The hot weather caused at least one event to be cancelled and other activities were sensibly curtailed or started earlier but Fairlands Valley Spartans have still been busy.
Spartan DANNY SCANLON ran the Three Brewers 10K. It was an off road challenge based near Hatfield and through the surrounding rural landscape.
He said it was a lovely trip. A great event with a beer at the end and a medal which is also a bottle opener! Danny finished in 49:45.
Bulgaria PB
Spartan KRISTIAN ATANASOV ran a 35 minute personal best in Bulgaria. How? In the 100 kilometre Vitosha 100 including 1,960 metres of elevation which he finished seventh in a new PB of 9:06:25. Vitosha is a mountain near Sofia. There were 660 finishers.
Swimrun
NIKI WILBY did the Grafham 10k swimrun on Sunday. Alternating swims in the reservoir/off road runs for 10k. She said it was good fun apart from all the waves due to the wind!
Niki finished in 1 hour 59 minutes 27 seconds (1:59:27) in 25th overall and 10th female. There were 61 finishers including 30 women.
Mid Week
The next and final counting Mid Week League race will be in Chingford on Wednesday evening 1st July. After three races the Spartans are mid-table but some of the margins are tight so they could move up in race four.
The Spartans men and combined team were fourth club out of seven from division two at the Harlow race. The FVS women tied in fourth place with Watford.
After three races the Spartans cumulative score puts them at fourth overall with their men at fourth but their women fifth. Again just one point ahead of Watford. That fourth race is going to be interesting.
Too Much
The Bedford 10K planned for Friday evening was cancelled due to extreme heat.
Parkrun Highlights
Only 24 degrees (!) but maybe that on top of so many super hot days capped the number of Stevenage parkrun runners at 363.
However the Spartans have a new star. SAMUEL PAUL won the event in a new parkrun personal best (PPB) of just 17 minutes 9 seconds (17:09).
MATT CLARKE achieved an arbitrary milestone of 200 parkruns with his 26:35; LORRAINE HILL hit 390 with 27:51 and TONY RANDFIELD 280 with 25:07. It was a painful run for JIM BROWN who is so close to one of the big ones. He finished his 249th in 35 minutes 47 seconds – green cape celebration sometime soon.
Eight others made a trip to Henlow Bridge Lakes including PAUL MOULD 22:02; NICK GILL 24:44; GAIL MACKIE 27:46 and GEORGIE HOOPER 27:49.
CHARLIE WHITE ran Rutland Water in 18:32.
| Position | Gender Position | FVS parkrunner | Time |
| 1 | 1 | Samuel PAUL | 17:09 |
| 3 | 3 | Simon JACKSON | 18:03 |
| 13 | 12 | Steve WELLS | 20:23 |
| 42 | 41 | Lee PICKERSGILL | 23:32 |
| 52 | 51 | Richard MOORE | 24:02 |
| 68 | 65 | Tony RANDFIELD | 25:07 |
| 70 | 4 | Susan MCANENY | 25:15 |
| 77 | 73 | Daniel VILJOEN | 25:39 |
| 80 | 75 | Martin DUDLEY | 25:45 |
| 88 | 82 | Matthew COOKE | 26:08 |
| 102 | 94 | Matt CLARKE | 26:35 |
| 104 | 95 | Darren EMMERSON | 26:38 |
| 135 | 17 | Lorraine HILL | 27:51 |
| 136 | 117 | Ralph DADSWELL | 27:52 |
| 156 | 133 | Peter SACH | 28:45 |
| 166 | 141 | Ryan DUNNING | 29:20 |
| 167 | 22 | Bronya BROWN | 29:21 |
| 170 | 24 | Fiona CLARKE | 29:24 |
| 172 | 25 | Samantha SUTTON | 29:33 |
| 196 | 34 | Sharon CROWLEY | 31:00 |
| 215 | 171 | Nick KLEANTHOUS | 31:58 |
| 229 | 176 | Maurice BALLARD | 32:22 |
| 281 | 72 | Callie FINDLAY | 34:47 |
| 282 | 73 | Debbie BLANTERN | 34:49 |
| 292 | 80 | Pamela VILJOEN | 35:28 |
| 298 | 207 | Jim BROWN | 35:47 |
| 308 | 87 | Penny SCHENKEL | 37:08 |
| 336 | 221 | Lloyd DIAS | 42:20 |
Here Come the Relays in the Park – Full But Come And Cheer On The Runners
The 33rd FVS Relays in the Park are full. They are a great event to watch. They will be in Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage at 7.15p.m. on Thursday 16th July. Each leg is three kilometres and teams will consist of four runners. The event incorporates the Hertfordshire AARC (County) Senior & Veteran Championships
The maximum of 150 teams, 600 runners, have entered.
The Fairlands Valley Challenge off road event is coming up on Sunday 19th July.