Tag: Bedford 10K

Thirteen Spartans STEPHANIE BIGGAR, MONICA BROWN, CALLIE CHAPMAN, SHARON CROWLEY, KAREN DODSWORTH, YUKO GORDON, CHRISTINE LATHWELL, CAROLYN LINSELL, JOYLYN SAUNDERS-MULLINS, TESSA STEPHENSON,WENDY THARANI, ANDREA WESTCOTT and NIKKI WILBY started the track and field season by WINNING at the first league event on Wednesday.  

The FVS Ladies track and field team kicked off their defence of the EMAC (East of England) title in style on Wednesday night.  Thirteen team members travelled to Milton Keynes and won the competition, beating rivals Marshall Milton Keynes by an amazing 13 points.  Other teams in the division struggled to field full teams on the night, but that does not detract from the brilliant performances of FVS.  The team welcomed newcomers Wendy Tharani (second place W50 3k) and Carolyn Linsell (third place W60 3k).  Wins on the night came from Tessa Stephenson (W60 100m and 400m), Christine Lathwell (W35 3k, also 3^rd place W35 400m), Sharon Crowley (W60 Hammer Throw, also second place 1 mile walk A string), Monica Brown (W50 Shot Put and W50 High Jump), Joylyn Saunders-Mullins (W60 Shot Put), Andrea Westcott (W50 Triple Jump, also 2^nd place W50 100m and 2^nd place W50 Hammer Throw), Karen Dodsworth (W60 Triple Jump, also 2^nd place W50 400m), Nikki Wilby (W35 High Jump, also 3^rd place W35 Triple Jump).  Valuable points were also picked up by Callie Chapman (4^th placed W35 100m), Yuko Gordon (1^st place 1m walk B string), Stephanie Biggar (3rd place in both W35 Hammer Throw and W35 Shot Put). 

An exciting 4x100m relay event rounded off the evening with Carolyn, Sharon, Karen and an excellent last leg by Monica just pipping Milton Keynes to the finish line by 0.2 seconds in the W50+ race.  The W35 team of Nikki, Tessa, Callie, and Christine finished second in the W35 event. 

The FVS Men’s team were bolstered by newcomers and returners, finishing in a very respectable fourth place on the night.  Wins from Tim Saunders-Mullins (M60 Hammer Throw) and Anton McCalla (M35 Triple Jump, also 4^th place M35 100m, 5^th place M35 Shot Put).  Points were also scored by newbie Nick Kleanthous (5^th place M60 100m and 400m, 3^rd place 1mile B string walk, 4^th M60 Shot Put), Chris Westcott (2^ndplace M35 400m and M35 3k), Pete Smith (2^nd place M60 3k and M60 Triple Jump, 3^rd place M60 High Jump), John Harris (3^rd place 1m A string walk, 4^th place M35 High Jump), Steve Mayfield (3^rd place M50 Hammer Throw, 4^th place M50 Shot Put, and 4^th place M50 Triple Jump).  The men’s relay team finished 4^th. 

Bedford 10K 

Spartan DAVID HARRIS-CHERGUIT WON the Run Bedford Super Fast 10 kilometre race in 35 minutes 7 seconds, a new 10K PB (personal best)and a first place result for Spartans. 

He says his training is clearly paying off and looking good for the Edinburgh Half Marathon at the end of the month and that it was great to see fellow Spartan KELVIN BEYIOKU, who had another great run after the Hitchin 10km last week.  Kelvin was third in 37:04. 

Greenway Challenge 

Fifteen Spartans ran the Greenway Challenge Half Marathon from Standalone Farm, Letchworth on Sunday. Nearly all the 13.1 miles were off road.    

Their fastest was ADRIAN DONNELLY fourth overall in 1 hour 28 minutes 29 seconds. 

Next in was JOHN HARRIS, second male 50 plus in 1 hour 33 minutes 16 seconds for 11^th place.  NICK GILL came in with 1:42:27 then TONY RANDFIELD who was first man 60 plus with 1:48:01. 

TRICIA HOPPER and CLAIRE PULLEN were Fairlands first females in 2:17:00.   

SAM SIMMONS and MARCUS RIDLEY came in 87^th and 88^th with 1:56:51 and 1:56:53. 

Attempting his first long run after an encounter with Omnicron at the start of April JIM BROWN carefully paced himself round in 2 hours 9 minutes 17 seconds. 
CLAIRE EMMERSON, WENDY THARANI, TIM ROBINSON, SIMON SYPULA and VICKY ARCHER all ‘skipped’ around the greenway in about 2 hours 20 minutes. 

Vicky said, “We never set out to ‘race’ today.  The aim of the game was to be chatty and have some fun which we achieved beautifully!  The sun shone and we had a lovely morning out with cake at the end.” 

SAMANTHA SUTTON enjoyed a lovely morning with 2:53:15. 

Pednor 

DARREN and CLAIRE EMMERSON took part in the Pednor Five road race on Holiday Monday.  In the Chilterns and not flat Darren was 109^th in 39 minutes 59 seconds and Claire 151^st in 43:27.  There were 197 finishers. 

Stort Five 

DAVE PATTMAN and STEVE DOBNER ran the Stort5 on Sunday.  Dave finished sixth overall and second in his age category in 39:39 and Steve was ninth and fourth in his age category in 41:36. 
The course is almost completely off-road and luckily the farmer had kindly rolled a section after the rain this week to take away the worst of the ruts.  Beautiful morning but you cannot really takes your eyes off the ground as it was so uneven so Steve said he had I no idea what the countryside looked like.  A brilliant relatively local event. 

Blesma 11K 

After a delay of six months NICOLA ANDERSSON, CAROLYN LINSELL and KAREN ELLIS ran their 11K for the Blesma charity on Saturday morning.  Their total time, they ran together, was 1 hour 8mins and 56 seconds for the 6.81 miles. 

Saturday morning’s stripey running at Stevenage parkrun concluded the Blesma 11k with Nicola, Carolyn, and Karen incorporating parkrun (no.95 for Nicola) with medal presentation at the finish.  lt’s a first having medals at parkrun… 

The charity run was last November for Remembrance Sunday but Carolyn unfortunately broke her foot a few days beforehand.  Karen then kindly stepped up to run this with Nicola instead.  When Blesma heard about Carolyn’s accident etc. they kindly sent a third medal for Karen back in December. 

Several months on with Carolyn fully recovered and still improving on her stamina and strength they chose Saturday… They raised a total of £151 for Blesma The Limbless Veteran’s and want to thank those again who donated.  After all this time it was lovely to give Karen her medal for running the 11K a second time with us, a total of two and a bit parkruns runn in one. 

John runs another 100 

JOHN NELMS finished his fifth 100 mile event Sunday on the Centurion running Thames Path 100.  Starting in Richmond, London at 0930 Saturday morning, John ran / walked through the day and night to finish in Oxford at 1100 Sunday morning. 

Parkrun Highlights 7^th May 

Fairlands Valley Spartan members were out in force wearing their club vests on the first Parkrun of the month, aka Stripey Saturday. Thirty two members took part at six different venues across the country. 

JANE WADEY ran a personal best (PB) of 32:28 at Stevenage after joining FVS in January this year.  She has improved her 5K time by 8 minutes since her first Parkrun in August 2021, crediting track training and Monday starters sessions which helped her achieve this amazing improvement. 

There were a few Year Best achieved this weekend, including MARTIN DUDLEY (23:49), SALLY PHILLIPS (34:01), SAMANTHA SUTTON (34:27), JAMES MCSWEENEY(24:04) and MICHAEL O’KEEFE (32:19) having ran their best times for this year. 

The title of fastest Spartan in Stevenage went to GRANT RAMSAY, crossing the line at 18:59 at Stevenage and fastest female Spartan of the week was ALISON SHELLEY (26:54) both at Stevenage.  The fastest Spartan anywhere was CHRIS WESTCOTT running in Bangor, Northern Ireland with 18:26.  Also running in Bangor ANDREA WESTCOTT finished in 28:35. 

Although there were no official milestones achieved by members this week, MATT CLARKE has completed his 90^th and TIM ROBINSON his 170^th Parkrun at Stevenage. 

Tables

Spartans at the Greenway Challenge 

Position	Name	Time
4	ADRIAN DONNELLY	1:28:29	3rd MV40
11	JOHN HARRIS	1:33:16	2nd MV50
31	NICK GILL	1:42:27
45	TONY RANDFIELD	1:48:01	1st MV60
87	SAM SIMMONS	1:56:51
88	MARCUS RIDLEY	1:56:53
127	JIM BROWN	2:09:17
145	TRICIA HOPPER	2:17:00
146	CLAIRE PULLEN	2:17:00
157	VICKY ARCHER	2:21:15
158	CLAIRE EMMERSON	2:21:15
159	WENDY THARANI	2:21:15
160	TIM ROBINSON	2:21:16
161	SIMON SYPULA	2:21:16
186	SAMANTHA SUTTON	2:53:15

Spartans at parkruns 

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Run Time	Comments
Stevenage parkrun (26 Spartans)
5	4	Grant RAMSAY	18:59
49	44	Martin DUDLEY	23:49	YB
65	58	Sam SIMMONS	24:34
101	87	Tim ROBINSON	26:06	170th
116	18	Alison SHELLEY	26:54
119	98	Matt CLARKE	27:03	90th
126	103	David PATTMAN	27:15
127	104	Jim BROWN	27:19	2MV65
140	111	Mark BEASLEY	28:16
152	32	Debbie BLANTERN	29:00
153	33	Fiona CLARKE	29:01
159	119	Steven DOBNER	29:35
160	37	Mo WARRILLOW	29:37
181	130	Stephen SMITHSON	31:32
184	50	Carolyn LINSELL	31:58
185	51	Nicola ANDERSSON	31:59
186	52	Karen ELLIS	31:59
190	56	Tracy HAYGARTH	32:14
194	58	Chloe CHAPMAN	32:26
195	59	Jane WADEY	32:28	PB
199	62	Caroline CROFT	32:55
214	71	Sally PHILLIPS	34:01	YB
217	72	Samantha SUTTON	34:27	YB
243	149	Tony RANDFIELD	42:54
249	151	Roger BIGGS	47:13
264	103	Helen HARRIS	56:01
Brockenhurst parkrun
84	55	Darryl STEVENS	43:01
Bangor parkrun
4	4	Christopher WESTCOTT	18:26
110	23	Andrea WESTCOTT	28:35
Littleport parkrun
36	30	James MCSWEENEY	24:04	YB
Henlow Bridge Lakes parkrun
56	35	Michael O’KEEFE	32:19	YB
Westmill parkrun
24	22	Andy JAY	26:01

26 Spartans out of 268 at Stevenage.