The main event for the Spartans this weekend took place in Fairlands Valley Park. It was a joint four part session with the Stevenage Striders on Sunday morning. The weather was ideal and there were 1K loops; chasing lamp posts; relays; hills & descents. More than forty runners enjoyed the event and the exercise.
The two local running clubs came together to help promote running in Stevenage!
There will be more events of this kind in the future so watch this space!
Shuttleworth Marathon
Spartan YUKO GORDON ran the Shuttleworth Marathon on Sunday. She was second lady overall in 4 hours 16 minutes 2 seconds. It was a tough course, six laps of a 7km loop of off-road with a long uphills and mostly dry hard farmland. Yuko was pleased with her run as she felt my Covid fatigue is on the mend and said she felt comfortable all the way.
Three Peaks Challenge
Spartans Claire and Darren Emmerson completed the three peaks challenge on Sunday afternoon alongside others for the Garden House Hospice.
Claire works for Garden House and with them being the Spartans chosen charity this year it was a no brainer for her to do the challenge! As she’s always up for an adventure Darren went along with her and together they completed all three peaks in 24 hours and 48 minutes.
The weather on Ben Nevis was horrendous. They had sleet, torrential rain and very strong winds with apparently a wind chill of minus 20! No chance of seeing any view and they were so wet we had wet boots for the other mountains.
Scafell pike, again by the time the mist and fog was quite thick so again no view. Snowdon was perfect weather though so beautiful views.
Challenge completed! But… Claire has said that she doesn’t want to see a mountain again for a little while. She said give me a marathon to run any day.
Parkrun Highlights Saturday 20th August
It was a busy weekend for Spartans at parkrun, taking part across nine different venues.
In Stevenage Jonathan Parr was second overall in 18 minutes exactly and Suzy Hawkins was first female in 20:13. There were parkrun PBs for Tony Randfield (20:16) and Luke Gurney (23:17). Congratulations to Monica Smithson who was running her 50th parkrun.
Further afield Nick Kleanthous ran a new PB (personal best) of 25:00 at Preston Park, Brighton on his seventh outing there. David and Nicola Pattman were at Holkham both running PBs (24:01 for David and 35:46 for Nicola).
Over in Letchworth, Grant Ramsay was third overall in 19:47 followed by John Harris (7th overall) in 21:15. Martin Blackburn was a first timer at Mole Valley near the Denbies Wine Estate in 22:38 and Simon Bell a first timer at Doddington Hall (20:08).
Andy Jay was at Teignmouth on his eighth outing there running 27:16.
Total finishers at Stevenage were back up to 264 with 22 Spartans running. Steve Smithson made it to his 25th milestone volunteering to help with the Stevenage parkrun.
Tables
Stevenage parkrun (264 finishers including 22 Spartans)
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
| 2 | 2 | Jonathan PARR | 18:00 |
| 10 | 1 | Suzy HAWKINS | 020:13 |
| 11 | 9 | Tony RANDFIELD | 20:16 |
| 24 | 21 | Thomas SAUKA | 21:57 |
| 43 | 39 | Luke GURNEY | 23:17 |
| 49 | 45 | Paul SHELLEY | 23:57 |
| 52 | 48 | Matt CLARKE | 24:14 |
| 53 | 49 | Steven DOBNER | 24:18 |
| 98 | 10 | Nicola ANDERSSON | 26:49 |
| 117 | 18 | Alison SHELLEY | 28:17 |
| 118 | 19 | Fiona CLARKE | 28:19 |
| 127 | 24 | Mo WARRILLOW | 28:49 |
| 142 | 32 | Debbie BLANTERN | 29:55 |
| 172 | 115 | Matt TUTTON | 32:07 |
| 179 | 55 | Monica SMITHSON | 32:34 |
| 180 | 56 | Jane WADEY | 32:36 |
| 181 | 57 | Nikki Katherine NATION | 32:37 |
| 182 | 58 | Hazel SMITH | 32:38 |
| 205 | 71 | Claire PULLEN | 35:29 |
| 208 | 73 | Tracy HAYGARTH | 35:40 |
| 247 | 143 | Jim BROWN | 43:11 |
| 256 | 144 | Roger BIGGS | 47:03 |
Brockenhurst parkrun
DARRYL STEVENS 81st in 42 minutes 6 seconds.
Squerryes Winery parkrun
PETER CARPENTER 148th in 42:22.