Fairlands Valley Spartans

 

45 Fairlands Valley Spartans answered the club’s call to compete in the first Cross Country League race of the season.  On a bright sunny morning the 17 women and 28 men raced round a parkland style course in Cheshunt.

The leading performance was by CALLUM STEWART second overall in just 27 minutes 50 seconds.  YUKO GORDON was first in for the Spartan women in 39:08 with ISABEL GREEN twelve seconds behind in 39:20.

Three other Spartans achieved top thirty positions out of the five hundred runners.  They were GRANT RAMSAY, 14^th in 29:30; CHRIS WESTCOTT, 20^th in 29:50 and SIMON JACKSON, 22^nd in 30:03.

 

Women’s Team At Cheshunt

Overall Position	Name	Time
255	YUKO GORDON	39:08
259	ISABEL GREEN	39:20
325	JULIE SIMMONS	41:45*
332	CLAIRE COX	42:12
370	JANE McFARLANE	43:50
388	WENDY THARANI	45:00
390	KAREN ELLIS	45:15
412	SOPHIE COWAN	46:48
416	JENNY GARRETT	47:30
417	KERSTIN WEINER	47:32
430	CLAIRE WHITCHURCH	48:40*
446	OLWEN BATTY	49:56
452	STEPH MAYFIELD	49:57
456	MONICA SMITHSON	50:46
461	LIZ GUEMACHE	51:20*
480	IRIS HORNSEY	54:23
487	HANNAH SYPULA	56:09

 

Men’s Team

Overall Position	Name	Time
2	CALLUM STEWART	27:50
14	GRANT RAMSAY	29:30
20	CHRIS WESTCOTT	29:50*
22	SIMON JACKSON	30:03
52	PAUL HEWETT	31:34
75	DAN HUKIN	32:30
97	MIKE GREEN	33:18
103	STEVE GREEN	33:34
113	MARK COLLINS	34:01
114	BRIAN WHITE	33:58
135	TODD GRAY	34:54
150	TOM SAUKA	35:19
155	TIM SABAN	35:41
174	BARRY OSBORNE	36:25
223	PETE SMITH	36:21*
237	STEVE MAYFIELD	36:31
239	MARK GOODWIN	38:00
271	CLIVE CANNON	39:53
279	PAUL WHYTE	39:58
351	ANDY PRIOR	43:08
354	DAVE SMITH	43:12*
356	JAMES KILROY	43:17
357	SIMON SYPULA	43:23
397	VISH SHAH	45:40
401	ANDY JAY	45:23
418	JON SYPULA	47:11
436	ROB SHAW	48:19
488	STEVE GOUGH	57:18

 

Magnificent Seven Spartans in Snowdonia

A magnificent seven Spartans tackled the challenging Snowdonia Marathon at the weekend.

Poor visibility made scenery at a premium on this Snowdon marathon, but mild temperatures and a damp day made for excellent running conditions.  ROB EVANS ran an impressive 4 hours 31 minutes 18 seconds despite the treacherous final couple of miles which saw many runners fall.

Sharon Crowley took 27 minutes off her season’s best from Snowdon last year to finish in 5:12:31, while Paul Holgate beat his 2016 time by 43 minutes with 5:26:00 to record his fastest marathon since 2014.

Barry King, Karen Liddle, Tricia Hopper & Trudie Molloy ran round together in 5:35:48.

 

Name	Time
ROBERT EVANS	4:31:18
SHARON CROWLEY	5:12:31
PAUL HOLGATE	5:26:00
TRICIA HOPPER	5:35:48
KAREN LIDDLE	5:35:48
TRUDIE MOLLOY	5:35:49
BARRY KING	5:35:50

 

Serpentine 25^th Anniversary

MADDIE PRITCHARD and JIM BROWN were in London for the 25^th Anniversary of the popular Serpentine 5K Last Friday of the Month race around 5K.  Conditions were excellent for late October – warm and sunny with a light breeze.  Maddie was 165^th in 22:03 and Jim, after many months of trying, beat 24 minutes with a year’s best 23:55.  He was 214^th.

 

Beachy Head Marathon

Tim Robinson reports a tough day at the Beachy Head Marathon on Saturday.  There was a cold wind and he thinks he picked up some sunstroke.  The last four miles were monstrous with dizziness and strange visual disturbances.  Tim finished in 5 hours 47 minutes 46 seconds.

 

Fair City

PAUL MAGUIRE completed the Dublin Marathon in 4 hours 26 minutes 23 seconds.

 

parkrun reports

ERICA GRAYSON took advantage of a half term break up north to run the Barrow Parkrun.  She was happy to beat her Stevenage parkrun times on a hilly two and a half ran course with 26 minutes 49 seconds and second in her category.

Fastest Spartan at a parkrun at the weekend was RICHARD BRUCE who was 5^th at Bedford in 18 mins 23 secs. NICOLA KENNEDY ran at Nobles on the Isle of Man for the first time and was 1^st woman to finish in 24:59.

This week there were course personal bests (PBs) at Stevenage for SALLY PHILLIPS (29:29) and SELVAN NAICKER (30:06).

RUTH REILLY was the fastest Spartan woman this week with 21 minutes 37 seconds at Ellenbrook Fields.

The full list of parkrun times for the week by course was as follows:

 

Bedford
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
5	5	Richard BRUCE	00:18:23
Bath Skyline
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
288	86	Alexandra WHITEHOUSE	00:32:27
Nobles
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
15	1	Nicola KENNEDY	00:24:59	First woman
Stevenage
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
11	11	Nick GILL	00:20:41
33	31	Martin DUDLEY	00:22:27
39	37	Clive CANNON	00:23:12
48	44	Lee PICKERSGILL	00:24:04
51	47	Barry OSBORNE	00:24:07
68	62	David SCOTT	00:25:09
83	74	Dave SMITH	00:26:04
104	16	Tracy PEZ	00:27:13
122	99	James SOUTH	00:28:23
142	30	Sally PHILLIPS	00:29:29	Course PB
164	126	Selvan NAICKER	00:30:06	Course PB
188	139	Peter CARPENTER	00:33:03
Barrow
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
55	11	Erica GRAYSON	00:26:49
Panshanger
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
58	55	Paul WHYTE	00:24:07
Rutland Water
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
95	67	Daniel SUTTON	00:27:28
100	32	Verity FISHER	00:27:59
Leicester Victoria
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
133	36	Karen PALMER	00:27:34
Ellenbrook Fields
Pos	Gender Pos	parkrunner	Time	Notes
18	3	Ruth REILLY	00:21:37

 

 

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Wolverton Five at Milton Keynes on Saturday 25^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Bedford Harriers Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd December.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Festive Five at Welwyn Garden City on Sunday 10^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• Witham Five on Tuesday 26^th December.
• Buntingford Year End 10 on Sunday 31^st December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January 2018.
• County Cross Country Championships at Cassiobury Park on Sunday 7^th January.
• Cross Country League at Watford on Sunday 14^th January.
• Fred Hughes 10 miles including senior county championships at St. Albans on Sunday 21^st January.
• Southern Cross Country Championships on Saturday 27^th January.
• Watford Half Marathon inc. veteran championships on Sunday 4^th February.
• Bramley 20/10 (20 miles or 10 miles) on Sunday 11^th February.
• St Valentine’s 30K at Stamford on Sunday 11^th February.
• Cross Country League at Royston on Sunday 18^th February.
• Welwyn Half Marathon on Sunday 4^th March.
• Finchley 20 miles (including Herts County) on Sunday 18^th March.
• Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• Orion 15 at Chingford (Epping Forest) on Saturday 24^th March.
• London Marathon on Sunday 22^nd April.
• Stirling Marathon on Sunday 29^th April.

 

Fairlands Valley Spartans organised the Stevenage Half Marathon and it was a tremendous community event with nearly 500 people running round the town, dozens of Spartans volunteering to make the event a success, a local Spartan winner, hundreds of spectators around the course and still 29 members of the club racing and doing well.

Spartan GRANT RAMSAY won the race in 1 hour 17 minutes 26 seconds with the club’s team of Grant, STEFFAN FORD 1:24:16, BRIAN WHITE 1:28:23 and ADRIAN BUSOLINI 1:29:21 taking the team honours.  Grant was also the first finisher aged 40 plus and Brian second 60 plus finisher in the open race.

The event included the Hertfordshire Half Marathon Championships for veteran runners.  Grant took GOLD.  BRIAN WHITE took GOLD and JIM BROWN 1:46:31 BRONZE in the 60 plus category.  ROB SHAW won BRONZE in the 70 plus contest.

The Spartan veterans Grant Ramsay, Steffan Ford; Brian White and Tim Saban in a new personal best of 1:31:25 won GOLD in the county team event.  The club’s women were not being left out as ROS INGRAM 1:54:22, JULIE SHADBOLT beating two hours for the first time with 1:58:48; and ERICA GRAYSON 2:02:29 made up the SILVER medal winning team.

Many other Spartans had great races.  NICK GILL put in a huge effort on the undulating course to take ONE second off his personal best (PB) which is now 1:37:53.  There were also personal bests by KAREN ELLIS 1:51:48 and JO BOWDERY 1:57:44.

Massive thanks to SOPHIE COWAN, race director and her huge team of volunteer race makers.

 

Spartan Results at the Stevenage Half Marathon

Position	Name	Time	Comments
1	GRANT RAMSAY	1:17:26	Race Winner.  GOLD team.
11	STEFFAN FORD	1:24:16	GOLD team.
30	BRIAN WHITE	1:28:23	County GOLD.  GOLD team.
34	ADRIAN BUSOLINI	1:29:21
41	TIM SABAN	1:31:25	PB.  GOLD team.
48	DEAN CARPENTER	1:32:11
65	STUART ARCHER	1:35:18
80	NICK GILL	1:37:53	PB (1 second!)
127	CHRIS HOLLAND	1:44:09
156	JIM BROWN	1:46:31	County BRONZE
169	MARTIN DUDLEY	1:48:14
198	KELLY EVANS (F)	1:51:15
201	KAREN ELLIS (F)	1:51:48	PB
213	SUSAN McANENY (F)	1:53:06
217	ROBERT EVANS	1:53:42
227	ROS INGRAM (F)	1:54:22	SILVER team
241	JOANNE BOWDERY (F)	1:57:44	PB
250	JULIE SHADBOLT (F)	1:58:48	SILVER team.  PB (first sub two)
270	ERICA GRAYSON (F)	2:02:29	SILVER team.
273	WENDY THARANI (F)	2:02:02
309	KARTIK SHARMA	2:07:07
326	ROBERT WRIGHT	2:08:57
327	KAREN PALMER (F)	2:09:18
328	SUE HAMER (F)	2:09:24
343	JEANNETTE COLLINS(F)	2:10:48
376	ROGER BIGGS	2:14:31
390	CALLIE CHAPMAN (F)	2:18:18
392	ROB SHAW	2:17:40	County GOLD (M70)
411	JAMES SOUTH	2:21:40
459	KELLY CHAPMAN (F)	2:56:23

 

There were 468 finishers.  Results for everyone can be found on http://eventchiptiming.com/

 

Great South Ten Miles

Six Spartans travelled to Portsmouth for the Great South Run.  Racing over ten miles and with a big field RUTH REILLY ran a tremendous new personal best of 1 hour 14 minutes 44 seconds.  JENNY GARRETT was rewarded with a new 1:29:59 PB.  LIAM HERBERT was the club’s fastest finisher with 1:08:52.

Position	Name	Time	Comments
538	LIAM HERBERT	1:08:52
1390	RUTH REILLY	1:14:44	PB
5529	JENNY GARRETT	1:29:59	PB
7676	TESSA STEPHENSON	1:36:19
9102	HAYLEY TRANTER	1:40:21
10617	ZOE YIAMAKA	1:45:13

 

Abingdon Marathon

In a very windy Abingdon Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON cut his marathon personal best (PB) by five minutes to 2 hours 42 minutes 20 seconds.  That gives him a championship start at the London Marathon.  SUZY HAWKINS cut her PB to 3:21:50.

 

Toronto

CAROL PAUL ran the Toronto marathon.  On a hot day for the time of year where Carol suffered in the heat Carol completed the marathon in 4:39:35 her sixth marathon in Canada and her 355th marathon.   Carol ran her first marathon 25 years ago at Snowdon.

 

Cross Country Campaign Commences

Fairlands Valley Spartans campaign in the new season’s cross country league starts in Cheshunt at 11a.m. this Sunday, 29^th October.

 

parkrun reports

Fastest Spartan parkrunner of the week was RICHARD KENNEDY who was 7^th finisher in 22:45 in the inaugural event of Nobles parkrun on the Isle of Man.

Fifteen Spartans lined up at Stevenage. MARK BEASLEY finished 36^th in 23:33 with LEE PICKERSGILL next Spartan in 24:18 followed by ANDY JAY in 25:10. DANIEL SUTTON (25:22), DAVID SCOTT (25:44), ROGER BIGGS (30:27), JAMES SOUTH (32:00) and SELVAN NAICKER (40:13) also ran with IAN ALEXANDER volunteering as tailwalker in 44:33.

VERITY FISHER was 10^th woman in 25:30, with TRACY PEZ (27:55), LIZ GUEMACHE (29:56) and SALLY PHILLIPS (30:07) also finishing in the top 50 women. TRACY STILES (32:42) and LYNSEY CHALKLEY (35:49) also ran.

In other parkruns around the country DARYL STEVENS headed north (for him!) to Basingstoke to compete in 42:19. HANNAH NEALE (20^th, 26:02) and ALEXANDRA WHITEHOUSE (34:24) were both in action at Bath Skyline, and NEIL ROBINSON (16^th) ran at Westmill in 27:08. Finally TIM ROBINSON was 15^th at Pymmes in 24:00.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Serpentine 25^th Anniversary 5K from the boat house, Hyde Park on Friday 27^th October.
• First Cross Country League race at Cheshunt on 29^th October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Wolverton Five at Milton Keynes on Saturday 25^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Bedford Harriers Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd December.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Festive Five at Welwyn Garden City on Sunday 10^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• Witham Five on Tuesday 26^th December.
• Buntingford Year End 10 on Sunday 31^st December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January 2018.
• County Cross Country Championships at Cassiobury Park on Sunday 7^th January.
• Cross Country League at Watford on Sunday 14^th January.
• Fred Hughes 10 miles including senior county championships at St. Albans on Sunday 21^st January.
• Southern Cross Country Championships on Saturday 27^th January.
• Watford Half Marathon inc. veteran championships on Sunday 4^th February.
• Bramley 20/10 (20 miles or 10 miles) on Sunday 11^th February.
• St Valentine’s 30K at Stamford on Sunday 11^th February.
• Cross Country League at Royston on Sunday 18^th February.
• Welwyn Half Marathon on Sunday 4^th March.
• Finchley 20 miles (including Herts County) on Sunday 18^th March.
• Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• Orion 15 at Chingford (Epping Forest) on Saturday 24^th March.
• London Marathon on Sunday 22^nd April.
• Stirling Marathon on Sunday 29^th April.

 

CATHY CRAIG celebrated her 65th birthday in style by running the Lisbon Marathon with her daughter Hazel in temperatures that peaked at 35 degrees Celsius!  Cathy was fourth in her age category completing in 5 hours 38 minutes 22 seconds.

HAZEL SMITH completed her FIRST marathon in 4 hours 23 minutes 47 seconds after only eight weeks training due to a bike accident.

 

Birmingham Biggs

ROGER BIGGS ran his 893^rd marathon on Sunday.  The Great Birmingham Marathon was the first marathon in the city for at least twenty years.  On a course that went straight through the city centre Roger finished in 5 hours 27 minutes 45 seconds.

 

A Win In Leicester

JAN FRY ran the Leicester Marathon in 5:14:55 coming FIRST in the V60 Women’s category!  There were a total of 516 runners and Jan really enjoyed the course

 

Stevenage Half Marathon This Sunday

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans the Stevenage Half Marathon is the town’s biggest and best running event, and has been organised for more than thirty years.  Entries have opened and 580 have already signed up.  This year it will be on Sunday 22^nd October and the race starts from Ridlins Athletic Track at 10a.m.  Have a look on www.fvspartans.org.uk  or go straight to https://www.activetrainingworld.co.uk/events/2017/10/22/stevenage_half_marathon

 

Hawkins Wins At Hatfield House

Spartan SUZY HAWKINS was first woman and third overall at the Hatfield House 5K with a time of 21 minutes 51 seconds.

Elsewhere MOLLIE SMITH ran the Amsterdam marathon in 4:11:46 and ROBERT WRIGHT the Manchester Half Marathon in 2:05:38.

 

parkrun reports

The Spartans all ran locally this weekend, with a handful at Panshanger, but most at Stevenage where CRAIG HALSEY was again first to finish in a time of 16:56 (just five seconds outside his best round here).  KEITH COUGHLIN was next home in second, in 18:10 with ALLAN GARCIA 24^th in a new course PB of 21:48 and MARTIN DUDLEY also just getting a top 30 finish in 22:23.  JOHN NELMS (22:37), MARK BEASLEY (22:50), CHRIS HOLLAND (23:00), DAVID SCOTT (new course PB, 23:56), JIM BROWN (new parkrun PB, 24:10); DANIEL SUTTON (25:28), JAMES SOUTH (28:39), MICHAEL O’KEEFE (30:19) and STEVE DOBNER (33:07) also ran, with DARREN EMMERSON (48:49) operating as tail-walker.

ALLISON WOOD made it a double-first for the Spartans, as she was first woman finisher in 19:56.  VERITY FISHER was 6^th in 24:25, CLAIRE EMMERSON and TRACY PEZ 11^th and 12^th respectively in 25:20, with CAROL PAUL also making the top thirty in 27:30. Other Spartans running were KAREN BROOM (29:35), SALLY PHILLIPS (new course PB, 29:41) and IRIS HORNSEY (30:46).

Over at Panshanger IAN STRETCH was first Spartan to finish in 27:28, with Anthony OSBORNE completing in 40:05 to round out the Spartan men.  For the women BEV HARLOW completed in 32.35 with LIZ M0RGAN finishing in 35.32.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Serpentine 25^th Anniversary 5K from the boat house on Friday 27^th October.
• First Cross Country League race at Cheshunt on 29^th October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Wolverton Five at Milton Keynes on Saturday 25^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Bedford Harriers Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd December.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Festive Five at Welwyn Garden City on Sunday 10^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• Witham Five on Tuesday 26^th December.
• Buntingford Year End 10 on Sunday 31^st December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January 2018.
• County Cross Country Championships at Cassiobury Park on Sunday 7^th January.
• Cross Country League at Watford on Sunday 14^th January.
• Fred Hughes 10 miles including senior county championships at St. Albans on Sunday 21^st January.
• Southern Cross Country Championships on Saturday 27^th January.
• Watford Half Marathon inc. veteran championships on Sunday 4^th February.
• Bramley 20/10 (20 miles or 10 miles) on Sunday 11^th February.
• St Valentine’s 30K at Stamford on Sunday 11^th February.
• Cross Country League at Royston on Sunday 18^th February.
• Welwyn Half Marathon on Sunday 4^th March.
• Finchley 20 miles (including Herts County) on Sunday 18^th March.
• Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• Orion 15 at Chingford (Epping Forest) on Saturday 24^th March.
• London Marathon on Sunday 22^nd April.
• Stirling Marathon on Sunday 29^th April.

 

Seventeen Spartans raced around Peterborough in the Perkins Great Eastern Run half marathon and many achieved new personal bests, hit new targets, got under two hours for the first time and were running 13.1 miles for the first time.

DANNY HUKIN was running his first half marathon race since knee surgery.  He set himself a target of 1 hour 30 minutes and was very happy with a 1:27:43 finish time.

ERICA GRAYSON got under two hours for the first time, knocking 15 minutes off her half marathon personal best (PB) this year to finish in 1:59:51.  She was joined by MICHAEL ANDREWS who ran his first ever half marathon in 1:59:48.

Despite already having a good time SUZY HAWKINS squeezed another 14 seconds off hers and finished in 1:33:45.

STUART HAYCROFT continued his run of achieving a PB for every race of the year with 1:27:45, beating his previous Half Marathon PB by just under six minutes.

GREG KELLY who trimmed 3:31 off his PB when he ran in with 1:48:11.

BARRY KING ran with his brother STEVE KING who took almost 20 minutes off his PB time!  They finished in 2:07:29.

JIM BROWN ran his fastest half marathon since 2010 having had major surgery in 2011 and 2015.  His 1:44:02 gives him an age related score well over 70%.

VERITY FISHER and ANN TRYSSESOONE were under two hours with 1:58:23 and 1:58:56.  DANIEL SUTTON came with 2:00:44; KAREN ELLIS and JULIE SHADBOLT with 2:01:54; SHARON CROWLEY in a season’s best 2:06:34; and CAROLINE CROFT with 2:10:30.  PAUL HOLGATE ran round with his daughter in her first half marathon, they finished in 2 hours 48 minutes.

 

Position	Name	Chip Time	Comments
226	DANNY HUKIN	1:27:43	SB (first in season)
232	STUART HAYCROFT	1:27:45	PB (5:46).
444	SUZY HAWKINS (F)	1:33:45	PB (0:14)
878	JIM BROWN	1:44:02	SB (0:55)
1333	GREG KELLY	1:48:11	PB (3:31)
1857	DANIEL SUTTON	2:00:44	SB (first in season)
1928	MICHAEL ANDREWS	1:59:48	First Half Ever
1966	VERITY FISHER (F)	1:58:23	SB (first in season)
2015	ANN TRYSSESOONE (F)	1:58:56	YB (first in 2017)
2109	ERICA GRAYSON (F)	1:59:51	PB (1:24)
2225	KAREN ELLIS (F)	2:01:54
2226	JULIE SHADBOLT (F)	2:01:54	YB (8:52)
2373	STEPHEN KING	2:07:29	PB (20 minutes)
2374	BARRY KING	2:07:29
2602	SHARON CROWLEY (F)	2:06:34	SB (12:27)
2717	CAROLINE CROFT (F)	2:10:30
3995	PAUL HOLGATE	2:48:00	Running with daughter

 

Stevenage Half Marathon Entries Open

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans the Stevenage Half Marathon is the town’s biggest and best running event.  Entries have opened and 500 have already signed up.  The race has been organised for more than thirty years.  This year it will be on Sunday 22^nd October.  Have a look on www.fvspartans.org.uk  or go straight to https://www.activetrainingworld.co.uk/events/2017/10/22/stevenage_half_marathon

 

Herts 10K

PAUL HEWETT ran the Herts 10K in a time of 38 mins 22 seconds.  He was 23^rd out of 1789.

 

Ridgeway Run

JENNY PAUL did The Ridgeway Run, organised by Tring Running Club.  It was nine miles of hilly trail with great views from the tops.  Her time of 1:39:39 was thirteen minutes quicker than last year.

 

Wimpole Hall 10 Miles

Super veteran PETER CARPENTER ran the Wimpole Hall 10 mile event.  He reckons he was doing reasonably well to the 8 mile point, but then it was a struggle for the last two miles, including a couple of brief stops in the last mile in what was really a meadow. He was pleased to just finish in less than two hours with 1:59:20 for the scenic cross country course.

 

Norton 5K

Maddie Pritchard and John Harris ran the Norton 5k on Saturday.  John was eighth with 20:30 and Maddie 27^th with 23:18.

 

Langdale Horseshoe

TOM SAUKA did the Langdale Horseshoe fell race on Saturday.  It was wet and forecast for rain all day so he prepared for the worst.  It was very wet and boggy all through the race and he spent a lot of it knee deep in it or slipping over on the grassy down hills, but it was a great atmosphere as one of the classic fell races with a lot of the top names there.  He finished in 3 hours 52 minutes 6 seconds.

 

Biggs At York

York is one of the biggest and best organised UK marathons.  On an undulating course mainly to the East of York, ROGER BIGGS completed the 26.2 miles in 5:05:42.

 

Royal Parks Half

ANTHONY BLYTH completed his first run as a Spartan at the weekend!

It was the Royal Parks Half with a time of 1:35:28.  He was fund raising running for the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

 

Parkrun Reports

It was a quiet week with a number of Spartans expected to be in action at the Great Eastern Half Marathon in Peterborough.  CRAIG HALSEY followed up his recent outstanding Berlin Marathon performance by showing there’s nothing wrong with his current speed at shorter distances either.  He was first to finish at Stevenage parkrun in 16:51, matching his course best.  MARK BEASLEY was next Spartan man home in 22:22 in 30^th position and MARTIN DUDLEY finished in 22:36. CHRIS HOLLAND (23:30), RYAN DUNNING (24:06), SIMON SYPULA (24:39), LEE PICKERSGILL (24:39), DAVID SCOTT (25:07) and JAMES SOUTH (28:01) also ran.

For the ladies RUTH REILLY was second finisher at Stevenage in a new course PB time of 22:00. KELLY EVANS was 9^th in 25:05 and CAROL PAUL 14^th in 26:32. TRACY PEZ also finished top 30 (23^rd in 27:30) and was joined by KAREN PALMER (28:37) and SALLY PHILLIPS in a new course PB time of 29:46.

PAUL MAGUIRE chose to run in Stratford-Upon-Avon on parkrun’s 13^th birthday and ran an excellent new 5k PB of 20:56 to finish in 23^rd position. Elsewhere MARK GOODWIN was 26^th finisher at Panshanger in 22:37 and VERITY FISHER was at Rutland Water, finishing in 47:46. Finally ROGER HARDMAN was again in action in Newcastle, finishing in 27:42.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Serpentine 25^th Anniversary 5K from the boat house on Friday 27^th October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Wolverton Five at Milton Keynes on Saturday 25^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Bedford Harriers Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd December.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Festive Five at Welwyn Garden City on Sunday 10^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• Witham Five on Tuesday 26^th December.
• Buntingford Year End 10 on Sunday 31^st December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January 2018.
• Cross Country League at Watford on Sunday 14^th January.
• Fred Hughes 10 miles inc senior championships at St. Albans on Sunday 21^st January.
• Watford Half Marathon inc. veteran championships on Sunday 4^th February.
• Bramley 20/10 (20 miles or 10 miles) on Sunday 11^th February.
• Cross Country League at Royston on Sunday 18^th February.
• Welwyn Half Marathon on Sunday 4^th March.
• Finchley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• London Marathon on Sunday 22^nd April.
• Stirling Marathon on Sunday 29^th April.

 

A massive 49 from Fairlands Valley Spartans raced round the Standalone 10K race at Letchworth on Sunday.  The fastest was KEITH COUGHLIN, 17^th out of the 1,354 finishers in 37 minutes 33 seconds.  CHRIS TILLBROOK cut his personal best (PB) by a significant 1 minute 32 seconds to come in 45^th with 39:05.  Next in was BRIAN WHITE taking first place in the Vet 60 plus category with a year’s best 39:12.

NUALA ROBINSON was fourth senior woman (18 plus) in 43 minutes 40 seconds and JULIE SIMMONS had a great race to win the female vet 55 race with 48 minutes 38 seconds, a 2 minutes 13 seconds improvement on her previous best this year.

Together with CLAIRE PULLEN, 46:53 Nuala and Julie took SILVER in the County Team Championship for women.

ROB SHAW was the quickest man over 70 in the race with 58 minutes 34 seconds.

There were many other great FVS performances.  NICK GILL, 113^th cut his PB by 44 seconds to 42:34; GARETH COWELL by 7 seconds to 45:20; JO BOWDERY by a huge 7 minutes 37 seconds to 49:27; JULIE SHADBOLT by 40 seconds to 55:02; and GRAHAM HILL by a big 5 minutes 33 seconds to 57:01.

Others were chalking up claims in the Spartan short distance championships with their fastest 10K times this year including TODD GRAY 41:17; DEAN CARPENTER 41:50; MARTIN DUDLEY 47:08; CLIVE CANNON 47:54; JIM BROWN 48:20; MADDIE PRITCHARD 49:53; ANN TRYSSESOONE 50:37; BARRY KING 51:27; DAVID SCOTT 51:14; STEPHEN PIKE 53:54; TRUDIE MOLLOY 57:04; MONICA SMITHSON 58:11; LORRAINE THOMAS 1:04:27; ANNE SPILLER 1:06:38 and KELLY CHAPMAN in 1:17:42.

Position	Name	Time	Comments
17	KEITH COUGHLIN	37:33
45	CHRIS TILLBROOK	39:05	PB (1:32)
46	BRIAN WHITE	39:12	1st MV60.  YB (0:08)
85	JOHN HARRIS	41:14
86	TODD GRAY	41:17	SB (0:15)
94	DEAN CARPENTER	41:50	SB (0:40)
113	NICK GILL	42:34	PB (0:44)
138	NUALA ROBINSON	43:40	4th FS.
192	GARETH COWELL	45:20	PB (0:07)
229	MARK GOODWIN	46:10
254	CLAIRE PULLEN	46:53
262	MARTIN DUDLEY	47:08	YB (0:10)
288	CLIVE CANNON	47:54	SB (2:53)
309	JIM BROWN	48:20	YB (0:01)
317	JULIE SIMMONS	48:38	1st FV55.  YB (2:13)
322	KEN JUDE	48:24
380	ANDY JAY	49:35
388	MADELEINE PRITCHARD	49:53	1st 10K in 2017
391	JOANNE BOWDERY	49:27	PB (7:37)
413	LEE PICKERSGILL	50:07
441	SELVAN NAICKER	50:56
445	ANN TRYSSESOONE	50:37	1st 10K in 2017
468	BARRY KING	51:27	SB (1:26)
470	DAVID SCOTT	51:14	1st 10K
476	KAREN ELLIS	51:25
496	NEIL ROBINSON	51:52
498	ROS INGRAM	51:39
521	MARIE COLUCCI	52:40
612	STEPHEN PIKE	53:54	YB (2:47)
664	JULIE SHADBOLT	55:02	PB (0:40)
706	SARAH PIKE	55:59
745	HAZEL SMITH	56:37
748	CALLIE CHAPMAN	56:41
798	GRAHAM HILL	57:01	PB (5:33)
801	TRUDIE MOLLOY	57:04	1st 10K in 2017
825	ROGER BIGGS	58:32
835	MONICA SMITHSON	58:11	SB (0:34)
890	ROBERT SHAW	58:34	1st MV70.
982	SHARON CROWLEY	1:01:03
983	MICHAEL ANDREWS	1:00:55
990	PAUL HOLGATE	1:01:00
1073	LORRAINE THOMAS	1:04:27	1st 10K in 2017
1075	GOPOLAN NAIDOO	1:04:15
1168	ANNE SPILLER	1:06:38	1st 10K in 2017
1169	SUE HAMER	1:06:38
1170	CLAIRE EMMERSON	1:06:38
1171	JENNY GARRETT	1:06:38
1172	SOPHIE COWAN	1:06:39
1314	KELLY CHAPMAN	1:17:42	YB (3:56)

 

There were 1,354 finishers.

 

Hatfield 5K

It was damp and dark for the last of the Hatfield 5K evening races on Wednesday but that did not seem to slow down some Spartans.  ROS INGRAM cut her 5K personal best (PB) by five seconds to 23:36; PAUL HOLGATE reduced his best time for the last two years by 21 seconds to 26:17 and STEPH MAYFIELD hers by 1:02 to 26:51.  There were fifteen Spartan finishers.

Across the whole series of three races BRIAN WHITE was first Vet 60 plus with an average time of 18 minutes 56 seconds, DAVID RIDDELL was second Vet 50 plus with an average of 18:04.

Position	Name	Time	Comments
35	DAVID RIDDELL	18:26
49	BRIAN WHITE	19:10
59	JOHN HARRIS	19:21
71	NICK GILL	20:00
107	CHRIS HOLLAND	21:56
125	ANDY JAY	22:51
126	KEN JUDE	22:41
135	ROS INGRAM (F)	23:36	PB (0:06)
155	MICHAEL ANDREWS	24:39
158	JIM BROWN	24:44
178	HAZEL SMITH	26:09
179	PAUL HOLGATE	26:17	SB (0:21)
180	JENNY GARRETT	26:15
195	STEPHANIE MAYFIELD	26:51	SB (1:02)
199	SHARON CROWLEY	27:09

 

There were 249 finishers.

 

Cardiff Half Marathon

Getting over his disappointment at being unable to finish the Worlds course Spartan STEFFAN FORD returned to his home to run the Cardiff Half Marathon in 1 hour 22 minutes 27 seconds.  On an overcast day with rain he was 178^th out of 19,641 finishers and 26^th in his category.

 

Barnstaple Half Marathon

KYM MARTIN completed the Barnstaple Half Marathon in 2 hours 42 minutes 37 seconds.  This was her first 13.1 mile race.

 

Flower of Suffolk

CAROL PAUL completed the Flower of Suffolk off road marathon in 5:12:56. The marathon started in Walberswick in Suffolk and went towards Sizewell and back. It was a very windy day with rain at times and some muddy parts thrown in as well.

 

Serpentine

It was mild, dry with a light breeze but damp underfoot in Hyde Park for the Last Friday of the Month 5K race round the Serpentine.  JIM BROWN was 152^nd in 24 minutes 15 seconds.  The popular lunch-time race has its 25^th Anniversary on Friday 27^th October.

 

Stevenage Half Marathon Entries Open

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans for more than thirty years the 2017 Stevenage Half Marathon will be on Sunday 22^nd October and entries have opened.  Have a look on www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

Parkrun Reports

It was a quiet week of parkrunning for the Spartans. At Stevenage THOMAS SAUKA was the first Spartan finisher, sixth over the line in 20:01. LEE PICKERSGILL was next in 26:18 followed by JAMES SOUTH (27:56) and ROGER BIGGS (30:06). TREVOR BROOM secured a new course Personal Best, crossing the line in 32:24, and SELVAN NAICKER finished in a time of 36:46.

KELLY EVANS was first woman to finish in 24:23, a new course PB, with JULIE SIMMONS in third place in 24:49.  VERITY FISHER incorporated the parkrun into a long run ahead of next weekend’s Peterborough Half, and finished in 10^th place in 26:26, with TRACY PEZ next in 27:46. KAREN PALMER (28:27) and KAREN BROOM (31:23) were next.

Elsewhere in local parkruns KEN JUDE ran 26:02 at Panshanger and TIM ROBINSON was 24^th in a new course PB time of 23:58 at Pymmes. Further afield, DAVID SCOTT completed in 26:10 at Penrith parkrun while ROGER HARDMAN ran at Newcastle parkrun, completing in 27:21.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Serpentine 25^th Anniversary from the boat house on Friday 27^th October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January 2018.
• Fred Hughes 10 miles at St. Albans on Sunday 21^st January.
• Watford Half Marathon on Sunday 4^th February.
• Bramley 20/10 on Sunday 11^th February.
• Finchley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• London Marathon on Sunday 22^nd April.
• Stirling Marathon on Sunday 29^th April.

 

From Berlin to Biggleswade there were some fantastic results for Fairlands Valley Spartans at the weekend.  It was three out of three for the Fairlands Valley Spartans trio who tackled 25 laps of the Biggleswade Athletics track in the Hertfordshire 10K track championships.  All came away with medals.

GRANT RAMSAY was quickest of the three with 37 minutes 9 seconds winning SILVER in the veterans’ championship (40 plus) and BRONZE in the open championship.

The next Spartan in was ANDY JAY taking GOLD in the men’s fifty plus race with 48 minutes 48:42 seconds.

The Spartan coming away with the biggest smile on his face was JIM BROWN.  In the absence of anyone of similar ability on the track he time trialled round in 49:52, despite a nagging headwind on the home straight 2 minutes and 1 second faster than the same event last year for DOUBLE GOLD.  Gold sixty plus in the County Championship and GOLD in the East of England event.

Earlier Grant ran the 1500 metres in the Biggleswade Athletics Club open events.  He was first veteran (40 plus) and fourth overall in 4 minutes 47 seconds.  Coming back after an Ironman Triathlon ANN TRYSSESOONE ran the 1500 in 6.45.

 

Berlin Marathon

While Germany went to the polls five Spartans were running the Berlin Marathon.  CRAIG HALSEY ran an amazing 2 hours 35 minutes 4 seconds, beating the British Championship qualifying time by nearly ten minutes, to come 195^th out of the 28,067 finishers so easily in the top one per cent.

RICHARD KENNEDY was 3,210^th with 3 hours 13 minutes 46 seconds and TIM SABAN 4,499^th with a tremendous 3:21:48.  For the women NICOLA KENNEDY was 1,560^th in 3:46:55 and KERSTIN WEINER 1,621^st in 3:47:48.

 

Hitchin

Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON won the Hitchin town centre 5K, leading throughout and finishing in 16 minutes 39 seconds.

NATALIE LAWRENCE was third senior woman in 20 minutes 16 seconds.

CAROLE SHELDRICK was one happy Spartan saying it was a lovely run, going sub 25 for the first time and finishing with 24:30.

Having done track all summer this was IRIS HORNSEY’s first road race of the year and first 5K in 2017.  She was first woman over 75, just behind the first 65 plus with 30:20.  MONICA SMITHSON ran a season’s best (SB) 27:17.

Two other Spartans were sub twenty.  STUART HAYCROFT with 18:52 and JOHN HARRIS in 19:13.  The other five of the twelve Spartans were CRAIG BACON (21:31); KIERAN FEETHAM (22:04); NIKKI WILBY (23:45); RACHHPAL BAJWA (26:40) and IAN ALEXANDER (43:36).

 

Pos	Cat Pos	Name	Cat	Chip Time	AG%	Comments
1.	1.	Andrew PATTERSON	MS	16:39	80.1%
14.	6.	Stuart HAYCROFT	MS	18:52	72.1%
24.	4.	John HARRIS	MV50	19:13	79.7%
34.	3	Natalie LAWRENCE	FS	20:16	72.7%
49.	14.	Craig BACON	MV40	21:31	66.8%
53.	23.	Kieran FEETHAM	MS	22:04	59.4%
75.	10.	Nikki WILBY	FS	23:45	61.9%
90.	10.	Carole SHELDRICK	FV35	24:30	62.8%	PB
127.	18.	Rachhpal BAJWA	MV50	26:40	58.2%
144.	9.	Monica SMITHSON	FV45	27:17	61.4%	SB
190.	1.	Iris HORNSEY	FV75	30:20	74.3%
237.	24.	Ian ALEXANDER	MV50	43:36	35.3%

 

 

Handicap 5K

21 Spartans took part in Thursday evening’s handicap 5K.  First to finish, knocking a massive 1:34 off his previous fastest FVS 5K time was JONATHAN PENNELL in a very impressive 17:52, 15 seconds ahead of second placed PAUL MAGUIRE in a course best time of 21:37 and with new member STUART ARCHER third in 20:44, 57 seconds quicker than his previous best 5k time.

The winning woman was ERICA GRAYSON in her first Handicap 5k, finishing with a time of 26:59, with TESSA STEPHENSON second in a rare handicap 5k appearance in a time of 27:36 in her first 5K for 3 years.  SUE HAMER was third in a year’s best time of 28:25.

The fastest runner on the night was Jonathan with his 17:52, with RICHARD SPRINGALL second quickest in 19:13 and BRIAN WHITE third quickest in a course best time of 19:14, 28 seconds faster than previously achieved.  Erica was quickest lady with Tessa second quickest and SARAH PIKE third quickest in a year best time of 28:09 coming back from injury in time for her Standalone 10k in 10 days time.

There was also a new personal best (PB) for NICK GILL, improving his 5K time by 31 seconds to 19:47 in fifth position overall, and course best times for MARK COLLINS (19:19), JONATHAN FOSTER (22:44), GARETH COWELL (22:08) and KEN JUDE (23:11).

 

Ealing Half Marathon

RUTH REILLY ran a stunning Ealing Half Marathon in 1 hour 37 minutes 10 seconds with JACKIE DOWNES racing round the same event in 1:56:39.

 

Swansea Half Marathon

ROBERT EVANS ran the Swansea Half Marathon in 1 hour 55 minutes 36.7 seconds.  He was 1,439^th.

 

Biggs Enigma

The Enigma Marathon is seven and a bit laps around Caldecotte Lake in Milton Keynes. On a warm day, ROGER BIGGS struggled with the ups and downs of the course, but kept going to finish the marathon in 5:43:50.

 

St Paul’s Walden Bury 10km XC

PETER CARPENTER reports that the St. Paul’s Waldenburu 10K is a fairly low key event but enjoyable with a beautiful route – not made for PBs but to enjoy the view going up and down hill!

The charity was an unusual one: Farms for City Children.  Peter’s time was 1:10:51.  He was the eldest competitor, 69th out of 77 overall – with 4 men and 4 women behind him.

 

Stevenage Half Marathon Entries Open

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans for more than thirty years the 2017 Stevenage Half Marathon will be on Sunday 22^nd October and entries have opened.  Have a look on www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

Parkrun Reports

ALISON WOOD was first lady at Stevenage parkrun in 20 mins 11 secs.  KELLY EVANS was 4^th in a new course PB of 24:25 and VERITY FISHER 6^th in 24:57. CLAIRE EMMERSON (27:41), HAZEL SMITH (27:41) and CALLIE CHAPMAN (30:23) all finished in the top 50 women, and LISA JERROM ran 30:23.

NICK GILL followed up a PB in the club’s recent handicap 5k with a new course PB of 20:24 here to finish 12^th. MARTIN DUDLEY (12^th, 22:40), CLIVE CANNON (23:11), DANIEL SUTTON (a creditable 24:11 as the back ends of a 10 mile long run) and CHRIS HOLLAND (24:22) all notched top 50 places. LEE PICKERSGILL (24:43), DAVID SCOTT (26:29), KEN JUDE (27:27, also at the end of a 10 miler), JAMES SOUTH (27:32), JOHN WALSH (28:05), ROGER BIGGS (29:34) and SELVAN NAICKER (37:22) also ran and IAN ALEXANDER tail-walked in 54:27.

With Spartans racing in Berlin, Hitchin and on the track this weekend there were only two “away” parkrun performances this weekend. TIM ROBINSON visited Pymmes for the first time and was 22^nd in 24:46, while DARRYL STEVENS was 50^th at Brockenhurst in 40:51.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Third Hatfield 5K on Wednesday evening 27^th September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January.
• Fred Hughes 10 miles at St. Albans on Sunday 21^st January.
• Bramley 20/10 on Sunday 11^th February.
• Finchley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• London Marathon on Sunday 22^nd April.
• Stirling Marathonm on Sunday 29^th April.

 

Very well done to the 21 Spartans who took part in this evening’s handicap 5k and many thanks to Paul Holgate for organising and Sharon Crowley for her assistance with the start and finish.

First to finish, knocking a massive 1:34 off his previous fastest FVS 5k time was JONATHAN PENNELL in a very impressive 17:52, 15 seconds ahead of 2^nd placed PAUL MAGUIRE in a course best time of 21:37 and with new member STUART ARCHER 3^rd in 20:44, 57 seconds quicker than his previous best 5k time.

Winning lady was ERICA GRAYSON in her first Handicap 5k, finishing with a time of 26:59, with TESSA STEPHENSON 2^nd lady in a rare handicap 5k appearance in a time of 27:36 in her first 5k for 3 years, and with SUE HAMER 3^rd lady in a year best time of 28:25.

Fastest runner on the night was Jonathan’s 17:52, with RICHARD SPRINGALL 2^nd quickest in 19:13 and BRIAN WHITE 3^rd quickest in a course best time of 19:14, 28 seconds faster than previously achieved. Erica was quickest lady with Tessa 2^nd quickest and SARAH PIKE 3^rd quickest in a year best time of 28:09 coming back from injury in time for her Standalone 10k in 10 days time.

There was also a new PB for NICK GILL, improving his 5k time by 31 seconds to 19:47 in 5^th position overall, and course best times for MARK COLLINS (19:19), JONATHAN FOSTER (22:44), GARETH COWELL (22:08) and KEN JUDE (23:11).

Time between 1^st-last finisher was just 3:27 and only 3:03 for 2^nd-20^th, and 95% of finishers were within 2 minutes of their calculated adjusted handicap 5k time.

Full results can be found in Excel form by clicking: Sept Handicap 5k Result

 

Fairlands Valley Spartans won GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE medals at the County 5K championships on Wednesday night.  On a flat, two-and-a-half lap course lit by street lights BRIAN WHITE won GOLD in the men 60 plus category with a tremendous time of 18 minutes 53 seconds, equivalent to 85.7% on age standard.  Scoring exactly the same in the same category BARRY OSBORNE took BRONZE with 19:28.

DAVID RIDDELL won SILVER in the 50 plus contest but it took a new personal best (PB) of 17:55, an improvement of 12 seconds, to do it.

STEFFAN FORD 14^th overall in 17:40; David Riddell; Brian White and Barry Osborne won BRONZE in the County team championships for veterans (all over 40).

There were more Spartan personal bests.  STEVE GREEN was chuffed to find that despite having tired legs and a cold he got a one second PB, to 19:32; KEN JUDE took off 27 seconds to 22:21; CAROLE SHELDRICK was delighted to squeak off two seconds to 25:06; JENNY GARRETT removed a 1 minute 17 seconds chunk with 25:19; ERICA GRAYSON was hoping to break the 27 minute barrier and was a very happy Spartan with 26 minutes 34 seconds.

ROSIE INGRAM ran her first 5K with the club, and it only took 23 minutes 42 seconds.

PAUL HOLGATE was very pleased with his run.  It was his fastest Hatfield 5K, he has run 10 of the 11 races since it began in 2014, and his fastest of 33 5K races since 2012.  There were also season’s bests by KIERAN FEETHAM (20:17); DANIEL SUTTON (21:44) and SHARON CROWLEY (26:54).

MICHELLE REEVES and STEPHANIE MAYFIELD were running their first 5K races in 2017.  Michelle finished in 21:07.  She was fifth senior female (under 35) and Steph came in with 27:53.

A good Spartan turnout was completed by RICHARD SPRINGALL (18:33); MARK COLLINS (19:10); VERITY FISHER (24:04); JIM BROWN (24:29); CALLIE CHAPMAN (26:28); and ANDREA WESTCOTT (26:48).

 

Pos	Name	Cat.	Time	Age%	Comments
14	Steffan FORD	MV40	17:40	77.9%	Team Bronze.  YB (0:05)
22	David RIDDELL	MV50	17:55	83.4%	Team Bronze.  Silver M50.  PB (0:12)
34	Richard SPRINGALL	MS	18:33	69.8%
41	Brian WHITE	MV60	18:53	85.7%	Gold M60.  Team Bronze.  SB (0:03)
51	Mark COLLINS	MV40	19:10	71.3%
60	Barry OSBORNE	MV60	19:28	85.7%	Bronze M60.  Team Bronze.  SB (0:20)
62	Steve GREEN	MV40	19:32	73.9%	PB (0:01)
81	Kieran FEETHAM	MS	20:17	64.3%	SB (0:03)
97	Michelle REEVES	FS	21:07	69.6%	First in 2017.  5th FS.
107	Daniel SUTTON	MS	21:44	59.2%	SB (0:36)
116	Ken JUDE	MV50	22:21	66.9%	PB (0:27)
119	Andy JAY	MV50	41:00	66.5%	YB (0:51)
140	Ros INGRAM	FV35	23:42	63.1%	First 5K
143	Verity FISHER	FS	24:04	60.8%
151	Jim BROWN	MV60	24:29	67.4%
157	Carole SHELDRICK	FV35	25:06	61.1%	PB (0:02)
160	Jenny GARRETT	FV45	25:19	63.3%	PB (1:17)
175	Callie CHAPMAN	FS	26:28	55.5%
177	Paul HOLGATE	MV60	26:38	59.5%	SB (0:30)
178	Erica GRAYSON	FV45	26:34	59.9%	PB (0:33)
181	Andrea WESTCOTT	FV45	26:48	58.2%
186	Sharon CROWLEY	FV55	26:54	67.0%	SB (0:06)
196	Stephanie MAYFIELD	FV35	27:53	54.6%	First in 2017

 

Second claim Spartan NUALA ROBINSON was third senior woman in 21 minutes 1 second.

 

Olympic Park 10K

VICTORIA BRETT and CLAIRE HYDE enjoyed the Olympic Park 10K.  Victoria ran a new PB of 51 minutes 55 seconds, a 1 minute 53 seconds improvement) and Claire reduced her PB by a massive 4 minutes 35 seconds to 52:11.

 

Rutland Half

JENNY PAUL ran the undulating Rutland Half on Sunday.  Her chip time of 2:09:15 gave her 10th in her age category.

 

Royston Health Half

Karen Liddle, Trudie Molloy and Barry King completed the Royston Heath trail half marathon on Sunday in 2 hours 49 minutes 39 seconds.  The very hilly course was perfect training for the Snowdonia marathon at the end of October in which the team are competing.  In very wet muddy conditions the Spartans were very happy with their run.

 

Ouse Valley Marathon

On Sunday, TIM ROBINSON and ROGER BIGGS ran the Ouse Valley Marathon.  A point to point trail marathon that follows the Ouse Valley Way from Earith, near St Ives and finishes in St Neots.  While very flat, the course was very lumpy, and quite muddy in places.  This is only the second year the event has been held and is proving to be very popular, a small friendly club run marathon.  Tim’s marathon preparation hasn’t been optimal and he finished in 5:00:44.  Roger came in with 6:26:52.

 

Dorney Lake Challenge

JOHN NELMS ran the Dorney Lake Challenge on Thursday. Organised by runningmiles.co.uk it was a six hour event on a 2.62 mile out and back course – how many laps can you complete in the time limit?  John did the marathon distance in just over four hours.  The course is flat, tarmac and traffic free through the grounds of the Eton College rowing club.  There was a fantastic buffet at the check point every lap and a goody bag full of chocolate at the finish.

 

European Champion Grant

Spartan GRANT RAMSAY contributed to a Team Great Britain win at the European Masters Marathon Championships in Wroclaw, Poland at the weekend.  They finished ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland.  That’s GOLD for Grant in the team and individual BRONZE.  He was third in the men’s 45 plus category with 2 hours 44 minutes 10 seconds.

 

Spartan Women WIN East of England Trophy

Fairlands Valley Spartans women’s team WON the East of England track and field masters’ championship.  The Eastern Masters Track and Field League final was held at Bedford International Stadium.  Fairlands Valley Spartans Women’s team qualified to take part against the top two teams from each of the four areas by winning their division over the summer.  Having missed out on the final trophy by only half a point last year, they were determined to do better.  After a day of competition the team prevailed finishing twenty one points clear of Marshall Milton Keynes in second and forty ahead of Chelmsford AC who were third.

Yuko Gordon also won the trophy for performance of the meeting, her 3000 metres time of 13 minutes exactly in the race for women over 60 equates to a stunning 94.7% when related to the world record adjusted for age.  In the over 60 age group, Yuko was well supported across the range of events by Iris Hornsey, Cathy Craig and Julie Simmons.

In the over 50 age group, there were multiple wins for Monica Brown in the 100m, 200m, Long Jump, High Jump and Triple Jump, Alison Wood in the 1500m and 800m and Tessa Stephenson in the 400m and Shot Putt.  Julie, running in this younger age group and Sharon Crowley provided good points towards the total.

In the youngest age group for over 35 women, Steph Mayfield was the only winner, taking the Pole Vault, but personal bests from Andrea Westcott along with Suzy Hawkins in only her second track meeting, consistent performances by Christine Lathwell and Tessa dropping an age group in the sprints kept up the scoring.

The meeting had the traditional finish with the relays as the weather deteriorated.  The over 35 team of Suzy, Steph, Andrea and Christine finished third and then the meeting ended on a high for the Spartans with the over 50 team of Tessa, Sharon, Monica and Alison having a clear win.

 

Magnificent Seven Spartans in Cambridge

Four life time and one year’s best for the seven Spartans racing the Greater Cambridge 10K on Sunday plus a second place and a fantastic comeback from serious injury.  STEFFAN FORD was second veteran and 18^th overall in 36 minutes 54 seconds.  TIM SABAN beat the 40 minute barrier for the first time with 39:56; KEN JUDE took 1:40 of his personal best with 47:47; LEE PICKERSGILL was first time under 50 with 49:08 and CAROLE SHELDRICK ran a new PB of 54:22.  JIM BROWN ran his fastest 10K of the year with 48:21 and there was an amazing return from serious injury by KAREN BROOM who completed the event in 1 hour 3 minutes 50 seconds.

 

Position	Name	Time	Comments
18	STEFFAN FORD	36:54	2nd MV40
40	TIM SABAN	39:56	Personal Best
137	KEN JUDE	47:47	Personal Best (1:40)
156	JIM BROWN	48:21	Year’s Best
166	LEE PICKERSGILL	49:08	Personal Best
263	CAROLE SHELDRICK	54:22	Personal Best
419	KAREN BROOM	63:50	Amazing Recovery

 

Running With The Bishop

BEVERLEY HARLOW ran the Great North Run with Ex-Spartan CHRISTINE HARDMAN – now Bishop of Newcastle.  It was their swan song as neither will be running longer distances in the future. On a fabulous day both finished in 2 hours 44 minutes 17 seconds following a run/walk programme.

As a result of starting at the front ISABEL GREEN and STEVE GREEN both had great runs with Steve under 1:30 with 1:28:54 and Isabel finishing in 1:43:42.

Twelve Spartans competed in this the largest half marathon in the world!  The fastest was CHRIS TILLBROOK in 1:27:31.  He was 557^th out of more than 35,000 finishers.  RICHARD KENNEDY came in with 1:33:57 and NICOLA KENNEDY with 1:41:49; ANDREW SMITH with 2:00:10; SOPH GEORGIOU with 2:17:50; club secretary KAREN PALMER with 2:20:24; CAROLINE CROFT with 2:20:25 and TRACY STILES with 2:40:44.

 

Position	Name	Time	Comments
557	CHRIS TILLBROOK	1:27:31
725	STEVE GREEN	1:28:54
1429	RICHARD KENNEDY	1:33:57
3322	NICOLA KENNEDY	1:41:49
3959	ISABEL GREEN	1:43:42
12621	ANDREW SMITH	2:00:10
22909	SOPHOCLES GEORGIOU	2:17:50
24342	KAREN PALMER	2:20:24
24345	CAROLINE CROFT	2:20:25
33836	TRACY STILES	2:40:44
34955	BEV HARLOW	2:44:14
34958	CHRISTINE HARDMAN	2:44:14	Former FVS.  Now Bishop of Newcastle.

 

London Duathlon 17th September

BRIAN WHITE has competed in the London Duathlon for many years and this time achieved a course best of 2 hours 29 minutes 33 seconds.  That’s run 1 of 10K in 40:27; bike of 44K in 1:24:19 and run 2 of 5K in 21:01.  He was first veteran 60 plus in the event which was held in Richmond Park.

 

Stevenage Half Marathon Entries Open

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans for more than thirty years the 2017 Stevenage Half Marathon will be on Sunday 22^nd October and entries have opened.  Have a look on www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

Parkrun Reports

RICHARD BRUCE took the honours for fastest Spartan parkrunner of the weekend when he finished 8^th at the fast layout in Bedford in a time of 19 mins 03 secs.

CLAIRE PULLEN was the fastest Spartan woman in a parkrun, finishing 4^th at Stevenage in a time of 22:53.  KERSTEN WINER was 7^th in a new course PB of 24:33 and JULIE SHADBOLT was 10^th woman over the line in 26:12, also a new course best. They were joined by VERITY FISHER (22^nd in 27:19), TRACY PEZ (30^th in 28:16), SALLY PHILLIPS (29:54) and CLAIRE EMMERSON (43:14 as a VI guide for the event).

For the men at Stevenage BARRY OSBORNE was the first Spartan finisher, 33^rd in 22:58. He was closely followed by MARTIN DUDLEY (35^th in 23:04) with LEE PICKERSGILL 3^rd Spartan in a new course PB of 23:30. There was also a new course best for SIMON SYPULA finishing in 24:34. Others running were JOHN NELMS (23:31), CLIVE CANNON (23:50), DANIEL SUTTON (24:26), ANDY PRIOR (24:34), DAVID SCOTT (25:05), PAUL HOLGATE (27:14), JAMES SOUTH (27:42), MICHAEL O’KEEFE (27:53), ROGER BIGGS (30:24) and JOHN WALSH (30:54).

Elsewhere TIM ROBINSON went to Oak Hill and ran 25:36, while MARK BEASLEY was 14^th at Westmill in 23:30. JOHN ROXBOROUGH finished in 23:33 at Congleton, and DARYL STEVEN was at Brockenhurst to complete in 40:17. Finally HAZEL CLARK was 24^th at Fell Foot in Newby Bridge in a time of 28:29.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• FVS Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday evening 21^st September.
• Herts 10K Track Championships at Sandy on Saturday 23^rd September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January.
• Fred Hughes 10 miles at St. Albans on Sunday 21^st January.
• Bramley 20/10 on Sunday 11^th February.
• Oakley 20 miles on Sunday 18^th March.
• London Marathon on Sunday 22^nd April.

 

 

It was an amazing bumper weekend for Fairlands Valley Spartans including a European Championship win for Grant; Spartan women winning the East of England final; Natalie winning the posh 5K; the Great North Run and loads of personal bests in Cambridge.

Spartan GRANT RAMSAY contributed to a Team Great Britain win at the European Masters Marathon Championships in Wroclaw, Poland at the weekend.  They finished ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland.  That’s GOLD for Grant in the team and individual BRONZE.  He was third in the men’s 45 plus category with 2 hours 44 minutes 10 seconds.

 

Spartan Women WIN East of England Trophy

Fairlands Valley Spartans women’s team WON the East of England track and field masters’ championship.  The Eastern Masters Track and Field League final was held at Bedford International Stadium.  Fairlands Valley Spartans Women’s team qualified to take part against the top two teams from each of the four areas by winning their division over the summer.  Having missed out on the final trophy by only half a point last year, they were determined to do better.  After a day of competition the team prevailed finishing twenty one points clear of Marshall Milton Keynes in second and forty ahead of Chelmsford AC who were third.

Yuko Gordon also won the trophy for performance of the meeting, her 3000 metres time of 13 minutes exactly in the race for women over 60 equates to a stunning 94.7% when related to the world record adjusted for age.  In the over 60 age group, Yuko was well supported across the range of events by Iris Hornsey, Cathy Craig and Julie Simmons.

In the over 50 age group, there were multiple wins for Monica Brown in the 100m, 200m, Long Jump, High Jump and Triple Jump, Alison Wood in the 1500m and 800m and Tessa Stephenson in the 400m and Shot Putt.  Julie, running in this younger age group and Sharon Crowley provided good points towards the total.

In the youngest age group for over 35 women, Steph Mayfield was the only winner, taking the Pole Vault, but personal bests from Andrea Westcott along with Suzy Hawkins in only her second track meeting, consistent performances by Christine Lathwell and Tessa dropping an age group in the sprints kept up the scoring.

The meeting had the traditional finish with the relays as the weather deteriorated.  The over 35 team of Suzy, Steph, Andrea and Christine finished third and then the meeting ended on a high for the Spartans with the over 50 team of Tessa, Sharon, Monica and Alison having a clear win.

 

Magnificent Seven Spartans in Cambridge

Four life time and one year’s best for the seven Spartans racing the Greater Cambridge 10K on Sunday plus a second place and a fantastic comeback from serious injury.  STEFFAN FORD was second veteran and 18^th overall in 36 minutes 54 seconds.  TIM SABAN beat the 40 minute barrier for the first time with 39:56; KEN JUDE took 1:40 off his personal best with 47:47; LEE PICKERSGILL was first time under 50 with 49:08 and CAROLE SHELDRICK ran a new PB of 54:22.  JIM BROWN ran his fastest 10K of the year with 48:21 and there was an amazing return from serious injury by KAREN BROOM who completed the event in 1 hour 3 minutes 50 seconds.

 

Position	Name	Time	Comments
18	STEFFAN FORD	36:54	2nd MV40
40	TIM SABAN	39:56	Personal Best
137	KEN JUDE	47:47	Personal Best (1:40)
156	JIM BROWN	48:21	Year’s Best
166	LEE PICKERSGILL	49:08	Personal Best
263	CAROLE SHELDRICK	54:22	Personal Best
419	KAREN BROOM	63:50	Amazing Recovery

 

 

Running With The Bishop

BEVERLEY HARLOW ran the Great North Run with Ex-Spartan CHRISTINE HARDMAN – now Bishop of Newcastle.  It was their swan song as neither will be running longer distances in the future. On a fabulous day both finished in 2 hours 44 minutes 17 seconds following a run/walk programme.

As a result of starting at the front ISABEL GREEN and STEVE GREEN both had great runs with Steve under 1:30 with 1:28:54 and Isabel finishing in 1:43:42.

Eleven Spartans competed in this the largest half marathon in the world!  The fastest was CHRIS TILLBROOK in 1:27:31.  He was 557^th out of more than 35,000 finishers.  RICHARD KENNEDY came in with 1:33:57 and NICOLA KENNEDY with 1:41:49; ANDREW SMITH with 2:00:10; club secretary KAREN PALMER with 2:20:24; CAROLINE CROFT with 2:20:25 and TRACY STILES with 2:40:44.

 

Position	Name	Time	Comments
557	CHRIS TILLBROOK	1:27:31
725	STEVE GREEN	1:28:54
1429	RICHARD KENNEDY	1:33:57
3322	NICOLA KENNEDY	1:41:49
3959	ISABEL GREEN	1:43:42
12621	ANDREW SMITH	2:00:10
24342	KAREN PALMER	2:20:24
24345	CAROLINE CROFT	2:20:25
33836	TRACY STILES	2:40:44
34955	BEV HARLOW	2:44:14
34958	CHRISTINE HARDMAN	2:44:14	Former FVS.  Now Bishop of Newcastle.

 

 

Posh 5K

Spartan NATALIE LAWRENCE won the women’s race at the Posh 5K in Offley.  VICTORIA BRETT who finished in 31 minutes 1 second and CLAIRE HYDE 31:06 said it was a lovely venue, with a shot of prosecco before the start of a very uneven course which became very slippery on the second loop. Great atmosphere. lovely prosecco, canopies and strawberry at the end, with a lovely medal too.

Spartans Jenny Garrett, Callie Chapman, Hazel Smith, Claire Emmerson also enjoyed the run.

 

Dundalk Marathon

Roger Biggs travelled to Dundalk, on the East Coast of Ireland, on his quest to run a marathon in every County of Ireland. This was the 21^st county of 26.

It was a two lap undulating course, which included the ‘Magic Hill’ (a section of road where the it looks like you should be going up when actually you are going down & vice-versa)

Roger completed the marathon in 5:21:27.

 

Chiltern Marathon

Paul Holgate continued his preparations for next month’s Snowdonia marathon by taking part (along with Mike Newbitt) in the tough Chiltern marathon. With over 7,000 feet of climbing and despite a couple of unintended detours along the way, Paul finished in 7 hours 20 minutes and Mike in 7:25.

 

War Race 20K

Going over 20k off road terrain and an absolute obscene amount of obstacles including zip lines and mud filled pits CHRIS JOHANSEN beat the War Race 20K in 4 hours and 15 minutes

 

Parkrun Reports

A bright Saturday morning saw sixteen Spartans lining up at Stevenage parkrun. First Spartan finisher was NICK GILL in 9^th in a time of 20 mins 28 seconds, a new course PB. MARTIN DUDLEY was 30^th in 22:59 with RYAN DUNNIMG 32^nd in 23:05 and ANDY JAY 38^th in 23:38. CHRIS HOLLAND (24:47), DANIEL SUTTON (24:51), DAVID SCOTT (24:59), LEE PICKERSGILL (26:27), JAMES SOUTH (28:02) and ANTHONY OSBORNE (37:10) were the other Spartan men.

JULIE SIMMONS was the first Spartan woman, finishing 3^rd in 24:57. KELLY EVANS was 6^th in 25:37 with VERITY FISHER 10^th in 27:05 as she continued her return from injury. TRACY PEZ was 19^th in 28:31, CALLIE CHAPMAN 23^rd in 29:20 and SALLY PHILLIPS 32^nd in 37:10.

In other local parkruns MARK GOODWIN finished 26 at Panshanger in 22:44 and BARRY OSBORNE was 17^th at Ellenbrook Fields in 22:02.

Finally ROGER BIGGS was in Ireland and limbered up for Sunday’s Dundalk marathon by running Dundalk parkrun in 30:52, notching a top 50 finish.

 

Stevenage Half Marathon Entries Open

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans for more than thirty years the 2017 Stevenage Half Marathon will be on Sunday 22^nd October and entries have opened.  Have a look on www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday evening 13^th September.
• FVS Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday evening 21^st September.
• Herts 10K Track Championships at Sandy on Saturday 23^rd September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Spartans Christmas Party on Friday 8^th December.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.
• New Year 10K in Hyde Park on Monday 1^st January.

 

There were Hertfordshire medals for Spartans GRANT RAMSAY (16:37); SIMON JACKSON (16:41); STEFFAN FORD (17:46) and RICHARD SPRINGALL in a new personal best of 17 minutes 51 seconds at the County 5K road championships in Hatfield on Wednesday where they won BRONZE in the team competition for seniors (i.e. aged 18 plus).

They did even better in the open team competition where teams consisted of five runners.  With DAVID RIDDELL running a new personal best of 18 minutes 7 seconds they were second.  Strength in depth.

Also in the open event Grant was second veteran (40 plus); Simon third veteran (40 plus); and David third 50 plus.  BRIAN WHITE was first veteran (60 plus) in 18:56 and BARRY OSBORNE fourth 60 plus in 20:07.

MARK COLLINS reduced his PB to 19:07; MICHAEL ANDREWS his to 22:52 and CAROLE SHELDRICK took a 40 second chunk out of hers when she finished in 25:08.

JOHN HARRIS came in with a sub twenty 19:17; KIERAN FEETHAM with 20:37; JIM BROWN edged closer to 24 minutes with 24:02; ANDREA WESTCOTT had a good run with 26:03; SHARON CROWLEY ran a season’s best 27:00; PENNY SCHENKEL made a careful return from injury with 27:33 and PAUL HOLGATE came in with his daughter in 30:11.

 

Position	Name	Time	Comments
6.	GRANT RAMSAY	16:37	2nd MV40
7.	SIMON JACKSON	16:41	3rd MV40
18.	STEFFAN FORD	17:45
22.	RICHARD SPRINGALL	17:51	PB (0:53)
27.	DAVID RIDDELL	18:07	3rd MV50 (PB 0:11)
41.	BRIAN WHITE	18:56	1st MV60 (SB 0:37)
46.	MARK COLLINS	19:07	PB (0:37)
53.	JOHN HARRIS	19:17
69.	BARRY OSBORNE	20:07	4th MV60
71.	KIERAN FEETHAM	20:37
100.	MICHAEL ANDREWS	22:52	PB (1:54)
117.	JIM BROWN	24:02
135.	CAROLE SHELDRICK	25:08	PB (0:40)
148.	ANDREA WESTCOTT	26:03
160.	SHARON CROWLEY	27:00	SB (0:55)
165.	PENNY SCHENKEL	27:33
178.	PAUL HOLGATE	30:11

 

There were 188 finishers.  The county championships for veterans are included in the race on Wednesday 13^th September.

 

Bedford Half Marathon

Ten Spartans enjoyed sunshine for a new version of the Bedford Half Marathon.  NICK GILL was very happy with his time of 1 hour 46 minutes 35 seconds particularly as he had no more than ten miles in his legs and said it was good to see lots of fellow Spartans showing their colours

HALEY McLOUGHLIN was running her first half marathon.  She said the sun was shining as she made her my way around 13.1 miles of lovely countryside and that it was a flat route, well marshalled and with plenty of water stations.  Haley struggled at mile 11 but remembered the advice Spartan coach Dave Stephenson gave her and was absolutely delighted with her 2 hour 24 minutes 6 seconds, and said she wore her Spartans shirt with pride and thanked the Fairland Valley Spartans starter group for giving her the confidence to get out of her comfort zone.

EMMA POULTER was also running her first half and came in with 2:54:32.  ERICA GRAYSON was very pleased with herself.  She took 6 minutes 56 seconds off her PB to finish in 2 hours 1 minute 15 seconds.

Spartan club secretary KAREN PALMER finished in 2:09:03; CATHERINE TERRETT in 2:12:43; CAROLINE CROFT in 2:14:26; CAREN THAIN in 2:50:30; EMMA MARTIN in 3:00:55 and EMMA GOWER in 3:08:55

This was a fast and flat course with a little congestion as it was on loops.

 

Position	Name	Time	Comments
433	NICK GILL	1:46:35
973	ERICA GRAYSON	2:01:15
1232	KAREN PALMER	2:09:03
1337	CATHERINE TERRETT	2:12:43
1386	CAROLINE CROFT	2:14:26
1672	HALEY McLOUGHLIN	2:24:06	First Half
1999	CAREN THAIN	2:50:30
2021	EMMA POULTER	2:54:32	First Half
2051	EMMA MARTIN	3:00:55
2070	ELLA GOWER	3:08:55

 

Caroline recovered well enough to complete Sunday’s “Duck’n’Dash” event in 46:04

 

British Masters Half Marathon

After his success at Clacton JIM BROWN was playing with the fast boys at the British Masters Half Marathon National Championships in Northampton.  The event attracted many of the fastest older runners in the country and was a real reality check for many younger runners.  For example the women over 70 category was won in 1:40:44.  Jim was fifth in his age group.  On the undulating course he was 233^rd overall out of the 671 finishers in 1 hour 48 minutes 4 seconds, 1 minute 27 seconds faster than on 20^th August.

 

Spartans At St Albans Stampede

Three Spartans took part in the annual St Albans stampede on Saturday.   The 12 hour event is hosted by St Albans striders and takes place on an undulating four mile fully off road loop in Sandridge.  Runners can go solo or in relay teams of up to eight and are free to stop between loops at any time.

The weather was perfect and the course dry.  On arrival runners are met with free bacon rolls and coffee and the excellent buffet continued all day, concluding with pizza and beer at the end of the 12 hours at 9 pm.  JACKIE DOWNES completed an amazing 12 loops ( 48 miles) and narrowly missed out on being in the top three solo female runners.

KARTIK SHARMA, who has never run further than a half marathon before did four laps (16 miles) and in doing so learned some valuable lessons about fuelling and pacing.  JOHN NELMS completed seven laps (28 miles) to complete another marathon distance before having to leave for work.

 

Parkrun Reports

The highest placed Spartan finisher at a parkrun this weekend was TIM SABAN who was first across the line at Canons Park in a time of 20mins 21 secs, a new course personal best (PB), while the fastest Spartan of the weekend was DAVID RIDDELL who just dipped under the 20 minute mark, finishing fourth in 19:58 at Westmill.

Other Spartans who ran at “away” events this weekend were NICOLA KENNEDY (third woman in 24:45) and RICHARD KENNEDY (29^th man in 25:31) at Sheringham, THOMAS SAUKA (24:22) at Keswick, TIM ROBINSON (24:09) at Panshanger and finally DANIEL SUTTON (23:51, new course PB) and VERITY FISHER (31:50) who both finished 23^rd in their respective events at Rushmere.

At Stevenage, RUTH REILLY was second woman to finish in 22:29 and achieved a new course PB.  MONICA SMITHSON was 16^th in 28:16, also a new course PB, and LAUREN HARNETT was 17^th in 28:24.  SALLY PHILLIPS also notched a top 50 finish by completing in 30:51.

For the men MARK BEASLEY was 34^th in 22:30.  There were new course PBs for both  RYAN DUNNING (38^th in 22:54) and LEE PICKERSGILL (48^th in 24:09).  DAVID SCOTT (25:15), BARRY OSBORNE (25:28), PAUL HOLGATE (27:09, new course PB), JAMES SOUTH (28:09), JOHN WALSH (28:38), TREVOR BROOM (32:58, new course PB) and IAN ALEXANDER (tail-walking in 51:23) were also in action.

 

Stevenage Half Marathon Entries Open

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans for more than thirty years the 2017 Stevenage Half Marathon will be on Sunday 22^nd October and entries have opened.  Have a look on www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday evening 13^th September.
• FVS Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday evening 21^st September.
• Herts 10K Track Championships at Sandy on Saturday 23^rd September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country League at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.
• Cross Country League at Willian on Sunday 17^th December.

 

Three Spartans had a great day in Clacton, and came back with prizes.  JIM BROWN won first male veteran (65 plus) award for the half marathon in 1 hour 49 minutes 31 seconds.  TIM SABAN was third man (50 plus) in 1:32:53.  Tim was 25^th and Jim 98^th out of the 314 finishers.

In the 10K ERICA GRAYSON took 57 seconds off her personal best (PB) with 55 minutes 53 seconds.  She was second woman (45 plus).

On a sunny day the race hugged the coast with much of it on the promenade with a stiff headwind slowing progress running south west towards the Martello Tower.

 

Twilight 10K

BARRY OSBORNE ran 40:41 in Friday evening’s Ipswich Twilight 10K. The race was two laps around Ipswich city centre with 1500 entrants and lots of crowd support.  He was second veteran 60 plus.

 

Royal Parks 10K

THOMAS SAUKA ran the Royal Parks 10K in Hyde Park in 42 minutes 26 seconds.  He was 43^rd out of 619.

 

Edmonton Marathon

Three Spartans spent the weekend in Edmonton for the 25^th edition of the Edmonton Marathon.  Edmonton is the Capital City of Alberta,  a Province of Canada.

The marathon course firstly went East following the Saskatchewan River, returning to the Downtown (City Centre) start at the halfway point.  It was then out and back to the West, again returning to the Downtown area to finish.

With a flat course and almost perfect running weather, it was a good day to take on a marathon.

ROBERT HARDY completed the marathon in 5 hours 8 minutes 28 seconds and ROGER BIGGS in 5:25:31.  PAULINE HARDY completed the half marathon in 3:05:10.

 

Leila’s Run

On Sunday Spartan CAROL PAUL ran Leila’s Run from Wheathampstead.  The race consisted of four hilly multi terrain laps totalling 26.95 miles.  Carol completed the race in 4:46:18.  The race was in memory of Leila Taylor who was a Garden City Runner and a 100 club member who died of cancer a couple of years ago.

 

Parkrun Reports

At Stevenage STUART HAYCROFT was the first Spartan home in 7th in 19:11.  THOMAS SAUKA was 19th in 20:41.  NICK GILL came in 21st in 20:47 and MARK BEASLEY was 57th in 22:55.  CLIVE CANNON was 59th in 23:04 which is a new Parkrun PB (personal best).  RYAN DUNNING (68th in 23:43), CHRIS HOLLAND (81st in 24:21), NEIL ROBINSON (83rd in 24:24), DANIEL SUTTON (91st in 25:02), DAVID SCOTT (100th in 25:440, JAMES SOUTH (154th in 29:31), JOHN WALSH (159th in 29:53) and IAN ALEXANDER (tailwalkig in 54:34) were the other Spartan men.

The first Spartan woman home was JANA HAYCROFT in 127th in 27:21 followed by SALLY PHILLIPS 172nd in 30:36.

Elsewhere HAZEL CLARK was 147th 27:30 in a PB at New Noggin.  STEVE SMITHSON was 41st in 23:03 and MONICA SMITHSON 168th in 30:35, running at Panshanger for the first time where 259 ran.  ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER was 4th in 20:52 at Barclay.  KEN JUDE was 31st in 22:36 at Ellenbrook Fields setting a personal best (PB).  KAREN PALMER was 26th in 29:23 at the Haga Parkrun in Sweden.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• BMAF Half Marathon Championships at the Northampton Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd September (entries close on 21^st August).
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts 10K Track Championships at Sandy on Saturday 23^rd September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

Natalie Lawrence was victorious at the Stopsley 5 and 10 trail races, winning the 5 mile event in a time of 34 mins 37 secs, two and a half minutes ahead of her nearest challenger.

 

Self Transcendence 5k Battersea Park

MADDIE PRITCHARD ran the Self Transcendence 5k in Battersea Park on Monday evening in 21mins 24secs

 

Parkrun Reports

It was a relatively quiet week of parkrunning for the Spartans.

Fastest Spartan parkrunner of the weekend was BARRY OSBORNE who ran a new course PB of 19:48 at Ellenbrook Fields to finish second. KEN JUDE ran a new 5k PB of 22:48 to finish 27^th at the same venue.

At Stevenage KIERAN FEETHAM was first Spartan finisher, 21^st in a time of 21 mins 59 secs. MARK BEASLEY was 23^rd in 22:19 and MARTIN DUDLEY 34^th in 22:55. CHRIS HOLLAND (24:01) and LEE PICKERSGILL (24:22) were the other men running. For the women TRACY PEZ was 23^rd in 28:33 with EMMA MARTIN the other woman to run in 37:36.

In other local parkruns, THOMAS SAUKA ran at Westmill for the first time, finishing  4^th in 20:44. DAVE SMITH also debuted there and was 12^th in 25:03. TIM ROBINSON took the opportunity to stop off at Grovelands for the first time on his way to work and finished 32^nd in 24:06.

Further afield regular tourists DANIEL SUTTON (40^th in 22:21, a new course PB) and VERITY FISHER (26:22) ran at Lowestoft, while DARRYL STEVENS was at Horsham to complete in 39:53.

Finally, SHARON CROWLEY took the opportunity of being in the Lake District to run a wet and muddy parkrun along a disused railway line (now a path) in Keswick, completing in 29:18.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• BMAF Half Marathon Championships at the Northampton Half Marathon on Sunday 3^rd September (entries close on 21^st August).
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts 10K Track Championships at Sandy on Saturday 23^rd September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

 

Thursday saw 33 Spartans supporting the 100^th FVS Handicap 5k race to be organised by PAUL HOLGATE. First to finish was MICHAEL ANDREWS, beating his July time by 2:39 to finish in 25:22, with newcomer MICHAEL O’KEEFE 2nd in 28:15, 3:00 ahead of handicap, and DAVE SMITH 3rd in a year’s best time of 23:34.

PENNY SCHENKEL was 1st lady to finish in a year best time of her own of 26:01, with guest AIMEE HOLGATE 2nd lady in a course best time of 33:12, 2:33 better than handicap, ahead of SUSAN McANENY 3rd lady in a new PB time of 24:07.

Fastest time was 17:07 by GRANT RAMSAY, with STEFFAN FORD 2nd quickest in 18:11 and CIARAN McANENY 3rd fastest with 18:12, while RICHARD SPRINGALL, 18:48 PB, MARK COLLINS 19:34 PB, BRIAN WHITE 19:42 and ADRIAN BUSOLINI 19:54 PB all also finished inside 20 minutes, and TIM SABAN 20:04 SB & NICK GILL 20:18 PB were both only just outside 20 minutes.

Quickest female was YUKO GORDON in a debut handicap 5k time of 23:31, ahead of SUSAN MCANENY (24:07) 2nd quickest and LISA GRAY 3rd fastest in a new season’s best time of 24:25.

There was also a new personal best by MELANIE BUTT in 31:51, season’s bests by SIMON SYPULA and SHARON CROWLEY and year’s bests by ANDY SMITH, JON SYPULA, DARREN EMMERSON, MARK BEASLEY, PETER CARPENTER and SOFIA CARPENTER.

 

Full Handicap 5k Finishing Positions

Pos	Name	Time	PB/Notes
1	MICHAEL ANDREWS	25:22	Winner and CB
2	MICHAEL O’KEEFE	28:15	CB
3	DAVE SMITH	23:34	YB
4	JIM BROWN	25:55
5	PENNY SCHENKEL	26:01	First woman and YB
6	LEE PICKERSGILL	24:34	CB
7	GRANT RAMSAY	17:07
8	ANDY SMITH	24:39	YB
9	AIMEE HOLGATE	33:12	CB
10	JON SYPULA	24:34	YB
11	ADRIAN BUSOLINI	19:54	PB
12	SIMON SYPULA	25:25	SB
13	CIARAN McANENY	18:12	PB
14	NICK GILL	20:18	PB
15	SUSAN McANENY	24:07	PB
16	CLIVE CANNON	23:38
17	SHARON CROWLEY	27:55	SB
18	LISA GRAY	24:26	SB
18	RICHARD SPRINGALL	18:48	PB
20	MARK COLLINS	19:34	PB
21	STEFFAN FORD	18:11
22	TIM SABAN	20:04	SB
23	MELANIE BUTT	31:51	PB
24	BRIAN WHITE	19:42
25	DARREN EMMERSON	22:01	YB
26	DANIEL SUTTON	22:49
27	KEN JUDE	24:05
28	MARK BEASLEY	21:57	YB
29	MARK GOODWIN	22:05
30	PETER CARPENTER	30:18	YB
31	YUKO GORDON	23:31	CB
32	SOFIA CARPENTER	29:54	YB
33	MARTIN DUDLEY	29:56

 

Grim Reaper

(Photo courtesy: Ann Tryssesoone)

Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire was the scene for the recent Grim Reaper ultra-marathon.  It consisted of 10 mile loops of the stunning grounds of the estate, past lakes, through forests and along stately tree lined drives. Starting at 9.30am the event runs through for 26 hours with participants able to choose 40,70 or 100 miles as their target distance.

JOHN NELMS completed 40 miles (4 laps) in 7 hours 25.  Then he had to get home to work a night shift!

TRICIA HOPPER, BARRY KING and KAREN LIDDLE ran 40 miles in 10 hours 36 minutes. Conditions were generally good with rain setting in for their final lap.

 

Doug Anderson Memorial

Perfect weather conditions made for very fast times on this exceptionally quick course in Bedford where MICHAEL ANDREWS improved his PB from 26:13 to 25:00 in 166th position (N.B. since improved further to 24:44) while PAUL HOLGATE paced his daughter AIMEE round in her first 5k exactly 100 positions back in 266th of 298 finishers, in 32:48, 3 minutes ahead of target.

 

Dove Dale Dipper

SHARON, LIZ and MIKE CROWLEY completed the Dove Dale Dipper based from Hartington, in Derbyshire. With many hills and stiles to climb over the course of the 27 mile route it was a tiring day. They finished together in 8hrs:41mins.

 

Battersea Park 5k

CHRIS JOHANSEN ran his second race as a Spartan, taking on the August 5k in Battersea Park. He was very happy with his time of 39:14 to finish in 6^th place in the V40 category.

 

Parkrun Reports

BRIAN WHITE was first Spartan finisher at Stevenage parkrun, finishing 7^th in 19 mins 57 secs. STUART ARCHER was 20^th in 21:41 and CHRIS HOLLAND just missed out on a top 50 finish in 24:34. JIM BROWN achieved a new course PB of 25:54. DANIEL SUTTON (25:12), NEIL ROBINSON (25:24), CLIVE CANNON (28:34), JOHN WALSH (29:14) and IAN ALEXANDER (VI guiding in 43:38) were the other men running.

PENNY SCHENKEL ran a new course PB and was first woman finisher for Spartans in 25:57. JENNY GARRETT was 15^th in 27:28 just in front of JULIE SHADBOLT (16^th in 27:29). KAREN PALMER also reached the top 20, finishing in 28:09. CLAIRE EMMERSON (31:26), CALLY CHAPMAN (31:27) and SALLY PHILLIPS (31:42) were the other Spartan women.

Elsewhere in the county TIM ROBINSON ran at Panshanger, finishing in 28:25, and ANDY JAY went to Westmill and finished in 25:09. A little further afield ANTHONY OSBORNE took on the Wimpole Estate layout and finished in 40:43.

To the south DARRYL STEVENS was at Southsea and completed in 40:16, while VERITY FISHER was at Rutland Water and nursed a sore calf round in 42:04. Finally, STEPHEN and MONICA SMITHSON were at Lancaster parkrun, Stephen finishing in the top 30 in 24:17 and Monica just outside the top 30 women in 31:51.

 

Norton Common First Saturday of the Month 5k

Three Spartans ran the NHRR-organised Norton Common First Saturday of the Month 5k.

RICHARD SPRINGALL was 14th in 20:05, JOHN HARRIS was 15th in 20:20 and PAUL MAGUIRE was 38th of the 137 runners, finishing in 22:27.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts 10K Track Championships at Sandy on Saturday 23^rd September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.  Enter fast.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

Well done to everybody who supported tonight’s Handicap 5k which was the 100^th Handicap 5k since I took over organising in 2002. Over the years 3,595 times have been recorded by 833 different individuals, 1,455 of which have been personal bests.

Full results can be downloaded from: August Handicap 5k results

Many thanks to Mike Crowley for his assistance with the start and finish and also for the support of Hannah Sypula and Clive’s wife Kay Cannon.

First to finish was Michael Andrews, beating his July time by 2:39 to finish in 25:22, with newcomer Michael O’Keefe 2^nd in 28:15, 3:00 ahead of handicap, and Dave Smith 3^rd in a YB time of 23:34.

Penny Schenkel was 1^st lady to finish in a year best time of her own of 26:01, with guest Aimee Holgate 2^nd lady in a course best time of 33:12, 2:33 better than handicap, ahead of Susan McAneny 3^rd lady in a new PB time of 24:07.

Fastest time was 17:07 by Grant Ramsay , with Steffan Ford 2^nd quickest in 18:11 and Ciaran McAneny 3^rd fastest with 18:12, while Richard Springall, 18:48 PB, Mark Collins 19:34 PB, Brian White 19:42 and Adrian Busolini 19:54 PB all also finished inside 20 minutes, and Tim Saban 20:04 SB & Nick Gill 20:18 PB were both only just outside 20 minutes.

Quickest female was Yuko Gordon in a debut Handicap 5k time of 23:31, ahead of Susan McAneny (24:07) 2^nd quickest and Lisa Gray 3^rd fastest in a new Season Best time of 24:25.

There was also a new Personal Best by Melanie Butt in 31:51, SBs by Simon Sypula and Sharon Crowley and YBs by Andy Smith, Jon Sypula, Darren Emmerson, Mark Beasley, Peter Carpenter and Sofia Carpenter.

Time between 1^st runner to cross the finish and the last was just 4:04, and only 2:11 between 1^st-30^th, while 94% of runners finished within 2 minutes of their adjusted handicap and all 33 finishers within 2:19.

The September Handicap 5k is currently scheduled for the 14^th but as it looks like I could be away that day I will be taking up with Andy to see if this can be swapped with the athlete fit session scheduled for the week after, in which case the date for your diary will be Thursday 21^st September. Hope to see as many of you taking part as possible, especially as the event works better the more people that take part.

Best regards

Paul

 

Fairlands Valley Spartans’ Relays in the Park are becoming hugely popular and on Thursday evening 66 women’s and 62 men’s teams took part.  That’s more than 500 runners each racing three kilometres round Fairlands Valley Park on a beautiful summer’s evening.

The fastest woman on the night was Rosie Keane from Luton who stormed round in a sub ten 9 minutes 51 seconds, even faster than her 9:55 in 2016.  She set up her club to win in a total of 32 minutes 29 seconds.  Luton also had the fastest man.  Ian Kimpton went round the undulating course in 8 minutes 29 seconds but Bedford and County won the men’s race in 45 minutes 35 seconds.  There were three runners in women’s teams and five in men’s.

Fairlands Valley Spartans won double BRONZE in the Hertfordshire County Championships which were incorporated in the event.  GRANT RAMSAY (9:39); RICHARD SPRINGALL (10:27); STEFFAN FORD (10:24); SIMON JACKSON (9:50); and ANDREW PATTERSON (9:47) had a total time of 50 minutes 7 seconds in the seniors (18 to 39) race while BRIAN WHITE (11:03); RICHARD BRUCE (10:28); TIM SABAN (11:41); DAVID RIDDELL (11:14) and DANNY HUKIN (11:00) won their medals in the veteran category with a total of 55 minutes 26 seconds.

The Spartan women were JO BOWDERY (13:05); NICOLA KENNEDY (13:07); JULIET FULLWOOD (13:40); KAREN ELLIS (13:50); ALICE BURLEIGH (13:56); SARAH PIKE (14:36); KELLY McHALE (14:46); VICTORIA BRETT (14:55); JULIE SHADBOLT (15:06); SUE HARMER (15:07); PENNY SCHENKEL (15:20); ALEX WHITEHOUSE (16:15) and EMMA MARTIN (21:42).

The club led by race director ANDY JAY provided dozens of marshals and other volunteer helpers for the event.

 

3K Relay Times for the 45 Spartans:

 

Position	Name	M/F	FVS Team	Time	Comments
19	GRANT RAMSAY	M	A	9:39
27	ANDREW PATTERSON	M	A	9:47
31	SIMON JACKSON	M	A	9:50	8 sec imp. on 2016
54	JOHNNY PENNELL	M	B	10:11
66	STEFFAN FORD	M	A	10:24
70	RICHARD SPRINGALL	M	A	10:27
71	RICHARD BRUCE	M	G	10:28
105	CHRIS TILLBROOK	M	B	10:51
116	TODD GRAY	M	B	10:57	30 sec 2016
123	DANNY HUKIN	M	G	11:00
128	BRIAN WHITE	M	G	11:03
129	MARK COLLINS	M	B	11:05
141	DAVID RIDDELL	M	G	11:14
165	RICHARD KENNEDY	M	D	11:36
168	NICK GILL	M	D	11:37
173	TIM SABAN	M	G	11:41
230	PETE SMITH	M	C	12:24
240	DARREN EMMERSON	M	C	12:31
248	MARK GOODWIN	M	C	12:40	8 sec 2016
254	MARK BEASLEY	M	E	12:43
275	JO BOWDERY	F	A	13:05	39W
279	NICOLA KENNEDY	F	B	13:07	42W
286	MARTIN DUDLEY	M	E	13:14	2 sec 2016
313	KEN JUDE	M	C	13:35
324	JULIET FULLWOOD	F	A	13:40	66W
333	CALLUM BEASLEY	M	E	13:44
336	TIM ROBINSON	M	C	13:46
339	VISHAL SHAH	M	F	13:48
341	KAREN ELLIS	F	C	13:50	76W
347	CLIVE CANNON	M	F	13:55
348	ALICE BURLEIGH	F	A	13:56	79W
354	ANDY SMITH	M	D	14:02
367	LEE PICKERGILL	M	D	14:14
395	SARAH PIKE	F	D	14:36	104W
401	JIM BROWN	M	D	14:42
406	KELLY MCHALE	F	B	14:46	112W
415	VICTORIA BRETT	F	B	14:55	120W
422	JULIE SHADBOLT	F	C	15:06	127W
425	SUE HARMER	F	E	15:07	130W
434	PENNY SCHENKEL	F	C	15:20	138W
453	PAUL HOLGATE	M	F	15:42	37 sec 2016
462	ALEX WHITEHOUSE	F	D	16:15	158W
469	WAYNE MCMILLAN	M	F	16:35
489	PETER CARPENTER	M	F	17:30
514	EMMA MARTIN	F	E	21:42	203W

The course, in the top half of the park was ideal for spectators and the event start at 7.30p.m. meant plenty were able to go along.

 

Eastern Masters Track & Field League – Match 4 – Weds 26th August 2017

A superb last league match of the season in Stevenage returned plenty of team and individual successes for Spartans’ Masters Track and Field teams.  With home advantage, the ladies won their match by three points to secure the Central Division league title and confirm a place in September’s final.  The men’s team enjoyed their best match this season with a fourth place finish lifting them to fourth overall in the division.

The club excelled in the mile event, winning all five of the races they contested.  YUKO GORDON won the W60 in 6:37.2, setting a new league record and with a 94.2% age grading was awarded the ladies “Athlete of the Match”.  In the W50 race, ALISON WOOD maintained her superb form over middle distance events, setting a new ladies club record in a time of 5:50.6.  The men’s club record also fell, with an outstanding run from newcomer RICHARD BRUCE, who was the fastest athlete on the night, winning the M35 category in 4:53.1.  JOHN HARRIS set a new M55 club age best of 5:49.3 with his M50 win and CHRISTINE LATHWELL held on to secure maximum points in a close W35 race in 6:10.9.  Running as a non-scorer, BRIAN BRACKSTONE clocked 5:03.2.

MONICA BROWN top scored for the ladies team, earning 31 points from her four individual events including wins in the W50 100m, W50 Triple Jump and W50 High Jump.  Her clearance of 1.27cm was the highest age graded performance in the ladies field events.  There were also wins for ladies captain TESSA STEPHENSON in the W50 400m, JULIE SIMMONS in the W60 400m and IRIS HORNSEY in the W60 Triple Jump.  SHARON CROWLEY set a new PB of 13:26.8 for the 2km walk and ANDREA WESTCOTT improved her PBs in the W35 Javelin and High Jump.  CATHY CRAIG, STEPH MAYFIELD and debutant SUZY HAWKINS completed the team.

With the men’s team just six strong, it meant a busy night for most of the athletes as they attempted to cover as many events as possible to maximise their points tally.  STEVE MAYFIELD secured 2nd places in the M50 100m and 400m sprints and set M50 club age bests in both the Javelin and Discus, the latter with a PB of 28.15.  DAVE STEPHENSON also took on four events and team captain MARK FREEMAN three, contributing 32 valuable points between them.  Continuing his improvement as a track and field athlete, ANTON McCALLA set new PBs in the M35 100m (13.9) and Triple Jump (9.09m).

The evening ended with the 400m/200m/200m/400m medley relays.  The W50 ladies foursome of Alison Wood, Sharon Crowley, Monica Brown and Tessa Stephenson won comfortably in 3:45.2, setting their third league record this season.  The W35 team earned second place in their race with 4:04.9.  Unable to muster two teams, the men fielded a mixed age group quartet and though a brilliant anchor leg from Richard Bruce couldn’t quite snatch an unlikely victory, their time of 3:01.8 was fast enough to break the club M40 record.

A thoroughly successful evening hosted by FVS but facilitated through considerable support from Stevenage and North Herts AC aided by volunteers from FVS and NHRR.

 

Great Run in Great Grimsby

EMMA POULTER did the Great Grimsby 10K in 1 hour 10 minutes 50 seconds.  A personal best of almost four minutes.

 

Great City

STEFFAN FORD AND SIMON JACKSON were racing the Standard Chartered Great City 5k Race around the twisty, turny and very busy streets of London on Monday night.

In a race with 6000 entrants both finished in the top 100, with SIMON the first Spartan home in 25th position in a new PB of 16:40, despite him being in the middle of an intense Ironman training program and no rest or tapering pre race.  Whilst STEFFAN after only doing Ironman UK a week before finished in a very credible 17:46 in his first run since the Ironman.

 

Grim Reaper

Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire was the scene for the Grim Reaper ultra marathon at the weekend.  It consisted of 10 mile loops of the stunning grounds of the estate, past lakes, through forests and along stately tree lined drives.

Starting at 9.30am the event runs through for 26 hours with participants able to chose 40,70 or 100 miles as their target distance.

John Nelms completed 40 miles (4 laps) in 7 hours 25.  Then he had to get home to work a night shift!

Tricia Hopper, Barry King and Karen Liddle ran 40 miles in 10 hours 36 minutes.

Conditions were generally good with rain setting in for their final lap.

 

Twilight Marathon

IAN ALEXANDER completed the Twilight Marathon in Ilford yesterday in a time of 6:32:22.  The galling thing for him was that he was one second outside his PB from the London Marathon.

The route started off going downhill and was flat until the last half mile when we encountered a hill, the first half was as bad as the Chingford hill and the rest was a slight incline.

They had all sorts of refreshments there and whilst you were running, if you needed anything, you asked and it was given to you at the start of the next lap.

Ian said it was well organised and the only thing wrong was by the time you had been round 4 times you were bored with the course.  It was 21 laps.

 

Parkrun Reports

GRANT RAMSAY made it back-to-back first place finishes at Stevenage parkrun when finishing in 17 mins 30 to increase his margin over the same second-placed finisher as last week.  BRIAN WHITE was 8^th in 19:33, recording a new course PB, and NICK GILL also notched a new course PB as he broke the 21 minute barrier for the first time, finishing 17^th in 20:33.  MARTIN DUDLEY (22:31) and MARK BEASLEY (22:37) also made the top 50.

There were also course PBs for CLIVE CANNON (23:31, MICHAEL ANDREWS (24:46), STEVE ELDER (27:15) and PAUL HOLGATE (27:27).  The other Spartan men in action were DARREN EMMERSON (24:08), NEIL ROBINSON (24:20), LEE PICKERSGILL (25:02), KARTIK SHARMA (26:08), JAMES SOUTH (29:29) and SELVAN NAICKER (40:00).

TRACY PEZ was the first Spartan woman to finish, in 12^th place in 25:22.  CAROL PAUL (26:56) was 18^th and KAREN PALMER (28:26) was 31^st.  SHARON CROWLEY ran a new course PB and also made the top 50 in 28:51. ALEXANDRA WHITEHOUSE finished in 30:53, EMMA MARTIN in 38:42 and CLAIRE EMMERSON completed as a visual impaired guide in 40:35.

In other local parkruns DANIEL SUTTON (24:21), CHRIS HOLLAND (25:15, new course PB) and TIM ROBINSON (27:51) all made the top 50 at Westmill.  VERITY FISHER was the sole Spartan woman running there and was eighth in 26:04. At St Albans, BARRY OSBORNE was 17^th male in 19:43 while MADELEINE PRITCHARD was sixth woman in 22:18. PAUL MAGUIRE was the only Spartan to venture to Ellenbrook Fields, finishing 14^th in 21:14 on his first visit. TRACY STILES took on the inaugural running of the new parkrun at Heartwood Forest near St Albans and finished 39^th in 33:25.

Elsewhere, ANDY JAY was in the west country and ran 23:53 at Exeter Riverside, a new course PB.  DARRYL STEVENS was at Salisbury and completed in 39:30.

JIM BROWN was sweep runner in the Serpentine 5K and finished in 35:13.

 

USA Quad

Roger Biggs was in the States, to run in four marathons over two weekends in Montana and Alaska.  However, things don’t always work out.

Marathon 1 – Madison Marathon in Montana:  This was in the Gravelly Mountains of Montana. It was unusually warm for a marathon where the elevation didn’t slip below 8500ft.  At 25 miles disaster struck as Roger took a tumble, that took him to hospital for forehead stitches, a broken finger and no finishers medal.  Marathon 2: – Big Sky Marathon finishing in Ennis, Montana:  Unable to run following marathon 1 problems.  Marathon 3 – Juneau Marathon in the Alaska Capital:  Unable to run as couldn’t meet time limit.  Marathon 4 – Bearfest Marathon:  Roger had to win 1 out of 4.  This was on an out and back course along the coastline of Wrangell Island in Alaska.  It was hard work for him, but Roger kept going to finish in 6:40:47

 

Coming Events

 

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

 

• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 3^rd August.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts 10K Track Championships at Sandy on Saturday 23^rd September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.  Enter fast.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

Final results for the Fairlands Valley Relays (incorporating the Herts County Championship relays) can be found on the below link. These have now been updated to include individual performances and team by team summary of individual times and team position at the end of each leg of the relay.

Fairlands Valley Relays

Congratulations to all the winners on the night, and thanks to everyone that ran or helped on a massively successful evening with a record number of teams taking part.

 

There were more records for Spartan ALISON WOOD on Saturday.  The Track and Field Championships of the Eastern Masters Athletics Club were held at Garon Park in Southend on Saturday. Starting in bright sunshine, the clouds rolled in during the day, but luckily most events were completed before the downpour. With the very strong and gusty winds giving a headwind in the home straight, many of the race times and jump run ups were badly affected.

Given the conditions, Alison Wood produced an outstanding performance in the 800 metres race for women over 50 to not only win the race but also to reduce the Championship Record by over 5 seconds to 2 minutes 33.0 seconds. She followed this up later in the afternoon by also breaking the record in the 400 metres with a time of 69.3 seconds.

The other Spartans present all ended up with medals.  Tessa Stephenson took Gold in the 400m for women over 55 in a time of 80.6 seconds, Silver in the 100m in 16.4 seconds and Silver in the Shot Putt with 7.53 metres.  Sharon Crowley took Gold in the 2000 metre Walk for women over 55 in 14 minutes 24.5 seconds.  Dave Stephenson took Silver in the 100m for men over 50 in 14.2seconds, Bronze in the Long Jump with 4.10 metres and also competed in the Shott Putt finishing with a distance of 7.98 metres.

There is an EMAC track and field fixture in Stevenage this Wednesday evening.

 

Panshanger

JOHN HARRIS ran the Panshanger 5 five mile race in 35 minutes 1 second.  He was second man 50 plus.  ERICA GRAYSON commented it was very hilly but ran a new personal best of 45 minutes 45 seconds.  It was hot and hilly for JENNY PAUL who finished in 50:49.

 

PB for Tim

There was a new personal best for TIM SABAN who ran the Bedford AAA 10K on Friday night in 41:33.

 

Relays in the Park

Come and watch the relays in Fairlands Valley Park this Thursday evening.  Dozens of teams have entered the 3K relays organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans.  The course, in the top half of the park is ideal for spectators and the event starts at 7.30p.m.

 

Parkrun Reports

GRANT RAMSAY returned to Stevenage parkrun for the first time since New Year’s Eve and duly romped home as first finisher, crossing the line in 17mins 41secs.  Second Spartan finisher was NICK GILL who rushed round in 21:12, with Darren EMMERSON (23^rd, 22:24) and MARTIN DUDLEY (25^th, 22:31) also finishing in the top 30 men. LEE PICKERSGILL (26:08), ROBERT EVANS (26:34), CLIVE CANNON (26:37), STEVE ELDER (28:44) and JOHN WALSH (31:58) were the other Spartan men running.

KAREN ELLIS was the first Spartan woman home, finishing 19^th in 26:58, a new course personal best (PB). J O BOWDERY finished in 30:35, with SHANI HUNT (37:05), CAREN THAIN (37:06) and KELLY CHAPMAN (37:41) also completing the 5k course.

Hertfordshire has gained a new parkrun this weekend, at Westmill near Ware, and eight Spartans turned up to try out the challenging, hilly, offroad layout.  TIM SABAN, who is in fine form, was 19^th in 22:21, with JOHN ROXBOROUGH the next Spartan, 29^th in 23:21. TIM ROBINSON (26:05) and CHRIS HOLLAND (26:43) were the other males.  KAREN PALMER was the first Spartan woman, finishing 15^th in 29:21.  MONICA SMITHSON was next in 32:04 with TRACY STILES (37:35) and EMMA MARTIN (39:23) completing the Spartan octet.

Elsewhere RUTH REILLY was the sole Spartan at Panshanger, finishing 21^st in 27:05. Regular tourists VERITY FISHER and DANIEL SUTTON were at Torbay Velopark with Verity finishing as 3^rd woman in a new course PB of 23:02.  Daniel was 35^th man in 23:14. DARYL STEVENS was at Weymouth and finished in 40:05.  Also in the west country MADELEINE PRITCHARD finished as second woman at Chippenham in a time of 23:34.

Finally PAUL MAGUIRE was 10^th at Dolgellau parkrun in North West Wales in a time of 22:09.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• EMAC Track and Field at Stevenage on Wednesday 26^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Relays in the Park, Stevenage on Thursday 27^th July.
• Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 28^th July.
• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 3^rd August.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.  Enter fast.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

Forty-three from Fairlands Valley Spartans ran in the friendly mob match with runners from all three divisions racing 10K around Welwyn Garden City on Thursday evening.  With more than 500 runners from eighteen clubs the course had many twists and turns and was tight with some pinch points, particularly in the first couple of kilometres, but many Spartans put in excellent performances.

SIMON JACKSON led in the Spartan men’s “A” team at sixth overall in 34 minutes 57 seconds.  He was fourth veteran (40 plus).  The others in the twelve man “A” team were GRANT RAMSAY, 14^th in 36:05; BRIAN WHITE winning the veteran (60 plus) category in 40:23; MARK COLLINS 15th in 42:32; DEAN CARPENTER, 127^th also in 42:32; NICK GILL, 146^th and improving his personal best by 49 seconds to 43:34; ADRIAN BUSOLINI taking a huge 3:45 chunk of his PB to be 147^th in 43:01; MARK GOODWIN, 209^th in 45:54; DARREN EMMERSON, 232^nd in 47:22; JAMES KILROY 262^nd in 48:40; MARTIN DUDLEY 279^th in 48:43; and JIM BROWN 293^rd in 49 minutes 49 seconds.

With nineteen women finishing Fairlands females had three complete teams.  RUTH REILLY was quickest with an excellent 46 minutes 40 minutes for 220^th overall; then came HANNAH NEALE, 267^th in 48:54 and JULIET FULLWOOD, 282^nd in 49:19.  JULIE SIMMONS was fourth women veteran (55 plus) at 302^nd in 50:51; KAREN ELLIS 310^th in 51:15 and HAYLEY BIRONNEAU was sixth counter in the “A” team at 311^th in 51:17.

LISA GRAY 51:34; JENNY GARRETT and WENDY THARANI both in 53:32; CLAIRE EMMERSON and CALLIE CHAPMAN both in 55:42 and CAROL PAUL 56:04 were the women’s “B” team and beat the “A” teams from eight other clubs.

The results did not count towards the league and the run was a prelude to the presentation of awards for the four race series but it was interested to see that the Spartans were eleventh out of 23 teams in the men’s race and tenth out of 32 in the women’s.  An indication of the challenges ahead now that Fairlands Valley Spartans have been promoted to the premier division.

Race	Name	M/F	Time	Comments
6	SIMON JACKSON	M	34:57	4MV40.  SB (0:24).  “A” team
14	GRANT RAMSAY	M	36:05	6MV40.  “A” team.
88	BRIAN WHITE	M	40:23	First MV60.  “A” team.
125	MARK COLLINS	M	42:32	“A” team.
127	DEAN CARPENTER	M	42:32	“A” team.
146	NICK GILL	M	43:34	“A” team.  PB (0:49)
147	ADRIAN BUSOLINI	M	43:01	“A” team.  PB (3:45)
209	MARK GOODWIN	M	45:54	“A” team
220	RUTH REILLY	F	46:40	Women’s “A” team
232	DARREN EMMERSON	M	47:22	“A” team.
262	JAMES KILROY	M	48:40	“A” team.
267	HANNAH NEALE	F	48:54	Women’s “A” team.
279	MARTIN DUDLEY	M	48:43	“A” team.
282	JULIET FULLWOOD	F	49:19	Women’s “A” team.
293	JIM BROWN	M	49:49	“A” team
297	RYAN DUNNING	M	50:02	SB.
302	JULIE SIMMONS	F	50:51	4FV55.  Women’s “A” team.  YB (1:24)
307	ANDY JAY	M	50:51	YB (0:31)
310	KAREN ELLIS	F	51:15	Women’s “A” team.  YB (0:56)
311	HAYLEY BIRONNEAU	F	51:17	Women’s “A” team.  YB (0:48).
319	LISA GRAY	F	51:34	Women’s “B” team
344	TIM ROBINSON	M	53:02
346	KEN JUDE	M	52:53
347	DAVE SMITH	M	52:54
352	JENNY GARRETT	F	53:32	Women’s “B” team.
359	WENDY THARANI	F	53:32	Women’s “B” team.  PB (0:07)
384	ROB KING	M	54:10	SB
387	CLAIRE EMMERSON	F	55:42	Women’s “B” team.
388	CALLIE CHAPMAN	F	55:42	Women’s “B” team.
391	CAROL PAUL	F	56:04	Women’s “B” team
407	VICTORIA BRETT	F	55:38	Women’s “C” team
410	ERICA GRAYSON	F	56:44	Women’s “C” team.  PB=
414	ROB SHAW	M	56:48	7MV70
415	KARL SHREEVE	M	56:54
430	CLAIRE HYDE	F	57:49	Women’s “C” team.
433	PAUL HOLGATE	M	57:16
441	SIMON SYPULA	M	57:32
446	MONICA SMITHSON	F	58:47	Women’s “C” team.
466	JULIE SHADBOLY	F	1:02:28	Women’s “C” team.
502	MARIA THORNE	F	1:15:21	Women’s “C” team.  YB
504	TREVOR BROOM	M	1:17:38	1st 10K
505	SHARON CROWLEY	F	1:17:38

(PB = personal best; SB = season’s best {2016/2017}; YB = year’s best).

 

Fairlands Valley Challenge

255 runners beat the tough off road Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday.  55 completed the half marathon, 30 the 18 miles option, 98 the marathon and 42 the 50 kilometre ultra event.  The cross country event was organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans and thirty two of the finishers were Spartans.

In the half marathon BARRY OSBORNE was third and first in category with 1 hour 54 minutes.  JENNY PAUL was second in her category with 2:37.  ISABEL GREEN won the 18 mile event with 3:07.  CAROL PAUL was second in her category in the marathon with 5 hours 16 minutes.  Also over 26.2 miles ROBERT HARDY won the 70 plus race in 6 hours 8 minutes with ROB SHAW second four minutes behind and MIKE NEWBIT third in 6:30.  PAULINE HARDY won women over 65 event.

There were two Spartans in the 50 kilometres ultra.  CIARAN McANENY was sixth in 5 hours 8 minutes and KARK CLARK 13^th in 5 hours 53 minutes.

 

FVS in Challenge Half Marathon

Pos	M/F	Cat	Name	Sex	Category	Time
3	3	1	Barry Osborne	M	MV60	1:54
17	5	2	Jenny Paul	F	WV45	2:37
22	13	4	Sophocles Georgiou	M	MV50	2:42
32	15	6	Caroline Croft	F	WV45	3:11
33	16	4	Maria Swift	F	WV35	3:11
34	18	5	Clive Cannon	M	MV50	3:11
35	19	11	Andy Prior	M	MV40	3:11
36	17	7	Erica Grayson	F	WV45	3:11
37	18	5	Vicky Cottom	F	WV35	3:11
38	19	8	Kirsten Weiner	F	WV45	3:11
39	20	9	Claire Emmerson	F	WV45	3:18
40	21	10	Sue Hamer	F	WV45	3:18
43	24	1	Pauline Hardy	F	WV65	3:31

 

FVS in Challenge 18 Miles

Pos	M/F	Cat	Name	Sex	Category	Time
1	1	1	Isabel Green	F	WV35	03:07
9	7	4	Wendy Tharani	F	WV45	03:55
14	5		Kartik Sharma	M	S	04:18
23	15	5	Karen Ellis	F	WV35	04:45
24	16	10	Lisa Gray	F	WV45	04:45
25	17	11	Julie Shadbolt	F	WV45	04:45

 

FVS in Challenge Marathon

Pos	M/F	Cat	Name	Sex	Category	Time
20	4	2	Carol Paul	F	WV55	05:16
44	34	1	Robert Hardy	M	MV70	06:08
47	37	2	Rob Shaw	M	MV70	06:12
53	41	6	Paul Holgate	M	MV60	06:23
57	45	3	Mike Newbit	M	MV70	06:30
58	46	12	Barry King	M	MV50	06:33
59	13	5	Karen Liddle	F	WV55	06:33
60	14	6	Claire Pullen	F	WV45	06:33
61	15	7	Tricia Hopper	F	WV45	06:33
73	23	7	Sharon Crowley	F	WV55	06:57
80	56	9	Roger Biggs	M	MV60	07:23

 

Parkrun Reports

 

A bumper field of 24 Spartans lined up for Stevenage parkrun with MARK COLLINS being first Spartan home in a new course PB of 19 mins 47 secs. BARRY OSBORNE was next in, also a course PB to finish 8^th in  20:06, while THOMAS SAUKA finished 21^st in 21:47. MARK BEASLEY in 22:10 also made it into the top 30 men.  Also running for the men were STEPHEN SMITHSON (23:07), JOHN NELMS (23:08), RYAN DUNNING (23:13, new course PB), DARREN EMMERSON (23:21), ANDY JAY (23:32, new course PB), TIM ROBINSON (24:20), CLIVE CANNON (24:34), JIM BROWN (27:22), JAMES SOUTH (29:47) and JOHN WALSH (32:23).

TRACY PEZ showed her return form injury is continuing to progress well, being first Spartan lady to finish, 5^th woman overall, in 23:08. KERSTIN WEINER was 7^th in a new course PB of 24:47 and JACKIE DOWNES 15^th in 26:47, also a new course best. Also making the top 30 were PENNY SCHENKEL (21^st in 27:24), CLAIRE EMMERSON (24^th in 28:14), JENNY GARRETT (25^th in 28:15) and CALLIE CHAPMAN (26^th in 28:16). EMMA MARTIN (37:11, RUTH REILLY (38:19) and KELLY CHAPMAN (38:29) were other Spartan ladies running.

In other local parkruns JOHN ROXBOROUGH went to Rickmansworth and finished 35^th in 22:43, while ELLA GOWER was at Panshanger and completed in 33:32.

Further afield, EMMA POULTER ran 35:43 at Kettering parkrun while finally DARRY STEVENS was back at Brockenhurst where he completed in 39:04 as volunteer tail runner.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• EMAC Track and Field at Stevenage on Wednesday 26^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Relays in the Park, Stevenage on Thursday 27^th July.
• Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 28^th July.
• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 3^rd August.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.  Enter fast.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

The 23rd Fairlands Valley Challenge took place on Sunday 16th July, with routes reversed from the previous years and including a full half marathon distance.

Ian Munro from Garden City Runners was first home in the new half marathon, with Davina Gutteridge from Barnet & District AC first woman. 55 took part in the half.

Thirty runners finished the 18 miler and Isabel Green from hosts Fairlands Valley Spartans was first to finish, with David Broughton from Bishops Stortford RC the first male.

There were 96 finishers in the Marathon. Greg Spellman from Wellingborough & District AC was first man to finish and Janet Cobby from the 100 Marathon Club first woman.

Finally 42 completed the 50k Ultra. First man was Jack Chennell from Ketting Town Harriers and first woman was Jo Summers from North Herts Road Runners.

Full provisional results can be found on the link below (version 2 with some name and category changes).

Congratulations to everyone who took on and completed the challenge.

FVC Provisional Results – V2

 

The FVS Track and Field team travelled to Milton Keynes on Wednesday and enjoyed perfect conditions for the penultimate league meeting in the Eastern Masters competition.  Despite missing some key team members, the ladies finished in second place, just four points behind the league leaders Marshall Milton Keynes.  The women 50 plus 4×400 metres relay team of Tessa Stephenson, Sharon Crowley, Alison Wood and Monica Brown easily saw off the opposition and beat their own league record by nearly 10 seconds.  There were also individual wins for Monica Brown, Tessa Stephenson, and Alison Wood on a busy evening that saw Iris Hornsey cover the W60 200m, 800m, hammer throw and long jump events!  Iris treated herself to a well earned bag of crisps at the end.

Christine Lathwell (1M walk), Andrea Westcott (400mH and 800m), and Peta Wilson (200m) completed the line-up for the ladies.

The men finished in fifth place as the six man team struggled to fill places in some of the events.  After an arduous 2.5 hour journey to the stadium, Steve Mayfield competed in the long jump, pole vault and ran a leg of the 4x400m relay.  Anton MCalla went straight from finishing the 200m to the long jump, having already competed in the shot put and finished off the evening with a leg of the 4x400m relay!  Mark Freeman (800m and shot put), John Harris (800m, 1M walk and relay), James Kilroy (800m and relay), and Dave Stephenson (200m, hammer throw and shot put) completed the line-up for the men.

The final league meeting will be at Ridlins Stadium on Wednesday 28th July.  Events start at 7pm.  Supporters will be very welcome.

Iris Hornsey and Alison Wood represented the Eastern Masters Athletic Club at the Inter Area Challenge at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium on 2nd July.  Iris competed in the W70 category at shot put, 100m and won the long jump.  Alison Wood won the W50 800m race in a record time of 2:32.1

 

Joanne and Tim Win 5K

Winner on the night in a new PB time of 25:50 was Joanne Bowdery, with Tim Robinson first man to finish, in a year best (YB) time of 23:23. Adrian Busolini was second man in a YB time of 21:27 and the returning Rob King 3rd man in a season best (SB) time of 26:20, narrowly ahead of Karl Shreeve’s 25:52 PB. 2nd lady on the night was Victoria Brett in 26:53, just pipping Abigail Pez on the line as improved her PB by 55 seconds to 26:57.

Fastest runner on the evening was Richard Springall with 18:58, ahead of newcomer Johny Penell 2nd quickest with 19:26 and Mark Collins 3rd fastest in a new PB of 19:44. Fastest female was Hannah Neale in 23:04, with Julie Simmons 2nd quickest in 25:04 and Joanne Bowdery’s winning time was third quickest.

There was also PB’s for newcomer Joe Malloy, last month’s winner Linda Nolan and new member Michael Andrews; a SB for the returning Adrian Donnelly; YB’s for Peter Smith, Rob Shaw and Theresa Keast, while Ryan Dunning beat last month’s time by 8 seconds.

In handicap races runners are set off, slowest first, at times based on recent performances.  If everyone runs to form they would, in theory, all finish together.  In this race 79% of finishers were within one minute of their handicap time.

Pos’n	Name	Time	PB
1	JOANNE BOWDERY	25:50	Winner and third fastest woman.  PB (1:35)
2	TIM ROBINSON	23:23	YB
3	ADRIAN BUSOLINI	21:27	YB
4	ROB KING	26:20	SB
5	KARL SHREEVE	25:52	PB (0:34)
6	VICTORIA BRETT	26:53
7	ABIGAIL PEZ	26:57	PB (0:55)
8	RICHARD SPRINGALL	18:58	Fastest runner
9	TRACEY PEZ	27:00
10	MARK COLLINS	19:44	Third fastest runner.  PB (0:31).
11	JOE MALLOY	21:58	1st 5K
12	NICK GILL	21:14
13	LINDA NOLAN	27:09	PB (0:20)
14	CALLUM BEASLEY	24:53
15	JOHN NELMS	21:42
16	PETER SMITH	21:04	YB
17	JULIE SIMMONS	25:04	Second fastest woman.  YB
18	RYAN DUNNING	23:42
19	JOHNY PENELL	19:26	Second fastest runner.  1st 5K
20	ROBERT SHAW	27:57	YB
21	STEVE SMITHSON	23:47
22	ANDY SMITH	26:01
23	JIM BROWN	25:23
24	ADRIAN DONNELLY	21:20	SB
25	SIMON SYPULA	26:39
26	MARK GOODWIN	22:12
27	HANNAH NEALE	23:04	Fastest woman.
28	MICHAEL ANDREWS	28:01	PB (0:45)
29	MARTIN DUDLEY	23:19
30	CLAIRE HYDE	28:20
31	SALLY PHILLIPS	31:24
32	ROGER BIGGS	30:29
33	THERESA KEAST	31:36	YB

 

The August Handicap 5k is scheduled for Thursday 3rd August.

 

Spartans Roast in the Heat at Ware Ten + Ten

Eight Spartans made the short trip to Ware for the Ware 10 miles and 10K events, hosted by Ware Joggers.

In the ten miles, in very tough warm conditions, Steve Green was first Spartan home in a super impressive personal best (PB) time of 68:40.

Kerstin Weiner continued her very consistent 2017 form with a 93:38 time, to be first FVS woman home.  She ran at marathon pace as part of preparation for the Berlin marathon in September.

The 10 mile course was two laps between Ware and Hertford over a mixture of road, trails and a canal path, including two challenging hills before winding down a path onto Hartham Common.

The Spartan finishers (chip times) in the two lap 10 mile race were:-

20^th Steve Green 01:08:40 (PB); 44^th John Nelms 01:16:59; 67^th Mark Goodwin 01:20:50; 145^th Kerstin Weiner 01:33:38; 153^rd Andy Jay01:35:00; 155^th Jo Bowdery 01:35:09; and 156^th Andy Prior 01:35:02

Nick Witcombe was the FVS solo entrant in the Ware 10K.  He ran in the same conditions over a one lap version of the course.  He finished in 01:06:39.

 

350 Up

Saturday Carol Paul completed her 350th marathon/ultra at the Ranscombe Challenge near Rochester in Kent.  On an off road hilly course Carol completed 30.8 miles in 5 hours 55 hours 50 seconds.

 

Spartans Win On Turnout

Now we can see one of the ways Fairlands Valley Spartans won promotion to the premier division of the Mid Week League – numbers.  120 different Spartans, 51 women and 69 men ran in at least one of the four races.  None of the other five clubs had even 100 participants.

 

Grant Wins Steeplechase

In the Southern Track and Field League, Grant Ramsay won the 3000 metres steeplechase in Luton.  Ramsay was only going to use the race as a training run, following a ten day injury lay off, but after feeling good earlier on, he kicked on to win it in 11 minutes 12 seconds.

 

North Downs Way Half

THOMAS SAUKA tackled the North Downs Way Half Marathon.  He was twelfth overall in 1:58:38 overcoming an elevation gain of 544 metres on what was very tough trail for the most part and a bit overgrown

 

Parkrun Reports

In a large field of 288, THOMAS SAUKA was the first Spartan home at Steveange parkrun, finishing 20^th in 21 mins 31 secs. MARK BEASLEY was next in 22:50 with MARTIN DUDLEY third Spartan in 22:53. RYAN DUNNING continues to be in consistent form, completing in 23:40 with TIM ROBINSON next in 24:11. The remaining men running were DANIEL SUTTON (25:11), JON SYPULA (25:55), MICHAEL ANDREWS (26:13, a new course PB), SIMON SYPULA (26:27), KEN JUDE (27:50), JAMES SOUTH (30:25), STEVE GREEN (30:34) and ANTHONY OSBORNE (38:22).

VERITY FISHER was second woman to finish, crossing the line in 23:19.  TRACY PEZ was next, finishing 6^th in 24:09 as if to shout “I’m back!” and RUTH REILLY just squeezed in to the top thirty in 27:46.  BEVERLEY HARLOW (30:56), SALLY PHILLIPS (31:01) and KELLY CHAPMAN (37:24) were the other Spartan women.

Elsewhere, DARRYL STEVENS left his south-coast parkruns behind to run at Panshanger, finishing in 41:59, while at Ellenbrook Filelds BARRY OSBORNE was 33^rd male in 23:11 and KAREN PALMER was 15^th woman in 27:14. While Darryl was in land for a change, other Spartans WERE on the south coast. NEIL ROBINSON completed Bognor Regis parkrun in 25:22 and EMMA MARTIN ran at Hastings in 37:22.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Mob Match at Welwyn Garden City on Thursday 13^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Challenge from Stevenage on 15^th and 16^th July
• EMAC Track and Field at Stevenage on Wednesday 26^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Relays in Stevenage on Thursday 27^th July.
• Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 28^th July.
• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 3^rd August.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.  Enter fast.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

The Mob Match, the final race of the Midweek League season in Welwyn Garden City on 13th July, hosted jointly by Garden City runners and Herts Phoenix AC, will feature the end of season presentations to teams and individual runners.

The full list of team and runner rankings can be found in the Excel sheet linked below:

MWL Presentation

Divisional team winners/promoted teams were as follows:

Division 1 Champions: St Albans Striders
Division 1 Runners Up: Orion Harriers

Division 2 Champions : North Herts Road Runners
Division 2 Runners Up: Fairlands Valley Spartans

Division 3 Champions: Harpenden Arrows
Division 3 Runners Up: Stevenage Striders

Congratulations to all clubs and runners who have achieved awards or promotions  over the four race series, and to all runners who competed during the season and contributed to the league’s success.

Huge thanks to Scotts Travel for again sponsoring the League this year, to Jake Amos and the organising committee, to all the clubs hosting races and to everybody who has helped in any capacity at the races this year and without whom they could not happen. Special thanks to Paul Holgate from FVS who works long into the night to produce the results of the races so quickly.

Very well done to the 33 runners who took part in this month’s Handicap 5k. Thank you to Mark Beasley and Sharon Crowley for their assistance with the start and finish and also to Elizabeth Crowley, Tim Saban, Callum Beasley’s girlfriend and the starter group for their support to the runners.

Winner on the night in a new PB time of 25:50 was Joanne Bowdery, with Tim Robinson first man to finish, in a year best (YB) time of 23:23. Adrian Busolinii was 2nd man in a YB time of 21:27 and the returning Rob King 3rd man in a season best (SB) time of 26:20, narrowly ahead of Karl Shreeve’s 25:52 PB. 2nd lady on the night was Victoria Brett in 26:53, just pipping Abigail Pez on the line as improved her PB by 55 seconds to 26:57.

Fastest runner on the evening was Richard Springall with 18:58, ahead of newcomer Johny Penell 2nd quickest with 19:26 and Mark Collins 3rd fastest in a new PB of 19:44. Fastest female was Hannah Neale in 23:04, with Julie Simmons 2nd quickest in 25:04 and Joanne Bowdery’s winning time was 3rd quickest.

There were also PB’s for newcomer Joe Malloy, last month’s winner Linda Nolan and new member Michael Andrews; a SB for the returning Adrian Donnelly; YB’s for Peter Smith, Rob Shaw and Theresa Keast, while Ryan Dunning beat last month’s time by 8 seconds.

The time interval between 2nd-32nd position was just 3 minutes and 8 seconds, and 79% of finishers were within 1 minute of their adjusted handicap time.

The August Handicap 5k is scheduled for Thursday 3rd August.

Full results are attached below.

Best regards

Paul

July Handicap 5k Results

 

It was tough, it was tight but Fairlands Valley Spartans came from behind and won promotion to division one in the last race of the Mid Week League series of evening 10K races.

They started the night one point below the promotion zone and finished one point ahead of third placed club Bishops Stortford by 33 to 32.  Crucial to this was the men’s team in second place beating Bishops Stortford by 308 race places to 317, just nine places, and the women’s team in third beating the same club by just 92 to 98, only six places.  Every Spartan runner, man or woman, made a difference.

The whole men’s “A” team of twelve runners finished in the top seventy places.  Ten of them beat the forty minute barrier on the course, from Ridlins to the top of Fairlands Valley Park and back, that was tough for the first five kilometres.

ANDREW PATTERSON led in the Spartan charge for promotion with seventh place and 35 minutes 52 seconds; CRAIG HALSEY was ten seconds behind at eighth and 36:02; next came GRANT RAMSAY at eleventh and third veteran with 36:19.  BRIAN BRACKSTON ran his best 2017 10K at 14^th place with 36:33; SIMON JACKSON was 25^th in 37:53; RICHARD BATE 34^th in a season’s best 38:27; MIKE GREEN 38^th in 38:45; STEVE GREEN 57^th in 39:52; DAVID RIDDELL 59^th in 39:59; STUART HAYCROFT 62^nd in 40:03 and new member CHRIS TILLBROOK 69^th in 40:37.

Fairlands’ top two females sprinted hard for the line with NUALA ROBINSON sixth woman in 43:25 improving her personal best by 27 seconds to 43:25 and ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER seventh with a new PB of 43:18.  SUZY HAWKINS was a top ten finisher in 44:09.  The women’s “A” team of six runners was completed by ISABEL GREEN running her best 2017 time which was 46 minutes, RUTH REILLY taking a 2 minutes 34 minutes chunk off her already good PB to finish in 46:11 and HANNAH NEALE running through the field to 48:30.

But there were a stunning seventy six Spartans in the race, 27 women and 49 men, all of them contributed and many of the other 58 helped to push other clubs down the finish order.  For example the women’s “C” team finished ahead of the “A” teams from two other clubs.

Other great performances included GARETH COWELL running a 45:27 PB, an improvement of 1 minute 1 second; VERITY FISHER was delighted to cut her 10K time by 1:07 to 48:30; ROS INGRAM took 56 seconds off to 48:40; HAZEL SMITH also by 56 seconds this time to 49:21; LAUREN DEIGHTON trimmed two seconds to 49:20; KERSTIN WEINER leapt forwards with a 2:33 cut to 50:10 and JULIE SIMMONS was second in the veteran women (55 plus) race with 52:15; MICK ANDREWS improving by 2:44 to 55:48 and CLAIRE HYDE squeezing off another 3 seconds to 56:46.

 

Race	Name	Time	Comments
7	ANDREW PATTERSON	35:52	“A” team
8	CRAIG HALSEY	36:02	“A” team
11	GRANT RAMSAY	36:19	3MV40.  “A” team
14	BRIAN BRACKSTONE	36:33	4MV40.  YB (0:37).  “A” team
25	SIMON JACKSON	37:53	“A” team
34	RICHARD BATE	38:27	SB (1:40).  “A” team
38	MIKE GREEN	38:45	“A” team
57	STEVE GREEN	39:52	PB (0:38).  “A” team
58	BRIAN WHITE	39:55	2MV60.  “A” team.
59	DAVID RIDDELL	39:59	2MV50 (SB 0:19).  “A” team.
62	STUART HAYCROFT	40:03	PB (1:03).  “A” team.
69	CHRIS TILLBROOK	40:37	YB (0:50).  “A” team.
76	LIAM HERBERT	41:07	SB (0:50).  “B” team.
87	MARK COLLINS	42:03	PB (1:03).  “B” team.
88	TIM SABAN	42:07	“B” team.
91	THOMAS SAUKA	42:25	“B” team.
92	DEAN CARPENTER	42:30	“B” team.
104	BARRY OSBORNE	43:18	3MV60.  YB (0:02).  “B” team.
107	NUALA ROBINSON (F)	43:18	6th woman.  PB (0:27).  “FA” team.
108	ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER (F)	43:18	7th woman.  PB.  “FA” team.
109	TODD GRAY	43:36	“B” team.
110	PETE SMITH	43:40	YB (0:41).  “B” team.
118	SUZY HAWKINS (F)	44:09	7FV35.  10th woman.  “FA” team.
127	NICK GILL	44:57	“B” team.
136	GARETH COWELL	45:27	PB (1:01).  “B” team.
142	JOHN NELMS	45:30	“B” team.
151	PAUL MAGUIRE	45:52	YB (1:11).  “B” team.
152	MARK GOODWIN	45:46	“C” team.
159	ISABEL GREEN (F)	46:00	YB (0:25).  “FA” team.
163	RUTH REILLY (F)	46:11	PB (2:34).  “FA” team.
165	DARREN EMMERSON	46:24	“C” team.
190	GREG KELLY	48:07	YB (1:32).  “C” team.
194	MATT GILL	48:20	SB.  “C” team.
197	HANNAH NEALE (F)	48:26	“FA” team.
198	JAMES KILROY	48:26	YB (0:45).  “C” team.
201	VERITY FISHER (F)	48:30	PB (1:07).  “FB” team.
203	PAUL BATTERBEE	48:30	“C” team.
206	ROS INGRAM (F)	48:40	PB (0:56).  “FB” team.
212	CLAIRE EMMERSON (F)	49:11	7FV45.  “FB” team.
215	HAZEL SMITH (F)	49:21	PB (0:56).  “FB” team.
216	JULIET FULLWOOD (F)	49:21	“FB” team.
220	LAUREN DEIGHTON (F)	49:20	PB (0:02).  “FB” team.
223	KEN JUDE	49:28	“C” team.
231	JIM BROWN	49:51	8MV60.  “C” team.
234	VISHAL SHAH	50:14	YB (2:41).  “C” team.
237	KERSTIN WEINER (F)	50:10	PB (2:33).  “FC” team.
247	ANDY PRIOR	50:57	YB.  “C” team.
254	ANDY JAY	51:22	YB (0:12).  “C” team.
257	DAVE SMITH	52:03	YB.  “C” team.
259	HAYLEY BIRONNEAU (F)	52:03	YB (1:14).  “FC” team.
261	JULIE SIMMONS (F)	52:15	2FV55 (YB 1:34).  “FC” team.
265	CALLUM BEASLEY	52:45
267	KAREN ELLIS (F)	52:49	“FC” team.
269	LISA GRAY (F)	52:47	“FC” team.
270	LEE PICKERSGILL	52:59
271	JENNY GARRETT (F)	52:41	“FC” team.
275	JON SYPULA	53:01	YB (2:20)
276	ANDY SMITH	53:10	PB (1:57)
292	CAROL PAUL (F)	54:51	4FV55
305	KARL SHREEVE	55:59
307	MICK ANDREWS	55:48	PB (2:44)
308	SUE HAMER (F)	55:50	YB (0:58)
313	SARAH PIKE (F)	56:21
314	JULIE SHADBOLT (F)	56:22
318	PAUL HOLGATE	56:19	SB (1:13)
319	SIMON SYPULA	56:30
322	KAREN PALMER (F)	56:48	YB (1:14)
324	VICTORIA BRETT (F)	56:46
325	CLAIRE HYDE (F)	56:46	PB (0:03)
327	ROB SHAW	57:37
330	MONICA SMITHSON (F)	58:45	SB (1:15)
339	ROGER BIGGS	59:45	YB
345	SHARON CROWLEY (F)	1:00:40	6FV55
350	SOPHOCLES GEORGIOU	1:02:36	PB
358	NICK WITCOMBE	1:04:30	YB
362	PETER CARPENTER	1:05:13	4MV70

 

The friendly Mob Match will be in Welwyn Garden City on Thursday evening 13^th July.

 

Spartan Women Win At Bassingbourn

Fairlands Valley Spartans team of nine women impressed at Sunday’s Bassingbourn Half Marathon.  RUTH REILLY, KAREN ELLIS and JENNY GARRETT won the women’s team race with a total of 5 hours 46 minutes 36 seconds with Ruth 53^rd overall in 1:43:26; Karen 160^th in 2 hours 1 minute exactly and Jenny 165^th overall in 2 hours 2 minutes exactly.

It was warm again with a breeze but VICTORIA BRETT ran a new half marathon personal best of 2 hours 2 minutes 42 seconds.

Four more Spartan women paced each other round and came in together – JULIE SHADBOLT 2:10:46; HAZEL SMITH 2:10:47; CALLIE CHAPMAN 2:10:48 and CLAIRE EMMERSON 2:10:49.

New member JULIA WHITE ran her first half marathon in Bassingbourn.  She managed to run it in 2 hours 25 minutes 47 seconds despite tearing a calf muscle less than a month ago.  Julia only entered because her sister in law had a brain haemorrhage last July and so she wanted to raise money for the Brains Trust charity as it has personal meaning.

For the men PAUL MAGUIRE ran a great new personal best (PB) of 1 hour 41 minutes 15 seconds.  Completing an extravagant four races in a week JIM BROWN missed first place in his category by a few seconds but was content to beat his target of 1:50 for the event with 1 hour 49 minutes 25 seconds.  VISH SHAH came in with 2 hours 6 minutes 55 seconds.

 

Spartan Times At Bassingbourn

Position	Name	Time	Comments
53	PAUL MAGUIRE	1:41:15	PB
62	RUTH REILLY	1:43:36	Winning Team
94	JIM BROWN	1:49:25	2nd MV60
160	KAREN ELLIS	2:01:00	Winning Team
165	JENNY GARRETT	2:02:00	Winning Team
167	VICTORIA BRETT	2:02:42	PB
189	VISHAL SHAH	2:06:55
220	JULIE SHADBOLT	2:10:46
221	HAZEL SMITH	2:10:47
223	CLAIRE EMMERSON	2:10:49
224	CALLIE CHAPMAN	2:10:48
271	JULIA WHITE	2:25:47	First Half Marathon

 

There were 303 finishers.

 

Time’s Five Miles

TIM SABAN ran the Ickenham Five in 34 minutes 6 seconds and was 27^th overall.

 

Milton Keynes 10K

In steady rain throughout ROGER BIGGS ran the Milton Keynes 10K in 58 minutes 17 seconds.  The evening event started in the Open University grounds.

 

Inaugural Five

Andy Jay was the solo Spartan at the inaugural 5 mile event held on the Woodhall Estate near Watton At Stone.   In very hot conditions on a challenging but beautiful course,  Andy finished in 44:25.  In the heat the organisers did a great job by holding water stations at every mile.

This was race one in a midsummer race series hosted by Active Training World.   Race two will be in Panshanger Park (near Hertford) on 19th July.

 

Hyde Park Friday

After Wednesday’s effort JIM BROWN ran the Serpentine 5K in 25 minutes 13 seconds on Friday but was still second in his category.  He was 180^th out of the 218 finishers in mild and dry conditions with a light breeze.  The reserve course was used due to a Phil Collins concert.  The lunch-time event often attracts a quality field.  This time the fastest woman finished in 17:43.  Jim’s run means he has already completed a qualifying series for the year.  For the time being he is twelfth out of many hundreds of runners.

 

Sauka on Skiddaw

THOMAS SAUKA ran the Skiddaw fell race.  It was tough but he ran a great time of 1:39:42.

 

Parkrun Reports

On a chilly morning KEITH COUGHLIN was the quickest Spartan at Stevenage parkrun, finishing second in 18mins 15secs. RICHARD SPRINGALL was seventh in 19:10 and NICK GILL finished 20^th in 21:08. DANIEL SUTTON (24:49), JON SYPULA (26:17), ROGER BIGGS (28:21), JAMES SOUTH (31:07 with buggy and dogs), SELVAN NAICKER (31:11), TREVOR BROOM (35:23), ROBERT HARDY (36:21) and IAN ALEXANDER (tail-walking in 58:44) were the other men in action. Selvan and Trevor were both notching new course PBs.

For the women, CAROL PAUL finished ninth in 26:09, with the next two Spartans being HANNAH SYPULA (28:49, new course PB) and JO BOWDERY (30:30). Both Hannah and Jo were running with dogs. SALLY PHILLIPS (30:59) and PAULINE HARDY (41:50) were the other Spartan women running.

Elsewhere BARRY KING opted to take on the tough Wimpole Estate for his first ever parkrun, and crossed the line in 26:17. VERITY FISHER opted for Oxford parkrun and was 13^th lady in 24:46. Finally DARRYL STEVENS opted for a relatively northerly (for him!) Blandford parkrun and completed in 39:32

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• EMAC Track and Field at Milton Keynes on Wednesday 5^th July.
• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday evening 6^th July.
• Mob Match at Welwyn Garden City on Thursday 13^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Challenge from Stevenage on 15^th and 16^th July
• EMAC Track and Field at Stevenage on Wednesday 26^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Relays in Stevenage on Thursday 27^th July.
• Serpentine 5K in Hyde Park on Friday 28^th July.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• Cross Country at Trent Park on Sunday 12^th November.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.  Enter fast.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

Results from Race 4 in Stevenage, hosted by NHRR, are now available on the following link:

Race 4 results

Fairlands Valley Spartans finished second on the night as both men’s and women’s teams managed to finish in front of Bishops Stortford. The result moved the Spartans up to second spot after the final scoring race of the season to secure promotion back to Division 1 for next season.

Both teams finished third after the four races, but crucially the women were three points ahead of Bishops Stortford in fourth, while the men were two points behind Stortford.

Congratulations to the 76 Spartans that ran on the night for a massive effort. Also to NHRR who again won the men’s and women’s races on the night and are confirmed as Division 2 champions.

Congratulations too to Harpenden Arrows and Stevenage Striders who are promoted from Division 3 to Division 2 for next season.

Spartans’ individual results and rankings across the four counting races can be found in the file below:

FVS Individual Results

With the 1st and 2nd placed V40 men over the four races both picking up ‘Open’ medals, Grant Ramsay and Simon Jackson will be collecting 1st and 2nd V40 awards, Brian White wins 1st V60 and Carol Paul 2nd V55, whilst just outside of the winners were Claire Emmerson 4th V45, Sharon Crowley 4th V55 and Paul Holgate 4th V60. Nuala Robinson would have picked up an award had she not had to miss a race for her honeymoon!

 

 

BRIAN WHITE and JIM BROWN were on the podium together after Sunday’s Welwyn 10K which included the county championships for veteran runners.  They won the SILVER and BRONZE medals in the male 60 plus category and won the second and third place trophies for the same category in the open race.  CLAIRE PULLEN took SILVER in the women’s 45 plus county championship.

In addition Brian White, STEVE GREEN, TIM SABAN and MARK GOODWIN won silver in the county men’s team competition.

This was a morning for negative splits – running the second half faster than the first.  A tough kilometre around the four kilometre mark added to the net climb from the start meant many runners were about two minutes quicker in the second 5K.

MIKE GREEN was the quickest Spartan finishing 18^th out of about 600 runners in a great time for such an undulating course, a sub forty 39 minutes 10 seconds.  Next came BRIAN WHITE’s medal winning performance 40:30, 24^th overall and a good for age score over 80%.  STEVE GREEN came in with 41:09 at 28^th and TIM SABAN with 43:53 at 48^th.

CLAIRE PULLEN was the club’s fastest woman with 45 minutes 58 seconds to score over 75%.  She was 72^nd with JOHN NELMS just ahead with the same time and MARK GOODWIN three seconds behind at 73^rd with 46:01.  HANNAH NEALE made into the top hundred with a very useful 46:47 at 85^th.  She was the fifth senior woman (18-34).

JIM BROWN beat the fifty with 49:01.   Next came CHRIS HOLLAND in 51:30; KEN JUDE in 52:43; HAYLEY BIRONNEAU in 53:17; LISA GRAY in 53:37; ALICE BURLEIGH in 55:54; and ALEXANDRA WHITEHOUSE in 1:01:38.

CAREN THAIN and KELLY CHAPMAN looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves as they finished their 10K in 1:22:35.

 

Rank	Name	Cat	Chip Time	AG%	Comments
18.	Mike GREEN	MS	0:39:10	68.7%
24.	Brian WHITE	MV60	0:40:30	82.4%	County & Team Silver
28.	Steve GREEN	MV40	0:41:09	71.0%	Team Silver
48.	Tim SABAN	MV50	0:43:53	68.3%	Team Silver
71.	John NELMS	MV40	0:45:58	63.6%	(Not Herts)
72.	Claire PULLEN	FV45	0:45:58	75.3%	County Silver
73.	Mark GOODWIN	MV50	0:46:01	70.4%	Team Silver
85.	Hannah NEALE	FS	0:46:47	64.5%
116.	Jim BROWN	MV60	0:49:01	69.8%	County Bronze
162.	Chris HOLLAND	MS	0:51:30	52.9%
192.	Ken JUDE	MV50	0:52:43	58.2%
205.	Hayley BIRONNEAU	FS	0:53:17	56.7%
211.	Lisa GRAY	FV45	0:53:37	61.5%
260.	Alice BURLEIGH	FS	0:55:54	53.9%
406.	Alexandra WHITEHOUSE	FS	1:01:38	48.9%
578.	Caren THAIN	FV45	1:22:35	40.3%
579.	Kelly CHAPMAN	FV35	1:22:35	37.5%

 

Now scores of Spartans are looking forward to running 10K in the Mid Week League race around Stevenage this Wednesday evening.

 

Bronze in Birmingham

GRANT RAMSAY was in Birmingham for the British Masters Track and Field Championships .  In the 3000 metres steeplechase he won BRONZE in the 45 plus category with 11 minutes 40 seconds.

 

Trent Triffic Trail

The Trent Triffic Trail is a tough trail run with steep long uphill grinds through the woods and parkland of Trent Park.   Spartan TIM ROBINSON was 148th in 50 minutes 49 seconds.

 

Pleshey Five Miles

On a lovely Friday evening in the small Essex village of Pleshey, ROGER BIGGS completed the Springfield Friday 5 miles in a time of 49:14.

 

Herts Hobble

A cool breeze made for good running conditions at Sunday’s Herts Hobble off-road marathon which this year took in the villages of Bramfield, Chapmore End, Westmill, Thundridge, Sacombe, Dane End, Little Munden, Ardeley, Benington, Watton-at-Stone and Tewin, along with large sections of the Woodhall Estate and Hanbury Manor.

Trudy Molloy (in her first off road marathon), Tricia Hopper, Karen Liddle and Barry King all finished together in 6:41:42; Mike Newbitt and Paul Holgate were not far behind in 6:42:55 while Sharon and Mike Crowley both walked the event in 7:10:55.

Parkrun Reports

It was a humid Saturday morning with not many Spartans taking the parkrun option this week.

At Stevenage, KEITH COUGHLIN was first across the line in 18:37.  NICK GILL was next Spartan, finishing 19^th in 22:05 and STEVE SMITHSON was 39^th in 23:40.  The other men running were JOHN MCCALL (27:45), ROGER BIGGS (28:33), TREVOR BROOM (a new course PB of 37:05) and SELVAN NAICKER (43:39).

For the women VERITY FISHER was sixth in 24:38 and TRACY PEZ continues to progress after injury, finishing seventh in 24:44.  SARAH RUSHWORTH ran her first ever parkrun and squeezed just inside the 30 minutes mark in 29:59 to finish 36th, while Sally Phillips finished 50^th in 31:04.

Elsewhere BARRY OSBORNE was 13^th at Ellenbrook Fields in a time of 21:02, while DARYL STEVENS was 81^st at Upton House near Poole in 43:20.

 

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including:

• Fourth Mid Week Road Race League from Ridlins on Wednesday 28^th June.
• Serpentine 5K on Friday 30^th June.
• Bassingbourn Mixed Terrain Half Marathon on Sunday 2^nd July.
• EMAC Track and Field at Milton Keynes on Wednesday 5^th July.
• Mob Match at Welwyn Garden City on Thursday 13^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Challenge from Stevenage on 15^th and 16^th July
• EMAC Track and Field at Stevenage on Wednesday 26^th July.
• Fairlands Valley Relays in Stevenage on Thursday 27^th July.
• Herts Senior 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 30^th August.
• Herts Veteran 5K Championships at Hatfield on Wednesday 13^th September.
• Herts Senior 10K Championships at Standalone on Sunday 1^st October.
• Peterborough Half Marathon on Sunday 8^th October.
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 22^nd October.
• St Neots Half Marathon on Sunday 19^th November.  Enter fast.
• Hertfordshire Five Mile Championship for Veterans at Hatfield on Sunday 26^th Nov.
• Bass Belle 10 near Royston on Sunday 26^th November.

 

It’s on a knife edge in the Mid Week League.  A much improved performance by Fairlands Valley Spartans including their women taking second place on the night on Wednesday means the club are now only one point short of the promotion zone from division two to one.  Bishops Stortford are on 25 and the Spartans on 24.  Critical to their success was the women taking second by only seven race places 108 to 115 squeezing Harlow into third.

An impressive 73 Spartans, 29 women and 44 women, ran in the third race of the series which was on an undulating course based on Preston and including Ley Green, the Lilley Bottom Road and Kings Walden.

On a warm evening GRANT RAMSAY led in the “A” team in 36 minutes 37 seconds for 12^th overall.  SIMON JACKSON was just ten seconds behind, thirteenth in 36:47.  STEFFAN FORD was 17^th in 37:04; BRIAN BRACKSTONE 21^st in 37:24 and RICHARD SPRINGALL was also sub 40 at 21^st in 39:31.  MIKE GREEN, 40:08; BRIAN WHITE, winning the veteran 60 plus category in 40:10; RICHARD BATE, 41:07; STUART HAYCROFT, 41:20; new member CHRIS TILLBROOK, 41:27 and DAVID RIDDELL, 41:28 and STEVE GREEN, 42:13 completed the team.  There were three complete twelve man teams.

SUZY HAWKINS was Fairlands fastest female coming in with 44 minutes 43 seconds; CLAIRE PULLEN was next in 47:51; HANNAH NEALE in 48:07; ISABEL GREEN in 48:12; RUTH REILLY in 49:55 and HAZEL SMITH completing the women’s “A” team in 50:32.  Women’s teams consist of six runners in division two but the Spartans would have done well with teams of eight as VERITY FISHER came in with 50:41 and ROSIE INGRAM in 51:16.  As it was the Spartans had FOUR complete women’s teams.

Birthday Boy JIM BROWN celebrated by also finishing in 51 minutes 16 seconds.  JULIE SIMMONS won the women’s 55 plus category with 53:49.  There’s everything to run for in the fourth and final race of the series which will be back in Stevenage on Wednesday evening 28^th June.

 

Race	Name	Time	Comments
12	Grant Ramsay	36:37	5MV40.  “A” team.
13	Simon Jackson	36:47	6MV40.  “A” team.
17	Steffan Ford	37:04	7MV40.  “A” team.
21	Brian Brackstone	37:24	8MV40.  “A” team.
40	Richard Springall	39:31	“A” team.
49	Mike Green	40:08	“A” team.
50	Brian White	40:10	2MV60.  “A” team.
61	Richard Bate	41:07	“A” team.
66	Stuart Haycroft	41:20	“A” team.
69	Chris Tillbrook	41:27	New Spartan.  “A” team.
70	David Riddell	41:28	5MV50. “A” team.
77	Steve Green	42:13	“A” team.
86	Mark Collins	43:06	“B” team.
90	Barry Osborne	43:20	3MV60.  “B” team.
93	Dean Carpenter	43:30	“B” team.
101	Thomas Sauka	44:20	“B” team.
102	Pete Smith	44:21	“B” team
108	Suzy Hawkins (F)	44:43	5FV35.  “FA” team
122	Darren Emmerson	46:21	“B” team.
124	Gareth Cowell	46:28	“B” team
126	Mark Goodwin	46:31	“B” team
134	Adrian Busolini	46:46	“B” team
141	Paul Maguire	47:03	“B” team
158	Claire Pullen (F)	47:51	4FV45. “FA” team.
162	John Nelms	48:00	“B” team
164	Hannah Neale (F)	48:07	“FA” team.
166	Isabel Green (F)	48:12	“FA” team
185	Mark Beasley	49:05	“B” team
188	Paul Batterbee	49:24	“C” team
189	Martin Dudley	49:24	“C” team
198	Greg Kelly	49:55	“C” team
199	Ruth Reilly (F)	49:55	“FA” team
213	Hazel Smith (F)	50:32	“FA” team.
216	Verity Fisher (F)	50:41	“FB” team.
217	James Kilroy	50:42	“C” team.
225	Jim Brown	51:16	8MV60. “C” team.  B.  Boy.
226	Ros Ingram (F)	51:16	“FB” team.
230	Tim Robinson	51:40	“C” team.
231	Neil Robinson	51:44	“C” team.
232	Claire Emmerson (F)	51:46	7FV45. “FB” team.
237	Lauren Deighton (F)	51:56	“FB” team.
246	Ken Jude	52:45	“C” team.
249	Vishal Shah	52:55	“C” team.
250	Andy Jay	52:58	“C” team.
256	Juliet Fullwood (F)	53:11	“FB” team.
262	Lee Pickersgill	53:36	“C” team.
265	Callum Beasley	53:40	“C” team.
267	Julie Simmons (F)	53:49	First FV55.  “FB” team.
268	Hazel Clark (F)	53:52	“FC” team
272	Lisa Gray (F)	54:01	“FC” team
273	Karen Ellis (F)	54:01	“FC” team
285	Hayley Bironneau (F)	55:05	“FC” team
289	Jon Sypula	55:21
293	Jenny Garrett (F)	55:34	“FC” team
294	Alice Burleigh (F)	55:37	“FC” team
295	Elliott Thompson	55:44
300	Callie Chapman (F)	56:18	“FD” team
301	Carol Paul (F)	56:19	5FV55.  “FD” team
302	Sarah Pike (F)	56:21	“FD” team
303	Kelly McHale (F)	56:23	“FD” team
311	Steve Pike	57:15
312	Paul Holgate	57:18	9MV60
313	Andy Smith	57:38
319	Simon Sypula	57:57
322	Karl Shreeve	58:17
325	Sue Hamer (F)	58:26	“FD” team
326	Erica Grayson (F)	58:30	“FD” team
329	Julie Shadbolt (F)	58:47
330	Rob Shaw	58:53
350	Victoria Brett (F)	1:01:03
351	Caroline Croft (F)	1:01:10
360	Alexandra Whitehouse (F)	1:03:08
363	Sharon Crowley (F)	1:03:24

 

Marston Podium

CRAIG HALSEY did the Marston 5km Friday evening and finished third overall in 16.39.

 

Poppyline Marathon

On Saturday Carol Paul ran the poppyline off road marathon in Norfolk. Starting in Sheringham and going down the coast to Cromer and then inland to Fulbrigg, west Beckham, Baconsthorpe and Holt and heading back to coast via Weybourne and back along the cliff tops in to Sheringham. On a very hot day carol completed the off road marathon in 5:40

 

Great Lakes for Thomas

THOMAS SAUKA did the Great Lakes fell race which also incorporated the long course fell racing British championships.  He finished in 5 hours 36 minutes.

 

Manitoba Marathon

Roger Biggs travelled to Winnipeg, the Capital city of Manitoba, to complete the Manitoba Marathon.  The temperature perhaps got up 15C – cool compared with Stevenage – with grey skies and an early rain shower, not to forget the almost perfectly flat course.

Despite what seemed a lot of reasons for a good time, Roger completed  the marathon in 5 hours 3 minutes 47 seconds.

 

Parkrun Reports

NATALIE LAWRENCE was the fastest Spartan in parkrun action at the weekend, finishing as first woman in a time of 19 minutes 31 seconds at Gorleston Cliffs.

VERITY FISHER also finished as first woman, running a time of 24:10 at Millom parkrun. DANNY SUTTON was third man to finish at the same event, in a time of 23:18.

Stevenage saw a handful of Spartans running. BARRY OSBORNE ran a new course PB to finish 15^th in 20:28 while MARTIN DUDLEY was 41^st in 22:26. JAMES SOUTH continues his comeback from injury, pushing a buggy round in 35:27. For the woman VICTORIA BRETT was 18^th in 28:29 and MONICA SMITHSON 45^th in 30:50.

At Panshanger STEVE GREEN was eighth in 19:39, a new course PB, and ISABEL GREEN was 46^th woman in 29:22, while NEIL ROBINSON went to Ellenbrook Fields and finished 45^th in 23:59.

Further afield, DARRYL STEVENS ran at Brockenhurst in 40:31, and KAREN PALMER ran in Jersey, finishing in 28:43.

 

Final results from the 3rd race of Division 2 of the Scott’s Travel Midweek Road Race League are available at the following link (changes from the provisional results are to finishing times from position 296 onwards) :

Race 3 – Hitchin Results

North Herts Road Runners won both the men’s and women’s races. The Spartan men’s team were 3rd on the night behind Bishops Storford who were second, with the women being second ahead of Harlow Running Club in third with the Stortford women fourth. Overall Spartans finished second on the night with Bishops Stortford in third.

With one race to go NHRR have already sealed the top spot in the division. The battle for second is extremely tight with the Spartans lying in third place just one point behind Bishops Stortford.

 

Thankfully the rain stayed away just long enough for tonight’s welcome return of the Handicap 5k. 30 finishers from 31 starters. I hope that Lisa Smith’s hamstring recovers quickly. Many thanks to Cathy Craig for her assistance with the start and finish.

Winner was Linda Nolan, a massive 8½ minutes ahead of handicap in a PB time of 27:29. Ryan Dunning finished first man in 23:50, just ahead of Ken Jude in a year best time of 23:25 and with newcomer Josh Massey 3^rd man in 23:53. Alexandra Whitehouse finished 2^nd lady (5^th overall) in a new PB time of 29:19, with Lauren Deighton 3^rd lady in a PB time of 23:50.

Fastest runner on the night was Steve Green in 19:47, 3 seconds quicker than Stuart Haycroft 19:50, with Liam Herbert 20:08 3^rd quickest. Fastest lady was Hannah Neale in a new PB of 22:32, with Lauren Deighton (23:50) 2^nd quickest and Susan McAneny 24:57 PB 3^rd fastest.

There were also PB’s for David Quicke, Mark Collins, Andy Reeve, Alice Burleigh, Emma Poulter and Julia White, a new Season Best time for Steve Gough and Year Bests for Vishal Shah, Lisa Gray, Bernadette Millwood, Simon Sypula, Jon Sypula, Andy Smith and Jordan Quicke.

Time between 2^nd-29^th finishers was just 3:52 and 73% of finishers were within 1 minute of their adjusted handicap.

Full results table as follows:

HANDICAP 5K – THURS 8th JUNE 2017

Own

Finish

Comp

Adj

Pos

NAME

SURNAME

No.

Time

PB

R

F

Adj

H’cap

Time

Hcap

comp

1

LINDA

NOLAN

76

27:29

PB

23

6

0:07

6:00

33:36

8:31

6:48

2

RYAN

DUNNING

77

23:50

9

0:01

14:30

38:21

3:40

2:21

3

KEN

JUDE

78

23:25

YB

8

0:01

15:00

38:26

3:35

2:18

4

JOSH

MASSEY

79

23:53

PB

11

15:00

38:53

3:07

1:50

5

ALEXANDRA

WHITEHOUSE

80

29:19

PB

24

7

10:15

39:34

2:26

0:55

6

LAUREN

DEIGHTON

81

23:50

PB

10

2

15:45

39:35

2:25

1:10

7

LIAM

HERBERT

82

20:08

YB

3

19:30

39:38

2:22

1:18

8

VISHAL

SHAH

83

24:06

YB

12

15:45

39:51

2:09

0:54

9

DAVID

QUICKE

84

25:10

PB

17

0:01

14:45

39:56

2:05

0:47

10

SUSAN

McANENY

85

24:57

PB

15

3

15:00

39:57

2:03

0:46

11

MARK

COLLINS

86

20:15

PB

4

19:45

40:00

2:00

0:56

12

HANNAH

NEALE

87

22:32

PB

6

1

17:30

40:02

1:58

0:48

13

ELLA

GOWER

88

32:24

29

10

0:09

7:30

40:03

2:06

0:27

14

STUART

HAYCROFT

89

19:50

2

20:30

40:20

1:40

0:39

15

LISA

GRAY

90

25:12

YB

18

4

0:10

15:00

40:22

1:48

0:31

16

BERNADETTE

MILLWOOD

91

30:58

YB

27

9

9:30

40:28

1:32

(0:01)

17

ANDY

REEVE

92

31:00

PB

28

9:30

40:30

1:30

(0:03)

18

SIMON

SYPULA

93

26:16

YB

22

14:15

40:31

1:29

0:10

19

JON

SYPULA

94

24:47

YB

14

15:45

40:32

1:28

0:13

20

STEVE

GREEN

95

19:47

1

21:00

40:47

1:13

0:13

21

LEE

PICKERSGILL

96

25:07

16

15:45

40:52

1:08

(0:07)

22

ALICE

BURLEIGH

97

25:50

PB

20

5

15:15

41:05

1:10

(0:07)

23

DARREN

EMMERSON

98

22:17

5

19:00

41:17

0:43

(0:23)

24

EMMA

POULTER

99

34:44

PB

30

11

0:04

6:30

41:18

0:46

(0:55)

25

TIM

ROBINSON

100

24:40

13

16:45

41:25

0:35

(0:37)

26

MARTIN

DUDLEY

101

22:56

7

18:30

41:26

0:34

(0:33)

27

STEVE

GOUGH

102

29:46

SB

25

12:00

41:46

0:14

(1:12)

28

JULIA

WHITE

103

29:53

PB

26

8

12:00

41:53

0:07

(1:19)

29

ANDY

SMITH

104

25:43

YB

19

16:30

42:13

(0:13)

(1:26)

30

JORDAN

QUICKE

105

26:01

YB

21

17:30

43:31

(1:31)

(2:41)

Excel downloadable version is HERE

The next handicap will be in 4 weeks time on the 6^th July.

Best regards

Paul

Thanks to Paul Holgate for hosting.