It was a lovely sunny morning in Stevenage on Sunday and Fairlands Valley Spartans welcomed hundreds of runners to the Stevenage Half Marathon on their new route from Hampson Park.
Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON won the race by 51 seconds with 1 hour 12 minutes 45 seconds and took GOLD in the Hertfordshire County Championship. ADRIAN BUSOLINI was third and won BRONZE in the county event with a new personal best of 1:15:46, an improvement by 10 minutes 40 seconds.
In the women’s competition ASHLEY JOHNSON took BRONZE with 1 hour 32 minutes 49 seconds and was second in her category. That was a new personal best (PB) for Ashley by 4 minutes 43 seconds.
The females from Fairlands excelled in the County team competition. Ashley, GABRIELLE O’BRIEN (1:44:32) and PAULA McMAHON (1:53:09) won GOLD with 17 points which was five ahead of Garden City Runners who were on 22. Three runners for women’s teams. Paula improved her half marathon time by 4 minutes 49 seconds.
It was SILVER for the Spartan men with GRANT RAMSAY (1:28:57) and NICK GILL (1:29:17) joining Andrew and Adrian to score 25 points, just four behind the winners. Four runners for men’s teams.
MARTIN JACOB and LINDA GEORGE both ran new half marathon personal bests. Martin with 1:46:33 and Linda with 2:06:33. Martin said it was a wonderful day for a run. Well marshalled route!!! Six Hills Way was tough, but I managed to compensate for that in the down hills.
Martin was five minutes faster than his Cambridge half in 2020. Linda improved her time by two minutes.
JIM BROWN was second male 70 plus with 2:03:26.
21 Spartans were running and, as the event was organised by the club. Andy Prior was the Race Director and dozens more volunteered to make sure the race was a success – marshals, lead bike, water station, baggage, etc.
The event raised money for the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance.
| Pos | Cat | M/F | Name | Cat | Time | Halfway | Comments |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Andrew PATTERSON | MV40 | 1:12:45 | 36:01 | Winner |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | Adrian BUSOLINI | MS | 1:15:46 | 37:24 | PB (10:40) |
| 18 | 6 | 17 | Grant RAMSAY | MV50 | 1:28:57 | 43:45 | SB |
| 20 | 10 | 19 | Nick GILL | MS | 1:29:15 | 45:07 | |
| 31 | 2 | 3 | Ashley JOHNSON | FV35 | 1:32:49 | 46:10 | Third woman. PB (4:43) |
| 37 | 17 | 34 | Stuart ARCHER | MS | 1:35:01 | 47:47 | SB |
| 49 | 10 | 46 | Craig BACON | MV50 | 1:39:50 | 49:14 | |
| 73 | 5 | 8 | Gabrielle OBRIEN | FS | 1:44:21 | 52:00 | |
| 85 | 25 | 75 | Martin JACOB | MV40 | 1:46:43 | 53:41 | PB (4:57) |
| 106 | 34 | 92 | Liam HERBERT | MS | 1:50:53 | 54:00 | |
| 125 | 6 | 21 | Paula McMAHON | FV35 | 1:52:30 | 56:27 | PB (4:49) |
| 162 | 9 | 131 | Stephen HARRIS | MV60 | 1:59:14 | 58:05 | |
| 182 | 11 | 147 | Martin DUDLEY | MV60 | 2:02:56 | 56:33 | |
| 185 | 2 | 148 | Jim BROWN | MV70+ | 2:03:26 | 1:01:28 | 2nd MV70 |
| 189 | 50 | 152 | Chris HOLLAND | MV40 | 2:04:30 | 59:02 | SB |
| 197 | 55 | 159 | Jon SYPULA | MV40 | 2:06:19 | 1:00:53 | SB |
| 198 | 12 | 39 | Linda GEORGE | FV35 | 2:06:33 | 1:02:33 | PB (1:54) |
| 225 | 12 | 175 | Nick KLEANTHOUS | MV60 | 2:10:17 | 1:04:25 | |
| 233 | 59 | 181 | Dave ACKERY | MS | 2:14:25 | 1:03:18 | |
| 244 | 17 | 57 | Wendy THARANI | FV45 | 2:20:25 | 1:05:58 | |
| 268 | 51 | 201 | Tim ROBINSON | MV50 | 2:40:15 | 1:17:10 |
Resolution 5K
Eight Spartans ran the Resolution Track 5K on a very wet Wednesday evening at Ridlins Track, Stevenage.
After the 12.5 laps SIMON JACKSON was second in 16 minutes 58 seconds and GEORGIE HOOPER first woman and 17th overall with 21 minutes 18 seconds, a new personal best (PB) by a massive 1 minute 55 seconds.
ALEX ZHERDEV improved his PB by 21 seconds to 21:20.
The other Spartan times were MATT TUTTON 25:03; SHARON CROWLEY 28:19; KARL REEVE 31:24; ROGER BIGGS 38:35 and PAUL HOLGATE 40:23. Simon got the highest age score with 84.0% followed by Georgie on 70% exactly and Sharon on 69.5%.
Parkrun Saturday 21st October
For the Consolidated Results please click the link