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SPARTANS WIN IN HATFIELD – Gold for Julie and Silver for Grant

A busy week with medals at Hatfield, a seaside PB for Maddie and results from a Biggleswade track meeting, the Serpentine 5k, a ‘wicked’ 10k, a half in Windsor and marathons in Ely and Devon!

Gold for Julie and Silver for Grant

Fairlands Valley Spartans GRANT RAMSAY, SIMON JACKSON, CHRIS WESTCOTT and IAN YENNEY WON the men’s team race at Wednesday’s Hatfield 5K.

CLARE MOORE, JULIE SIMMONS and HAYLEY FAULKNER were third team in the women’s race, while Clare, Julie & ANDREA WESTCOTT won bronze in the county vets ladies championship which was incorporated in the race.

Julie also WON the women’s (55 plus) category in both the open and county veterans events and Grant was second male veteran (40 plus), in both the open and county veterans race.

FVS results:

Position

First Name

Last Name

Time

Cat.

Comments

4

Grant

RAMSAY

16:34

MV40

Silver. Team winner.

6

Simon

JACKSON

17:02

MS

Third senior. Team winner.

12

Christopher

WESTCOTT

17:24

MV40

PB. Team winner.

17

Ian

YENNEY

17:31

MS

Team winner.

38

David

BOWKER

18:48

MV50

68

Tim

SABAN

20:42

MV40

86

Clare

MOORE

21:59

FV35

PB. Bronze team.

87

Andy

CHURN

22:13

MV50

90

Julie

SIMMONS

22:25

FV55

Gold and bronze team.

92

Andy

PRIOR

22:47

MV40

PB.

104

Hayley

FAULKNER

24:13

FS

PB. Third senior woman

118

Andrea

WESTCOTT

26:12

FV35

PB. Bronze team.

127

Paul

HOLGATE

27:49

MV50

There were 140 finishers. The second race in the series is on Wednesday 8th October.

PB PPPB for Maddie

There was a personal best for improving Spartan MADDIE PRITCHARD in the Preston Park Parkrun, Brighton on Saturday morning. She was third woman in 20 minutes 27 seconds.

Wicked Walden

TIM SABAN ran the “Wicked Walden” 10K in 44 minutes 23 seconds. He was 51st in the race at Saffron Walden.

Biggleswade

Just 12 hours after enjoying the club’s 30th anniversary celebrations, two Spartans were on Biggleswade Track chasing fast times at the end of season open meeting. The excesses of the previous night didn’t affect GRANT RAMSAY who came second in the 5000 metres with a time of 16 minutes 22 seconds, his fastest for five years. STEVE MAYFIELD finished 4th in the 800 metres in 2 minutes 22.8 seconds taking over two seconds off his personal best (PB) from three years ago.

Spartans’ GRANT RAMSAY has recovered well since taking part in the European Championships Marathon in Turkey. Much of this down to the ongoing support from his sponsors Osteopathy First in Stevenage, in the form of gym and strength work from Rob Hill, which is greatly appreciated.

Jim Tops 70%

JIM BROWN ran the Last Friday 5K round the Serpentine in a slightly disappointing 23 minutes 47 seconds but it was good enough to lift his series average past 70 to 70.4%.

Windsor Half Marathon

ISABEL GREEN ran in the Windsor half marathon in a time of 1 hour 54 minutes 48 minutes and was 806th out of the 4,097 finishers. It was a surprisingly warm day and the course was undulating but very scenic. The long finishing straight was towards the castle, and in the distance she was sure the queen was waving from an upstairs window! Well, it was a hot day.

KERSTIN WEINER was 2,301st in 2:12:37.

Ely Marathon

DAVID BOWKER ran a rather flat and warm Ely Marathon on Sunday with a time of 4 hours 11 minutes. He was surprised by the amount of road in what was advertised as a multi terrain event and commented that there were some very long straight sections which were not for the feint hearted. He says his highlight of the day was running alongside several miles of onion fields!

Barnstaple

ROGER BIGGS travelled to North Devon for the inaugural running of The Barnstaple Marathon. The organisers had managed to find a basically flat course using the Tarka Trail on both sides of the River Taw.

On a glorious warm day, Roger ran a good even event, but still had to find a sprint finish to cross the line in 4:59:59, his best marathon in 2014.

30th Anniversary

Fairlands Valley Spartans enjoyed their 30th Anniversary Ball at Aston Golf Course on Friday evening. The actual anniversary falls on 2 November 2014. The exact day of this year’s Stevenage Marathon and Half Marathon.

Stevenage Marathon and Half Marathon

Get Sunday 2nd November in your diary. The Stevenage Marathon is only organised every ten years and it takes place this Autumn. The annual half marathon will be on the same day. Visit www.fvspartans.org.uk for more information.

Coming Events

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

Henlow 10 on Wednesday 8th October

County 5K Senior Championship in Hatfield on Wednesday 8th October

Cross Country League at Cheshunt on Sunday 26th October

Stevenage 30th Anniversary Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday 2nd November

Cross Country League at Grovelands on Sunday 23rd November

Cross Country League at Watford on Sunday 7th December

Buntingford Year End Ten on Sunday 28th December

Ely New Year’s Eve 10K on Wednesday 31st December

Join The Spartans

Live in or near ? Like running? Spartans is your local running club and is on the up! The club was voted the ’s Best Running Club in 2010. It now has hundreds of members and encourages participation by all. The Spartans have a varied training programme to suit those who want to run 5 kilometres through to full marathons.

The Spartans weekday training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Go along to the new sports centre at – a , , (SG2 8UT) at 7p.m. Up to five running groups go out on training nights – there will be one to suit you!

The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday (except public holidays) and 7p.m. every Thursday.

Most long Sunday morning training sessions start 9.00a.m. sharp. Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, most Saturdays from 9.15a.m. There are events to enter every Sunday. Newcomers are very welcome – those who have not done very much running yet might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.

Try a few sessions before joining. Membership is only £35 per year, £25 without UKA membership. Concessions are available. Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk Please ask if you would like a paper copy.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509), Vivienne Honey 07702 846304 or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S

More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 or Vivienne Honey (Secretary) 07702 846304

www.fvspartans.org.uk

 

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