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FANTASTIC DAY AT THE LONDON MARATHON, Caythorpe Canter * Watford Track

News from the 2014 Virgin London Marathon, Brighton, Watford and the Caythorpe Canter.

Once again Fairlands Valley Spartans proved their ability to get lots of people round the London Marathon.

On a great day for spectators, maybe a little warm for runners, GRANT RAMSAY ran a fantastic sub 2:40 marathon to finish 149th out of more than 36,000 finishers. His time of 2 hours 38 minutes 21 seconds qualifies him for next year’s elite start and was only a minute off his lifetime personal best. Excellent in the rising temperatures.

CLARE MOORE was the club’s fastest female. She ran her first marathon in 4 hours 6 minutes 52 seconds.

A good for age qualifying time was recorded by PETE SMITH. He was 2,922nd, clearly in the top ten per cent, with 3 hours 14 minutes 55 seconds.

CAROL PAUL ran her 21st London marathon in 5:00:20 bringing her total number of marathons to 287.

HANNAH SYPULA (5:54:49) and KERSTIN WEINER (4:13:02) and JON SYPULA were running as part of a team of three. Hannah and Kerstein were running the London Marathon and Jon Sypula will be running the Milton Keynes Marathon to raise money for two hospices. One is the Garden House Hospice where Hannah works and who have provided Kerstin with counselling after losing her sister to cancer last year. The other one is the Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City who looked after Kerstin’s sister and our family at a very difficult time. Both do amazing work and rely on charity. They have a team page which is: http://www.justgiving.com/teams/Spartan-III and within here you can then select what Hospice you would like to support specifically. So far they have £562 plus another £102 to add to the Garden House Hospice giving a total of £664. All three have been doing most of their training with the Spartans and Hannah has led a few of the long runs at the weekends which have been really good. It really makes a difference training with other people and getting support from the group.

JIM BROWN ran his first marathon after major surgery. After a four year break his careful run got him home in 5 hours 1 minute 16 seconds. This was his 17th London Marathon.

Other Spartan times included MARK BEASLEY (3:43:48); THOMAS SAUKA (3:56:37); ROBERT EVANS (3:57:30); JOHN ROXBURGH (4:02:55); VISH SHAH (4:04:35); STEVE ELDER (4:05:24); SALLY BEASLEY (4:22:52); CLAIRE COKER (4:28:04); MARJ SHANAHAN (4:36:53); RUTH MURTAGH (4:54:07); KAREN LIDDLE (4:54:51); JO CAHILL (5:09:49); SIMON GREEN (5:14:19); TRUDIE MOLLOY (5:16:13); PAUL HOLGATE (5:44:57); MELISSA TYLER (5:51:27); NICK STEWART (6:12:15); FIONA KEELEY (6:15:34) and AMY SMYTH (7:57:09).

The Spartan team included many first timers. Dozens of other club members helped at the finish.

Position Name Finish Half Way
149 GRANT RAMSAY 2:38:21 1:16:03
2922 PETER SMITH 3:14:55 1:35:30
7574 MARK BEASLEY 3:43:48 1:42:05
10790 THOMAS SAUKA 3:56:37 1:52:35
11038 ROBERT EVANS 3:57:30 1:47:34
12435 JOHN ROXBURGH 4:02:55 1:53:52
12793 VISHAL SHAH 4:04:35 1:44:02
12986 STEVE ELDER 4:05:24 1:42:04
13294 CLARE MOORE 4:06:52 1:58:11
14728 KERSTIN WEINER 4:13:02 2:02:04
17181 SALLY BEASLEY 4:22:52 2:03:16
18483 CLAIRE COKER 4:28:04 2:00:11
20515 MARJ SHANAHAN 4:36:53 2:19:42
24367 RUTH MURTAGH 4:54:07 2:15:44
24554 KAREN LIDDLE 4:54:51 2:17:23
25738 CAROL PAUL 5:00:20 2:19:19
25901 JIM BROWN 5:01:16 2:30:02
27347 JO CAHILL 5:09:49 2:29:33
28072** SIMON GREEN 5:14:19 2:20:42
28380 TRUDIE MOLLOY 5:16:13 2:36:36
31900 PAUL HOLGATE 5:44:57 2:25:52
32486 MELISSA TYLER 5:51:27 2:38:11
32776 HANNAH SYPULA 5:54:49 2:41:39
33859 NICK STEWART 6:12:15 2:34:11
33998 FIONA KEELEY 6:15:34 2:37:38
35763 AMY SMYTH 7:57:09 3:25:19

Brighton Marathon

PAUL MARSHALL finished the Brighton Marathon in 4 hours 10 minutes 7 seconds.

Caythorpe Canter

Tricia Hopper and Barry King ran the Caythorpe Canter on Saturday in a fantastic time of 5 hours 29 minutes 7 seconds. The course was a undulating, cross country route around the Lincolnshire countryside

Watford

At the first in the 2014 series of Watford Harriers popular open graded meetings, STEVE MAYFIELD kicked off his track season with the 100 and 200 metres. In the shorter sprint he recovered from a poor start to claim 3rd place in heat 4 in 13.34 seconds. He later went on to win heat 3 of the 200m relatively comfortably in 27.16.

Coming Events

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

• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 17th April
• Last Friday of the Month 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 25th April
• Herts 1500 and Veterans Track and Field Championships on Monday 5th May
• First Mid Week Road Race League (10K) race in Stevenage on Tuesday 13th May
• Second Road Race League (5 miles) race in Chingford on Wednesday 4th June
• Third Road Race League (9K) race in Trent Park on Thursday 12th June
• Fourth Road Race League (10K) in St Albans on Tuesday 1st July
• Mid Week Mob Match (10K) in Welwyn Garden City on Thursday 17th July
• Off Road Challenge in Stevenage on Sunday 20th July
• Relays in the Park in Stevenage on Thursday 31st July
• Stevenage Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday 2nd November

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 9.30a.m. sharp. Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, Stevenage most Saturdays from 9.15a.m. There are events to enter every Sunday. Newcomers are very welcome – those who have not done very much running yet might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.

Try a few sessions before joining. Membership is only ÂŁ35 per year, ÂŁ25 without UKA membership. Concessions are available. Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk Please ask if you would like a paper copy.

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

E N D S

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

www.fvspartans.org.uk

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