DEBBIE BLANTERN won the club’s 5K handicap race on Thursday evening. Debbie beat her handicap by 4 minutes 38 seconds with 30:22 and finished seven seconds ahead of MICHAEL O’KEEFE with a season’s best 25:14.
MATT GIFFORD was third in his first handicap with 21:10, beating his handicap by 2:05.
MARIE COLUCCI was second woman on handicap and on speed with 23:38 with ASHLEY JOHNSON was fastest female and third on handicap with 20:20.
The fastest Spartan on the night was NICK GILL with 18:46.
Summer Solstice 10K
Seven Spartans went to St Albans for the Summer Solstice 10K or #BeatTheSunset race on Wednesday. An 8p.m. start on a beautiful summer’s evening didn’t present problems for many people and all the Spartans were back in the sunshine with about half an hour to spare. Sunset was at 9.24p.m.
The fastest from Fairlands Valley Spartans was DAVID PATTMAN 83rd out of the 532 finishers with 44 minutes 19 seconds. STEVEN DOBNER was next in with a fine 47:45 with HARRIET SMITH 33rd woman beating 50 minutes with 49:12 and MO WARRILOW coming in at 52 minutes 32 seconds.
There was a tremendous personal best (PB) by CHLOE CHAPMAN who finished in 53 minutes 3 seconds, an improvement by 1 minute 47 seconds. MATT TUTTON improved his PB by 56 seconds to 55:17.
JIM BROWN ran his best 10K this year by seven seconds with 55:21 and was second in his category.
Yuko Wins Brutal British Masters
YUKO GORDON won Gold in the British Masters Multi-terrain 30K Championship on Sunday. The championship was incorporated into the North Downs Run, in which she came first in W65 (women 65 plus) category in 3:24:06. Overall Yuko was 180th out of 400 plus finishers. 
The race started and finished at the Cyclo Park in Gravesend, Kent. The course is well known as tough, hilly and challenging on a normal day, but with the 31C heat added, it was absolutely brutal. However, the race is very popular for the stunning beauty of Britain’s fine vineyards, red carpets of poppy field and breathtaking views.
Orwell Challenge
Sunday saw MIKE JEFFS take on the Orwell Challenge in Felixstowe. There was some difficult terrain to deal with along with the local wildlife which included jelly fish! Mike said that it was a tough course but very beautiful.
He completed the half marathon distance in 2:14:14 – 21st out of 100 finishers.
Purbeck Plod
THOMAS SAUKA did the Purbeck Plod on Sunday, it was meant to be 25 miles but he did a marathon in the end with a few errors. Lucky Tom.
It was very beautiful event but very brutal as well. The course followed the southwest coast path from Swanage to Kimmeridge Bay, which had some killer vertical climbs and descents and 5 miles of overgrown path, then it cut inland to Corfe Castle then back to Swanage going over the hills and the great ridge which is amazing but a very long climb.
Tom finished in 7 hours 34 minutes with 42.26 kilometres done. He said “A tough day that I will never forget.”
Velo Park
JIM BROWN was running at the Lee Valley Velo Park, an Olympic venue, on Saturday morning. It was perhaps too hot to expect a good time but 1 hour 33 minutes 16 seconds for the ten miles WON his age group.
Parkrun Saturday 24th June 2023Â
STEVE DOBNER ran a new park PB of 24 minutes 47 seconds at Wimpole.
Please click the link for the Consolidated Spartan Park run Results.
Â