News Release                                                                 12th July 2009

IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART JOIN THE SPARTANS
It’s official!  More Spartans join in than any other club.  Plus the Spartan Top Twenties

Race For Life

Thousands of women took part in the Stevenage Race for Life events on Saturday and Sunday.  That would not have been possible without the dozens of Spartans who helped with marshalling and other vital tasks.

And over 36 Spartans, or members of the Spartans Starter Group, took part in the 5K races at the weekend.  Many of the ladies running have recently joined the Spartans ‘Starter Group’ as complete beginners, with the specific intention to train to run the Stevenage Race for Life.  All completed their goal to run all or most of the course.

Others joined the ‘Starter Group’ last year, after running the Race for Life, as they wanted to continue to run and train with a group to improve their times. These include sisters Anna O Sullivan and Laura Stafford who improved on their last year’s times by an amazing 6 and 7 minutes respectively and Emma Welch who also took a fantastic 6 minutes off her time from last year, despite running the Race with her daughter as well the previous day. The biggest improvement since joining the Starter Group after last year’s Race for Life was by Angela Moore who improved by a staggering 9 minutes.

And the fastest woman on Saturday and Sunday was a Spartan.  KERRY JAMES in 21 minutes 56 seconds on Saturday and SAM PRETTY in 21 minutes 15 seconds on Sunday.  

Full Spartan results are as follows:

Name      Time      Comments      Position
Saturday                  
Kerry James      21:56      Race Winner      1st
Karen Liddle      28:32            
Anna O’ Sullivan      30:14      6 min improvement on last year      
Rena Dudhia      30:30            
Helen O’Sullivan      32:50            
Kerry Settlefield      32:53            
Laura Stafford      33:50      7 min improvement on last year      
Nikki & Olivia Nation      35:00      Ran with Daughter      
Emma & Alice Welch      42:00      Ran with Daughter      
                 
Sunday                  
Sam Pretty      21:15      Race Winner      1st
Niki Andrews      23:48            
Sarah Kearsey      24:40            
Penny Armstrong      28:53            
Debbie Thompson      29:20            
Catherine Marsden Jones      29:47            
Marianne Silsby      29:50            
Lisa Muldoon      32:30            
Maria Rushton      32:42            
Lisa Jerrom      32:40            
Theresa Birch      33:00            
Nikki Milton      33:23            
Hasna Chanon      33:30            
Mandy Digweed      33:48            
Julie Potter      35:00            
Angela Moore      35:52      9 min improvement on last year      
Emma Welch      36:40      6 min improvement on last year. 2nd Race for Life of weekend      
Katie Bradford      38:00            
Stephanie Larman      39:04            
Tracy Pemberton      39:40            
Ruth & Lucy Bradford      40:00      Ran with Daughter      
Susan Keen      41:50            
Tricia Hopper      43:25      Ran with Sister, Theresa      
Charlotte Garrett      44:30            
Lynne McLaughlin      44:30            
Claire Smith      44:30            
Terri Barker      53:00      Ran with 8 year old daughter      

Spartans Turn Them Out – Dave’s a Winner and the Spartan Top Twenties

If there was an award for participation in the Mid Week Road Race League Fairlands Valley Spartans would have run away with it.  They had more members taking part in the series and were the only club in either of the divisions to have more women runners than men.  134 different Spartans took part – 68 women and 66 men.  Their nearest rivals were St Albans Striders with 74 men but only 33 women.  Total participation from all thirteen clubs was 968 – 598 men and 370 women.

Spartan DAVE BOWKER won the Division One individual “Vet 50” title.  BARBARA WILSON was third in her age group.  Their awards will be presented after the “Mob Match” 9K which will be in Trent Park, North London this Wednesday evening 15th July.  Here are the top twenty Spartan women and men over the four race series:

Top Twenty Women

Position      Name      Total Points      Comments
22      SAM PRETTY      151      
30      LEANNE HYAMS      180      
35      MARIE COLUCCI      215      
39      ALISON HOPWOOD      241      
48      CHRIS MCCULLOUGH      283      
50      NIKKI ANDREWS      286      
59      DAWN EASBY      302      
63      CHRIS KING      311      
69      SARA O'CALLAGHAN      325      
70      CLAIRE HADDLETON      328      
74      BARBARA WILSON      334      3rd in age group
75      SHARON CROWLEY      341      
77      TRACY PEZ      345      
80      NIKKI NATION      353      
84      JACQUI CONNOLLY      367      
89      JENNIFER ROBERSTON      374      
90      LYDIA CLARKSON      379      
92      FRAN LEVY      381      
94      SUE LEIGH      383      
99      BEV HARLOW      394      

Top Twenty Men

Position      Name      Total Points      Comments
6      SIMON JACKSON      71      
17      DAVID BOWKER      180      1st Vet 50
19      ANDREW PATTERSON      187      
28      TODD GRAY      242      
36      DUNCAN MARSHALL      273      
42      RICHARD BATE      299      
47      JAMIE LAIRD      304      
48      SIMON BELL      305      
53      STEVE SMITHSON      319      
66      GRAHAM BLACKBURN      387      
69      JIM BROWN      395      
73      PETE SMITH      408      
75      RICHARD HAZELDENE      416      
85      MARK BEASLEY      449      
86      BEN HARRIS      449      
89      ANDY BRAMALL      452      
95      PAUL CARTER      467      
98      MICHAEL GREEN      477      
107      DUNCAN CHOOSEY      508      
115      MATTHEW JAMIESON      519      

Now the club are looking forward to “Mob Match” 9K and presentation evening which will be in Trent Park, North London this Wednesday evening 15th July,

Iris Is A British Master

Spartan IRIS HORNSEY won two golds when she took part in the recent British Masters Track & Field Championships at Birmingham Alexander Stadium.

In the W65+ age group she came first in the 400 metres in a time of 90.58 and in the 800 metres she came first in a time of 3 minutes 27.25 seconds.

Bushy 10K

Two Spartans enjoyed the second running of the Bushy 10K in Peterborough on Sunday.  JIM BROWN improved on last week’s 10K time by more than a minute to finish 78th and second “Vet 55” in 41 minutes 52 seconds.  STEVE MAYFIELD was aiming to get under 45 minutes and ran his best 10K in three years with an excellent season’s best time of 44 minutes 38 seconds and 124th overall.

Annika and Alan at the London Run

Spartans ANNIKA CARROLL and ALAN GOODWIN took part in the Asics British 10k London Run. With over 26,000 runners running for more than 700 charities the atmosphere was amazing.  Annika, a “graduate” from the Spartan Starter Group, says that it took nearly 45mins just to get started due to the amount of runners!  When she did get going she improved her personal best (PB) by nearly 4mins and did the run in 1hr 6mins and 33seconds despite having started too fast and having to walk for a minute at 8k.  Annika ran for the Paul Strickland Scanning Centre, which is based at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Northwood, a very worthy cause! A brilliant day!

Alan improved eight minutes on last year when he finished in 53 minutes 39 seconds.

A brilliant day!

Great Bentley 5 Miles

On Friday ROGER BIGGS travelled to the village of Great Bentley, near the East Coast, for a flat, fast 5 miles in perfect running conditions.  Taking advantage of the conditions, Roger ran a Season's Best time of 34 minutes 24 seconds, an age-graded personal best, and picked up the 1st Vet60 award.

Andredsweald Circuit Off Road Event

Seven Spartans tackled thes hilly Andredsweald Circuit Off Road event in the South Downs on Sunday.  The event was based on Forest Row in East Sussex.  It was on a nice day for running and included a combination of minor roads, track, fields, stiles etc.

Spartan times for the marathon (26.2 miles) option were Roger Biggs 5:27:31; Mike Newbitt 6:20:31 and Robert Hardy 7:32:08.

Kevin Lawlor, Carol Paul and Dave Paul all covered the 22.8 miles route in 5:55:30 and Pauline Hardy completed the 15 miles choice in 4:48:15.

Fairlands Valley Challenge

The popular Fairlands Valley Challenge off road events from Stevenage are this Sunday, 19th July.  There’s a choice of three distances.  For more details see www.fvspartans.org.uk

Coming Events

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

•      The Midweek “Mob Match” at Trent Park on Wednesday 15th July.
•      Fairlands Valley Off Road Challenge on Sunday 19th July.
•      Harlow Ten Mile Race on Sunday 26th July.
•      Milton Keynes Half Marathon on Sunday 26th July.
•      Luton 10K (inc. EVAC Championships) on Sunday 26th July.
•      Midweek Relays in Fairlands Valley Park on Tuesday 21st July.
•      Eastern Veterans Track and Field Match at Milton Keynes on Wednesday 5th August.
•      Open Race and County Ten Mile Championships for Veterans at WGC on Sunday 6th September.
•      Spartans Track and Field events at Ridlins on Sunday 6th September.
•      Silver Jubilee Five Mile Race in Fairlands Valley Park on Sunday 13th September.
•      County 10K Track Championships on Sunday 27th September.
•      Silver Jubilee Gala Ball on Saturday 17th October.
•      Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 1st November.
•      Stevenage 5K series on Thursdays 12th and 20th November and 10th December.

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 now has almost 300 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