Spartan of the Month - Fairlands Valley Spartans

5K Improvers – Pete is the Third Man

22 Fairlands Valley Spartans tackled the club’s handicap 5K race on Thursday evening.

The first finisher and winner of the event was newcomer Aimee Barrett smashing her 5K personal best (PB) to 40:29, 4:31 ahead of handicap with Sally Pickles second in 28:55 and Julie Budden third in a new PB of her own with 39:49.

Jacob Nelms was first male in a PB of 24:50 with Kris Westcott second man in 27:33 and Pete Cook third man with 26:47.

Quickest runner on the night was Stuart Archer in 20:33, with Lewis Green second fastest in 22:22 and Stephen Massey third fastest with a PB of 22:48.

Lucy Paul was fastest female in a SB 26:29, with Sally Pickles second quickest in 28:55 and Amanda Vickers third fastest in 34:35.

How does it work? Everyone has an expected time based on recent races. The likely slowest runners start first with others following at intervals based on performance. In theory if the handicapping is accurate and everyone runs to form everyone will finish at exactly the same time. In practice the first over the line is the best improver.

Next month’s Handicap 5k will be on Thursday 20^th August.

POS	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	TIME	PB	IMPR	R
1	AIMEE	BARRETT	40:29	PB	0:43	18
2	SALLY	PICKLES	28:55		0:41	11
3	JULIE	BUDDEN	39:49	PB	1:10	17
4	JACOB	NELMS	24:50	PB	1:48	5
5	LUCY	PAUL	26:29	SB	0:49	6
6	KRIS	WESTCOTT	27:33			9
7	JANE	WADEY	36:06			14
8	PETE	COOK	26:47			8
9	STEPHEN	MASSEY	22:48	PB	0:32	3
10	STUART	ARCHER	20:33			1
11	SIMON	SYPULA	28:01	26		10
12	AMANDA	VICKERS	34:35			13
13	DEBORAH	AKERS	38:49			16
14	LEWIS	GREEN	22:22		0:08	2
15	LEE	PICKERSGILL	23:33			4
16	ANDREW	FENWICK	32:09		0:26	12
17	NIKI	PLUMB	41:12			19
18	NICOLA	HATHERLY	41:13			20
19	MARTIN	DUDLEY	26:42			7
20	NICHOLA	DURENT	47:34			21
21	HAYLEY	PEACH	47:35			22
22	TIM	ROBINSON	36:08			15

Seven Races In Seven Days – the Guernsey All Terrain Challenge. And A Five!

Recently JUDY KING completed the All Terrain Challenge in Guernsey – seven races in seven days!

The races were:

5k cliff path with 100s of steps
3k hilly road race
3k park race on path and gravel
Track event
8k cliff path and a bit of road and 100s of steps
700m Hill Climb
3k race round Herm Island followed by award ceremony, meal and party which continued on the boat back to Guernsey.

Judy says it’s an awesome event. After the first two races everyone is put into six divisions. There were some amazing runners and such camaraderie. She would thoroughly recommend it.

Her total time was 3:06.38. However the fastest person took 2:24:58

The cliff path races are very rough terrain – narrow paths, loose stones and rocks and at least 350 steep steps down and up.

The track event was The Devil takes the Hindmost elimination race. 350 metres jog 50 metres sprint and the last two are knocked out each lap. Runners are in their divisions so they are racing with similar paced runners.

The 700m Hill Climb was very tough. It’s on a road used for cars / bikes hill climb races because it very steep and twisting up out of St Peter Port. Slower divisions were sent up first. It took Judy 5 minutes 42 seconds. The fastest runner did it in 2:38!

Judy’s favourites were the 5 miles cliff path and the Herm race. Each division had a slightly different race distance up to 5k and ran on sandy path, common and along a steep sandy beach.

Everyone then stayed on Herm and jumped in the sea from the harbour (a small jetty!)

Next year the event will be from 18^th to 24^th July.

This Sunday Judy ran the Guernsey Athletics Summer 5 mile cross country – very hot – sandy, pebbles, common (with many rabbit holes to jump over / run around) undulating course. She finished in 49:38.

EMAC in Milton Keynes

Fairlands Valley Spartans women’s team of CALLIE CHAPMAN, SHARON CROWLEY, REBECCA RAYNER, JOYLYN SAUNDERS-MULLINS and ANDREA WESTCOTT were third in Match 4 of the EMAC West Division League at Milton Keynes on Wednesday. Joylyn won her discus contest by a good margin. After four matches the Spartans were third in the league with 323 points, not far behind second Milton Keynes (350) or the leader Corby/Northampton (361).

Eastern Masters (EMAC) provide competition opportunities for veteran athletes from 35 to 70 and above.

Bedford Autodrome 10K

Four Spartans made a trip to run on a motor racing circuit! They were at the Bedford Autodrome 10K which LIZ CROWLEY finished in 1:01:23. Next came ANDY FENWICK in 1:17:56 and LEE POTTER in 1:18:01. JULIE BUDDEN finished in 1:23:29. There were 313 finishers.

Hyde Park Hussle

The Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5Ks have been running since 1992. For the July event there was another warm sunny day in Hyde Park. The 22 degrees was a bit easier to run in than some recent events.

JIM BROWN was waving the Spartans flag at the lunch-time event and enjoyed a relaxed run finishing in 30:55 and then heading for the café.

Club Championships

Many Spartans have already completely full sets of qualifying races in the short or long or both series of club championship races. Now some will be trying to improve on the distances where they have the lowest percentage so far.

The long series consists of the best three out of 10 miles; half marathon; 20 miles and full marathon. The short series the best three out of 1500 metres; 5 kilometres; five miles and 10 kilometres. All to be done by 31^st December. There will be “absolute” winners and age related winners.

A Thank You For Niki

NIKI PLUMB was Spartan of the Month for July. Nike was chief marshal at the Relays in the Park and assisted with the Fairlands Valley Challenge.

Parkrun Highlights including Century Kris

First Saturday stripes for Spartans and there were a lot of them, and even more were volunteering at Stevenage parkrun in Fairlands Valley Park.

More than 50 Spartans ran in Stevenage.

JODIE WILSON was fastest female from Fairlands and 10^th woman in 25:54, BRONYA BROWN 13^th in 26:48 and SUSAN McANENY 15^th in 26:54. LINDSAY PATEMAN achieved a new parkrun personal best of 28:59 – a string of improvements in the past few months. AIMEE BARRETT finished in a new best of 36:15.

After a serious illness KRIS WESTCOTT wore the celebration parkrun cape to run his 100^th parkrun. And he did it in 26:32. Amazing.

There were 507 finishers including at least 195 women and 42 volunteers including several Spartans at Stevenage.

74 Spartans were running parkruns around the country. Amongst those elsewhere were JONATHAN PARR who was second on Teignmouth Promenade in 18 minutes 5 seconds; MIKE REYNOLDS running Panshanger in 28:50; ADAM HILL Stanborough in 22:44; plus KAREN PALMER 34:09 and CAROLINE CROFT 34:25 at Wimpole Estate.

Position	Gender Position	FVS parkrunner	Time
2	2	Simon JACKSON	18:07
15	14	Steve WELLS	20:22
21	20	Stuart ARCHER	20:56
27	26	Ralph DADSWELL	21:26
58	56	Lee PICKERSGILL	23:00
62	60	Paul SHELLEY	23:10
66	63	Toby ECCLESHALL	23:17
94	87	Daniel VILJOEN	24:45
99	91	Martin DUDLEY	24:54
115	102	Brian WHITE	25:38
126	10	Jodie WILSON	25:54
140	123	Kris WESTCOTT	26:32
142	125	Paul MAGUIRE	26:35
149	13	Bronya BROWN	26:48
154	15	Susan MCANENY	26:54
184	26	Alison SHELLEY	27:52
198	31	Sharon CROWLEY	28:13
199	32	Suzy HAWKINS	28:13
206	36	Lorraine HILL	28:24
215	171	Ryan DUNNING	28:35
230	41	Lindsay PATEMAN	28:59
238	188	Peter SACH	29:25
240	44	Fiona CLARKE	29:33
269	203	Steve PLATT	30:44
271	60	Monica SMITHSON	30:46
281	62	Julie SHADBOLT	31:13
285	66	Linda GEORGE	31:21
294	217	David ACKERY	31:36
296	219	Simon HAIGH	31:37
303	73	Alice WELCH	31:51
311	79	Debbie BLANTERN	32:18
318	227	Maurice BALLARD	32:33
320	84	Callie FINDLAY	32:38
324	87	Hayley PEACH	32:51
334	93	Pamela VILJOEN	33:10
389	120	Jane WADEY	35:30
391	121	Angie KEELING	35:38
397	124	Aimee BARRETT	36:15
399	125	Zoe NEWELL	36:28
402	126	Sally PICKLES	36:32
405	264	Tim ROBINSON	36:51
411	267	Michael O’KEEFE	37:30
415	134	Samantha SUTTON	37:51
418	137	Jayne DYMOKE	38:20
427	141	Niki PLUMB	39:07
442	278	James SOUTH	40:44
446	154	Gemma BARRETT	41:10
450	155	Nicola HATHERLY	41:47
471	169	Tracy HAYGARTH	45:27
481	176	Emma CHAPMAN	50:16
493	182	Emma WELCH	54:30