FLYING FAIRLANDS AT CAMBRIDGE

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 48^th 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. 

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. 

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. 

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 5^th 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 80^th 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 18^th 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. 

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. 

Tables 

Spartans at the Cambridge Half Marathon: 

Pos.	Bibno.	Chip time	Participant	Category	4M	8.5M	11.8M	13.1M	Speed	Pace
48	5604	1:12:30	Simon Jackson	(M) 45-49	21:17	24:11	18:36	8:26	17.46 km/h	3:26 min/km
819	1057	1:28:55	Stuart Haycroft	(M) 40-44	26:55	29:50	22:11	9:59	14.23 km/h	4:12 min/km
949	8130	1:30:24	Michelle Reeves	(F) 35-39	26:58	30:56	22:24	10:06	14.00 km/h	4:17 min/km
3537	5928	1:48:40	David Kennedy	(M) 35-39	31:21	36:07	28:06	13:06	11.65 km/h	5:09 min/km
4607	5607	1:54:14	Martin Jacob	(M) 35-39	34:28	38:22	28:32	12:52	11.08 km/h	5:24 min/km
4615	8656	1:54:16	Vishal Shah	(M) 35-39	32:13	38:30	30:45	12:48	11.08 km/h	5:25 min/km
5006	8761	1:56:03	Luke Silver	(M) 30-34	34:01	39:11	29:56	12:55	10.91 km/h	5:30 min/km
5060	855	1:56:18	Vicky Archer	(F) 40-44	33:57	39:25	29:38	13:18	10.88 km/h	5:30 min/km
5560	7110	1:58:35	Marian Morley	(F) 55-59	36:01	39:43	29:42	13:09	10.67 km/h	5:37 min/km
6019	3048	2:01:11	Chloe Chapman	(F) 30-34	34:29	41:39	31:54	13:09	10.44 km/h	5:44 min/km
6182	911	2:02:25	Jim Brown	(M) 65-69	35:18	41:18	31:45	14:04	10.34 km/h	5:48 min/km
7041	4477	2:08:27	Linda George	(F) 35-39	37:22	43:04	33:26	14:35	9.85 km/h	6:05 min/km
8252	1156	2:18:37	Ellie McDermott	(F) 25-29	37:10	46:28	36:57	18:02	9.13 km/h	6:34 min/km

About 10,000 finishers. 

Full Spartan results from the Stevenage parkrun are shown below: 

A total of 259 runners took part. 

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Run Time
8	7	Grant RAMSAY	00:19:29
12	11	Nick GILL	00:20:06
17	1	Suzy HAWKINS	00:21:11
52	48	Toby ECCLESHALL	00:24:23
56	52	Martin DUDLEY	00:24:32
66	60	David PATTMAN	00:25:04
70	4	Susan MCANENY	00:25:20
75	67	Lee PICKERSGILL	00:25:30
79	71	Matt CLARKE	00:25:42
96	84	Nick KLEANTHOUS	00:26:46
110	93	Luke SILVER	00:27:22
118	15	Claire EMMERSON	00:27:41
148	113	Steven DOBNER	00:29:21
149	30	Mo WARRILLOW	00:29:21
185	132	Stephen SMITHSON	00:32:07
188	48	Sharon CROWLEY	00:32:16
218	67	Jane WADEY	00:35:04
254	152	Roger BIGGS	00:48:02