Six Spartans raced in the Lee Valley regional park near Waltham Cross on Sunday. Starting and finishing by the White Water Rafting Centre in the half marathon DANNY SCANLON was 20th out of the 227 finishers in 1 hour 30 minutes 34 seconds. SAM SIMMONS was 52nd in 1:41:22.
JIM BROWN “got the miles in” with 2:04:07 and PAUL JENNINGS came in with 2:19:50.
In the 10K Spartan THOMAS SAUKA ran a sub fifty with 48 minutes 38 seconds and NICK KLEANTHOUS got within seconds of a new personal best with 53:36.
Nick said, “The course was quite hilly and uneven in places. However the event was very well organised and I was only 11 seconds away from a personal best. I’m happy with that.”
There were 227 finishers in the half marathon and 129 in the 10K.
Burnham Beeches Half Marathon
Spartans WENDY and TAHER THARANI were at the scenic Burnham Beeches Half Marathon. Wendy finished in 2 hours 1 minute 49 seconds and Taher in 2:38:18. There were 453 finishers.
Abbathon – Thank You For The Music
JENNY GARRETT and HAZEL SMITH had a fantastic time singing their way around the Abbathon trail marathon in Cambridge. Undulating with difficult terrain, they both finished with a respectable time of 5 hours 14 minutes 1 second, including completing one 5.3 kilometre lap in full Abba costumes.
The event was run by Zigzag, they were fantastic organisers. Jenny came away with a special Happy Birthday badge after being sung to by all competitors whilst Hazel won the lucky race number with free entry to a future event – winner takes it all!!!
Letchworth 5K
JOHN HARRIS ran the North Hertfordshire first Saturday of the month 5K in 21 minutes 16 seconds on 7th August. He was seventh out of 52 runners. The event is run monthly by NHRR with the next event taking place on 4th September.
10K Times
Many Spartans spent the week recording 10K times for the fourth and final round of this year’s Mid Week League. So far there are 57. The full results and league standings in a few days but it’s looking pretty certain that Fairlands Valley Spartans are comfortably in second place in Division One. Second place in the top division – pretty good going.
24 Spartans have run all four midweek 10K races.
Parkrun Highlights 14th August 2021 – fourth week back
This week there were 19 Spartans out of the 290 finishers at the Stevenage Parkrun.
Staying close to home with the rest of the country, twenty-nine Fairlands Valley Spartans ran at seven UK Parkrun Events this week.
Impressively parkrun PBs were recorded for four runners from the group. The Stevenage course saw SAM SIMMONS record a time of 22 minutes and 3 seconds, STEVE ELDER run in 26 minutes and 58 seconds and STEPHANIE GAJIC in 35 minutes and 37 seconds, on her second ever parkrun. In addition, SALLY PHILLIPS conquered the Wimpole Estate event in 36 minutes and 37 seconds.
In other achievements STEVE WELLS (19:48) was 9th overall in Stevenage and recorded an impressive age related score over 80%. GAIL MACKIE (25:42) and KAREN ELLIS (25:49) finished as the 11th and 12th females, respectively. EVA RAMSEY (23:11) was the first female to finish the Aldenham course and JONATHAN PARR (16:54) finished fourth at the Norwich event.
(All the times for all 29 Spartan parkrunners can be found near the end of this release).
Flying On Number 65
Just one Spartan ran in last week’s Fly 5K. JIM BROWN finished in 28:57 and was second his age category. He was 95th out of the 159 finishers (83 women and 76 men) and this was his 46th virtual Fly 5K.
Battle for Bronze in the Virtual Coast Challenge
With less than 100 of the 2,970 kilometres to go SHARON CROWLEY has edged ahead of BRIAN WHITE and is now in bronze medal position amongst the Spartans in the club’s virtual race around the coasts and borders of England. On Wednesday Sharon was on 2,850.7 kilometres and Brian on 2845.6 – “only a parkrun” apart, by Saturday Sharon opened the gap a little more by reaching 2885.4 when Brian was on 2859.7. However, on Sunday the battle for bronze tightened up again with Sharon on 2890.9 and Brian on 2888.2 only 2.7 kilometres behind.
PENNY SCHENKEL and JIM BROWN have completed and were seventh and tenth nationally.
The other Spartans through the 2,000 kilometre mark by Sunday were JON SYPULA 2,291.2; KEN JUDE 2,255.6; CATHY CRAIG 2,160.8 and HAZEL SMITH 2,154.3.
Tables
Spartans in parkruns. Full results for 14th August are below:
| Position | Gender Position | Parkrunner | Time | Comments | |
| Norwich parkrun | 4 | 4 | Jonathan PARR | 00:16:54 | |
| Stevenage parkrun | 9 | 9 | Steve WELLS | 00:19:48 | 80.3% |
| 27 | 26 | Sam SIMMONS | 00:22:03 | PB | |
| 57 | 50 | David PATTMAN | 00:24:07 | ||
| 58 | 51 | Steven DOBNER | 00:24:08 | ||
| 63 | 56 | Matt CLARKE | 00:24:30 | ||
| 83 | 11 | Gail MACKIE | 00:25:42 | ||
| 85 | 12 | Karen ELLIS | 00:25:49 | 67.46% | |
| 92 | 18 | Georgie HOOPER | 00:25:57 | ||
| 93 | 73 | Nick GILL | 00:25:58 | ||
| 114 | 90 | Steve ELDER | 00:26:58 | PB | |
| 124 | 98 | Jonathan JONES | 00:27:33 | ||
| 151 | 33 | Fiona CLARKE | 00:28:43 | ||
| 152 | 34 | Debbie BLANTERN | 00:28:45 | ||
| 155 | 116 | Jim BROWN | 00:28:58 | ||
| 159 | 119 | Nick KLEANTHOUS | 00:29:14 | ||
| 179 | 126 | Paul JENNINGS | 00:30:35 | ||
| 239 | 80 | Karen PALMER | 00:35:03 | ||
| 240 | 81 | Beth FOLEY | 00:35:04 | ||
| 247 | 85 | Stephanie GAJIC | 00:35:37 | PB | |
| Houghton Hall parkrun | 65 | 55 | Michael O’KEEFE | 00:28:46 | |
| Wimpole Estate parkrun | 181 | 135 | Barry KING | 00:28:22 | |
| 316 | 110 | Sally PHILLIPS | 00:36:37 | PB | |
| 325 | 195 | Nick WITCOMBE | 00:37:25 | ||
| 344 | 129 | Helene FOUCOURT | 00:39:31 | ||
| Aldenham parkrun | 16 | 1 | Eva RAMSEY | 00:23:11 | |
| Rutland Water parkrun | 95 | 79 | Daniel SUTTON | 00:25:56 | |
| 196 | 63 | Verity FISHER | 00:31:11 | ||
| Seven Fields parkrun | 97 | 64 | Darryl STEVENS | 00:39:04 |
MWL results
| FVS Position | Name | Time | Gen | Where | Comments |
| 1 | SIMON JACKSON | 34:51 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 2 | ANDREW PATTERSON | 35:13 | M | Virtual | |
| 3 | ADRIAN BUSOLINI | 36:16 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 4 | JONATHAN PARR | 40:34 | M | Virtual | |
| 5 | ANDREW VAUGHAN | 40:43 | M | St Albans | SB |
| 6 | STUART ARCHER | 41:47 | M | Wave 4 | SB |
| 7 | STEVE WELLS | 41:53 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 8 | KELVIN BEYIOKU | 42:00 | M | Wave 4 | 1st 10K |
| 9 | ADRIAN DONNELLY | 42:54 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 10 | MATTHEW NEWTON | 43:14 | M | Virtual | |
| 11 | BRIAN WHITE | 44:26 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 12 | BARRY OSBORNE | 44:36 | M | St Albans | SB |
| 13 | PETE SMITH | 45:17 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 14 | YUKO GORDON | 46:19 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 15 | JO BOWDERY | 46:58 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 16 | CRAIG BACON | 47:36 | M | Virtual | |
| 17 | MARK GOODWIN | 47:36 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 18 | TOBY ECCESHALL | 47:40 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 19 | JOHN NELMS | 48:12 | M | Virtual | SB |
| 20 | THOMAS SAUKA | 48:38 | M | Lee Valley | |
| 21 | TRACEY PEZ | 48:40 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 22 | JON SYPULA | 48:53 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 23 | LUKE GURNEY | 49:25 | M | Wave 4 | PB (0:08) |
| 24 | SAM SIMMONS | 49:39 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 25 | ANDY JAY | 49:42 | M | Wave 4 | SB |
| 26 | LEE PICKERSGILL | 50:50 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 27 | TIM ROBINSON | 51:20 | M | Virtual | SB |
| 28 | DARREN EMMERSON | 51:21 | M | Wave 4 | |
| 29 | ZOE JACKSON | 51:46 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 30 | JOHN HARRIS | 51:56 | M | Virtual | |
| 31 | NICK KLEANTHOUS | 53:36 | M | Lee Valley | |
| 32 | NIKKI WILBY | 53:42 | F | Wave 4 | SB |
| 33 | MATT CLARKE | 54:03 | M | Virtual | |
| 34 | HAZEL SMITH | 54:26 | F | Treadmill | |
| 35 | JIM BROWN | 54:56 | M | St Albans | |
| 36 | DANIEL BATES | 54:57 | M | Poland | |
| 37 | WILL MORLEY | 55:12 | M | Virtual | |
| 38 | LIZ SMITH | 56:05 | F | Virtual | |
| 39 | CHLOE CHAPMAN | 57:24 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 40 | DEBBIE BLANTERN | 57:25 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 41 | CAROLYN LINSELL | 57:25 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 42 | NICOLA ANDERSSON | 58:16 | F | Wave 4 | |
| 43 | JOHN HARDING | 59:01 | M | Virtual | |
| 44 | PAUL HOLGATE | 59:43 | M | Milton Keynes | SB |
| 45 | WENDY THARANI | 60:00 | F | Mill Green | |
| 46 | FIONA CLARKE | 61:11 | F | Virtual | |
| 47 | JAN FRY | 61:31 | F | Virtual | |
| 48 | VISH SHAH | 61:54 | M | Wave 4 | SB |
| 49 | CATHY CRAIG | 63:44 | F | St Albans | SB |
| 50 | SHARON CROWLEY | 63:50 | F | Wave 4 | SB |
| 51 | JAMES KILROY | 66:03 | M | Wave 4 | SB |
| 52 | ANGIE KEELING | 67:23 | F | Virtual | |
| 53 | TONI NICOLS | 69:08 | F | Virtual | |
| 54 | CARMEL THORNTON | 70:33 | F | Wave 4 | PB (12:31) |
| 55 | GERRY ROSEN | 71:06 | M | Virtual | SB |
| 56 | PENNY SCHENKEL | 72:00 | F | Wave 4 (TBC) | |
| 57 | STEPHANIE BIGGAR | 78:01 | F | Virtual |