NOW IT’S THE FAMOUS FIVE

 

A fifth Spartan woman has qualified for the British marathon championships!  An injury meant SUZY HAWKINS couldn’t target the same race as her amazing Spartan friends on the sub 90 minutes mission.  But with a stripey team now entered in the championship start at London she really wanted to be on that start line with them.  The deadline for entries is 31 December, so she thought would give the four laps of the Dorney Lake Half Marathon a go.  Suzy honestly thought “if I do it I have a 1% chance of qualifying, if I don’t zero%.”  It was very windy.  She was amazed and delighted at the pace she managed to maintain and was over the moon to win, and take almost three minutes off her personal best with 1 hour 27 minutes 14 seconds, but it was about joining the amazing women in the first ever Spartans marathon championship team.

Suzy Hawkins, Ashley King, Gail Mackie, Sam Pretty and Michelle Reeves are the famous Fairlands five.  All had to run a half marathon in less than 1 hour 30 minutes by the end of December to qualify for the marathon championships on Sunday 26^th April.

 

Thetford Forest 10K

Rufus and JANE WHITROW ran a 10K race through Thetford Forest on 15 December.  She said it was a fast course; all off road with a mixture of grass, sandy and rocky paths.

It was amazingly dry under foot, Rufus (her dog) didn’t need to be dried off at all.  There was a very civilised 10.30 start for the runners and 11.15 for the Canicross.  The event was based at High Lodge where Go Ape is, the mountain biking centre, café, etc., so great facilities for before and after the race.  The sausage roll got a gold star from Rufus.  This was race 1 in a series.  Races 2 and 3 are January and February.

Jane has space if any Spartan wants to join her for races two and three, with or without dog.

 

Festive Five

SIMON JACKSON did the Festive 5 in Welwyn Garden City on Sunday.  He said conditions were fresh but with a bit of sunshine on the rolling course it was a fun morning.  He started in his Santa hat but by a third of the way round had to take it off.  Simon finished fifth overall in 28:34 and was third in his age group.

Spartan JOHN HARRIS finished in 33 minutes 14 seconds.

 

Pisa Half

Despite a rather indifferent weather report for Pisa, the sun came out, the wind dropped to nothing, and it became a lovely day for running

Starting and finishing with the Iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa in view, ROGER BIGGS completed the Pisa Half Marathon in 2:51:15

 

Parkrun Highlights 14^th December 2019

As the rain fell 34 Fairland Valley Spartans’ headed out to run Parkrun events this weekend.

In Stevenage there was enough of a window in the rain for MICHELLE REEVES to finish first woman and 15^th overall in 21 minutes 17 seconds, VERITY FISHER finished as the 7^th woman overall in a time of 24 mins and 34 secs and ALISON SHELLEY as the 15^th in 25 mins and 41 secs, while DEAN CARPENTER finished 6^th overall in 20 mins and 18 secs in his 30^th parkrun and PAUL SHELLEY as 8^th in 20 mins and 38 secs.

Further afield GRACE BROWN was the fourth woman to finish the Canons Park course in 24 mins and 39 secs alongside TIM SABAN who was 7^th overall in 21 mins and 42 secs.  At Hunstanton Promenade NICOLA KENNEDY finished as the second female in a time of 24 mins and 04 secs.

Other landmark parkruns at Stevenage included CLAIRE EMMERSON running her 70^th in 30:41 and JIM BROWN his 40^th in 31:06.

(You can find all the Spartan parkrun results near the end of this release).

Many other Spartans enjoyed the club’s annual off road run to Minsden Chapel.

 

Tables

Parkrun Results Saturday 14^th December

Parkrun	Pos	Gen	Parkrunner	Times	Notes
Grovelands parkrun	155	118	Tim ROBINSON	31:09
Gunnersbury parkrun	456	263	Darryl STEVENS	39:20
Stevenage parkrun	6	6	Dean CARPENTER	20:18	30th parkrun
	8	8	Paul SHELLEY	20:38
	15	1	Michelle REEVES	21:17	1st woman
	22	20	Daniel SUTTON	21:43
	40	37	Thomas SAUKA	22:51
	46	42	Martin DUDLEY	23:20
	71	7	Verity FISHER	24:34
	79	70	Matt CLARKE	24:55
	81	72	Barry OSBORNE	24:58
	82	73	Steven DOBNER	24:59
	84	74	David PATTMAN	25:04
	85	75	Sam SIMMONS	25:10
	88	78	James NICHOLLS	25:18
	93	81	Nigel STRONGITHARM	25:25
	99	15	Alison SHELLEY	25:41
	107	91	Darren EMMERSON	26:13
	125	21	Sofia CARPENTER	27:12
	137	27	Fiona CLARKE	27:47
	165	37	Monica SMITHSON	29:30
	169	132	Nick KLEANTHOUS	29:56
	176	42	Jan FRY	30:31
	180	45	Claire EMMERSON	30:41	70th parkrun
	181	46	Jenny GARRETT	30:42
	182	47	Kerstin WEINER	30:43
	189	140	Jim BROWN	31:06	40th parkrun
	190	50	Penny SCHENKEL	31:07
	192	51	Dzenana TOPIC	31:17
	195	53	Sally PICKLES	31:41
	214	65	Tracy STILES	33:11
Canons Park parkrun	7	7	Tim SABAN	21:42
	28	4	Grace BROWN	24:39
Cassiobury parkrun	183	149	James KILROY	27:33
Hunstanton Promenade parkrun	11	2	Nicola KENNEDY	24:04