNE (3rd placed M60 mile), PAUL HOLGATE (5th placed M60 200m and 4th placed M60 mile), STEVE GOUGH (4th placed M50 javelin). The relay team finished 4th.
Parkrun Highlight 4th September 2021
Thirty three Spartans headed out to run at seven different Parkrun venues.
Congratulations to SUZY HAWKINS who got a new PB at Stevenage with a time of 19:38. Suzy also claimed the titles of the Fastest Lady at Stevenage and the Fastest Spartan of the week.
DARRYL STEVENS was in Rosliston (Swadlincote) to try out Parkrun at a new venue to him.
There were no official Parkrun milestones this week but JOHN HARRIS has reached an unofficial milestone of 60 Parkruns at Letchworth.
PETE SMITH was sixth at the East Brighton parkrun in 23:34 and STEVE WELLS won the Ferry Meadows parkrun in 19:49.
Well done and congratulations to all.
Fly 5k
JIM BROWN ran his 50th Fly 5K on Saturday. This was the 69th Fly 5K. There were 147 runners from 38 clubs. He was second in his category and 53rd overall in 26 minutes exactly
PENNY SCHENKEL was 79th in 28:54 and PAUL HOLGATE 103rd in 31:04.
Entries Open for the Stevenage Half Marathon
Only just over two months to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon it’s time to start getting ready and entered. This year the race will be on Sunday 21st November
There was also a four person relay team consisting of CHRIS HOLLAND (4); ANDY JAY (4); TRACY PEZ (4) and TIM ROBINSON (5) who completed a total of 17 laps in 11:50:05.
Only eleven weeks to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon and it’s time to start getting ready. This year the race will be on Sunday 21st November (a couple of weeks later than usual).
Entries for the Stevenage Half Marathon are open. This club and community event has a history going back 37 years and is organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans. With a break due to Covid 19 in 2020 it’s back for 2021. You have got time to get fit to run and you can train with www.fvspartans.org.uk Once you join all the many training sessions each week and the advice is free.
The Stevenage Half Marathon began in 1984 and takes place annually with a full marathon every 10 years (the next Stevenage marathon is due 2024).Race headquarters is at Ridlins Athletic Stadium, with the race itself comprising of two loops taking in Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage Showground, before passing Stevenage Football Club before returning to Ridlins Stadium for your second lap and then the race to the finish on the track at Ridlins.The route is completely road or cycle way based, so there are no muddy sections to worry about and is completely signposted and marshalled so you can be sure of a warm welcome and encouragement all the way around the 13.1 miles.Although designed as a charity fundraising event, the course is officially measured and previously has hosted the Hertfordshire Road Running Half Marathon and Marathon championships, attracting some of the top local elite athletes and the occasional World Record Holder.The event is a charity fundraiser, with volunteers from Fairlands Valley Spartans Running Club, The Rotary Club of Stevenage, Grange Rotary Club, Stevenage Scouts and Stevenage Air Cadets giving their time freely to make the event a huge success. All proceeds go to local charities. The 2019 event provided in excess of £3000 in donations to worthy causes and the Spartans hope the Stevenage Half Marathon 2021 is even more successful.
Each Year the Spartans nominate a charity to support and the chosen charity for 2021 is Feed Up Warm Up.To enter have a look at https://stevenagehalfmarathon.org.uk/
CCC
‘After years of dreaming’ ADRIAN BUSOLINI was in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France for the CCC (Cormayeur; Champex; Chamonix) this weekend. This Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc is a run through Italy, Switzerland and France around the Mont Blanc massif. Just before the start the cold weather mandatory kit extensions were unexpectedly triggered so he’s got more clothing than in any other event.
With the 100k course having over 6k of ascent it made for the most climbing that Adrian has ever done in a day (possibly even a week!) and it was the first time he had raced with poles.
Starting in Courmayeur (Italy) the course worked its way through Champex-Lac (Switzerland) and finished in Chamonix (France). Adrian said, ‘The course was beautiful and brutal in equal measure. The support from the locals was unparalleled and the nightmare finish in Chamonix was a moment to savour.’ He finished 227th of 2011 participants of which 433 did not finish. Final running time was 16 hours 45mins 47 seconds.
Hitchin 5K
A number of Spartans took to Hitchin town centre on Sunday to race 5K. STUART ARCHER was first Spartan home in 19.49 and came 7th overall, winning his age category. BRIAN WHITE came in with a time of 21.21 and was also 1st in his age category. YUKO GORDON gained a time of 22.25 and was 3rd over all woman. She said that she’d hoped to run it inside the British W70 record of 22.12 but it was not the case on the day but it was a nice feeling to have won an open prize. VISHAL SHAH ran it in 27.29 and ERICA GRAYSON ran the course in 27.38 having gone straight to the race from a night shift! SUE HAMER swiftly followed her in 28.52. MONICA SMITHSON looked strong at the finish coming in with 30.05.
Velo Park 10K
On Saturday SHELBE MOONBEAM ran 10K at London’s Velo Park. Having never been to the course before she thought the course was flat until she arrived and saw the hills! It is a lap course of 6 one mile loops. Shelbe said ‘It was the hardest run I think that I have ever done. By mile 4 I was ready to give up but I carried on and am so proud of myself!’
She wanted to complete the race in 1 hour 20mins but her finished time was actually 1.18.16.
Last Fridays are back
Despite being made to work very hard coaching on Thursday evening JIM BROWN was determined to make it to Hyde Park for the first Last Friday of the Month 5K since February 2020. With a slow start he went round in 26 minutes 58 seconds which was good enough to get him in the top 100. This was on the two lap course. The lunch-time events have been organised by the Serpentine Running Club since 1992.
Flying On Number 68 – Saturday 28th August.
Fly 5K was one of the stars of lockdown keeping runners moving and in touch during the restrictions.
Two Spartans recorded times this week. JIM BROWN with a time of 26.58. He was 81st and 3rd in the V65 age category. PAUL HOLGATE was 118th recording a time of 31.11, he was 4th in the V60 category. 160 times in total were recorded for the Fly 5k this week.
Parkrun Highlights 28th August 2021 – sixth week back
The end Summer holiday season saw Spartans travelling a little further afield for their parkrun fix.
There were plenty of first time runs: JENNY GARRETT at St Albans in 28:14, TRACY STILES at Sedgefield (32.13), BETH FOLEY at Blickling in Norfolk (33:59), MARIAN MORLEY at Sherwood Pines near Mansfield (26:53) and JAMES McSWEENEY at Soham Village College (24:22).
A trio of Spartans at Wimpole Estate: BARRY KING (27:32), NICK WITCOMBE (35:25) and SALLY PHILLIPS in a new PB of 35.26. MICHAEL O’KEEFE was at Houghton Hall near Dunstable (29.07). VERITY FISHER and DANNY SUTTON were at their now “home” parkrun of Rutland Water running 31:38 and 31:39 respectively. KAREN PALMER took a short trip to Letchworth (33:56).
Back in Stevenage, there was a speedy field with the male course record narrowly missed. There were PBs for SUZY HAWKINS (19:52) and ANDREW McGUINESS (21:01).
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
Spartans in parkruns. Full results for 28th August are below:
