Tag: Spartans and Striders

The main event for the Spartans this weekend took place in Fairlands Valley Park. It was a joint four part session with the Stevenage Striders on Sunday morning.  The weather was ideal and there were 1K loops; chasing lamp posts; relays; hills & descents.  More than forty runners enjoyed the event and the exercise. 

The two local running clubs came together to help promote running in Stevenage! 

There will be more events of this kind in the future so watch this space! 

Shuttleworth Marathon 

Spartan YUKO GORDON ran the Shuttleworth Marathon on Sunday.  She was second lady overall in 4 hours 16 minutes 2 seconds.  It was a tough course, six laps of a 7km loop of off-road with a long uphills and mostly dry hard farmland.  Yuko was pleased with her run as she felt my Covid fatigue is on the mend and said she felt comfortable all the way.  

Three Peaks Challenge 

Spartans Claire and Darren Emmerson completed the three peaks challenge on Sunday afternoon alongside others for the Garden House Hospice.  

Claire works for Garden House and with them being the Spartans chosen charity this year it was a no brainer for her to do the challenge!  As she’s always up for an adventure Darren went along with her and together they completed all three peaks in 24 hours and 48 minutes.  

The weather on Ben Nevis was horrendous.  They had sleet, torrential rain and very strong winds with apparently a wind chill of minus 20!  No chance of seeing any view and they were so wet we had wet boots for the other mountains.   

Scafell pike, again by the time the mist and fog was quite thick so again no view.  Snowdon was perfect weather though so beautiful views. 

Challenge completed!  But… Claire has said that she doesn’t want to see a mountain again for a little while.  She said give me a marathon to run any day. 

Parkrun Highlights Saturday 20^th August 

It was a busy weekend for Spartans at parkrun, taking part across nine different venues. 

In Stevenage Jonathan Parr was second overall in 18 minutes exactly and Suzy Hawkins was first female in 20:13.  There were parkrun PBs for Tony Randfield (20:16) and Luke Gurney (23:17).  Congratulations to Monica Smithson who was running her 50^th parkrun. 

Further afield Nick Kleanthous ran a new PB (personal best) of 25:00 at Preston Park, Brighton on his seventh outing there.  David and Nicola Pattman were at Holkham both running PBs (24:01 for David and 35:46 for Nicola). 

Over in Letchworth, Grant Ramsay was third overall in 19:47 followed by John Harris (7^th overall) in 21:15.  Martin Blackburn was a first timer at Mole Valley near the Denbies Wine Estate in 22:38 and Simon Bell a first timer at Doddington Hall (20:08). 

Andy Jay was at Teignmouth on his eighth outing there running 27:16. 

Total finishers at Stevenage were back up to 264 with 22 Spartans running.  Steve Smithson made it to his 25^th milestone volunteering to help with the Stevenage parkrun. 

Tables 

Stevenage parkrun (264 finishers including 22 Spartans) 

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Run Time
2	2	Jonathan PARR	18:00
10	1	Suzy HAWKINS	020:13
11	9	Tony RANDFIELD	20:16
24	21	Thomas SAUKA	21:57
43	39	Luke GURNEY	23:17
49	45	Paul SHELLEY	23:57
52	48	Matt CLARKE	24:14
53	49	Steven DOBNER	24:18
98	10	Nicola ANDERSSON	26:49
117	18	Alison SHELLEY	28:17
118	19	Fiona CLARKE	28:19
127	24	Mo WARRILLOW	28:49
142	32	Debbie BLANTERN	29:55
172	115	Matt TUTTON	32:07
179	55	Monica SMITHSON	32:34
180	56	Jane WADEY	32:36
181	57	Nikki Katherine NATION	32:37
182	58	Hazel SMITH	32:38
205	71	Claire PULLEN	35:29
208	73	Tracy HAYGARTH	35:40
247	143	Jim BROWN	43:11
256	144	Roger BIGGS	47:03

Brockenhurst parkrun 

DARRYL STEVENS 81^st in 42 minutes 6 seconds. 

Squerryes Winery parkrun 

PETER CARPENTER 148^th in 42:22.