News Release                                                                    14th June 2009

500 NOT OUT FOR ROGER

Fairlands Valley Spartans’ ROGER BIGGS has completed his 500th full marathon – a fantastic achievement.

Roger travelled to the Black Hills Region of South Dakota to run the Mickelson Trail Marathon.  The course was a point to point entirely on trails from the hamlet of Rochford to the town of Deadwood, famous for Wild Bill Hickock & Calamity Jane.  It was a race of two 2 halves, as the highest point of the course came at halfway at 6200ft, before dropping down to Deadwood at around 4700ft.

Roger produced a consistent run to finish in 3:57:01, picking up the award for the 1st Vet (60+).  He was 77th overall out of the 371 finishers.

To commemorate the occasion of Roger's 500th marathon, the race awarded him a framed & engraved poster.

The omens for Roger’s 500th were not good as the morning started with torrential rain. Fortunately this reduced to a manageable drizzle for the race before returning with renewed vigour about 2 hours after the finish.  The forecast snow never made it to Deadwood, but it was coming down steadily in the afternoon on the drive to Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  The race finished in Deadwood, a gold rush town where both Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane both met their maker.  Some of Roger’s friends in the 100 Marathon Club have always maintained he is a bit of a cowboy so what better place to end?

Roger says that each of his 100th marathons have been in the USA as follows:

100 - Boston, MA, April 1996; 200 - Tulsa, OK, November 2001; 300 - Portland, ME, October 2004; 400 - Minot, ND, April 2007 and now 500 – Deadwood.

This was his 32nd consecutive week of running a marathon or longer!

Springfield Striders Five Mile Race

Eight Spartans enjoyed a gorgeous evening when they ran the Springfield Striders five mile race on Friday.  This was an undulating rural race on very quiet roads just north of Chelmsford.  The event finished with a sprint to the pub sign of the Green Man in Howe Street.

JIM BROWN was the first Spartan finisher,  second “Vet 55” and 53rd overall in 33:14, just ahead of RICHARD SIDLIN who was 57th in 33:40.

Club Chair MARK GLADING continued his improved with a new personal best (PB) of 34 minutes 24 seconds – 1 minute 43 seconds better than his previous best.  He was 65th.

TRACY PEZ was 101st in 36:38 while ANDY JAY took a 3 minutes 17 seconds chunk off his PB when he finished 125th in 38:06.  PAUL HOLGATE ran a season’s best of 38 minutes 20 seconds.  IAN LARMAN ran his first ever five mile race in 42 minutes exactly and CALLY GLADING took 49 seconds of her PB with her time of 42:15.

Position      Name      Time      Comments
53rd      JIM BROWN      33:14      2nd Mvet55
57th      RICHARD SIDLIN      33:40      
65th      MARK GLADING      34:24      PB (1:43)
101st      TRACY PEZ      36:38      
125th      ANDY JAY      38:06      PB (3:17)
131st      PAUL HOLGATE      38:20      SB (0:21)
188th      IAN LARMAN      42:00      New. First 5 miler.
192nd      CALLY GLADING      42:15      PB (0:49)

There were 256 finishers.

Jim’s Birthday Run

Fairlands Valley Spartans’ press officer JIM BROWN celebrated his birthday by running in the St. Albans Half Marathon.  Despite running a good race on the Friday evening he was pleased with his 123rd out of 2,020 finishers position overall and time of 1 hour 34 minutes 46 seconds on a testing course on a hot day.

SAM PRETTY was third woman under 35 in the race and improved on her previous time at St. Albans by about three minutes to finish 139th in 1 hour 35 minutes 37 seconds..  Despite the conditions ALISON HOPWOOD ran another 1:46 half marathon and was 429th in 1 hour 46 minutes 35 seconds.  RON COHEN and MICHELLE LONG were 1851st and 1852nd in 2:25:27 and 2:25:28.

Position      Name      Time      Comments
123rd      JIM BROWN      1:34:46      21 again!
139th      SAM PRETTY (F)      1:35:37      PB.  3rd Female under 35.
429th      ALISON HOPWOOD (F)      1:46:35      
1851st      RON COHEN      2:25:27      
1852nd      MICHELLE LONG (F)      2:25:28      

There were 2,020 finishers.

Barton 10K

Spartan TRACY STILES found Sunday’s Barton 10K hot and hilly but on a very nice route through the countryside.  She finished in 1 hour 7 minutes 36 seconds.

The Midweek Road Race League

Last year Fairlands Valley Spartans were delighted to win promotion to the top division of the Mid Week Road Race League and turned out huge numbers for each event.  After 124 different Spartans ran in the first two races the club is preparing for the third fixture in this year’s series which will be in Chingford this Wednesday 17th June.  The four counting events are all around ten kilometres.  If you want to support your local club why not join Fairlands Valley Spartans now?  See www.fvspartans.org.uk for details.

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the: 

•      Springfield Five Mile Race on Friday 12th June.
•      St. Albans Half Marathon on Sunday 14th June.
•      Third Mid Week Road Race League event in Chingford on Wednesday evening 17th June.
•      Serpentine 5K on Friday 26th June.
•      Borehamwood Half Marathon on Sunday 28th June.
•      Fourth Mid Week Road Race League event in St Albans on Thursday 2nd July.
•      Cranfield Five Mile Race on Friday 3rd July.
•      The Midweek “Mob Match” at Trent Park on Wednesday 15th July.
•      Fairlands Valley Off Road Challenge on Sunday 19th July.
•      Milton Keynes Half Marathon on Sunday 19th July.
•      Midweek Relays in Fairlands Valley Park on Tuesday 21st July.
•      Open and County Ten Mile Championships for Veterans at WGC on Sunday 6th September.
•      Silver Jubilee Five Mile Race in Fairlands Valley Park on Sunday 13th September.
•      Silver Jubilee Gala Ball on Saturday 17th October.
•      Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 1st November.

Join The Spartans

Live in or near Stevenage?  Like running?  Fairlands Valley Spartans is your local running club and is on the up!  The club has well over 230 members and encourages participation by all.  The Spartans have a varied training programme to suit those who want to run 5 kilometres through to full marathons. 

The Spartans weekday training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  Last year the club moved to better, more modern facilities at the gymnastics centre Marriotts School – a Sports College, Telford Avenue, Stevenage (SG2 0AN).  Meet them there at 7p.m.

The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday and 7p.m. on Thursdays.

Most long Sunday morning training sessions start 9.30a.m. sharp.  Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, Stevenage most Saturdays from 9.15a.m.  There are events to enter every Sunday.  Newcomers are very welcome – those who have not done very much running yet might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session. 

Try a few sessions before joining.  Membership is only £25 per year.  Concessions are available.  Subscriptions and membership forms should be sent to Fairlands Valley Spartans c/o 19 Bellamy Close, Knebworth, Herts, SG3 6EH.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (01438 354505 or 0793 968 7509), Chris King (07779 880 522) or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S

More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 01438 354505 / 0793 968 7509, Chris King (Secretary) 07779 880 522 (christine-king@orange-ftgroup.com)

www.fvspartans.org.uk