Hills Upon Hills at Beachy Head!

Nine Spartans tackled the hilly Beachy Head Marathon on the south coast on Saturday.  Here are some of their stories: 

Steve Dobner – “Dave, Mo and I signed up this year and we joined the rest of the Spartan crew at the start line. I can honestly say it was the most enjoyable and breathtaking run I have ever done. The event is fantastic with amazing marshals and excellent checkpoints offering water, bananas, chocolate, one even had sausage rolls and hot cross buns with tea and coffee. On finishing you return to the local school for a free hot meal – baked potatoes and beans for me. 
The route was simply stunning, brutal in places but worth every step. The 170 Steps of Doom are an interesting challenge and the Seven Sisters are brutal (plus I’m sure there were more than seven). It was great to see some of our other local clubs with Royston Runners also well represented.  I cannot recommend this event highly enough and we were so lucky as the weather was amazing.” 

Tim Robinson – “The day before had seen thunder, lightning and heavy rain which meant the clay/chalk mix of the South Downs made for difficult progress in parts.  Being both sticky and slippery at the same time particularly around the 15 mile mark where there were several tricky puddles.  A warmer than usual day also meant slower progress.  Running mostly as a group made the event more fun.  Each runner has different strengths, some being quick uphill, some being quick downhill, and some needing rests at different places which means notions of a quick time are sacrificed at the expense of camaraderie and a good day out. 

The group fragmented slightly towards the end, catching each other at checkpoints and steep hills and all but 3 finished within 20 or 30 minutes of each other. 

THOMAS SAUKA and ROBERT WRIGHT finished together in 6 hours 10 minutes 58 seconds and said they are looking forward to going back next year. 

Mother and Daughter run the Beachy Head Marathon 

Hazel Smith (daughter) and Cathy Craig (mum) started the Beachy Head Marathon together, running, walking chatting and singing.  At 10 miles Cathy felt ill and decided she wanted to do the rest alone as the hills were tough and nutrition wasn’t helping.  One of the toughest UK marathons was certainly living up to its name! 

Both ran/walked the rest of the way.  Hazel met company and chatted and ate her way to the end.  Cathy had a few breaks, lying at the top of a hill for a rest and taking a seat at a pit stop, being unable to eat. 

When finished, Hazel walked up the big hill again to meet Cathy near the finish.  Cathy ran down but took a tumble at the bottom. 

Quite a few sweary words left Hazel’s mouth as she then attempted to run down to check on Cathy – having visions of her getting that close and not being able to finish! 

Cathy lay there for a bit then got up and seemed to turn into tigger, bouncing along and working the crowd up to cheer her through the finish line – super strong finish!! 

Position	Name	Time	Category
723	ROBERT WRIGHT	6:10:58	MV40
724	THOMAS SAUKA	6:10:57	MV40
786	DAVID PATTMAN	6:22:36	MV40
792	STEVE DOBNER	6:24:03	MV40
805	MO WARRILOW	6:25:51	LV45
834	TIM ROBINSON	6:31:16	MV50
903	TONY RANDFIELD	6:47:42	MV60
933	HAZEL SMITH	6:53:26	LV45
1114	CATHY CRAIG	8:05:51	LV55

GERRY ROSEN said the Beachy Head 10K was a tough race to return to racing after 10 months out due to illness and work.  He finished in 1 hour 29 minutes 22 seconds. 

Abingdon Marathon

After a dry Saturday Spartans Fiona Clarke, Matt Clarke, Karen Ellis and Chloe Chapman ran the Abingdon marathon on a very wet Sunday. 

The weather forecast was awful, thunder and lightning forecast for the duration they would be running.  It was a soggy start and rained heavily – there were huge puddles all round the course, fortunately the weather broke and they ended their runs in sunshine. 

They were all unsure how they’d get on as on top of the weather Karen had recently been unwell, Chloe had just had covid and Fiona and Matt hadn’t be able to train for about a month.  But they all dug deep and got it done.  Karen finished in 4 hours 19 minutes 45 seconds; Chloe in 4:49:13; Fiona in 5:05:07 and Matt in 5:05:08. 

Cross Country – Cheshunt 16^th October 

A full table of results following the first Cross Country race of the season is now available. Full team results available to download here Cheshunt Results.

Position	Firstname	Lastname	Time	Gender	Cat	Team
25	Adrian	Busolini	00:31:10	M	SM	AM
30	Charlie	White	00:31:43	M	SM	AM
38	Grant	Ramsay	00:32:23	M	V50	AM
65	Paul	Hewett	00:33:28	M	SM	AM
75	Stuart	Archer	00:33:52	M	SM	AM
96	Danny	Scanlon	00:34:51	M	V40	AM
151	Steven	Dobner	00:37:12	M	V40	AM
152	David	Pattman	00:37:13	M	V40	AM
157	Brian	White	00:37:25	M	V60	BM
176	Steve	Mayfield	00:38:20	M	V50	BM
192	Thomas	Sauka	00:39:13	M	V40	BM
204	Luke	Gurney	00:39:51	M	SM	BM
232	Darren	Emmerson	00:40:57	M	V50	BM
251	Zoe	Jackson	00:41:54	F	FV35	AF
267	Kelly	McHale	00:42:34	F	FV35	AF
301	Nick	Kleanthous	00:44:45	M	V60
314	Mark	Freeman	00:45:56	M	V60
318	Tim	Robinson	00:46:26	M	V50
322	Tony	Vickers	00:46:34	M	V50
336	Simon	Sypula	00:47:49	M	V40
346	Claire	Emmerson	00:48:15	F	FV45	AF
347	Vicky	Archer	00:48:22	F	FV35	AF
356	Michael	O’Keefe	00:48:49	M	V50
371	Grant	Murphy	00:50:53	M	V50
392	Jane	Wadey	00:55:15	F	FV55	AF
394	Sharon	Crowley	00:55:51	F	FV55
395	Cathy	Craig	00:56:30	F	FV65
405	Callie	Chapman	01:01:07	F	FV35
406	Hazel	Smith	01:01:07	F	FV45

Parkrun Personal Best and Consolidated Results – Saturday 22^nd October 

Sam SIMMONS ran at the Stevenage Parkrun and achieved a personal best, finishing 10^th male in 21:26 – Well done Sam! 

Please click the link to see all the consolidated results for the Spartans – Consolidated Parkrun results 22^nd October