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CROSS COUNTRY COMMITMENT

Spartans in Top Twenty

 

Fairlands Valley Spartans organised Sunday’s cross country league race at Willian, provided dozens of marshals AND had nearly sixty runners with many tremendous performances including four top twenty finishers out of about 450 runners.

GRANT RAMSAY and ANDY PATTERSON were close together throughout the five mile race with Grant nudging ahead by five seconds to take third place overall in 27 minutes 34 seconds and Andy fourth in 27:39.  CHRIS WESTCOTT, 15th in 28:37 and SIMON JACKSON, 16th in 28:42 were separated by only five seconds.  CRAIG HALSEY, 24th in 29:06; JASON ANDERSON, 30th in 29:30; MIKE GREEN, 64th in 31:30 and DANNY HUKIN, 83rd in 32:245 made up the rest of the men’s “A” team (eight runners count for each male team).

MICHELLE REEVES beat most of the men when she finished 150th in 35:38, she was ninth woman across the line.  CLAIRE PULLEN 199th in 37:51; ISABEL GREEN, 203rd overall in 38:07; new member ROS INGRAM, 239th in 39:34; and HAZEL CLARK, 242nd in 39:44 completed the women’s “A” team for Fairlands Valley Spartans (there were five runners in the women’s teams).  KELLY McHALE led in the women’s “B” team.  She was 286th in 41 minutes 21 seconds.

Altogether five women’s teams, 25 women and 34 men from the club completed the race.

 

Position Name Time M/F Cat Comments
3 GRANT RAMSAY 27:34 M MV40 FVS men’s “A”
4 ANDY PATTERSON 27:39 M SM FVS men’s “A”
15 CHRIS WESTCOTT 28:37 M MV40 FVS men’s “A”
16 SIMON JACKSON 28:42 M MV40 FVS men’s “A”
24 CRAIG HALSEY 29:06 M SM FVS men’s “A”
30 JASON ANDERSON 29:30 M SM FVS men’s “A”
64 MIKE GREEN 31:30 M SM FVS men’s “A”
83 DANNY HUKIN 32:24 M MV40 FVS men’s “A”
90 TODD GRAY 32:40 M SM  
93 BRIAN WHITE 32:49 M MV60  
94 RICHARD SPRINGHALL 32:50 M SM  
96 KARL CLARK 32:54 M MV40  
129 THOMAS SAUKA 34:40 M MV40  
132 JOHN NELMS 34:52 M MV40  
138 PETER SMITH 35:07 M MV50  
150 MICHELLE REEVES 35:37 F SW FVS women’s “A”
154 BARRY OSBORNE 35:42 M MV60  
176 STEVE MAYFIELD 36:41 M MV50  
177 PAUL WHYTE 36:46 M SM  
183 MARK GOODWIN 37:11 M MV50  
190 DARREN EMMERSON 37:35 M MV40  
196 STEVE SMITHSON 37:46 M MV40  
199 CLAIRE PULLEN 37:51 F FV45 FVS women’s “A”
203 ISABEL GREEN 38:07 F FV35 FVS women’s “A”
205 MARK BEASLEY 38:13 M MV50  
239 ROS INGRAM 39:34 F FV35 FVS women’s “A”
242 HAZEL CLARK 39:44 F FV35 FVS women’s “A”
262 MARK CHEADLE 40:36 M MV40  
268 ANDY PRIOR 40:45 M MV40  
273 ANDREW SMITH 50:52 M SM  
286 KELLY McHALE 41:21 F FV35 FVS women’s “B”
302 JULIE SIMMONS 42:14 F FV55 FVS women’s “B”
312 CLAIRE COX 42:52 F FV45 FVS women’s “B”
315 SOPHIE COWAN 42:57 F FV35 FVS women’s “B”
316 NICOLA TOUT 42:59 F FV45 FVS women’s “B”
317 ANDY JAY 43:00 M MV50  
330 SUNNY PANDIT 43:58 M MV40  
348 PETA WILSON 45:17 F FV45 FVS women’s “C”
355 CALLIE CHAPMAN 45:39 F SW FVS women’s “C”
356 BECKY PRATT 45:45 F FV35 FVS women’s “C”
359 STEPH MAYFIELD 45:51 F FV35 FVS women’s “C”
360 WENDY THARANI 45:54 F FV35 FVS women’s “C”
362 NEIL ROBINSON 46:05 M SM  
371 SUSAN McANENY 46:27 F SW  
379 JENNY GARRETT 46:49 F FV45  
385 PAUL HOLGATE 47:24 M MV50  
394 PETER CARPENTER 49:02 M MV70  
395 CATHY CRAIG 49:04 F FV55  
399 SEAN MILLWOOD 49:38 M MV50  
400 HAYLEY YENDELL 50:17 F FV35  
401 SHARON CROWLEY 50:43 F FV55  
404 KAREN SMITH 51:15 F FV45  
412 STEVE GOUGH 52:51 M MV40  
413 IRIS HORNSEY 53:01 F FV65  
414 BERNADETTE MILLWOOD 53:08 F FV55  
422 LIZ CROWLEY 54:30 F SW  
426 CHLOE EMMERSON 55:54 F SW  
429 COLIN JACKSON 57:32 M MV60  
432 TONY OSBORNE 63:09 M MV70  

 

The next league race will be in Watford on 15th January.

 

Pompey Paul

On Sunday Carol Paul ran the Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon which started at Southsea pier and went out to Hayling Island and back. The course was a mixture of paths and trails with a little bit on the beach and pebbles.  Carol completed the marathon in 4:23:35

 

The last was the best!

Roger Biggs was in Pisa at the weekend, to run his 41st and last marathon of 2016.  In almost perfect weather conditions, on a pretty flat course, Roger produced his best marathon time of the year, to finish in a time of 4:25:29.  The last time Roger ran a time quicker than this was in October 2014.

 

Parkrun Report

At Stevenage parkrun JOHN NELMS was first Spartan finisher, crossing the line in 20:33 for sixth place.  PAUL BATTERBEE was 26th in 22:55 and CHRIS HOLLAND just behind in 22:56 for 27th place.  For the women, VERITY FISHER was fourth in a new course PB time of 22:55 and back to within a whisker of her very best form.  TRACY STILES was 26th in 28:30, also a new course PB, and MONICA SMITHSON was 27th in 28:39.

There were also new course PBs for HILARY DAVIES (30:57) and CAREN THAIN (33:12).  The Other Spartan running were DANIEL SUTTON (23:32), DARREN EMMERSON (23:53), CHLOE EMMERSON (29:40), SALLY PHILLIPS (32:23), CLAIRE COX (33:11), and HEATHER MALONEY (34:42).

At Panshanger ANDY JAY joined the parkrun volunteering community on pacemaking duties and crossed the line in an almost perfect 25:53 while pace-making for the 26 minutes target group.  ISABEL GREEN finished in 35:50, four seconds behind daughter GEORGINA who accompanied her round the course.  TIM ROBINSON went to Raphael parkrun in Romford, finishing in a new course PB of 23:04.  Finally, GRAHAM HILL ran a new course PB of 33:06 at Milton Keynes and DARRYL STEVENS ran 39:15 at Brockenhurst.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including cross country league.  The opportunities include:

  • Boxing Day Five in Witham on Monday 26th December.
  • Buntingford Year End 10 on Tuesday 27th December.
  • Serpentine New Year 10K in Hyde Park on 1st January 2017.
  • Herts Cross Country Championships at Haileybury on Sunday 8th January.
  • Fourth Cross Country League Race at Watford on Sunday 15th January.
  • Fred Hughes 10 at St Albans on Sunday 22nd January.
  • Southern Seniors Cross Country at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday 28th January.
  • Watford Half Marathon inc. County Senior Champs on Sunday 5th February.
  • Fifth and Final Cross Country League Race at Royston on Sunday 12th February.
  • Veterans County Cross Country Championships on Sunday 19th February.
  • Finchley 20 on Sunday 11th March.
  • County 1500 Championships in Stevenage on Monday 1st May (TBA).
  • Stirling Marathon on Sunday 21st May.

 

Join The Spartans

Live in or near Stevenage?  Like running?  Fairlands Valley Spartans is your local running club and is on the up!  The club was voted the UK’s Best Running Club in 2010.  It now has hundreds of members and encourages participation by all.  The Spartans have a varied training programme to suit those who want to run 5 kilometres through to full marathons.

The Spartans weekday training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  Go along to the new sports centre at Marriotts School – a Sports College, Telford Avenue, Stevenage (SG2 8UT) at 7p.m.  Up to five running groups go out on training nights – there will be one to suit you!

The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday (except public holidays) and 7p.m. every Thursday.

Most long Sunday morning training sessions start 9a.m. sharp.  Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, Stevenage most Saturdays from 9.15a.m.  There are events to enter every Sunday.  Newcomers are very welcome – those who have not yet done very much running might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.

Try a few sessions before joining.  Membership is only £37 per year, £25 without UKA affiliation.  Concessions are available.  Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk  Please ask if you would like a paper copy.  You can also join online.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Andy Neatham 0777 197 5499 and 01438 816889; or Karen Palmer (07734678566) or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

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