Another Fly team. Although the minimum size for Fly 5K teams has been increased Fairlands Valley Spartans got onto the leaderboard for the 12th Fly inter-club competition on Saturday morning. Teams have to include women and men with at least six finishers.
Enjoying a great local morning four Spartan women and three men ran the virtual race.
They were MARIAN MORLEY 167th in 25 minutes 15 seconds; NICOLA ANDERSSON 213th in a new personal best (PB) of 26:37; JIM BROWN 264th in 28:10; PAUL HOLGATE 307th in 29:48; NICK KLEANTHOUS 321st in 30:21; PENNY SCHENKEL 354th in 32:05 and STEPHANIE BIGGAR in 36:33.
Overall participation hit a new record with 432 runners. The Spartans were 13th equal team in what is rapidly becoming an international competition. This was the 41st Fly 5K.
These are virtual events. Everyone runs between 8a.m. and 12 noon on a Saturday morning but in different places and only in ones and twos.
The next Spartan stripey Saturday will be on Saturday 6th March. On Sunday 14th March there will be a range of Fly virtual events from 5K to an ultra 50K.
Racing Round England
Fairlands Valley Spartans are racing round England. They started in Bristol and are running, walking or cycling 2,970 kilometres round the coasts and borders of the country.
By the end of February two, BRIAN WHITE and PENNY SCHENKEL had already completed at least 1,000 kilometres and two others JIM BROWN and SHARON CROWLEY had exceeded 500 miles.
Brian still leads. He has reached Walmer in Kent with 1,094 kilometres but Penny is closing the gap. She is on 1,037 kilometres and in Rye, East Sussex.
Jim has clocked up 892 kilometres (554 miles) and is “in” Chichester, West Sussex with Sharon heading towards Debden Purleigh after a peep at the Solent. Sharon is on 838 kilometres.
The others of the ten who have covered more than 500 kilometres are KEN JUDE 700 at West Bay, near Bridport; HAZEL SMITH 677 who is near Seaton tram terminus; CATHY CRAIG 671 at Branscombe; LIZ CROWLEY 587 kilometres; PAUL HOLGATE 531 kilometres and TRACY PEZ 519 kilometres.
Nearly all the Spartans have turned the corner at Lands End. All aim to finish by the end of the year. The team total is 9,135 kilometres.
(Not) Parkrun – Scanlon Sub 20
In addition to those combining (not) Parkrun times with Fly 5Ks five other Spartans ran (not) Stevenage Parkruns. On Monday NICK KLEANTHOUS ran 29 minutes 21 seconds; on Tuesday JIM BROWN ran a 5K in 27:10; on Thursday PAUL JENNINGS 27:48 and on Friday DANNY SCANLON beat 20 minutes with 19:10. Then on Saturday ALISON SHELLEY ran her virtual 5K in 27 minutes 59 seconds. The average time at Stevenage was 31 minutes 11 seconds.
On Sunday HÉLÈNE FOUCOURT ran the Wimpole Hall virtual (not) Parkrun in 37 minutes 31 seconds. (Not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week.
North America Done Now It’s Central and South America!
Virtually nothing stops Fairlands Valley Spartans and they have now run almost 24,000 miles in just over 100 days in their relay race across North, Central and South America. Lockdown 2 – Briefly Tier 3 – Now Tier 4 and they continue into 2021.
Having covered the USA, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico they have now several days into South America and heading for Lima in Peru where there is a marathon and the start of the Inca Trail. On Saturday, day 112, they completed 106 miles with 65 members posting a distance. The total distance so far is 23,652 miles.