Big London Half
Several Spartans ran the Big Half Marathon in London on Sunday.
Among them were TONY RANDFIELD and ROB WRIGHT who ran together. Tony finished in 1:52:13 and Rob in 1:52:19. They said it was a good race, fairly flat and it’s always great running across Tower Bridge.
There were nearly 12,400 finishers.
EMAC Ladies
The Fairlands Valley Spartans women’s team won BRONZE in the East of England final for track and field athletes aged over 35 (EMAC). The team included CAROLYN LINSELL, NICKY WILBY, CALLIE CHAPMAN, MARIAN MORLEY, CHRISTINE LATHWELL, FIONA CLARKE, KAREN DODSWORTH, JOYLYN SAUNDERS-MULLINS, YUKO GORDON, ANDREA WESTCOTT and SHARON CROWLEY.
Andrea Westcott said, “The FVS Women were in the medals at the Eastern Masters final in Bedford on Sunday, finishing third behind Peterborough and Chelmsford in a hotly contested match. The medal positions changed frequently throughout the day, but the Spartans fought bravely and finished strong.”
Yuko Gordon won Woman of the Meeting 2022!
Oakley 20
There were two Spartans running 20 mile races on Sunday. JOHN HARRIS was second man 60 plus at the Oakley 20 with 2 hours 30 minutes 39 seconds and 36th overall.
JIM BROWN took advantage of a late transfer to run the Bedford Festival 20. He was third man over 70 and 208th out of the 393 finishers in 3 hours 22 minutes 46 seconds.
Bedford Festival
ROSS GALLAGHER ran the Half Marathon at the Bedford Festival. He ran it in 1:32:50. It was a good race on mixed terrain which he used for some marathon pace training ahead of his run in Chicago on 9th October.
THOMAS SAUKA ran the Bedford Festival 5K in 21 minutes 49 seconds and was 19th out of 319. CHRIS WATLING was 49th in 24:24.
Meanwhile FIONA and MATT CLARKE ran the Festival 10K. Fiona was 184th in 56 minutes 1 second and Matt 95th in 48:44. There were 655 finishers. Fiona said she was very keen to get one of the pink finisher T shirts.
Baldock Rat Run
The Baldock 5 kilometre Rat Run is a multi terrain run around Baldock, including steps, a low tree to climb under and a dark tunnel to navigate. It is held in aid of the Garden House Hospice and is a regular event for Spartan Tim Robinson. The Rat Run is a very friendly, family orientated fun race with many children taking part and loads of activities for the younger children to do while waiting for the runners to finish.
MATT TUTTON was 68th with a gun time of 31 minutes 6 seconds and TIM ROBINSON 71st with 31:10. Their chip times were 30:57 and 30:56.
FVS Club 5K Handicap
Hazel (Smith), Abbie (Pez), Mark (Freeman) and Charlie (White) were winners in Thursday’s club 5K at twilight.
There were 39 finishers in Thursday evening’s Handicap 5k and thank you to Mike Crowley and Jim Brown for their assistance with the start and finish. The winner on the night was Hazel Smith recovering superbly from her recent injury with an impressive 26:12. Caroline Zverev finished 2nd lady (3rd overall), 2:32 better than handicap in 37:28 and Penny Schenkel was 3rd lady, 2:28 quicker than her July Handicap 5K time in 31:52.
Mark Freeman was first man (2nd overall), 2:14 quicker than July in 25:30, with Chris Watling second man in a new PB time of 23:12, 42 seconds quicker than July, and Steve Tinsley third man in a new PB time 25:48. Charlie White was quickest runner on the night in 20:03, with Paul Shelley 2nd quickest in a year best time of 20:41, and David Pattman third quickest with 21:34.
There were only six seconds between the three fastest females. Abbie Pez was quickest female in 24:05, with Marie Colucci 2nd quickest just 1 second behind in 24:06 and Paula Dunne 3rd quickest with 24:11.
There were also new PBs for Grant Murphy (28:21), Luke Gurney (23:02) and Derek Cornelius (23:38), while Simon Sypula improved his season best time by 2:45 to 28:18, and Karen Ellis, Tracy Pez, Craig Bacon, Jane Wadey & Martin Dudley were all others to improve on their July 5k times. Total time difference between 4th – 32nd position was just 2:14 and 32 finishers were within 2 minutes of their calculated handicap time. Full results are attached. The next Handicap 5k will be on the 22nd September.
Parkrun Highlights Saturday 3rd September
First Saturday of the month is Stripey Saturday, and twenty four Fairlands Valley Spartan members travelled to 6 different Parkrun venues across the country wearing the Club Stripey vest with pride.
Congratulations and well done to Grant RAMSAY who claimed top spot at Stevenage with a time of 18:46, 12 years and 8 months since his first ever Parkrun win at Finsbury Park. Top spots were achieved through his 30s, 40s and now 50s!
The fastest female Spartan was Gail MACKIE with a time of 22:34, third female at Stevenage. Adrian DONNELLY achieved a personal best (PB) at Letchworth (3rd, 19:51) completing the Spartans line-up of top ten finishers this week.
Luke GURNEY also achieved a PB, finishing with a time of 23:00 at Stevenage.
Tables
FVS Handicap 5K on Thursday 1st September.
| Own | Finish | Comp | |||||||||||
| Pos | NAME | SURNAME | Time | H’CAP | Time | R | F | H’cap | PB | Impr | |||
| 1 | HAZEL | SMITH | 26:12 | 12:30 | 38:42 | 22 | 7 | 6:18 | |||||
| 2 | MARK | FREEMAN | 25:30 | 16:00 | 41:30 | 19 | 3:30 | SB | 2:14 | ||||
| 3 | CAROLINE | ZVEREV | 37:28 | 5:00 | 42:28 | 36 | 18 | 2:32 | PB | New | |||
| 4 | PENNY | SCHENKEL | 31:52 | 11:00 | 42:52 | 29 | 12 | 2:08 | YB | 2:28 | |||
| 5 | JANE | WHITROW | 35:49 | 7:03 | 42:52 | 33 | 15 | 2:11 | |||||
| 6 | CHRIS | WATLING | 23:12 | 20:00 | 43:12 | 7 | 1:48 | PB | 0:42 | ||||
| 7 | DAVID | KENNEDY | 23:33 | 19:45 | 43:18 | 8 | 1:42 | ||||||
| 8 | STEVE | TINSLEY | 25:48 | 17:30 | 43:18 | 21 | 1:42 | PB | 0:20 | ||||
| 9 | ALISON | SHELLEY | 26:28 | 17:00 | 43:28 | 23 | 8 | 1:32 | |||||
| 10 | GRANT | MURPHY | 28:21 | 15:00 | 43:21 | 26 | 1:39 | PB | 1:19 | ||||
| 11 | PAUL | SHELLEY | 20:41 | 22:45 | 43:26 | 2 | 1:34 | YB | 0:03 | ||||
| 12 | JUDY | KING | 36:44 | 6:45 | 43:29 | 34 | 16 | 1:16 | YB | ||||
| 13 | SALLY | PICKLES | 36:50 | 6:45 | 43:35 | 35 | 17 | 1:10 | YB | ||||
| 14 | CRAIG | BACON | 22:54 | 20:45 | 43:39 | 5 | 1:21 | 0:08 | |||||
| 15 | KAREN | ELLIS | 24:55 | 18:45 | 43:40 | 17 | 6 | 1:20 | YB | 0:16 | |||
| 16 | ANNA | SWANEPOEL | 27:56 | 15:45 | 43:41 | 24 | 9 | 1:19 | |||||
| 17 | LUKE | GURNEY | 23:02 | 20:40 | 43:42 | 6 | 1:28 | PB | 0:39 | ||||
| 18 | DARREN | EMMERSON | 25:17 | 18:30 | 43:47 | 18 | 1:13 | ||||||
| 19 | JANE | WADEY | 31:48 | 12:00 | 43:48 | 28 | 11 | 1:12 | 0:57 | ||||
| 20 | ABIGAIL | PEZ | 24:05 | 19:45 | 43:50 | 11 | 1 | 1:10 | SB | ||||
| 21 | TRACY | PEZ | 24:14 | 19:45 | 43:59 | 14 | 4 | 1:01 | YB | 0:01 | |||
| 22 | MARK | GOODWIN | 23:44 | 20:15 | 43:59 | 10 | 1:01 | ||||||
| 23 | DAVID | PATTMAN | 21:34 | 22:30 | 44:04 | 3 | 0:56 | ||||||
| 24 | YUKO | GORDON | 24:24 | 19:45 | 44:09 | 15 | 5 | 0:51 | |||||
| 25 | NICK | KLEANTHOUS | 25:36 | 18:45 | 44:21 | 20 | 0:39 | ||||||
| 26 | SIMON | SYPULA | 28:18 | 16:03 | 44:21 | 25 | 0:42 | SB | 2:45 | ||||
| 27 | DEREK | CORNELIUS | 23:38 | 20:45 | 44:23 | 9 | 1:07 | PB | 3:35 | ||||
| 28 | PAULA | DUNN | 24:11 | 20:15 | 44:26 | 13 | 3 | 0:34 | PB | New | |||
| 29 | STEVEN | DOBNER | 22:36 | 22:10 | 44:46 | 4 | 0:09 | ||||||
| 30 | CHARLIE | WHITE | 20:03 | 24:43 | 44:46 | 1 | 0:12 | ||||||
| 31 | MARTIN | DUDLEY | 24:46 | 20:00 | 44:46 | 16 | 0:14 | 0:20 | |||||
| 32 | MARIE | COLUCCI | 24:06 | 21:00 | 45:06 | 12 | 2 | (0:06) | YB | ||||
| 33 | MONICA | SMITHSON | 31:18 | 14:15 | 45:33 | 27 | 10 | (0:33) | |||||
| 34 | DZENANA | TOPIC | 34:30 | 12:00 | 46:30 | 32 | 14 | (1:30) | |||||
| 35 | JONATHAN | JONES | 32:51 | 13:40 | 46:31 | 31 | (1:21) | ||||||
| 36 | SUSAN | MURPHY | 46:45 | 0:00 | 46:45 | 37 | 19 | (1:45) | |||||
| 36 | SHARON | CROWLEY | 46:45 | 0:00 | 46:45 | 37 | 19 | (1:45) | |||||
| 38 | CHRISTINE | ZVEREV | 32:45 | 15:30 | 48:15 | 30 | 13 | (3:15) | |||||
| 39 | ROGER | BIGGS | 50:11 | 1:15 | 51:26 | 39 | (6:26) |
Spartans at parkrun on Saturday 3rd September
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time | |
| Stevenage parkrun | ||||
| 1 | 1 | Grant RAMSAY | 18:46 | Winner |
| 16 | 15 | Tony RANDFIELD | 21:18 | 1st VM60 |
| 31 | 3 | Gail MACKIE | 22:34 | 3rd woman |
| 36 | 33 | Luke GURNEY | 23:00 | PB |
| 46 | 41 | Toby ECCLESHALL | 24:26 | |
| 55 | 50 | Danik BATES | 25:03 | |
| 65 | 59 | Darren EMMERSON | 25:37 | |
| 67 | 61 | Sam SIMMONS | 25:47 | |
| 68 | 62 | Steven DOBNER | 25:48 | |
| 82 | 73 | Jim BROWN | 26:51 | 1st VM70 |
| 104 | 16 | Alison SHELLEY | 27:57 | |
| 120 | 22 | Claire EMMERSON | 29:20 | |
| 121 | 97 | David PATTMAN | 29:21 | |
| 122 | 23 | Mo WARRILLOW | 29:21 | |
| 128 | 25 | Debbie BLANTERN | 29:44 | |
| 156 | 41 | Monica SMITHSON | 31:41 | |
| 163 | 45 | Fiona CLARKE | 32:27 | |
| 221 | 81 | Helen HARRIS | 52:11 | |
| Ferry Meadows parkrun | ||||
| 46 | 39 | Steve WELLS | 22:33 | |
| Brockenhurst parkrun | ||||
| 122 | 67 | Darryl STEVENS | 45:54 | |
| Rutland Water parkrun | ||||
| 136 | 94 | Chris HOLLAND | 32:43 | |
| Letchworth parkrun | ||||
| 3 | 3 | Adrian DONNELLY | 19:51 | PB |
| 16 | 16 | Nick GILL | 23:13 | |
| Squerryes Winery parkrun | ||||
| 154 | 87 | Peter CARPENTER | 41:49 |