News Release 3rd March 2013
CROSS COUNTRY MEDALS FOR SPARTANS
Silver for Iris; Bronze for Julie, Rhiannon and Simon
Fairlands Valley Spartans made a real leap forward in this season’s cross country league series. This was emphasised by some great news in the individual results.
SIMON JACKSON won BRONZE as third senior man; RHIANNON GRIFFIN won BRONZE as third senior woman in only her first season; JULIE SIMMONS took BRONZE in the women (55 plus) category and IRIS HORNSEY took SILVER in the women (65 plus) competition.
Other top twenty Spartan finishers included TONY OSBORNE 5th veteran (70 plus); HANNAH DAVISON tenth woman (35 plus); ANN TRYSSESOONE tenth woman (45 plus); NIKKI ANDREWS 12th senior woman; KAREN LIDDLE 12th woman (45 plus); JIM BROWN 13th veteran (60 plus) man; TRICIA HOPPER 13th woman (45 plus); ADRIAN DONNELLY 15th senior man; MARK CHEADLE 20th senior man.
All those taking part had great fun and look forward to encouraging others to join in next time. The very last fixture of the 2012-2013 season will be the Hertfordshire County Cross Championships for veterans at Willian, near Letchworth, on 17th March. Entries should be submitted now.
Silverstone Half Marathon
Ten Spartans joined more than 6,000 other runners for the 13.1 miles around Silverstone Circuit. Despite a chilly breeze it was otherwise a good day for the half marathon.
PETE SMITH was the first Spartan, 452nd out of the 6,188 finishers in 1 hour 35 minutes 22 seconds.
Davie Stafford 482 1:35:53; Craig Bacon 853rd in 1:41:04; Katy Jinks 1,033rd in 1:43:01; Vishal Shah 1,193rd in 1:44:21; Paul Forde 2,001st in 1:52:11; Andy Ingram-Tedd 3,107th in 2:00:59; Paul Holgate 3,369th in 2:03:35 (5 mins faster than Watford); Craig Snowden 4,042nd in 2:11:04 ; and Doug Hall 5,155th in 2 hours 27 minutes 15 seconds.
Downhill for the Most Distant Race?
Sunday saw ROGER BIGGS running the Mountain to Surf Marathon in New Zealand. This was based in New Plymouth on the West Coast of North Island.
The course ran from the Edge of Egmont National Park at 460 metres (the gateway to Mount Taranaki at 2518 meters) to sea level at Waitara. While the course still provided some testing climbs, the net loss of height made this a fast course.
After a week of wall to wall sunshine, the weather relented, and the race actually started in the rain, although 2 hours past the 7:10am start, the weather was back to normal, providing a sticky 2nd half.
Roger was pleased to finish in 3:48:32, his best marathon since April 2010.
Roger asks if this was the furthest race from Stevenage run by a Spartan? The total distance from Stevenage to New Plymouth was approx 12,300 miles.
Chiltern Kanter
SHARON CROWLEY, KAREN LIDDLE, TRISH HOPPER, CHRIS LEIGH and BARRY KING all ran together in the off road Chiltern Kanter to finish in 6 hours 45 minutes ! It was very hilly, very muddy and certainly a very tough marathon !
It was Sharon’s 185th marathon, Trish’s 31st, Chris’ 30th, Karen’s 16th and Barry’s 6th Marathon!
Grant Doubles Back
GRANT RAMSAY was fifth in the Swavesey Village Half Marathon, near Cambridge on Sunday. His excellent time of 1 hour 21 minutes 38 seconds included an extra 0.7 miles, as one of the marshals sent the lead runners the wrong way. This was at 3 miles and Grant had to double back.
Pitsford Trail Marathon
On Sunday CAROL PAUL and MIKE NEWBITT ran the Pitsford Trail Marathon which was 4 laps of the Pitsford Reservoir which is just north of Northampton. A lovely event and the sun even came out. Carol completed the course in 4:42:02 and Mike in 5:03:50
Coming Events
Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:
- County Veterans Cross Country Championships at Willian, Letchworth on Sunday 17th March 2013. Enter now.
- Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 28th March.
- Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 21st April.
- Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 21st July.
- Relays in the Park on Thursday 25th July.
- Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3rd November.