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PARKRUN IS BACK

24 Run in Stevenage * New British Record

Spartan Sets a New British Record at the Running Grand Prix

Spartan YUKO GORDON broke a British record by nearly three minutes in the Running Grand Prix at the Bedford Autodrome on Sunday.  She reduced the half marathon record for women aged 70 and over to just 1 hour 37 minutes 50 seconds and only missed the world record by 12 seconds.

The world record of 1:37:38 was set by Lavinia Petrie of Australia,  the old British record was held by Angela Copson in 1:40:33.  Yuko said she was a little tired.  “I didn’t taper for this race.  Apart from the 10K at Drift Limits, I ran the Doug Anderson 5Km at Bedford Park on Wednesday, both races were pretty hot and humid.”

Two other Spartans competed in the event.

JIM BROWN tackled the twenty mile race and got rain early on.  He said a “20” was probably a bit ambitious at the moment but he won the male 65 plus category and was 18th overall with 3 hours 6 minutes 37 seconds.

In the half marathon GRANT RAMSAY was 26th and second man 45 plus with 1:26:42.

 

Wednesday 5K

Warm temperatures did not stop the Doug Anderson 5K from making its return after a two year absence on Wednesday evening.  With an improved wider start position and run in the opposite direction to usual YUKO GORDON finished an impressive 95th in 22:46 and PAUL HOLGATE ran 30:16 for 226th position out of the 291 finishers just three days after completing the previous Sunday’s very hot Off-Road challenge.

 

Huge Smiles In Fairlands Valley as Parkrun is Back!!

Parkrun is back for the first time since March 2020 and there were a lot of Spartans out in force for the 5km events which were held all around the country on Saturday morning (24th July).  Stevenage Parkrun, located at Fairlands Valley Lakes saw twenty-four Spartans among the 256 runners taking part.  Fastest on the day and first one to cross the finish line was JONATHAN PARR in 16-56 and not far behind him was ADRIAN BUSOLINI in 17-34 which gives him a Parkrun-personal best time.  STEVE WELLS was just outside the top ten finishers, coming in 11th at 20-08.  There was a Parkrun PB (personal best) for NICOLA ANDERSSON who finished in 27-07 (109th).

Other Spartan results: TOBY ECCLESHALL 22-28 (33rd), DAVID PATTMAN 23-28 (49th), CLAIRE PULLEN 23-44 (53rd), THOMAS SAUKA 23-47 (55th), MARTIN DUDLEY 23-48 (57th), STEVEN DOBNER 24-06 (59th), DANIK BATES 25-13 (81st and with a buggy), JONATHAN JONES 27-01 (106th), MARK BEASLEY 27-14 (112nd), CHLOE CHAPMAN 28-37 (125th), JIM BROWN 28-50 (129th), DEBBIE BLANTERN 28-53 (130th), PAUL JENNINGS 28-56 (131st), FIONA CLARKE 30-42 (155th), MONICA SMITHSON 30-53 (159th), PAUL HOLGATE 32-00 (176th), HILARY DAVIES 32-44 (181st), TRACY STILES 33-26 (190th), KAREN PALMER 33-56 (194rd) and BETH FOLEY 38-01 (219th).

This was the 200th Stevenage parkrun.  Several of the helpers on the day were from Fairlands Valley Spartans many of whom were in fancy dress to mark the occasion.  The Mayor of Stevenage, Councillor Sandra Barr, came along to see everyone off.

Parkrun away days:

Lee-on-the-Solent (Hampshire): EDWARD HARE 23-38 (45th out of 310 runners).

Panshanger (Hertford): KEN JUDE 27-29 (105th out of 187 runners).

Market Harborough (Northamptonshire): ANTON MCCALLA finished in 28-21 (130th out of 231 runners).

Houghton Hall (Bedfordshire): MICHAEL O’KEEFE 32-52 (94th out of 133 runners).

Letchworth (Hertfordshire): JOHN HARRIS 33-17 (73rd out of 111 runners).

Itchen Valley Country (Hampshire): DARRYL STEVENS 44-08 (9th out of 116 runners).

 

Fairland Valley Challenge

Fairlands Valley Spartans hosted the Fairlands Valley Challenge in warm conditions recently.  This was a mostly off road trail event with a choice of four distances – half marathon; 18 miles; marathon (42.2 km) and a 50K ultra marathon.  With a Covid secure wave start participants left Marriotts School between 8a.m. and 9.30a.m.  Altogether 145 took part and had great fun.  There were intermediate checkpoints at Watton-at-Stone; Tewin and Datchworth with several runners making an unofficial lolly and smiles stop in Broadwater.  The last finisher came back at 6.40p.m.  A huge number of volunteer Spartans made the event possible.

143 completed one of the four events and 29 of those were Spartans.  In the half marathon with 42 finishers the 12 Spartans were led in by JENNY GARRATT and CLAIRE EMMERSON at 23rd and 24th in 3 hours 18 minutes 44 seconds.  The full marathon, 26.2 miles of mostly off road trails was the most popular choice.  It had 58 finishers.  STUART WONFOR, at 24th was first Spartan with 6 hours 18 minutes 44 seconds.

Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI was second in the 50 kilometres Ultra event coming in at 4 hours 34 minutes 9 seconds and STUART ARCHER sixth with 6:02:33. There were 24 finishers including three Spartans.

In the 18 miles events there were 21 finishers including 7 Spartans.  ZOE JACKSON, LEE PICKERSGILL and SUSAN McANENY were second, third and fourth with 3:56:09; 3:56:09 and 3:56:10.  All on a scorching hot day.

TIM ROBINSON, event organiser on behalf of the club, gave massive thanks to all the helpers.  A large team of people assembled under very difficult circumstances.  They included:

 

  • SHARON CROWLEY and LIZ CROWLEY who sourced food and juice. Liz also put on Mike (Crowley’s) boots and transported food and helpers around.
  • CATHY CRAIG, NICOLA HATHERLY and JUDY KING
  • ANDY PRIOR, KERSTIN WEINER and TONY RANDFIELD.
  • NICK KLEANTHOUS, FIONA CLARKE, CHLOE CHAPMAN, JENNY GARRETT – the Datchworth Dream Team.
  • STEVE SMITHSON who organised the start table.
  • HANNAH SYPULA, JAN FRY and NICK FRY who stayed all day in the heat at the finish line.

145 runners and walkers started and 143 finished.

 

Mid-Week Road Race League race three

Spartans second in Division One race three.  Fairlands Valley Spartans tied with St Albans Striders on nine race points but beat them on individual scores by 535 to 545 to take second spot.  Just one runner turning up can make all that difference.  In the race the Spartan men were second on 312 and the women third on 223.

63 Spartans recorded a time for race three in the Mid Week Road Race League 10K series.  There were 21 women and 42 men.  There will be a fourth fixture.  Like the others runners will race in their localities and then submit times.  The window for race four is between Saturday 2nd August and Sunday 15th August (inclusive).  There will be a “wave” opportunity for Spartans to record a time on Tuesday 10th August.

 

Flying On Number 62

Despite the return of parkrun over 170 runners took part in the 62nd virtual Fly 5K.  JIM BROWN was 113th and second in his age group with 28 minutes 33 seconds and PAUL HOLGATE 146th in 31:53.

Fly 5K and (not) parkrun were two of the stars of lockdown keeping runners moving and in touch during the restrictions.  Parkrun is back but Fly 5K continues.

 

(Not) Parkrun

In addition to those using the same effort to record Fly 5K times on Saturday mornings some other Spartans ran (not) parkruns on other days.  For example this week JIM BROWN ran 27:26 on Sunday.

(Not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week.

 

Tables

Spartan Results Mid Week 10K Race Three – Women

 

Pos Cat Vet Time First Name Surname Cat. FVS Team
10 2 8 43:12 Suzy Hawkins V 45 A
14 1 11 46:41 Yuko Gordon V 65 A
27 12 22 52:16 Alison Shelley V 45 A
28 9 23 52:21 Michelle Reeves V 35 A
29 13 24 52:45 Wendy Tharani V 45 A
36 2 30 55:35 Carolyn Linsell V 65 A
39 56:24 Chloe Chapman S A
40 17 33 56:34 Claire Emmerson V 45 A
41 12 34 56:46 Vicky Archer V 35 B
42 13 35 56:58 Fiona Clarke V 35 B
47 19 40 58:15 Nicola Andersson V 45 B
51 21 44 1:01:00 Kerstin Weiner V 45 B
52 22 45 1:01:06 Hazel Smith V 45 B
55 3 48 1:01:57 Jan Fry V 65 B
57 18 50 1:02:06 Linda George V 35 B
63 4 56 1:05:24 Cathy Craig V 65 B
67 25 59 1:06:26 Dzenana Topic V 45
70 10 60 1:08:31 Monica Smithson V 55
75 22 64 1:10:00 Angie Keeling V 35
79 14 68 1:15:02 Sharon Crowley V 55
83 24 72 1:21:31 Stephanie Biggar V 35

 

 

Spartan Results Mid Week 10K Race Three – Men

 

Pos Cat Vet Time First Name Surname Cat. FVS Team
5 2 2 35:07 Simon Jackson V 40 A
6 35:34 Adrian Busolini S A
7 35:38 Andrew Patterson S A
8 35:40 Jonathan Parr S A
21 9 11 38:41 Danny Hukin V 40 A
30 5 16 41:03 Paul Shelley V 50 A
31 6 17 41:13 Steve Wells V 50 A
34 13 20 41:32 Andrew Vaughan V 40 A
37 41:43 Matthew Newton S A
43 43:58 Stuart Archer S A
44 2 28 44:01 Brian White V 60 A
46 44:05 Nick Gill S A
48 44:30 Ronan Maguire S B
50 12 31 44:48 Pete Smith V 50 B
52 45:18 Todd Gray S B
53 19 33 45:24 David Pattman V 40 B
59 47:11 Ben Peachey S B
60 47:58 Andrew McGuinness S B
63 48:12 Dan McAlpine S B
64 23 40 48:13 Steven Dobner V 40 B
66 4 42 48:18 Mark Goodwin V 60 B
68 24 44 49:08 Jon Sypula V 40 B
70 17 46 49:15 Craig Bacon V 50 B
71 49:27 Lee Pickersgill S B
72 18 47 49:41 Darren Emmerson V 50 C
73 19 48 49:48 Nigel Strongitharm V 50 C
77 50:48 Martin Jacob S C
78 51:09 Luke Gurney S C
83 7 54 52:20 Jim Brown V 60 C
85 52:33 Edward Hare S C
88 23 58 53:39 Tim Robinson V 50 C
90 27 60 56:24 Matt Clarke V 40 C
91 56:37 Mick Andrews S C
92 56:43 Daniel Bates S C
95 25 63 57:37 Ken Jude V 50 C
98 30 66 59:26 Kartik Sharma V 40 C
99 27 67 1:00:24 Jonathan Jones V 50
100 10 68 1:00:57 Paul Holgate V 60
101 31 69 1:01:01 Simon Sypula V 40
102 32 70 1:01:19 Paul Jennings* V 40
107 28 75 1:06:54 Taher Tharani V 50
110 1:10:00 John Harding S

 

 

 

Fairlands Valley Challenge 18th July 2021

Half Marathon Distance – Spartan Times

Pos Bib First Name Surname Category Time
23 22 Jenny Garratt WV45 03:18:44
24 23 Claire Emmerson WV45 03:18:44
25 132 Ada Janusiene F 03:40:06
26 134 Sam Simmons M 03:40:07
27 135 Calantha Chapman WV35 03:40:07
28 138 Carolyn Linsell WV55 03:40:17
31 21 Vicky Archer WV35 03:44:02
32 131 Linda Nolan WV55 03:44:03
33 133 Hazel Smith WV45 03:45:28
37 16 Darryl Stevens MV50 04:09:48
41 106 Pauline Hardy WV65 05:40:17
42 107 Robert Hardy MV70 05:40:17

 

 

Fairlands Valley Challenge 18th July 2021

18 Mile Distance – Spartan Times

 

Pos Bib First Name Surname   Start
2 50 Zoe Jackson F 03:56:09
3 51 Lee Pickersgill M 03:56:09
4 52 Susan McAneny WV35 03:56:10
5 24 Wendy Tharani WV35 04:02:05
6 123 Robert Wright M 04:11:56
20 108 Christine Zverev F 06:39:36
21 116 Luke Gurney M 06:39:36

 

Marathon Distance – Spartan Times

Pos Bib First Name Surname   Start
24 66 Stuart Wonfor MV40 06:18:44
33 42 Daniel Bates M 06:58:54
35 15 Paul Holgate MV60 07:28:55
52 14 Sharon Crowley WV55 08:34:22
55 1 Tricia Hopper WV45 10:24:24
56 2 Barry King MV50 10:24:24
57 3 Karen Liddle WV55 10:24:24

 

 

50K Ultra Distance – Spartan Times

 

Pos Bib First Name Surname   Start
2 63 Adrian Busolini M 04:34:09
6 17 Stuart Archer M 06:02:33
11 5 Jon Sypula MV40 06:58:20

 

145 started across the four distances, 143 finished including 29 Spartans.

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