The incredible 45 Spartans are back from their Edinburgh Marathon and Half Marathon trip to Scotland and ready for this Thursday evening’s Mid Week League race. 63 Fairlands Valley Spartans raced in the second fixture in St. Albans and the club are hoping for seventy plus in the third race which will be in Trent Park, North London.
Championships Update
With seven months of the Spartan championships still to go there are already 173 participants in the short championships (85 female + 88 male) and 119 in the long championships (61 female + 58 male), with 462 percentages scored already, and no less than 1,187 personal bests (PBs) across the eight distances.
The early leaders in the club championships are:
Female Open Short (1500; 5000; 5 miles; 10K): 1st Yuko Gordon 65.3%; 2nd Claire Emmerson 59.5%; 3rd Penny Schenkel 54.1%.
Female Age-Graded Short: 1st Sharon Crowley 66.1%; 2nd Monica Smithson 63.4%; 3rd none yet.
Female Open Long (10 miles; half marathon; 20 miles; marathon): 1st Yuko Gordon 65.6%; 2nd Ruth Reilly 64.9%; 3rd Joanne Bowdery 56.7%.
Female Age-Graded Long: 1st Karen Ellis 63.6%; 2nd Karen Palmer 62.9%; 3rd Erica Grayson 60.5%.
Male Open Short (1500, 5000, 5 miles, 10K): 1st Stuart Haycroft 70.0%; 2nd Craig Bacon 61.5%; 3rd Michael Andrews 53.1%.
Male Age-Graded Short: 1st Jim Brown 68.3%; 2nd Andy Jay 64.5%; 3rd Paul Holgate 59.9%.
Male Open Long (10 miles, half marathon, 20 miles, marathon): 1st Todd Gray 68.2%; 2nd Steve Green 62.7%; 3rd Stuart Haycroft 62.1%.
Male Age-Graded Long; 1st Jim Brown 70.2%; 2nd Pete Smith 68.0%; 3rd Thomas Sauka 60.4%.
Leader in two competitions JIM BROWN said, “It’s great to get my nose in front briefly but I’m sure many of the faster runners will sweep past as they complete the various qualifying distances in the next few weeks.”
How does it work? There are four qualifying distances for men and women in the short and long distance championships. They are 1500 metres; 5K; 5 miles and 10K for the short and 10 miles; half marathon; 20 miles and marathon (26.2 miles) for the long.
It’s your best performances in three out of the four distances that are counted and averaged. A runner can race as many 10Ks as they like in a year and the fastest one will count but they must also run at least two out of 1500, 5K or 5 miles to be eligible for the short distance championships. As well as the open competitions there are age related competitions to give targets for veteran runners. For example a 25 year old running a marathon in three hours is equivalent to a 65 year old running the same distance in 3:52:08. International (WAVA) tables are published to do the calculations.
Parkrun Highlights 2nd June 2018
22 Spartans donned their stripes for the first Saturday of the month in Stevenage with 10 achieving top 30 gender placings, and 5 with new personal bests. Woman top 30 included Nikki WILBY 24:07 (PB) 8th lady, Caroline BARTER 24:26 11th lady, Kelly EVANS 24:58 13th lady, Jo BOWDERY her tenth parkrun in 25:47 for 17th lady, Alison SHELLEY 26:30 24th lady and Julie SHADBOLT 27:21 28th lady. Men top finishers included Stuart HAYCROFT 18:22 (PB) 5th male, Todd GRAY 18:40 (PB) 9th male, Danny SCANLON 19:23 16th male, Luke VINCENT (PB) 21:16 28th male. Sharon CROWLEY achieved a new PB of 28:17.
Claire WHITCHURCH and Paul WHYTE complete their first parkrun with son Albert today, Paul was second buggy home in 26:50 with Claire completing in 30:26 just 11 weeks after giving birth.
JIM BROWN completed his tenth parkrun in 27:25.
Further afield, the EMMERSON family supported each other around Canterbury parkrun – Claire EMMERSON 37:16, Chloe EMMERSON 38:18 and Darren EMMERSON 38:18. Thomas SAUKA achieved 12th male placing at Heartwood Forest in 20:30.
| Parkrun | Pos | Gen | Parkrunner | Time | Notes |
| Newcastle | 334 | 256 | Roger HARDMAN | 00:27:04 | |
| Heartwood Forest | 12 | 12 | Thomas SAUKA | 00:20:30 | |
| Bath Skyline | 290 | 98 | Alexandra WHITEHOUSE | 00:35:53 | |
| Bath Skyline | 307 | 107 | Hannah NEALE | 00:37:22 | |
| Canterbury | 120 | 51 | Claire EMMERSON | 00:37:16 | |
| Canterbury | 121 | 52 | Chloe EMMERSON | 00:37:18 | |
| Canterbury | 122 | 70 | Darren EMMERSON | 00:37:18 | |
| Stevenage | 5 | 5 | Stuart HAYCROFT | 00:18:22 | PB |
| Stevenage | 9 | 9 | Todd GRAY | 00:18:40 | PB |
| Stevenage | 16 | 16 | Danny SCANLON | 00:19:23 | |
| Stevenage | 28 | 28 | Luke VINCENT | 00:21:16 | PB |
| Stevenage | 35 | 33 | Martin DUDLEY | 00:22:13 | |
| Stevenage | 70 | 8 | Nikki WILBY | 00:24:07 | PB |
| Stevenage | 71 | 63 | David SCOTT | 00:24:15 | |
| Stevenage | 78 | 11 | Caroline BARTER | 00:24:26 | |
| Stevenage | 91 | 13 | Kelly EVANS | 00:24:58 | |
| Stevenage | 104 | 88 | Lee PICKERSGILL | 00:25:39 | |
| Stevenage | 106 | 17 | Jo BOWDERY | 00:25:47 | |
| Stevenage | 123 | 24 | Alison SHELLEY | 00:26:30 | |
| Stevenage | 130 | 106 | Paul WHYTE | 00:26:50 | |
| Stevenage | 140 | 28 | Julie SHADBOLT | 00:27:21 | |
| Stevenage | 142 | 114 | Jim BROWN | 00:27:25 | |
| Stevenage | 152 | 35 | Zoe JACKSON | 00:27:35 | |
| Stevenage | 154 | 119 | Paul HOLGATE | 00:27:45 | |
| Stevenage | 166 | 40 | Sharon CROWLEY | 00:28:17 | PB |
| Stevenage | 168 | 128 | Andy JAY | 00:28:18 | |
| Stevenage | 176 | 134 | Karl SHREEVE | 00:28:46 | |
| Stevenage | 187 | 142 | James SOUTH | 00:29:27 | |
| Stevenage | 205 | 52 | Claire WHITCHURCH | 00:30:26 | |
| Brokenhurst | 135 | 86 | Darryl STEVENS | 00:38:43 | |
| Cheltenham | 219 | 188 | Paul BOICHAT | 00:25:19 | |
| Cheltenham | 386 | 100 | Liz CARVELL | 00:29:35 | |
| Scunthorpe | 78 | 68 | Andy PRIOR | 00:24:04 |