Fairlands Valley Spartans WON the inaugural track challenge in Stevenage on Wednesday night. Teams consisted of five runners and every team had to include at least one woman and one man. Everyone ran 5K, twelve and a half laps of Ridlins 400 metres track.
The winning team consisted of DAVID HARRIS – CHERGUIT in 17 minutes 38 seconds; STUART HAYCROFT in 17:41; GRANT RAMSAY in 17:48: JAMES KAY who was delighted with a big personal best of 18:30 which got him over a 10mph average and GAIL MACKIE in 19:07. They were nearly two minutes (1:30:47 to 1:32:22 total time) ahead of their nearest rivals.
This was a novel but enjoyable event with chip timing on a track and a total of 53 people running.
There were six other Spartans – SUZY HAWKINS in 19:28; JIM BROWN in a new year’s best time of 24:29 with some incredibly consistent 400 splits; MONICA SMITHSON with 27:14; CATHY CRAIG 27:37; ROGER BIGGS 31:59 and PAUL HOLGATE 32:57.
Spartan Women Third In the East of England
The Spartan women’s team were third in the East of England veterans track and field championships on Sunday. Only two points behind second place.
The ten strong team were KAREN BROOM, MONICA BROWN, CALLIE CHAPMAN, CATHY CRAIG, SHARON CROWLEY, SUZY HAWKINS, CHRISTINE LATHWELL, TESSA STEPHENSON, ANDREA WESTCOTT and ALISON WOOD
They won their division of the league on the way to qualifying for the final.
Monica won all her events, High Jump, Triple Jump, 100m, Javelin Throw and a leg of the W50 relay. The W50 relay team of Tessa Stephenson, Sharon Crowley, Monica Brown and Alison Wood remained unbeaten throughout the season and the final, winning comfortably.
There were also individual wins for Christine Lathwell, Alison Wood and Tessa Stephenson. Andrea Westcott did a PB in the W35 Hammer. Callie Chapman and Karen Broom did their first final. Suzy Hawkins covered the W35 400, 800m and relay. Cathy Craig covered the W60 events with Sharon. A very effective team.
Jim Wins In Welwyn
JIM BROWN found Sunday’s Welwyn Autumn Half Marathon hard but he can’t have been struggling as badly as others in his age group as he WON the veterans 60 plus category. Jim was pleased and surprised to win, it was by five minutes, and wondered what the others were doing. He finished in 1:55:29.
With a target of 1:50 MATT CLARKE ran his first road half marathon in an excellent 1:48:07.
ANDREW VAUGHAN was the fastest Spartan with 1:30:28, he was 18th out of the 260 finishers, with JAMES KAY next at 46th in 1:39:51.
ROGER BIGGS was second veteran 70 plus in 2:42:22 and WENDY THARANI finished in 2:07:26.
Fiona and Chloe run the Forest of Lights
Spartans FIONA CLARKE and CHLOE CHAPMAN enjoyed the Forest of Lights event in Thetford Forest on Friday night. They both ran six laps in 2 hours 2 minutes 34.6 seconds for 109th and 110th position.
SAM SIMMONS ran four laps in 1:15:37.3.
Fiona said, “It has a week of a lot of running for me since the 5 Rivers Challenge last Sunday.
Chloe Chapman and I ran at a new event, the Forest of light run last night (Friday 20th Sep) at Thetford forest. The idea is to run as many 3k loops in a time limit of 2 hours, the last lap must start before the 2 hours ends.
As it was a night run, the forest was at places lit with fairy light display, not bright, so body/head torches were essential. The event could have been organised a bit better. The registration took so long and was quite chaotic we missed the start by 12 minutes, the announcer thought we were the first runners back from the first loop. That made me chuckle!
I also learnt that finding your way back to the car in a forest in the dark is not an easy feat! I think we did an additional 2k just by walking around searching.
Despite the mishaps, the run itself was fun and the marshals were fabulous. We completed six loops in 2 hours 2 minutes 36 seconds so we are really pleased with our effort.
With slight improvement, I think this could be a really good event. It hasn’t put me off going again.
Having got home past 1am, I still managed a Parkrun Saturday morning. I think a week off running may be justified.”
Richard Cowlishaw at Rutland
At the Rutland Water Half Marathon Spartan Richard Cowlishaw was 67th out of 525 in 1 hour 44 minutes 58 seconds.
This was his first half marathon event in five months. Richard was out for two months in the summer due to a neck injury and started running again only three ago.
Get Ready For The Stevenage Half Marathon
The Stevenage Half Marathon will be on Sunday 3rd November. It’s been organised since 1984. Have a look at www.fvspartans.org.uk Train with the Spartans for the 13.1 miles event. The route follows the town’s famous cycleways and tarmac footpaths through the parks of Stevenage. All proceeds go charity. The charity for 2019 is Mind, the mental health charity.
Parkrun Highlights 21st September 2019
Two Spartans were on international duty this weekend running in Helsinki and Florence. Sheryl Hann was in Florence, Italy (26.07) and Ros Ingram was one of 40 runners in Helsinki, Finland (25:53).
Closer to home three Spartans were at Wimpole Hall. Trudie Molloy run her first ever Parkrun (27:04). Husband Barry King ran (28:48) and Nick Witcombe (33:30).
There was a trio of Parkrun PBs at Stevenage: Eva Ramsay (21:32 2nd female), Abigail Pez (23:23) and Marian Morley (27:24). Dean Carpenter was 4th overall (19:21). Abbie Pez knocked two minutes off her previous Parkrun PB coming in 5th lady and 1st in her age category. The Emmersons made it a family affair all crossing the line in 35:35.
There was a strong contingent of Spartans in Letchworth with course PBs for David Scott (25:58) and James Nicholls (27:17). There was also a PB for John Roxborough at Aldenham country park (22:27).
Darryl Stevens went to Catford for first time (34:56) and Jane Whitrow was at Panshanger (32:47).
(Parkrun results for all Spartans can be found near the end of this release).
Tables
Parkrun Results Saturday 21st September
Stevenage parkrun
A total of 378 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
4 | 4 | Dean CARPENTER | 00:19:21 |
19 | 2 | Eva RAMSEY | 00:21:32 |
42 | 5 | Abigail PEZ | 00:23:23 |
44 | 39 | Martin BLACKBURN | 00:23:37 |
48 | 42 | Ryan DUNNING | 00:23:40 |
57 | 7 | Tracy PEZ | 00:24:00 |
77 | 14 | Verity FISHER | 00:24:55 |
103 | 86 | Stephen SMITHSON | 00:26:02 |
108 | 90 | Nick KLEANTHOUS | 00:26:09 |
113 | 94 | Edward HARE | 00:26:26 |
121 | 101 | Jonathan JONES | 00:26:39 |
143 | 27 | Marian MORLEY | 00:27:24 |
164 | 38 | Jackie DOWNES | 00:28:29 |
165 | 127 | Andy PRIOR | 00:28:32 |
174 | 39 | Debbie BLANTERN | 00:29:02 |
179 | 139 | Chris HOLLAND | 00:29:12 |
183 | 142 | David ACKERY | 00:29:25 |
184 | 42 | Karen PALMER | 00:29:31 |
185 | 43 | Kerstin WEINER | 00:29:32 |
234 | 170 | Paul JENNINGS | 00:31:46 |
257 | 74 | Nicola HATHERLY | 00:32:45 |
274 | 192 | Roger BIGGS | 00:34:13 |
300 | 96 | Chloe EMMERSON | 00:35:35 |
301 | 97 | Claire EMMERSON | 00:35:35 |
302 | 205 | Darren EMMERSON | 00:35:35 |
368 | 227 | Anthony OSBORNE | 00:51:10 |
372 | 144 | Nichola DURENT | 00:55:55 |
373 | 145 | Hayley PEACH | 00:55:55 |
Wimpole Estate parkrun
A total of 388 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
140 | 24 | Trudie MOLLOY | 00:27:04 |
178 | 138 | Barry KING | 00:28:48 |
286 | 192 | Nick WITCOMBE | 00:33:30 |
Panshanger parkrun
A total of 364 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
271 | 78 | Jane WHITROW | 00:32:47 |
Aldenham parkrun
A total of 159 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
16 | 16 | John ROXBOROUGH | 00:22:27 |
86 | 76 | Thomas SAUKA | 00:29:44 |
Firenze (Italy) parkrun
A total of 68 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
29 | 6 | Sheryl HANN | 00:26:07 |
Letchworth parkrun
A total of 200 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
49 | 40 | David SCOTT | 00:25:58 |
67 | 55 | James NICHOLLS | 00:27:17 |
105 | 76 | Matt CLARKE | 00:30:12 |
108 | 31 | Fiona CLARKE | 00:30:32 |
126 | 83 | Steven DOBNER | 00:31:48 |
127 | 84 | David PATTMAN | 00:31:49 |
180 | 82 | Nicola PATTMAN | 00:38:57 |
181 | 99 | Matthew PATTMAN | 00:39:00 |
Catford parkrun
A total of 257 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
218 | 140 | Darryl STEVENS | 00:34:56 |
Tokoinranta (Helsinki) parkrun
A total of 40 runners took part.
Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
16 | 4 | Ros INGRAM | 00:25:53 |