Seventeen Spartans enjoyed the first in the series of 5K races at Hatfield on Wednesday evening and five of them came away with new personal bests (PB) for the distance. Three achieved new season’s bests (SB) and one ran his fastest time this year.
SIMON JACKSON was third veteran runner and sixth overall taking six seconds of his lifetime best with 16 minutes 34 seconds. KELVIN BEYIOKU took a significant 44 seconds of his PB with 17:37. PAULA DUNNE took a 55 seconds chunk off her best time with 23:16; NICK KLEANTHOUS 39 seconds off his with 24:13 and JANE WADEY improved her PB by six seconds to 31 minutes 28 seconds.
RICHARD BATE ran a new season’s best of 18:21; ANDREA WESTCOTT of 27:32 and CATHY CRAIG was delighted to get under 30 minutes with 29:15.
Steadily coming back from injury BRIAN WHITE finished in 22 minutes 34 seconds.
YUKO GORDON was the race winner based on age grade. She scored a massive 92.7%. She was also first woman aged over 70 with her 22 minutes 56 seconds.
EMAC (Eastern Masters)
Last week we announced that the Fairlands Valley Spartans women came third in the East of England (EMAC) final. Here’s the full story:
Thirteen FVS women travelled to Bedford on Sunday (4th) to compete in the Eastern Masters Athletic Club final. Despite injuries, illness, and absences, brilliant team spirit meant all events were covered and resulted in an unexpected third place behind Peterborough/Nene Valley (1st place) and Chelmsford AC (2nd place). Medal positions changed throughout the day, and FVS were originally awarded joint second, only to discover the following day that the scores were incorrect.
Yuko Gordon won an individual award for her outstanding 99.5% age graded 1st place performance in the women 60 plus (W60) 3k race and she also won the W60 800m.
Christine Lathwell dominated the W35 distance events, winning the 800m, 500m, and the 3k!  Monica Brown excelled in the W50 jumps, winning long jump, triple jump, and high jump.  Monica also dropped down to cover W35 shot put, finishing in third place.
The other win on the day came from Nikki Wilby (W35 high jump, also 5th place 400m hurdles, and 2nd place pole vault).  With some team changes needed along the way, other points on the day were scored by Fiona Clarke (W35 5th place 100m, 6th place 200m – PB!, 4th place long jump – PB!, and 3rd place triple jump), Callie Chapman (W35 5th place 400m – PB!, 5th place hammer throw, and 6th place discus), Andrea Westcott (W50 4th place 100m, 2nd place 200m, 8th place 1500m, 3rd place 300m hurdles, and 5th place shot put), Carolyn Linsell dropped down to W50 (8th place 400m and 7th place 800m), Marion Morley (W50 8th place 3k, 6th place hammer throw, and 4th place discus), Karen Dodsworth (W60 6th place 100m, 2nd place discus, 4th place long jump, and 4th place triple jump), Sharon Crowley (W60 6th place 200m, 5th place A string 2k walk, 3rd place 300m hurdles, 4th place hammer throw), Joylyn Saunders-Mullins (W60 3rd place shot put and W50 2nd place javelin), Cathy Craig (a brave 3rd place B string 2k walk).
The W35 relay team finished in 5th place, with W50 team finishing 3rd in their race.  The team enjoyed thoroughly well deserved bubbles and cake at the end of a very long day.
Great North Run
Six Spartans ran the biggest half marathon in the world. They were in Newcastle for the Great North Run. ADRIAN DONNELLY excelled with 1 hour 26 minutes 7 seconds which gave him 691st out of more than 35,000 finishers. STEVE DOBNER came in with 1:48:17; DAVID PATTMAN 1:49:09; MO WARRILOW 2:05:33; ROGER HARDMAN 2:14:31 and SUE HAMER 2:43:06.
Budapest Half Marathon
ROB WRIGHT went international at the weekend and enjoyed the Budapest Half Marathon which he completed in 2:17:08.
Sandy 10
Several Spartans kept it more local and ran the Sandy 10 (miles) race.
SAMANTHA PRETTY-CONNORS who sped round in 71 minutes exactly won the women 35 plus award. CLAIRE PULLEN came in fast with 77:37 followed by BRIAN WHITE 79:19; and ANN TRYSSESOONE 88:23. JIM BROWN was second 70 plus in a year’s best 88:56 with JACKE DOWNES in 1:30:49; TRICIA HOPPER in 1:31:09 and CAROL PAUL 1:41:21.Â
Montane Dragon’s Back Race
Six days running 380 kilometres off road down the spine of Wales. Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI was running the Montane Dragon’s Back Race from Conway Castle to Cardiff Castle.
Adrian was 69th out of the 102 finishers with a total time of 79 hours 8 minutes 14 seconds. His longest day was 15 hours 21 minutes 43 seconds. Many starters of this incredibly tough event did not finish.
Adrian said, “Six days. Trods, bogs, and bushwhacking, over some of the toughest peaks and ridges in Wales.
Scrambling, high exposure and fear. Self management, injuries and fatigue. Downpours, hail and high winds. Isolation. Dejection. Self doubt.
Cameraderie, friendship and community. Encouragement, assistance and a shared goal. Learning, growth and transformation. Fresh perspectives. Stoicism. Self confidence.
What an extraordinary group of people – participants, volunteers and staff – to invest a week with. Words can’t do it justice, but this truly was time well spent. There was also some running.”
Milton Keynes Marathon Prep 20 Miles
Two Spartans, WENDY THARANI and YUKO GORDON ran the new format of events organised by Marshall Milton Keynes Athletics Club. This was a 20 mile marathon preparation event consisting of 4 laps each of 5 miles around Willen Lake, its surrounding village roads and towpath along the Grand Union Canal. It wasn’t totally flat as it was a mixture of usual MK undulations but it was pretty and interesting.
Yuko finished 26 seconds outside of the women 70 plus (W70) UK all time best time of 20 miles in 2:46:12 but she ran only to check her present fitness and wanted to build up some mileage this week before the London Marathon, so didn’t taper.
Wendy came 174th in 3:52:07 and after a summer of wonderful adventures consisting of epic bike rides and climbing mountains (alongside running) she was very pleased to complete the race.
Tables
Spartans at the Hatfield 5K race (race 1 in a series of 3).
| Place | Name | Time | Cat | M/F | Cat Pos | Grade | Comments | |
| 6. | Simon JACKSON | 16:34 | MV40 | 6 | 3 | 85.3% | 3rd Vet. PB (0:06) | |
| 16. | Oluwatobi Kelvin BEYIOKU | 17:37 | MS | 15 | 9 | 72.8 % | PB (0:44) | |
| 31. | Richard BATE | 18:21 | MV40 | 29 | 10 | 73.6 % | SB | |
| 41. | Grant RAMSAY | 19:03 | MV50 | 39 | 11 | 76.5 % | ||
| 62. | Tony RANDFIELD | 20:29 | MV60 | 55 | 3 | 79.9 % | 3rd V60 | |
| 84. | Brian WHITE | 22:34 | MV60 | 73 | 5 | 74.5 % | YB (0:44) | |
| 88. | Yuko GORDON | 22:56 | FV65 | 12 | 1 | 92.7 % | % winner | |
| 89. | Mark GOODWIN | 22:58 | MV60 | 77 | 7 | 71.3 % | ||
| 98. | Paula DUNNE | 23:16 | FV35 | 19 | 6 | 63.6 % | PB (0:55) | |
| 111. | Nick KLEANTHOUS | 24:13 | MV60 | 84 | 10 | 65.1 % | PB (0:39) | |
| 153. | Jim BROWN | 27:04 | MV70 | 98 | 5 | 63.8 % | ||
| 156. | Andrea WESTCOTT | 27:32 | FV45 | 57 | 17 | 60.0 % | SB (0:45) | |
| 164. | Catherine CRAIG | 29:15 | FV65 | 61 | 5 | 70.3 % | SB (1:14) Sub 30 | |
| 165. | Nikki NATION | 29:44 | FV55 | 62 | 12 | 59.7 % | ||
| 170. | Sharon CROWLEY | 30:24 | FV55 | 66 | 14 | 63.3 % | ||
| 171. | Jane WADEY | 31:28 | FV55 | 67 | 15 | 55.8 % | PB (0:03) | |
| 178. | Roger BIGGS | 43:38 | MV70 | 107 | 9 | 41.9% |
Parkrun – 10th September
For the consolidated Parkrun results please follow this link – Parkrun Results