British Masters One Mile Challenge
By 10a.m. Monday morning a magnificent 39 Spartans had already recorded times for their one mile challenge. Participants had until Sunday evening 7th Match to complete their race.
YUKO GORDON WON her category. She took first place in the women’s 65 plus age group with 6 minutes 58 seconds and was 879th overall out of 1210 finishers. She led the Spartans women’s team to second in that category with CATHY CRAIG in 8:21 and JAN FRY in 8:48. Their total time of 24:07 compared well with the winners 23:14 and second place in 23:16.
The provisional results show that the 38 Spartans were
Position | Name | Time | Cat Place | Comments |
31 | JASON ANDERSON | 4:49 | 12 | |
58 | ANDREW PATTERSON | 4:56 | 27 | |
79 | SIMON JACKSON | 5:01 | 17 | |
225 | DAN HUKIN | 5:26 | 53 | |
250 | STEFFAN FORD | 5:29 | 66 | |
365 | PAUL SHELLEY | 5:45 | 55 | |
489 | CRAIG WILSON | 5:57 | 99 | |
500 | SUZY HAWKINS | 5:58 | 16 | 16th FV45 |
538 | BRIAN WHITE | 6:02 | 11 | 11th MV65 |
607 | DAVID STEPHENSON | 6:12 | 58 | |
673= | ALISON WOOD | 6:20 | 20 | 20th FV50 |
673= | STEVEN DOBNER | 6:20 | 128 | |
696 | DANIEL BATES | 6:24 | 104 | |
722 | PETER SMITH | 6:30 | 74 | |
767 | LEE PICKERSGILL | 6:38 | 107 | |
880= | SUSAN McANENY | 6:58 | 51 | |
880= | YUKO GORDON | 6:58 | 1 | 1st FV65. 2nd team. |
904 | TRACY PEZ | 7:03 | 68 | |
920 | HAZEL SMITH | 7:08 | 70 | |
925 | KEN JUDE | 7:09 | 92 | |
928= | NICK KLEANTHOUS | 7:10 | 93 | |
928= | MARIAN MORLEY | 7:10 | 33 | |
934 | FIONA CLARKE | 7:11 | 56 | |
948 | ZOE JACKSON | 7:15 | 48 | |
958 | JON SYPULA | 7:18 | 140 | |
977 | NIKKI WILBY | 7:21 | 51 | |
1010 | KELLY EVANS | 7:31 | 53 | |
1034 | KARTIK SHARMA | 7:40 | 128 | |
1051 | NICOLA ANDERSSON | 7:45 | 48 | |
1055 | JIM BROWN | 7:46 | 47 | |
1069 | ANDY PRIOR | 7:49 | 109 | |
1079 | KERSTIN WEINER | 7:53 | 51 | |
1129 | CATHY CRAIG | 8:21 | 14 | 2nd team FV65. |
1147 | WENDY THARANI | 8:36 | 99 | |
1157 | JAN FRY | 8:48 | 10 | 2nd team FV65. 10th FV70. |
1160 | LIZ CARVELL | 8:52 | 38 | |
1177 | PAUL HOLGATE | 9:23 | 53 | |
1193 | SALLY PICKLES | 10:19 | 54 | |
1201 | PAM TAYLOR | 11:15 | 56 |
They were competing in the British Masters Athletics Federation virtual one mile challenge.
Saturday’s Fly
386 runners from 71 clubs competed in Saturday morning’s Fly 5k event. The Spartan Seven were BRIAN WHITE who won his category with 21 minutes 16 seconds; JIM BROWN in 25:25; PENNY SCHENKEL in 29:29; NICK KLEANTHOUS in 29:48; LIZ CARVELL in 31:48; PAUL HOLGATE in 34:25; and STEPH BIGGAR in a new Fly 5K personal best (PB) of 36 minutes 23 seconds.
Position | Name | Time | Comments |
62 | BRIAN WHITE | 21:16 | 1st VM 65 plus. 3rd Fly. |
166 | JIM BROWN | 25:25 | 4th VM 65 plus. 24th Fly. |
280 | PENNY SCHENKEL | 29:29 | 17th Fly. |
289 | NICK KLEANTHOUS | 29:48 | 29th Fly. |
312 | LIZ CARVELL | 31:48 | 7th VW 60 plus. 8th Fly. |
347 | PAUL HOLGATE | 34:25 | 41st Fly. |
359 | STEPH BIGGAR | 36:23 | Fly PB. 2nd Fly. |
This was stripey Saturday and many Spartans running their Fly 5K; their one mile challenge or on training runs were wearing their club kit. CHLOE CHAPMAN and FIONA CLARKE enjoyed their stripey Saturday with a run around the Stevenage Heritage Trail.
On Sunday 14th March there will be a range of Fly virtual events from 5K to an ultra 50K.
Racing Round England
Fairlands Valley Spartans are racing round England. They started in Bristol and are running, walking or cycling 2,970 kilometres round the coasts and borders of the country.
By the end of Sunday 7th March three – BRIAN WHITE, PENNY SCHENKEL and JIM BROWN had all completed more than 1,000 kilometres.
Brian has crossed the Thames and is in Tilbury, Essex on 1,210 kilometres. Soon he will start on the long run up the east coast of England. Penny is 44 kilometres behind between Faversham and Sittingbourne on 1166. Having reached the Meridian Line for the first time in Peacehaven on Friday night Jim is very nearly in Kent at East Guldeford with 1040 kilometres.
SHARON CROWLEY, in fourth, is well through 500 miles and is in Brighton on 956 kilometres. Eight other Spartans are past 500 kilometres. They are KEN JUDE (760, Corfe Castle); CATHY CRAIG (737, Leaving Weymouth); HAZEL SMITH (734, Leaving Weymouth); LIZ CROWLEY (670, Branscombe); PAUL HOLGATE (611, Brixham); TRACY PEZ (578, Kingsbridge); LIZ CARVELL (547, Plymouth) and JON SYPULA (510, Fowey).
Nearly all the Spartans have turned the corner at Lands End. All aim to finish by the end of the year. The team total is 10,240.49 kilometres – the equivalent of going round the course more than three times.
Position | Name | Distance | Location |
1. | BRIAN WHITE | 1,210.3 km | Tilbury, Essex |
2. | PENNY SCHENKEL | 1,165.9 km | Between Faversham and Sittingbourne |
3. | JIM BROWN | 1,040.2 km | East Guldeford, East Sussex |
4. | SHARON CROWLEY | 955.7 km | Brighton |
5. | KEN JUDE | 759.6 km | Corfe Castle |
6. | CATHY CRAIG | 736.9 km | Leaving Weymouth |
7. | HAZEL SMITH | 733.7 km | Leaving Weymouth |
8. | LIZ CROWLEY | 670.3 km | Branscombe, South Devon |
9. | PAUL HOLGATE | 611.3 km | Brixham, Devon |
10. | TRACY PEZ | 577.9 km | Approaching Kingsbridge |
11. | LIZ CARVELL | 547.1 km | Plymouth |
12. | JON SYPULA | 510.4 km | Fowey, Cornwall |
13. | WENDY THARANI | 374.4 km | Nearing the turn in Cornwall |
14. | LEE PICKERSGILL | 346.7 km | Near Godrevy National Trust |
(Not) Parkrun
Many Spartans combined their effort to record a Fly 5K time with registering a (not) Parkrun effort. In addition THOMAS SAUKA notched up a fine 22 minutes 4 seconds in a (not) Parkrun solo run on Saturday. (Not) Parkruns can be run on any day of the week.
North America Done Now It’s Central and South America!
Virtually nothing stops Fairlands Valley Spartans and they have now run over 25,000 miles in 119 days in their relay race across North, Central and South America. Lockdown 2 – Briefly Tier 3 – Now Tier 4 and they continue into 2021.
Having covered the USA, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico they have now several days into South America and are moving on to Antofagasta in Chile. 53 members recorded a total of 311 miles on Saturday giving a total distance of 25,248 miles.
This challenge will end on Sunday 28th March, the first day of summertime and the day before it looks likely that group training can restart.