Fairlands Valley Spartans
Shorter, much shorter for some Spartans, at the 4 x 400 metre relay event in Welwyn Garden City on Thursday evening. Two FVS teams came out winners and 28 club members in seven teams were running.
MIKE JEFFS, MICHAEL FISHER, JAY PAPA and NICK GILL won senior male and overall with 4 minutes 6 seconds. Michael Fisher was third of the 104 runners with 58 seconds; Mike Jeffs and Nick Gill were fourth and fifth with 1 minute exactly.
Spartan women WON the veteran race with 6:11. Their team consisted of LIZ CROWLEY 1:24; SAM SUTTON 1:57; SHARON CROWLEY 1:36 and JO COOKSLEY 1:23.
It was second place in the senior race for TRACY JACKSON 1:35; GEORGIE HOOPER 1:17; MARIE COLUCCI 1:23 and GABRIELLE O’BRIEN 1:18. Georgie was tenth and Gabrielle eleventh out of all the women running.
Amanda Wins Handicap
AMANDA VICKERS won the Spartans handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday evening.
She smashed her PB (personal best) by 1:26 to finish in 32:46, with Alice Welch second woman (3rd overall) in a debut 5k time of 34:51 and Sam Gentry third woman (9th overall) in a new PB of 29:03.
The first man was new member Nic Cashman in 23:53, with Karl Shreeve second man with 29:05 and Kartik Sharma the third man in a SB (season’s best) time of 28:04.
Nathan Kirley was fastest man on the night, 26 seconds quicker than his previous best time in 18:56, with Kris Westcott 2nd quickest with 20:18 and Perri Gentry 3rd fastest in 20:28.
Oli Lacigova was quickest lady in 22:57, with Sally Reeve second fastest in 25:04 and Jackie Perry third in 25:43.
Time difference between 1st and last position was just 3:42.
In handicap races the slowest runners, on recent form start first, and the others follow at intervals appropriate to the performances. In theory if no-one improves or slows down everyone will finish together.
Very well done the 19 Spartans who took part in this month’s Handicap 5k and a big thank you to Mark Freeman for his much appreciated assistance.
The next handicap 5K will be on Thursday 19th June.
Stort Five
CHARLIE ARNOLD ran the Stort 5 mile race at Cammas Farm, Hatfield Broad Oak
He was eighth in 37:25.
Colchester Zoo Duo
Jess Clarke ran the Colchester Zoo Stampede 10K.
She finished 483rd out of the 1,857 finishers in 55 minutes 24 seconds.
Parkrun Highlights Saturday 17th May
High numbers again at Stevenage parkrun with 572 finishers.
KIRK NDUGU was second in 17 minutes 15 seconds (17:15) and SIMON JACKSON fifth in 19:43. SHARON CROWLEY enjoyed herself continuing her recent improvement at 228th with 28:35. JIM BROWN and PENNY SCHENKEL enjoyed the last time they could wear their Mayor and Mayoress T shirts with 29 minutes 11 seconds. Jim broke the unofficial world mayor chain record the previous week.
ANNABELLE WHITE was the fastest female from Fairlands with 27:57.
55 Spartans ran parkruns on Saturday. Spartans elsewhere included JOHN HARRIS at the Rothay Park parkrun, Ambleside. He finished 13th in 21:18.
Stevenage parkrun will celebrate its ninth birthday on Saturday 24th May. There’s a celebration and a Where’s Wally? theme.
Stevenage Phoenix Running Club
GCR 4 x 400m relays
On Thursday 15th May, Stevenage Phoenix took part in the free relay event, graciously hosted by Garden City Runners. This year eight members represented the club and made up two teams – one men’s senior and one mixed vets. First up were the “Phoenix Flyers” in wave 2, comprising of Melissa Tanti, Martin Wasley, Emma Wick and Conor O’Neill. Martin managed to shave one second off from his time last year and the team finished with a combined time of 5:56.
Next up in wave 3 were the “Phoenix Knights” with Ben Murphy, Alex Wasley, Shaun Pinner and John Harris. Alex was the second fastest runner of the evening and shaved 2 seconds off his time from last year. Ben managed to take off an impressive 5 seconds from last year. The knights finished in a combined time of 4:29.
Melissa Tanti 01:32
Martin Wasley 01:28
Emma Wick 01:37
Conor O’Neill 01:18
Ben Murphy 01:05
Alex Wasley 00:57
Shaun Pinner 01:12
John Harris 01:12
UTS 50K
Ultra Trail Snowdonia is a 56km race that racks up over 3400 metres of elevation and sees runners cover four “difficult but rewarding” climbs: Bwlch Glas (Finger Stone), Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon, Mynydd Mawr and Moel Eilio. On Saturday 17th May, Lewis Green took part in the event for a third time and Jodie Kantas joined him for her first.
Jodie said that “it was the most technically challenging race I’ve ever done. Loved it, of course, but I don’t want to look at another hill for a while”. Lewis hadn’t run since March, yet managed to achieve a course best time by four minutes… those steep incline treadmill workouts clearly paid off. Jodie and Lewis completed the challenge in 11:43:30 and 13:01:02 respectively.
The Phoenix 5 – volunteer edition
This week we held two events for club members who volunteered on 11th May, to run the race together, with marshals to make sure no one went the wrong way. A special mention to Martin Wasley, who brought along some water and cups for runners on the hot Tuesday evening. Neal Crawley and Alex Wasley clearly loved the route, as they willingly ran it three times this week. Congratulations to Pradeep on completing his first EVER race. Many members achieved course bests and PBs. Below are everyone’s times (in no particular order).
Paul Smith 41:46
Richard Moore 39:03
David Poulter 51:18
Kerry Cunnane 49:29
Simona Leadbetter 48:57
Ashley Bates 41:35
John Harris 42:37
Katka Laughton 47:21
Kath Phoenix 38:38
Ian Young 37:05
Gavin Cooper 47:25
Hayden Cooper 47:12
Ben Murphy 39:58
Graham Eden 35:48
Andy Liddle 38:39
Melissa Tanti 44:45
Neil Homewood 47:40
Katie Mitham 39:58
Martin Harris 35:53
Jon Boe 45:48
Ken Hall 43:53
Caitlin Evans 46:08
Phil Gover 46:41
Graeme Hulstrom 54:38
Conor O’Neill 35:42
Andy Chapman 39:09
Eren Ilseven 35:38
George Bradshaw 38:11
Nicholas West 40:03
Pradeep Sundaram 51:06
