Doug Anderson 5k

SPARTANS HOST RELAYS IN THE PARK

Just days after a successful takeover of a Stevenage parkrun Fairlands Valley Spartans ORGANISED and provided dozens of volunteer marshals for Thursday evening’s Relays in the Park in Fairlands Valley.

What’s more 41 Spartans ran. Their successes included WINNING the veteran mixed team with ANDREW PATTERSON (09:39), SAM PRETTY (11:23), ASHLEY JOHNSON (11:29) and JONATHAN PARR (10:05) and their veteran women’s team coming second.

The fastest Spartan over the 3K were Andrew Patterson 10^th out of 432 in 9 minutes 39 seconds (9:39) and KIRK NDUGU 15^th with 9:50. Both under 10 minutes. Their fastest women were SAM PRETTY 11:23 and ASHLEY JOHNSON 11:29. Both under 11:30.

The Relays in the Park included the Hertfordshire County Championships. Every team – men, women, mixed, open or veteran – had to run four stages of exactly three kilometres.

Pos	Team	Name	Category	Team	Time
10.	35/A	Andrew PATTERSON	MV40	FVS Mix 1	09:39
15.	39/A	Kirk NDUGU	MS	FVS M3	09:50
23.	35/D	Jonathan PARR	MV40	FVS Mix 1	10:05
25.	39/C	Simon JACKSON	MV40	FVS M3	10:05
39.	39/D	Adrian BUSOLINI	MS	FVS M3	10:21
55.	36/B	Charlie COOK	MS	FVS M1	10:36
57.	39/B	Brian BRACKSTONE	MV50	FVS M3	10:38
78.	36/D	Jason ANDERSON	MV40	FVS M1	10:56
87.	36/A	Ross GALLAGHER	MV40	FVS M1	11:02
90.	36/C	Jay PAPA	MS	FVS M1	11:04
109.	35/B	Sam PRETTY	FV35	FVS Mix 1	11:23
119.	35/C	Ashley JOHNSON	FV35	FVS Mix 1	11:29
128.	61/C	Ross GALLAGHER	MV40	FVS M6	11:40
157.	53/D	Ashley JOHNSON	FV45	FVS W1	12:11
162.	95/A	Ralph DADSWELL	MV50	FVS M5	12:17
168.	38/B	Craig BACON	MV50	FVS M2	12:19
172.	38/A	Robert WRIGHT	MV40	FVS M2	12:22
185.	38/D	Danny SCANLON	MV40	FVS M2	12:33
193.	37/B	Ryan RIDDELL	MS	FVS Mix 2	12:40
195.	37/A	David RIDDELL	MV50	FVS Mix 2	12:40
201.	53/B	Alison WOOD	FV45	FVS W1	12:45
220.	53/C	Suzy HAWKINS	FV45	FVS W1	13:04
234.	38/C	Andy PRIOR	MV50	FVS M2	13:20
238.	56/B	Liam HERBERT	MV40	FVS M4	13:23
257.	53/A	Marie COLUCCI	FV45	FVS W1	13:38
283.	61/A	Ben TORREGGIANI	MV40	FVS M6	14:14
302.	61/B	David ACKERY	MS	FVS M6	14:38
310.	95/D	David ACKERY	MS	FVS M5	14:53
313.	95/B	Martin DUDLEY	MV60	FVS M5	14:56
320.	56/C	Lloyd DIAS	MS	FVS M4	15:03
327.	37/D	Sophie PARSONS	FS	FVS Mix 2	15:12
355.	37/C	Jayne RIDDELL	FV55	FVS Mix 2	15:46
356.	95/C	Vish SHAH	MS	FVS M5	15:48
359.	61/D	Peter COOK	MV50	FVS M6	15:50
360.	56/A	Simon SYPULA	MV50	FVS M4	15:50
367.	56/D	Nick KLEANTHOUS	MV60	FVS M4	16:01
386.	88/D	Megan SUTTON	FS	FVS W2	16:52
398.	41/C	Peter SACH	MS	FVS Mix 3	17:44
403.	41/D	Judy KING	FV55	FVS Mix 3	18:03
407.	88/C	Rose SUTTON	FS	FVS W2	18:10
414.	41/A	Liz CARVELL	FV55	FVS Mix 3	19:03
415.	41/B	Paul HOLGATE	MV60	FVS Mix 3	19:03
429.	88/A	Sally PICKLES	FV55	FVS W2	21:45
430.	88/B	Samantha SUTTON	FV45	FVS W2	21:47

FVS 3k Relay Times

Three Gold Medals

Three Fairlands Valley Spartans won GOLD medals in the County 10K track championships on Wednesday night.

After 25 laps YUKO GORDON won GOLD for women 70 plus in 47 minutes 24 seconds (47:24.70); DAVID BOWKER won GOLD for men 65 plus in 48:09 and JIM BROWN won GOLD for men 70 plus in 53:50.

No hills and no wind. What was there not to like said Jim. A great outing for three Spartan veterans.

Memorial 5K

Also on Wednesday MATT TUTTON ran his fastest 5K this year with his 24:49 at the Doug Anderson 5K in Bedford. JAY PAPA beat 20 with 19:21; CHARLIE ARNOLD came in with 22:52 and PAUL HOLGATE with 32:20.

St Albans Summer 10K

JIM BROWN ran the St Albans Summer 10K in exactly 56 minutes (56:00). Good enough for third place in his category.

Three Events Organised in Nine Days

Not only did Fairlands take over the local parkrun on Saturday 13^th July and organise the Relays in the Park on Thursday 18^th July then they organised the Fairlands Valley Challenge off road event on Sunday 21^st July. More on the challenge soon.

The 3k Relays in the Park, organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans in Fairlands Valley Park, were brilliant. The 3K course was covered 473 times by runners enjoying a great summer’s evening on Thursday.

As well as organising the event the local club enjoyed some success with their women taking BRONZE in the County Championships in 48 minutes 13 seconds and their veteran women also winning BRONZE with 54:32.

All teams – men, women, mixed, senior or veteran – consisted of four runners so ran a total of 12 kilometres.

The medal winners were ASHLEY JOHNSON (11:38); SAM PRETTY (11:50), GABRIELLE O’BRIEN (12:16) and GAIL MACKIE (12:29) in the senior county championships and SUZY HAWKINS (12:45); MARIE COLUCCI (13:07); TRACEY JACKSON (13:53) and YUKO GORDON (14:47) in the veterans race.

Our winning ladies! – Photo Credit Callie Chapman

The FVS male team were fourth in the open and county races in 38:42 just eight seconds off bronze. They were JON PARR (9:20); ANDREW PATTERSON (9:31); ADRIAN BUSOLINI (9:55) and KIRK NDUGU (9:56).

The fastest Spartan was in the top ten individuals – JON PARR in 9 minutes 20 minutes (9:20). ASHLEY JOHNSON was the fastest female from Fairlands with her 11 minutes 38 seconds, twelve seconds ahead of SAM PRETTY with 11:50.

The first woman in the race finished in 9 minutes 28 seconds!

There were 119 teams. Luton AC won the open men’s race in 36:57 (for 12 kilometres) and the open mixed race with 41:03; St Albans Striders won the open women’s race in 43:46.

Doug Anderson 5K – 20^th Anniversary

Last Wednesday MATT TUTTON ran at the Bedford Harriers organised Doug Anderson 5k at Bedford Park. This was two and half laps of the park on a cool and dry evening. Matt finished in a personal best time of 24:54. 

This was the 20^th anniversary of the event. PAUL HOLGATE has now run 17 of the 20. The only missing ones were two that fell on his wife’s birthday and one when he was in Mount Vernon Hospital. He finished in 31 minutes 19 seconds.

ROGER BIGGS came in with 38:38.

Bedford Blues Half Marathon

Spartan JIM BROWN ran the Bedford Blues Foundation Half Marathon on Sunday.

He was 86th and second MV70 with 2:04:16 (64%).

Jim said it was nice after recent form to properly run all the way.

He added it was an almost perfect morning for running. Only 132 on the half marathon but another 202 on the 10K. The short out and back sections actually made it a better experience as runners smiled and encouraged each other as they passed.

Jim with some of the lovely Stevenage Striders ladies – Photo Credit Stevenage Striders

Parkrun Highlights Saturday 22^nd July 2023

MATT TUTTON ran a new parkrun personal best of 24:20. He was 84^th out of the 394 finishers.

For all the Consolidated Results please click the link.