Nine Spartans raced round Hitchin in the town’s 5K race. Only a week after running a fast time in the London Marathon it was won by FVS own ANDREW PATTERSON in 16 minutes 2 seconds.
HARRIET SMITH was the second woman 20 plus and fastest female from Fairlands in 23 minutes 51 seconds.
ADRIAN DONNELLY was 15th in 20:01. The other Spartans were SAM SIMMONS 21:06; MARC RIDLEY 23:06; DAVID KENNEDY 23:23 NICK KLEANTHOUS 26:54; MATT TUTTON 27:24 and MONICA SMITHSON 30:32. There were 228 finishers.
Runners at Hitchin 5k
Willow 10K
Spartans DANNY SCANLON, JIM BROWN and JUDY KING made the short trip to Hatfield for a 10K race. This was a friendly multi-terrain charity event for the Willow Foundation in the picturesque grounds of Hatfield House. Danny was 10th in 44 minutes 3 seconds, Jim finished 60th in 55:37 and Judy came in 184th with 1:16:10. There were 211 finishers. Judy said her run has really boosted her confidence for future races including the Great South Run (10 miles) and the Stevenage Half Marathon on 6th November. Willow organises special days for seriously ill young adults.
Danny and Judy at the Willow run
Royal Parks Half
CRAIG BACON finished the Royal Parks Half Marathon in less than 1 hour 40 minutes with 1:39:23.
VISHAL SHAH did the run round London in 2:13:52 and CALLIE CHAPMAN finished in 2:47:19.
Craig, Callie and Vish with their medals
Chicago Marathon
Spartans DUNCAN FLOUNDERS and ROSS GALLAGHER were in Chicago for the marathon. Duncan ran a couple of events for the first time in a long time this weekend.
He finished the Chicago 5K in 26 minutes 29 seconds (26:29) and then the full Chicago Marathon in 3 hours 53 minutes 14 seconds (3:53:14).
Duncan said, “The marathon was an awesome experience despite being two years late. Crowds lined the course for pretty much every step of the way and they were all amazing. The whole city heats up for this for days beforehand and it didn’t disappoint. Lots of fun, the inevitable pain around 30k but managed to work through that and actually enjoyed the last few kilometres. Great event.
ROSS GALLAGHER completed the Chicago marathon in a time of 3:08:43.
Target was a sub 3:10 so he was delighted to walk away with 3:08 and a 15 minute PB from London 2022.
Ross said, “After a chilly start the sun came up for what were perfect running conditions. Great crowd and support which were particularly needed for the last three miles ‘these felt much longer than just a park run’.
International Spartan Ross!
Tring Ridgeway Run
On Sunday 9th October Tim Robinson ran the 40th Tring Ridgeway Run. A 15km trail run in the Chilterns organised by Tring Running Club who organise several very good races throughout the year in the Chiltern Hills. The race starts in Tring and heads up to the Bridgwater Monument on the Ashridge Estate before winding through the woods down to Steps Hill and over Pitstone Hill back to Tring for a total ascent of around 750ft. The ascent to the Bridgewater Monument was fairly steady going but once into the woods the constant up and down meant several walk breaks and there was a strong headwind on Pitstone Hill despite the sun. Tim took advantage of the long downhills to make up for lost time and finished 256th in a time of 1:35:45.
Tim enjoying the rolling hills!
Maverick Lincolnshire
JANE WHITROW and her dog Rufus had a day trip out to do a 10k…actually a 10.5k Canicross run at the beautiful Grimsthorpe Castle park. It was the first Maverick event for them – they loved it and the alcohol free cold beer at the finish was very welcome!
Official time was 1 hour 17 minutes on a beautiful and “undulating” course.
Eight Spartans In Manchester! Entries are open for our own Stevenage Half Marathon!
Eight Spartans excelled themselves by finishing the Manchester Marathon on Sunday.
For PAUL and ALISON SHELLEY it was their second ever marathon. It was warmer than they’d expected it to be and they both gave it their all. Paul improved his personal best by 14 minutes and finished in 3 hours 13 minutes 36 seconds. He was 1,098 out of the 9,473 men and 61st out of 929 men aged 50 plus. Alison took 23 minutes off her personal best (PB) with 4 hours 13 minutes 16 seconds and was 84th out of the 415 women aged 50 plus.
MATT CLARKE was pleased to get under four hours, 3:58:01, despite disruptions to his preparation. For FIONA CLARKE it was an emotional run but she completed her target of three marathons this year with 4 hours 52 minutes 21 seconds. Fiona was raising money for the East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust. She said that for her it was an ugly race, very scrappy, the hardest of the three but she did it!
WENDY THARANI ran the London Marathon only a week earlier but she still finished Manchester in 4 hours 38 minutes 55 seconds. DAVID PATTMAN came in with 4:01:07 and STEVEN DOBNER with 4:12:53.
Wendy and Fiona are all smiles at the Manchester finish line!
For LIZ SMITH it was an experiment to see if her prodigious cycling fitness could get her round a marathon. It did. She finished with a smile in 5 hours 10 minutes 34 seconds.
Position
Name
Time
Comments
1148
PAUL SHELLEY
3:13:36
PB (13 minutes)
4948
MATT CLARKE
3:58:01
5366
DAVID PATTMAN
4:01.07
6476
STEVEN DOBNER
4:12:53
6527
ALISON SHELLEY
4:13:16
PB (23 minutes)
9036
WENDY THARANI
4:38:55
Ran London
10130
FIONA CLARKE
4:52:21
Three Done
11402
LIZ SMITH
5:10:34
Metropolis
On Sunday, ADRIAN BUSOLINI participated in the inaugural running of Metropolis, a story-driven night time ultra experience through central London. Starting with some properly engaging & atmospheric immersive theatre, runners were given new identities and tasked with completing a range of mandatory and optional missions to help the RUN resistance network.
Guided by What 3 Words locations, they had to devise optimised route choices on the fly, accounting for factors such as time windows, deadlines, water supply, and the practicalities of navigating around London on a Saturday night; all the while evading ‘The Eyes’ who were trying to hunt us down with the help of GPS tracking. Ultimately we had to connect with a resistance leader to learn of our extraction location, and make it to the rendezvous point before ‘the last transport from Metropolis’. Billed as a 50 kilometres race, Adrian ended up exceeding 75 from targeting a number of the bonus missions.
The race directors Richard and Mark put a lot of effort into devising this experience, crafting the backstory, preparing the theatrical elements & actor roles, the technological live tracking for the missions, and practicalities of the Eyes hunting participants; down to the details such as the witty mission locations, origami birds, and the extraction location embedded in a fortune cookie. If you fancy a memorable, immersive experience that also happens to involve a fair amount of running, then keep an eye out for what Richand and Mark come up with next.
Results are yet to be finalised, but according to the current state of the leaderboard I finished in second, somehow…
Adrian taking on Metropolis
Jonathan Second At Windsor
Spartan JONATHAN PARR was second at the Windsor Autumn 5K around Dorney Lake in 16 minutes 7 seconds.
Yuko Is World Champion
YUKO GORDON from Fairlands Valley Spartans is a marathon world champion. She won the World Age Group Championships which were incorporated in the London Marathon. Her time was 3 hours 25 minutes 30 seconds. She was 6 minutes 54 seconds ahead of her nearest rival Sharon Smith (3:32:24) and 13 minutes 8 seconds ahead of third placed Jeannie Rice from the USA 3:38:380.
Having cleaned up Yuko went straight back into London for the WANDA age group marathon party.
(Yuko’s victory was confirmed after last week’s release had been distributed. Twenty Spartans finished the race).
Yuko, our very proud World Champion celebrating in style!
Royal Parks Half
GERRY ROSEN has had a really difficult year with Covid and other issues but he beat his half marathon personal best by seven minutes with 2 hours 35 minutes 30 seconds at the Royal Parks Half Marathon.
Run With Willow
Two Spartans CAROLYN LINSELL and JIM BROWN ran the Willow Foundation 10K at Hatfield House on Sunday. Jim said it was a really relaxed and friendly wind down after the previous week’s London Marathon though he was woken up by a cattle grid at about five kilometres. Carolyn finished in 55 minutes 26 seconds, her third fastest 10K, and Jim in 58:20. Carolyn was 39th and Jim 51st out of the 131 runners. This was a mixed terrain event with the start very close to Hatfield Station.
Carolyn & Jim at the Willow 10K
Inspired by the London and Manchester Marathons? Here Comes The Stevenage Half!
Inspired by the London and Manchester Marathons? Now you can be one of hundreds running in Stevenage on Sunday 21st November as entries for the town’s half marathon are open.
With only six weeks to go to the Stevenage Half Marathon it’s time to start getting ready and entered. This year the race will be on Sunday 21st November (a couple of weeks later than usual).
Although many were enjoying an England Athletics track training session at Ridlins or preparing for races the next day a warm October morning saw twenty two Fairlands Valley Spartans attend Parkrun events.
In Stevenage, CHARLOTTE KEARNEY ran a personal best (PB) time of 29 minutes and 44 secondss, completing the course in the top 40 females. On her 75th Parkrun outing, GAIL MACKIE finished as the 8th female in 25 mins and 32 secs closely followed by ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER in 25 mins and 33 secs (9th female). TOBY ECCLESHALL was the first male Spartan to complete the course in 22 minutes and 13 seconds.
Elsewhere MICHAEL O’KEEFE and JAMES McSWEENY respectively ran the Henlow Bridge Lakes and Hillsborough Forest routes for the first time in 28 mins and 48 secs and 24 mins and 08 secs.
HELEN HARRIS and JIM BROWN were both running their 60th parkruns.
(All the Spartans running parkruns on Saturday are included near the end of this release).
Time To Get Muddy
The cross country season starts this Sunday 17th October with a Sunday League race at Cheshunt.
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
