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GRANT AND BARRY WIN AT SANDY

A busy weekend with award winners at the Sandy 10 and PBs in the Brighton and Paris marathons

Fairlands Valley Spartans had two winners at Sunday’s Sandy 10 ten mile road race. GRANT RAMSAY won the veteran male (40 plus) category in 59 minutes 5 seconds and BARRY OSBORNE the veteran man (60 plus) award in 69 minutes 11 seconds. Grant was sixth overall out of the 470 finishers and Barry 53rd.

Ten other Spartans ran at Sandy. They were TIM SABAN (71:23); MATTHEW GILL (72:07); CLAIRE PULLEN (74:41); TRACY PEZ (77:18); MARK GOODWIN (78:20); JULIE SIMMONS, third female veteran 55 plus (79:00); DAN SUTTON (79:45); VERITY FISHER (84:55); MARK CHEADLE (91:47) and LINDA GREENE (119:20).

Position

Name

Time

Comments

6th

GRANT RAMSAY

58:57

1st Veteran

53rd

BARRY OSBORNE

69:11

1st Vet (60 plus)

67th

TIM SABAN

71:23

76th

MATTHEW GILL

72:07

113th

CLAIRE PULLEN (F)

74:41

138th

TRACY PEZ (F)

77:18

155th

MARK GOODWIN

78:20

164th

JULIE SIMMONS (F)

79:00

3rd FV55.

173rd

DAN SUTTON

79:45

220th

VERITY FISHER (F)

84:55

307th

MARK CHEADLE

91:47

453rd

LINDA GREENE (F)

119:20

Steffan Goes Sub Three At Brighton Marathon

In the pursuit of a London Marathon place after several years of rejected ballots, Spartan STEFFAN FORD targeted the Brighton Marathon as his A race for 2015. The race that started six years ago has grown to be one of Europe’s top marathons. This was Fords first at the distance and breaking the 3 hour barrier for club runners was highly emotional on the day as it secured a good for age place for London 2016. He finished in 2 hours 59 minutes 21 seconds and was 95th out of the 9,000 Finishers.

Brighton was the first of four marathons for NICOLA HABERLAND and RICHARD KENNEDY this month and it went very well for both of them.

Nicola cut 12 minutes from her personal best (PB) set in Stevenage to finish in 3 hours 37 minutes 15 seconds and Richard Kennedy chopped five minutes off his PB set in Abingdon when he finished in 3:25:31.

Onwards and upwards for them to marathon number two of four next week in Bungay all in aid of the Animal Care Trust.

THOMAS SAUKA ran the associated 10K race and was pleasantly surprised with his time of 44 minutes 55 seconds.

Yllka goes faster at Hillingdon

Pavement running and a lot of junctions, twists and turns did not stop YLLKA ISTREFI running a new personal best for 13.1 miles at the Hillingdon Half Marathon on Sunday morning. In great conditions, albeit with a bit of a headwind in places, she raced round in 1 hour 36 minutes 36 seconds, an improvement of 2 minutes 27 seconds. Yllka was sixth woman and 70th overall out of the 367 finishers.

JIM BROWN ran the same race in 1:48:58. He was third veteran (60 plus) and 152nd overall.

Daniel Beats 3:30 and Paul Goes Sub 4 At Paris Marathon

From changing his training plan and dietary requirements (thanks to Spartans Head Coach Andy Prior) in January, DANIEL BATES results, training, health have improved and going into Sunday morning’s Paris Marathon full of confidence and everything went to plan. It

was the perfect marathon until 37 kilometres, he was ahead of the 3 hours 15 pacers, kept the same pace, and his thighs took a battering in the last 5km but it didn’t stop him. He finished in 3 hours 20 minutes 36 seconds and was 3,877th out of the 41,000 runners.

PAUL MARSHALL was glad to become a member of the sub 4 club with his time of 3 hours 59 minutes 46 seconds; ANDREA WESTCOTT finished in 4:32:47 and TIM ROBINSON in 4:42:27.

Caythorpe Canter

Barry King, Karen Liddle and Tricia Hopper ran the Caythorpe Canter cross country marathon in Lincolnshire on Saturday. Despite very wet and windy weather for the first two hours the day turned out sunny for the rest of the day and the Spartans finished the course in 5 hours 31 minutes 8 seconds.

South Downs Ultra

JOHN NELMS completed the South Downs way 50 mile race recently. 10 hours 24 minutes of non stop hills from Worthing to Eastbourne. His next target is the 100 mile Thames Path Ultra in May.

Parkrun Reports

ANDY PRIOR took part in the Scunthorpe Park run Saturday as a training run and finished in 23 minutes 46 seconds.

Running London?

With just a week to go so far 24 Fairlands Valley Spartans have declared that they are running this April’s London Marathon. Some have qualified on time; some came out of the draw; many are running for charity.

They are GRANT RAMSAY, HELENE MILLER; HELEN NUTTALL, HILARY DAVIES;

JACKIE DOWNES: JAN FRY; JIM BROWN; JACKIE DOWNES; JASON ANDERSON, KAREN ELLIS; LISA LIVERSIDGE; MADDIE PRITCHARD; MARIA RUSHTON; MICHELLE REEVES; NICK EMMETT; NICK WITCOMBE; NICOLA HABERLAND; PAUL MAGUIRE; PAUL MARSHALL; RICHARD KENNEDY; ROGER BIGGS; RUTH REILLY, SUZY HAWKINS and YLLKA ISTREFI.

Please support them.

Coming Events

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

Flitwick 10K on Sunday 19th April.

London Marathon on Sunday 26th April.

Handicap 5K on Thursday 30th April.

County 1500 metres track championship in Stevenage on Monday 4th May.

County 5 miles senior championships at Pednor on Monday evening 4th May.

EVAC Track & Field League at Milton Keynes on Wednesday 6th May.

Midweek Road Race League race in Stevenage on Tuesday 12th May.

Midweek Road Race League race in Chingford on Wednesday 27th May.

EVAC Track & Field League at Bedford on Wednesday 3rd June.

Midweek Road Race League race in Harlow on Wednesday 17th June.

EVAC Track & Field League in Biggleswade on Wednesday 1st July.

Midweek Road Race League race in Hitchin on Thursday 2nd July.

Bushey 10K including Herts Veterans road championships on Sunday 5th July.

County 10000 metres track championship in Biggleswade on Thursday 9th July.

Midweek Mob Match in Welwyn Garden City on Thursday 16th July.

Fairlands Valley Off Road Challenge on Sunday 19th July.

EVAC Track & Field League at venue TBA on Wednesday 29th July.

County and Open 3K Relay Championship in Stevenage on Thursday 30th July.

County 5K Senior Championships on 2nd September.

County 5K Veterans Championship on 16th September.

Standalone 10K (inc. country senior champs) in Letchworth on Sunday 4th October.

Great Eastern Run in Peterborough on 11th October.

Stevenage Half Marathon (includes County Veterans) on Sunday 1st November.

St. Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 15th November.

County 10 miles Veterans Championship at Buntingford on 27th December.

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 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. You can also join online.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Karen Palmer (07734678566) or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S

More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 or Karen Palmer (Secretary) 07734678566

www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

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