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Club News Race Results

FLYING FAIRLANDS AT CAMBRIDGE

There were some fantastic performances from many of the thirteen Fairlands Valley Spartans racing the Cambridge Half Marathon on Sunday morning. 

The fastest from Fairlands, and wow it was fast – he set a phenomenal new personal best, was SIMON JACKSON with 1 hour 12 minutes 30 seconds.  90 seconds is a lot at that standard.  He was 48th out of about 10,000 finishers in the whole race AND third in his age category.  The fastest female from the club was MICHELLE REEVES in 1:30:24. 

VICKY ARCHER took about ten minutes off her Half Marathon personal best (PB) which was set at Hampton Court two years ago.  On Sunday she was well under two hours with 1 hour 56 minutes 18 seconds.  She said she trained so hard and is feeling quite proud of herself. 

MARIAN MORLEY was delighted to report a new half marathon PB of 1:58:35 – improving by over nine minutes.  Her previous best HM was 2:07:36 at the London Big Half in 2021.  She surprised herself by running without stopping with an even cadence throughout and splits that only varied by 30 seconds – perhaps helped by being a fairly flat course.  Her son William volunteered as a helper for the event and cheered all the runners on from the side. 

LINDA GEORGE had a great time.  On her way to a new half marathon PB of 2 hours 8 minutes 27 seconds she ran her best time ever for 5K, under 30 minutes, and her best time ever for 10K, under 60 minutes. 

Then ELLIE McDERMOTT improved by 24 minutes 27 seconds in a week.  She ran the Welwyn Half in 2:43:04 but Cambridge in 2:18:37. 

Want to improve?  Fairlands Valley Spartans offer training sessions on five days a week and now can arrange one to one coaching sessions.  All are free to members. 

Meanwhile JIM BROWN was content to continue his recovery, proving to himself that he can again run 13.1 minutes without stopping and trimmed his 2022 time by 26 seconds to 2:02:25. 

The other Spartans included STUART HAYCROFT in 1:28:55 and MARTIN JACOB in 1:54:14. 

Spartans at Cambridge.

Essex 20 

WENDY THARANI, CATHY CRAIG and HAZEL SMITH travelled to Debden Airfield, near Saffron Walden to compete in the Essex 20.  Hazel said it was a lovely course with five loops of four miles each.  Some sections were quite exposed with a chilly headwind but it was basically flat. 

Hazel had a fantastic run.  She cut her 20 mile time by 49 minutes and her personal best is now 2 hours 49 minutes 13 seconds. 

Wendy Tharani had an outstanding run finishing in 3:45:39 after being ill all week and completing a 20 mile training run the previous week.  Cathy Craig won her age category with 3:55:24. 

Three happy ladies after doing fantastically well in Essex!

Silver for Andrew 

It was silver for Spartan ANDREW PATTERSON in the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday.  He was taking part in the 1500m.  It was Andrew’s first race back after a hamstring tear two weeks ago.  He’d worked really hard with the physio to get to the start line, albeit he said he was being held together by tape. 

He finished in 4:19.43, took the silver medal and said he was very happy to just get through the race and not to make the hamstring worse. 

Speedy Andrew never ceases to amaze us!

Second in Surrey 5K 

It was second in Surrey for JONATHAN PARR in the Surrey 5K at Woking on Saturday.  Morning.  He was second overall and first male 35 plus in 16 minutes 9 seconds. 

Parkrun Highlights 5th March 

Anticipation of some hard races on Sunday meant there were only Spartans at three parkrun venues on Saturday and 18 stripes at Stevenage.  This week there was a total of 259 finishers. 

NICK GILL got a new personal best PB) of 20:06 on the occasion of his 80th parkrun.  GRANT RAMSAY was in eighth position in another nineteen (19:29).  Another top ten and sub 20 at Stevenage. 

 SUZY HAWKINS was first female in 21:11 on her 18th parkrun. 

Nick, Grant and Suzy at Parkrun

Further afield PETER CARPENTER was at Squerryes Winery parkrun running a new PB of 42:57.  DARRYL STEVENS was in Minehead clocking at time of 37:11. 

Smiling Parkrunners at Stevenage.

53 Times Round a Lake 

A big shout out for Spartan ADRIAN BUSOLINI who, as this was being written on Monday, was setting out on his quest to run seven marathons in seven days.  That’s round and round Willen Lake in Milton Keynes. 

Tables 

Spartans at the Cambridge Half Marathon: 

Pos. Bibno. Chip time Participant  Category 4M  8.5M  11.8M  13.1M  Speed Pace 
48 5604 1:12:30 Simon Jackson (M) 45-49 21:17 24:11 18:36 8:26 17.46 km/h 3:26 min/km 
819 1057 1:28:55 Stuart Haycroft (M) 40-44 26:55 29:50 22:11 9:59 14.23 km/h 4:12 min/km 
949 8130 1:30:24 Michelle Reeves (F) 35-39 26:58 30:56 22:24 10:06 14.00 km/h 4:17 min/km 
3537 5928 1:48:40 David Kennedy (M) 35-39 31:21 36:07 28:06 13:06 11.65 km/h 5:09 min/km 
4607 5607 1:54:14 Martin Jacob (M) 35-39 34:28 38:22 28:32 12:52 11.08 km/h 5:24 min/km 
4615 8656 1:54:16 Vishal Shah (M) 35-39 32:13 38:30 30:45 12:48 11.08 km/h 5:25 min/km 
5006 8761 1:56:03 Luke Silver (M) 30-34 34:01 39:11 29:56 12:55 10.91 km/h 5:30 min/km 
5060 855 1:56:18 Vicky Archer (F) 40-44 33:57 39:25 29:38 13:18 10.88 km/h 5:30 min/km 
5560 7110 1:58:35 Marian Morley (F) 55-59 36:01 39:43 29:42 13:09 10.67 km/h 5:37 min/km 
6019 3048 2:01:11 Chloe Chapman (F) 30-34 34:29 41:39 31:54 13:09 10.44 km/h 5:44 min/km 
6182 911 2:02:25 Jim Brown (M) 65-69 35:18 41:18 31:45 14:04 10.34 km/h 5:48 min/km 
7041 4477 2:08:27 Linda George (F) 35-39 37:22 43:04 33:26 14:35 9.85 km/h 6:05 min/km 
8252 1156 2:18:37 Ellie McDermott (F) 25-29 37:10 46:28 36:57 18:02 9.13 km/h 6:34 min/km 

About 10,000 finishers. 

Full Spartan results from the Stevenage parkrun are shown below: 

A total of 259 runners took part. 

Position   Gender Position   parkrunner   Run Time   
Grant RAMSAY 00:19:29 
12 11 Nick GILL 00:20:06 
17 Suzy HAWKINS 00:21:11 
52 48 Toby ECCLESHALL 00:24:23 
56 52 Martin DUDLEY 00:24:32 
66 60 David PATTMAN 00:25:04 
70 Susan MCANENY 00:25:20 
75 67 Lee PICKERSGILL 00:25:30 
79 71 Matt CLARKE 00:25:42 
96 84 Nick KLEANTHOUS 00:26:46 
110 93 Luke SILVER 00:27:22 
118 15 Claire EMMERSON 00:27:41 
148 113 Steven DOBNER 00:29:21 
149 30 Mo WARRILLOW 00:29:21 
185 132 Stephen SMITHSON 00:32:07 
188 48 Sharon CROWLEY 00:32:16 
218 67 Jane WADEY 00:35:04 
254 152 Roger BIGGS 00:48:02