Spartan Head Coach BRIAN WHITE is a European winner. Racing in the European Masters Virtual 5K he was 24th overall in 21 minutes 50 seconds and third (bronze position) in the men 65 plus category and part of the winning (gold) GBR team. Qualifying runs had to be done between 26th and 3st December.
New Year
Many Spartans weren’t going to miss the chance for a resolution run on Friday 1st January and five took advantage of the Fly 5K New Year Specials. As well as not being on a Saturday they were special in allowing participants to run more than one 5K. JAMES McSWEENEY was the fastest Spartan with 24 minutes 23 seconds giving him 69th out of the 258 times recorded. In his first 5K JIM BROWN was 155th and third male 65 plus with 29:30 but in his second he was a bit quicker with 26:28 which moved him up to 109th and second in his category. PENNY SCHENKEL was 175th in 30:27. LIZ CARVELL also ran a double in her first she ran 30:30 for fourth female 60 plus then she went again in 34:36. PAUL HOLGATE was 233rd in 34:17. This was Fly event 32.
Saturday 2nd being the first Saturday of the month was stripey Saturday for the Spartans and some of those tackled the virtual Fly 5K event 33 which was in the usual Saturday morning slot. JAMES McSWEENEY was 78th in 25 minutes 50 seconds and JIM BROWN 93rd in 26:30 which was good enough for third in his category. NICK KLEANTHOUS came in with 28:21 for 117th. PENNY SCHENKEL was 146th in 31:21 and PAUL HOLGATE 156th in 32:24. 182 times were recorded. Other Spartans enjoyed training runs in ones and twos.
Unlike Fly 5Ks (not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week. Ten Spartans recorded times for (not) Parkrun number 29 and those that were different to the Fly times were BARRY OSBORNE 24:39; JIM BROWN 25:13 (run on Tuesday); PAUL SHELLEY 26:54; ALISON SHELLEY 26:58; PAUL JENNINGS 27:03 and NICOLA ANDERSSON 27:20.
It’s been a busy few days for Paul Holgate. In addition to his Fly 5K exploits he ran the BMAF virtual 10K on New Year’s Eve. His 1 hour 10 minutes 35 seconds got him 407th place. On Sunday he recorded 1:01:02 in the Virtual Stevenage Cross Country 5 miles Challenge. That was 1:29 slower than December due to softer ground
USA Done Now It’s Canada
Virtually nothing stops Fairlands Valley Spartans and they have now run more than 11,000 miles in their race across North America. Lockdown 2 – Briefly Tier 3 – Now Tier 4 and they continue into 2021.
FVS have completed Route 66 and 34 standard, or ultra, marathons across the US. They are now in Canada and heading to St Johns in Newfoundland to pick up the Trans-Canadian Highway. On day 56, Saturday, they completed 275 miles with 56 members posting a distance. Their total distance in this relay is 11,389 miles.
Tables
Full results for all Spartans would normally be listed below – back soon. Here’s the virtual (not) ParkRun Spartan results for the week including 2nd January:
| Name | Time |
| JAMES McSWEENEY | 24:23 |
| BARRY OSBORNE | 24:38 |
| JIM BROWN | 25:13 |
| PAUL SHELLEY | 26:54 |
| ALISON SHELLEY | 26:58 |
| PAUL JENNINGS | 27:03 |
| NICOLA ANDERSSON | 27:20 |
| NICK KLEANTHOUS | 28:21 |
| PENNY SCHENKEL | 31:21 |
| PAUL HOLGATE | 32:24 |
That was event 29.
Fly 5k Event 32 (New Year’s Day)
James McSweeney 24:23 69
Jim Brown 26:28 109 2nd MV65
Jim Brown (2) 29:30 155 3rd MV65
Penny Schenkel 30:27 175
Liz Carvell 30:30 176 4th FV60
Paul Holgate 34:17 233
Liz Carvell (2) 34:36 234
258 times recorded
Fly 5k Event 33 (Sat 2/1/21)
James McSweeney 25:50 78
Jim Brown 26:30 93 3rd MV65
Nick Kleanthous 28:21 117
Penny Schenkel 31:21 146
Paul Holgate 32:24 156
182 times recorded