42 Spartans took part in the two memorial handicap races in Stevenage on Sunday morning. They were on an undulating course with the highest point being near the Oval Community Centre.
BRYAN MOORE SHIELD HANDICAP 10 MILES
The Bryan Moore Handicap ten mile event was brilliantly won by Andrew Patterson in a new personal best (PB) time of 55:21. He crossed the finish line 42 seconds ahead of Nick Gill second who smashed his PB by more than 25 minutes to finish in 67:03 and Simon Jackson third man (4th overall) in 59:32. Marie Colucci was the winning female and third overall, finishing in 79:15, 3:45 better than handicap, with Zoe Jackson second female in 1:27:00 (87:00) in her first ever 10 mile race and Harriet Smith third with 1:23:25 (83:25) also in her first ever 10 miles.
The leading two women both ran negative splits. Marie was 15 seconds in her second half (39:44 to 39:31) and Zoe a significant 1 minute 30 seconds (44:15 to 42:45).
Andrew was also quickest runner of the day with Simon second quickest and Nick (Gill) third fastest. Marie was also quickest lady with Harriet second (1:23:25) fastest and Zoe third (1:27:00) quickest.
Wendy Tharani improved her season’s best by 1 minute 20 seconds and Jim Brown his year’s best by three seconds! Vicky Archer took 2:44 off her ten mile handicap time.
Bryan Moore was a founding member of Fairlands Valley Spartans in 1984.
PAUL MAGUIRE MEMORIAL HANDICAP 5 MILES
The winner of the Paul Maguire Memorial Five was Nicola Andersson in a new PB time of 44:55 with Steve Mayfield second (winning man) in a SB time of 37:39 and Tony Vickers third (second man) with 44:08 in his first 5 mile race. Alison Shelley was second lady in 42:54 and Carolyn Linsell third lady with 54:52.
Twenty seven Spartans tackled the five mile event.
Paul Shelley was quickest runner of the day in 34:17, with Steve (Mayfield) second quickest and Charlie White third quickest in 38:51. Alison (Shelley) was fastest lady with Ann Tryssesoone second fastest in 43:34 and Nicola third quickest.
There were also five mile PB improvements for Nick Kleanthous (43:17) and Jane Whitrow (57:53), while Jon Sypula (41:33), Simon Sypula (46:12) and Penny Schenkel (46:56) improved their Season Best times.
Paul Maguire was an inspirational Spartan, a former Spartan of the Year, who passed away in 2008. He lost a long battle with cancer, still running for several years following his diagnosis, at the age of 42.
Overall no less than 24 other times were the first recorded at that distance this year.
Gosport Half Marathon
There were two fantastic Spartan personal bests in the Gosport Half Marathon.
Steve Dobner said, “It was another fabulous day for running down on the south coast as Dave Pattman and I ventured down to Gosport to run the half with our good friend and ex Spartan Ed Hare. We were due to run it last year but Dave was out injured and I was unable to walk 100 metres due to covid. This year was a different story.
Setting off with a time in mind we built into the race with Dave overtaking me at around 4K and upping the pace. The course is two laps and a lovely tail wind helped me accelerate on the way back into town.
Settling into a good pace the turn round into the wind for the second lap needed us to dig in. The race was extremely well supported and the encouragement from the spectators and our families was fabulous.
In the final 3-4K I managed to close the 20-25 second gap to Dave and we entered into the home straight together giving each other plenty of encouragement.
I managed to finish in 1:41:41 with Dave coming home in 1:41:44. Both of us setting new PBs and I somehow knocked over 5 minutes off my previous best with Dave improving his by 2 minutes. Ed came home in 1:44:53 for his second best ever time.”
SAM PRETTY finished in 1 hour 35 minutes 3 seconds. She was 306th out of the 1216 finishers.
St Neots
PETE SMITH enjoyed the St Neots Half Marathon where he was third man 60 plus in 1 hour 38 minutes 5 seconds.
SAM SIMMONS and MARCUS RIDLEY also completed the course in 1.42.59 and 1.48.13 respectively.
Sundon Saunter
The sun shone for the Sundon Saunter on Sunday for Spartan Sharon Crowley, although after all the recent rain it was 27.8 miles and 9 hours of slip sliding around Bedfordshire!
Parkrun Highlights
Nick KLEANTHOUS achieved a new parkrun PB (personal best) of 24 minutes 45 seconds at the Preston Park event in Brighton. Obviously good preparation for the Spartan five mile race the following day where he also achieved a new PB. Well done Nick!
For all remaining results for Parkrun please click the link – Spartan Parkrun results 19th November 2022
Tables
| FVS BRIAN MOORE HANDICAP 10 MILE | |||||||||||
| Position | F | NAME | SURNAME | Split 1 to 5m | Split 2 to 10m | Total Time | Speed Pos | Speed Fem | PB | Impr | Comp H’cap |
| 1 | ANDREW | PATTERSON | 27:37 | 27:44 | 55:21 | 1 | PB | 0:12 | 6:54 | ||
| 2 | NICK | GILL | 33:28 | 33:35 | 1:07:03 | 3 | PB | 25:47 | 6:12 | ||
| 3 | 1 | MARIE | COLUCCI | 39:44 | 39:31 | 1:19:15 | 5 | 1 | 3:45 | ||
| 4 | SIMON | JACKSON | 29:44 | 29:48 | 59:32 | 2 | YB | New | 2:58 | ||
| 5 | STUART | ARCHER | 30:51 | 37:58 | 1:08:49 | 4 | SB | New | 1:26 | ||
| 6 | 2 | ZOE | JACKSON | 44:15 | 42:45 | 1:27:00 | 8 | 3 | PB | New | 1:00 |
| 7 | MARK | GOODWIN | 40:00 | 40:46 | 1:20:46 | 6 | 0:44 | ||||
| 8 | ROBERT | WRIGHT | 44:15 | 44:25 | 1:28:40 | 9 | (0:40) | ||||
| 9 | MATT | CLARKE | 44:15 | 44:25 | 1:28:40 | 10 | YB | New | (0:40) | ||
| 10 | JIM | BROWN | 44:15 | 44:38 | 1:28:53 | 11 | YB | 0:03 | (0:53) | ||
| 11 | 3 | HARRIET | SMITH | 40:27 | 42:58 | 1:23:25 | 7 | 2 | PB | New | (1:25) |
| 12 | 4 | WENDY | THARANI | 44:19 | 45:58 | 1:30:17 | 12 | 4 | SB | 1:20 | (1:47) |
| 13 | 5 | VICKY | ARCHER | 51:26 | 50:10 | 1:41:36 | 13 | 5 | PB | 2:44 | (4:06) |
| 14 | 6 | CLAIRE | EMMERSON | 51:26 | 50:12 | 1:41:38 | 14 | 6 | YB | New | (4:08) |
| 15 | 7 | FIONA | CLARKE | 51:26 | 50:34 | 1:42:00 | 15 | 7 | YB | New | (4:30) |
| FVS PAUL MAGUIRE 5 MILE | |||||||||
| Position | F | NAME | SURNAME | Time | Speed Pos | Speed Fem | PB | Impr | Comp H’cap |
| 1 | 1 | NICOLA | ANDERSSON | 44:55 | 11 | 3 | PB | 2:13 | 7:05 |
| 2 | STEVE | MAYFIELD | 37:39 | 2 | SB | 1:05 | 3:06 | ||
| 3 | TONY | VICKERS | 44:08 | 10 | PB | New | 2:37 | ||
| 4 | PAUL | SHELLEY | 34:17 | 1 | YB | New | 2:28 | ||
| 5 | JON | SYPULA | 41:33 | 6 | SB | 4:54 | 2:27 | ||
| 6 | NICK | KLEANTHOUS | 43:17 | 8 | PB | 0:30 | 1:28 | ||
| 7 | CHARLIE | WHITE | 38:51 | 3 | 1:09 | ||||
| 8 | SIMON | SYPULA | 46:12 | 13 | SB | 1:06 | 1:03 | ||
| 9 | 2 | ALISON | SHELLEY | 42:54 | 7 | 1 | YB | New | 0:51 |
| 10 | 3 | CAROLYN | LINSELL | 54:52 | 21 | 9 | PB | New | 0:53 |
| 11 | DARREN | EMMERSON | 41:22 | 5 | 0:23 | ||||
| 12 | CHRIS | WATLING | 39:47 | 4 | PB | New | 0:13 | ||
| 13 | 4 | ANN | TRYSSESOONE | 43:34 | 9 | 2 | SB | 0:41 | 0:11 |
| 14 | 5 | PENNY | SCHENKEL | 46:56 | 14 | 4 | SB | 0:59 | (0:11) |
| 15 | 6 | JANE | WHITROW | 57:53 | 22 | 10 | PB | 0:13 | (0:23) |
| 16 | 7 | JUDY | KING | 58:04 | 23 | 11 | PB | New | (0:34) |
| 17 | 8 | JANE | WADEY | 54:04 | 20 | 8 | PB | New | (0:34) |
| 18 | 9 | MONICA | SMITHSON | 50:21 | 17 | 5 | YB | New | (1:21) |
| 19 | ANDY | JAY | 48:35 | 16 | YB | New | (1:20) | ||
| 20 | MATT | TUTTON | 47:23 | 15 | PB | New | (1:23) | ||
| 21 | 10 | NICOLA | HATHERLY | 59:38 | 24 | 12 | SB | New | (2:08) |
| 22 | VISHAL | SHAH | 45:19 | 12 | YB | New | (3:04) | ||
| 23 | 11 | CHLOE | CHAPMAN | 51:25 | 19 | 7 | PB | New | (3:55) |
| 24 | 12 | HAZEL | SMITH | 50:30 | 18 | 6 | YB | New | (4:15) |
| 25 | 13 | CALLIE | CHAPMAN | 1:02:35 | 25 | 13 | YB | New | (10:35) |
| 26 | 14 | HANNAH | SYPULA | 1:04:10 | 26 | 14 | SB | New | (13:40) |
| 27 | ROGER | BIGGS | 1:29:06 | 27 | SB | New | (14:21) |