Fairlands Valley Spartans WON the team award at Sunday’s Hitchin 10K. They had 25 out of the 518 finishers with several top twenty positions.
JONATHAN PARR was second overall and first in his category with a fantastic 34 minutes 24 seconds. KELVIN BEYIOKU was fifth in 36:42.
In her first ever 10K race ASHLEY JOHNSON won her category and was fourth woman overall in 42 minutes 37 seconds.
NICK GILL took eight seconds off his 10K personal best finishing in 41 minutes 28 seconds and he was 18 seconds quicker than the same race last year.
ADRIAN DONNELLY was 13th man in 39:33; MARIE COLUCCI 18th woman in 47:51 and GEORGIE HOOPER was twentieth woman in 48:28.
SHARON CROWLEY ran her first official 10k in a very long time! She finished in 1 hour 5 minutes 21 seconds. JIM BROWN improved his St Albans 10K time by exactly one minute when he finished in 56:29. He said it was great seeing so many Spartans at an event again.
The 25 Spartans were JONATHAN PARR 34:23; KELVIN BEYIOKU 36:41; ADRIAN DONNELLY 39:33; ROSS GALLACHER 40:19; NICK GILL 41:28; ASHLEY JOHNSON (F) 42:37; MARIE COLUCCI (F) 47:51; GEORGIE HOOPER (F) 48:28; ANDY JAY 50:28; VISH SHAH 50:49; LUKE GURNEY 51:29; ZOE JACKSON (F) 51:43; NIKKI WILBY (F) 51:51; KARK SHREEVE 54:46; SARAH ILLINGWORTH (F) 55:52; STEVE PIKE 55:54; JIM BROWN 56:29; MONICA SMITHSON (F) 1:02:01; CHRISTINE ZVEREV (F) 1:03:27; NICOLA PATTMAN (F) 1:04:13; STEVEN DOBNER 1:04:14; SHARON CROWLEY (F) 1:05:21; JONATHAN JONES 1:09:38; DZENANA TOPIC (F) 1:10:10 and SAMANTHA SUTTON (F) 1:12:40.
Milton Keynes Sub Four and PBs (Personal Bests for Hazel and Rob)
TIM ROBINSON and HAZEL SMITH ran the Milton Keynes marathon which was hotter than expected and had some sneaky hills towards the end.
Both were very pleased with their times, Tim 4:35:22 and Hazel 3 hours 59 minutes 40 seconds. It was a massive PB (personal best) of around 24 minutes from Hazel’s last marathon in October. Hazel says that joining the Spartans peak performance group and following the training plan from Steffan Ford has improved her overall fitness and pace. Hazel was over the moon to dip under 4 hours for the first time ever.
Also TRICIA HOPPER, KAREN LIDDLE and BARRY KING ran and completed the Milton Keynes Marathon. As with many people/runners this was their first marathon since Covid.
Tricia Hopper ran the 26.2 miles in 4:28:30, this was her 87th marathon.
Karen and Barry ran together in 5.55.34. Karen has now completed 76 marathons and Barry 56.
Spartan ROB WRIGHT ran a new personal best (PB) of 1:35:31 at the Milton Keynes Half Marathon 2022.
Belfast
CATHY CRAIG ran the Belfast Marathon on a cold dull day.
All went well until around mile 17 when she was a bit sick and the queasiness never really left her. Still, she managed a watch time of 5:29:47, which was just within her second target time of 5:30.
Vitality London 10k
DEBBIE BLANTERN ran the Vitality London 10K, her first race since December 2019. She was super happy with her time of 58 minutes 41 seconds.
She said this will give her a big confidence boost to get more races booked this year.
Having run the Hitchin 10K in 1:12:40 on Sunday SAMANTHA SUTTON ran the Vitality 10000 in a time of 1 hour 11 minutes 55 seconds.
Also in the London 10000 CHARLIE WHITE ran a new personal best (PB) of 38 minutes 46 seconds and ANNABELLE WHITE a “pregnant best” of 55:41.
Serpentine
JIM BROWN was at the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5K. Some amazing runners show up for these lunch-time races. Jim was 146th out of 166 with 27 minutes 46 seconds. Slowly knocking off a few seconds since coming back from illness. It was dry but cold and breezy.
Good News for YUKO
YUKO GORDON is out of action at the moment but received some good news from British Masters last week. Her half marathon record has been ratified as a new British record for women over 70.
She ran a gun time of 1:40:02 (chip time 1:39:58) at Bedford on 27th March this year. Yuko did run 1:37:50 last summer but it was a chip time (and not ratified) as a gun time was not available with Covid restrictions. The previous record was 1:40:43 (chip time 1:40:33) held by Angela Copson.
Parkrun Highlights 30th April
First Spartan home at Stevenage parkrun was TONY RANDFIELD on his 98th parkrun in 20.59.
SAM SIMMONS took a trip to Bedford and ran 25:51 on his first outing there. Sam may have clocked the longest “parkrun” this week running just over 16 miles with parkrun included.
A parkrun “first timer” event for JAMES MCSWEENEY at Letchworth (25:55)
MIKE REYNOLDS was at Panshanger (25:12) and ED HARE was at Lee on the Solent (23:25). DARRYL STEVENS was at Brockenhurst running 45.34.
Other parkrun results are below.
Stevenage parkrun
A total of 225 runners took part.
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Run Time |
| 12 | 11 | Tony RANDFIELD | 00:20:59 |
| 16 | 15 | Thomas SAUKA | 00:21:15 |
| 33 | 29 | Matt CLARKE | 00:23:14 |
| 92 | 75 | Nick KLEANTHOUS | 00:27:06 |
| 106 | 20 | Claire EMMERSON | 00:27:57 |
| 110 | 87 | Jim BROWN | 00:28:05 |
| 111 | 22 | Debbie BLANTERN | 00:28:08 |
| 112 | 88 | Steven DOBNER | 00:28:08 |
| 116 | 24 | Mo WARRILLOW | 00:28:21 |
| 117 | 91 | David PATTMAN | 00:28:22 |
| 131 | 34 | Fiona CLARKE | 00:29:37 |
| 165 | 49 | Caroline CROFT | 00:32:01 |
| 182 | 56 | Samantha SUTTON | 00:35:06 |
Tables.
Spartans at the Hitchin 10K.
| Pos | Cat | MF | BiB | Name | Category | Time | Chip | Grade | Comments |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 435 | Jonathan PARR | MV30 | 34:24 | 34:23 | 79.5% | 2nd overall. 1st M30. |
| 5 | 2 | 4 | 48 | Kelvin BEYIOKU | M20 | 36:42 | 36:41 | 72.8% | 5th overall. 2nd M20. |
| 13 | 5 | 12 | 159 | Adrian DONNELLY | MV40 | 39:38 | 39:33 | 71.5% | |
| 23 | 11 | 22 | 228 | Ross GALLAGHER | MV30 | 40:23 | 40:19 | 67.7% | |
| 35 | 17 | 34 | 204 | Nick GILL | MV30 | 41:33 | 41:28 | 64.5% | PB |
| 42 | 1 | 4 | 203 | Ashley JOHNSON | FV40 | 42:42 | 42:37 | 74.1% | Winner F40. 4th woman. |
| 117 | 4 | 18 | 116 | Marie COLUCCI | FV40 | 48:05 | 47:51 | 66.8% | |
| 125 | 9 | 20 | 270 | Georgie HOOPER | FV30 | 48:35 | 48:28 | 62.8% | |
| 167 | 16 | 139 | 629 | Andy JAY | MV50 | 50:43 | 50:28 | 63.5% | |
| 172 | 66 | 143 | 579 | Vishal SHAH | MV30 | 51:03 | 50:49 | 53.2% | |
| 187 | 68 | 156 | 221 | Luke GURNEY | MV30 | 51:57 | 51:29 | 51.4% | |
| 191 | 14 | 33 | 284 | Zoe JACKSON | FV30 | 52:12 | 51:43 | 59.5% | |
| 195 | 15 | 36 | 603 | Nikki WILBY | FV30 | 52:20 | 51:51 | 58.7% | |
| 259 | 34 | 201 | 524 | Karl SHREEVE | MV50 | 55:26 | 54:46 | 56.0% | |
| 283 | 7 | 70 | 281 | Sarah ILLINGWORTH | FV50 | 56:33 | 55:52 | 61.3% | |
| 286 | 6 | 215 | 448 | Stephen PIKE | MV60 | 56:35 | 55:54 | 59.6% | |
| 303 | 8 | 224 | 70 | Jim BROWN | MV60 | 57:03 | 56:29 | 62.6% | PCPB |
| 401 | 16 | 132 | 541 | Monica SMITHSON | FV50 | 1:02:46 | 1:02:01 | 58.7% | |
| 413 | 52 | 140 | 625 | Christine ZVEREV | FV30 | 1:03:55 | 1:03:27 | 48.3% | |
| 432 | 56 | 155 | 436 | Nicola PATTMAN | FV40 | 1:05:02 | 1:04:13 | 49.0% | |
| 433 | 86 | 278 | 157 | Steven DOBNER | MV40 | 1:05:03 | 1:04:14 | 45.4% | |
| 446 | 7 | 167 | 128 | Sharon CROWLEY | FV60 | 1:06:06 | 1:05:21 | 61.3% | |
| 471 | 52 | 287 | 294 | Jonathan JONES | MV50 | 1:10:23 | 1:09:38 | 45.3% | |
| 476 | 32 | 186 | 573 | Dzenana TOPIC | FV50 | 1:10:55 | 1:10:10 | 51.3% | |
| 488 | 69 | 193 | 560 | Samantha SUTTON | FV40 | 1:13:28 | 1:12:40 | 45.0% |
518 finishers. 25 Spartans.