Fairlands Valley Spartans
County 5k
Twenty two Spartans raced in the County 5K open road championships at Hatfield on Wednesday evening. Eight were rewarded with new personal bests (PBs) so well worth the trip. ASHLEY JOHNSON was eighth woman in the county and first in her category in the open race with a new PB of 19 minutes 10 seconds (19:10). ALISON WOOD was also a Spartan category winner with 21:10 and YUKO GORDON was second in hers with 22:39.
VICKY ARCHER took a huge chunk, three minutes, off her 5K personal best when she finished in 23:38. Meanwhile MEGAN SUTTON wanted to get under 28 minutes and did it with something to spare with her new 27:10 PB, an improvement by 1:19.
The fastest Spartan was MIKE JEFFS 57th out of the 258 finishers in 18:29 with ROSS GALLAGHER close behind in 18:31, a PB by three seconds, and PAUL SHELLEY chasing in with 18:42, a new PB by 21 seconds.
TERRY SAWYER improved by 2:20 to 19:44; ANDY PRIOR by five seconds to 22:42; and MATT TUTTON by 19 to 23:40.
The next Hatfield 5K race is this Wednesday evening 4th September.
FVS Handicap 5K 29th August
The next evening, Thursday, the club held a 5K handicap race and 17 Spartans took part.
The winners were new members Sam & Perry Gentry, six and a half minutes ahead of handicap in 38:28 followed by Marleen Van Zwieten, beating her handicap by 4:36 in 40:24. Steve Tinsley finished second man in a year best time of 28:21 with Rose Sutton third lady in a new personal best time of 29:53 and Peter Sach third man in 29:54.
The fastest runner on the night was Nathan Kirley in a new personal best of 19:22, 1:53 quicker than his previous handicap 5k, with new member Michael Fisher second quickest in 21:03 and Craig Bacon third fastest in 22:41. Judy King was quickest woman in 29:27, 42 seconds faster than her previous handicap 5k, with Rose Sutton second quickest and Liz Carvell third fastest in a year best time of 31:23.
Handicap races are won by the best improvers. The slower runners, based on previous recent performances, start first and others at intervals based on their results try to catch them before the finish.
Next month’s final evening Handicap 5k of the year will be on Thursday 19th September.
Fairlands Five at Big Half
The heat in London made the race that bit harder but a famous five from Fairlands made a really good job of Sunday’s “Big Half.” STUART MEAD was 958th out of nearly 17,000 runners in 1:30:09; TERRY SAWYER 1,650th in 1:36:26, ROBERT WRIGHT 8,453rd in 2:07:53 and running her first half marathon race MEGAN SUTTON was 10,537th in 2:17:53. SAMANTHA SUTTON came in with 3:03:41.
Serpentine 30th August
It was warm, sunny with a light breeze and excellent visibility in Hyde Park on Friday. That enabled JIM BROWN to run his fastest road 5K this year. 27 minutes 23 seconds (27:23) in the Last Friday of the Month event.
Dorney for Alison and Paul
On a warm day ALISON and PAUL SHELLEY ran Sunday’s Dorney Lake Half Marathon and both won their age groups. Paul in 1:30:46 and Alison in 2 hours 5 minutes 52 seconds.
Speeding Up
MIKE JEFFS is getting his speed back. He finished the hot sweaty and gruelling Cambridge Biomedical Centre 10K in 39:28.
Parkrun Highlights 31st August Hawaii Five – O
In case of adversity go with the flow, or maybe the wave. Stevenage parkrun had a hacking attack and found themselves temporarily named Hawaii 5 – O. They decided to own it and had a theme of Hawaiian wear. Lots of Spartans joined in with that fun and dug out those shirts, shorts and Hawaiian leis.
24 Spartans ran and three of the top five females were from FVS. ASHLEY KING first in 20:52; SUZY HAWKINS third in 21:28 and GAIL MACKIE fifth in 22:26.
GRANT RAMSAY maintains his record as a top ten finisher. This time he was fifth in 18:49. There were 439 finishers at Stevenage including 174 women. Local event #362. Up considerably on the previous week.
Parkrun started at Bushy Park in 2004. That event ran for the 1,000th time on Saturday and there were thousands of runners. The 20th anniversary of parkruns will be in October.
Spartans elsewhere included YUKO GORDON with a season’s best 22:18 – that’s 105.01% – at Storeys Field; JOHN HARRIS 23:15; RYAN RIDELL 29:34; GEORGIE HOOPER 30:19 and NICK GILL 30:29 at Letchworth; MATTHEW NEWTON 26:18 at Pymmes; PETE SMITH 26:37 at North Yorkshire Water; DANIEL SUTTON 27:22 at Rutland Water; ANDY JAY 27:42 at Hunstanton Promenade; ANNABELLE WHITE 35:11 and CHLOE CHAPMAN 35:12 at Aldenham; NICOLA PATTMAN 33:25 at Gorleston Cliffs; JONATHAN JONES 37:24 and DZENANA TOPIC 37:25 at Wimpole Estate; and DARRYL STEVENS 44:44 at Banstead Woods.
Stevenage Phoenix
ParkRun
This week we had 17 runners at 7 locations. Two of our members ventured down to Bushy Park for a very special run as it was the Park’s 1000th event. Stevenage ParkRun embraced a Hawaiian theme after their Facebook profile was hacked earlier this week and changed to ‘Hawaii 5-0”. Club member David Poulter took on the role of tail walker and kept the energy high.
Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta Road Race
On Saturday 31st August, Garry Wallace took on the 4.5mile Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta Road Race. The race started and finished at Britannia Royal Naval College Main Gate and some of the route went through MOD property, usually closed off to the general public. Garry was pleased to come 3rd in his age group, tackling 731ft of elevation in 46mins 55secs.
Rat Race Sea to Summit – Ben Nevis
This weekend Peter Tungate took on the almighty Ben Nevis for his latest race. The journey began with a pleasant 4-mile run at sunrise on a compact track, but quickly turned difficult with a 3-mile stretch through boggy marshland. After the first checkpoint, the route involved a 6-mile run on the West Highland Way, offering stunning views of Ben Nevis.
The climb up Ben Nevis was gruelling, involving treacherous boulder fields that posed a high risk of injury. Although the summit was only 18 miles in, the 11 mile descent was equally challenging, with rough terrain making progress slow. After passing the north face of the mountain, the final stretch involved a tiring 4-mile run on a Land Rover track, with feet and ankles aching from the effort. Despite the tough conditions, the camaraderie among participants, supportive marshals, and breathtaking views made the ordeal worthwhile. Pete has given himself a short rest period before his next challenge in four weeks: a 32-mile trek up and down Scafell Pike.
RunThrough Thorpe Park 10k
This weekend Zoe Shreeve entered a race with the added bonus of theme park rides included in the entry. Zoe must have been eager to go on the rides because she managed an impressive PB of 57min 47secs, shaving 2mins off her previous time.
Summertime Windsor trail run
On Sunday 1st September, Katka Laughton and Simona Leadbetter headed to Windsor for a sunny and scenic 10k trail run. Katka completed the course in 53mins 20secs and came third in her age category. Simona crossed the finish line in 01hr 05mins and 04secs. The pair then enjoyed some generously sized post-race pastries.
The Big half
On Sunday 1st September, three runners headed to London for the highly popular Big Half. This event saw around 20,000 people taking to the streets of London. The 13.1 mile course weaves through London from Tower Bridge to the iconic Cutty Sark in Greenwich.
Conor O’Neill was first home with a PB time of 1hr 47mins 48secs. Followed by Nick West with 2hrs 04mins 40secs. Denise Ricot completed the trio in 2hrs 48mins 11secs.
Stevenage Striders
A Busy Week of Racing and Multi-Sport Events for Stevenage Striders
This past week saw a flurry of activity, including some exciting multi-sport events, and a fantastic showing at Parkrun where Hawaiian shirts seemed to bring out the best in our runners.
Parkrun Highlights:
At Stevenage, several members set new personal bests (PBs). Congratulations to everyone—maybe we should consider making the Hawaiian theme a regular occurrence!
- Peter Moye: 19:31 PB
- Steve Moore: 21:44 PB with an impressive 76.46% age grade
- Ben Epps: 23:53 PB
- Neil McKinnon: 24:07 PB
- Rhian Bethell: 27:18 PB
- Felix Azagbadah: 27:26 PB
- Paula Heyes: 49:53 Park walk PB
At Westmill, Gary Sherin reached an incredible milestone with his 250th Parkrun, finishing in 30:06—a huge achievement! He was joined by Russ Andrews (30:04) and Ken Marshall (30:05), who finished first in his age group. Jamie Cecil also had a great day, securing a course PB of 20:27 and finishing in 2nd place
Race Round-Up:
- Esperanza Castro kicked off the Hatfield 5k series with a strong performance, finishing in 26:35—well done!
- At the Duck N Dash hosted by Freedom Tri, Ben Ward completed the event in a fantastic time of 32:33, which included a 400m swim (07:09) followed by a 5k run (24:18). Great job, Ben!
- Jess and Harry Ives-Keeler competed in a Run Archery event at Redhill Archers. The event involved a 400m run, shooting at four targets while standing, running another 400m, shooting four more targets while kneeling, and finishing with a final 400m sprint.
- Harry finished 3rd among males with a time of 7:47.
- Jess not only placed 2nd overall and 1st among females with a time of 7:29, but she was also part of the 1st place relay team! What a fun and challenging competition!
Sunday club long runs
A gathering of Striders ran round the streets of Luton this morning in search of Hares and Tortoises and we managed 58/88 with just under 11km accomplished!!
It was a cracking little route, some cute and hilarious sculptures and awesome company!!
