Wednesday 12th April saw the return of the evening Resolution 5K on Ridlins track, Fairlands Valley Spartans won it and recorded no less than eight new personal bests (PBs).
The Spartans won with Simon Fraser 3rd in 16:27, Jonathan Parr 4th in 16:45, Kelvin Beyioku 6th in 17:54 and Ashley Johnson first woman and 27th overall in 20:19. Teams consisted of the first three men and first woman finishing from each club. Simon improved his PB by 21 seconds and Ashley hers by 46 seconds.
Spartan PAULA DUNNE was the third woman overall in 21:39, a new personal best by 1 minute 14 seconds.
NICK GILL was seventh in the race in 17:59, a new 5K personal best by 1 minute 8 seconds. He said the support in the stands and on the track made a real difference and helped him get over the line in just under 18 minutes with the help of a sprint finish. MIKE JEFFS came in next in 19:11 and DANNY SCANLON in 19:25.
There was another PB by NICK KLEANTHOUS with 24:04. He said it was a well organised event and a very big turnout for FVS. Lots of runners stayed until the end to support later runners. Lovely to see this and the support from non runners alike.
JANE WADEY equalled her 5K personal best with 31:31 which was set in May 2022. HAZEL SMITH was very pleased with her 24:22.
That was cold said JIM BROWN who went round the 12.5 laps in a steady 27 minutes 57 seconds.
FVS also achieved the highest number of finishers. The top three clubs were FVS 24; North Herts Road Runners 14 and Stevenage Phoenix 11.
Manchester Marathon
Spartan SIMON JACKSON ran a new personal best at the Manchester Marathon. His 2:44:12 beat the very significant 2 hours 45 minutes target.
Simon said “A new PB which I’ll take at 47 and after a lot of years of running.”
Spartans LINDA GEORGE and MARTIN JACOB did their first full marathon at Manchester on Sunday.
Martin said the last six miles were a real struggle. The training sessions and the long Sunday runs with Fairlands Valley Spartans really helped me to push the boundaries and achieve a sub 4 hour timing.
Martin Jacob finished in 3:59:57 and Linda George in 5:00:23
VICKY ARCHER ran her first road marathon in Manchester finishing in 4.19.09.
She smashed her 4:30 goal and it was also a personal best from her last one on file which was 5:40 (although that was a trail marathon when doing the challenge a couple of years ago).
Flitwick 10K
Spartan YUKO GORDON showed the way at the Flitwick 10K. She won the women 65 plus category in 46 minutes 33 seconds, was 85th overall out of 424 finishers and received a lovely gold medal.
HAZEL SMITH did 52:47 for 178th.
JIM BROWN was very pleased with his efforts at Flitwick. He finished in 55 minutes 38 seconds, 1 minute 13 seconds faster than on the flatter St. Albans 10K two weeks earlier. He said the first kilometre winding up through a housing scheme felt hard but he ran a negative split, second half faster than the first by 34 seconds, came second in his category and just in the first half of the race.
Calderdale Hike
Mike and Sharon Crowley took part in the Calderdale Hike on Saturday, based at Sowerby. They completed the 26 miles, with some 3600 feet of climb, in 8 hours 26 minutes.  The weather was unexpectedly lovely, with lots of sunshine and minimal breeze.
Parkrun Highlights Saturday 15th April 2023
Congratulations to Spartan TRACY HAYGARTH who was at Stevenage to run her 100th parkrun. She finished her celebration run around Fairlands Valley Park in 34:07.
For all the Spartan Parkrun results please click the link – Consolidated Parkrun Results 15th April 2023
