‘Relay’ good fun in the park!

Thursday evening saw 432 runners gather at Marriotts School in Stevenage to take part in the 31st annual FVS 3K relays. It’s always a fun event, with teams of 4 competing against runners from Herts and Beds running clubs and hosted by Stevenage's biggest running club, Fairlands Valley Spartans. Each runner must complete a gently undulating 3km course round the sailing lake in Fairlands Valley Park which was glistening in the late evening sunshine. There were awards for the top three teams in both the open and Herts Senior and Herts Veterans Mixed, Womens and Mens categories.
 
North Herts Road Runners enjoyed great success on the night with 13 teams competing and county medal winning performances from Katie Harbon taking top spot in the women’s race and the only female to dip under 11 minutes. Rhia Botha took 3rd place in the veteran 35 category while Linda Aird and Pete Sibbett both stormed to top spot in their respective veteran 65 and 60 categories. The teams were also successful with Katie Harbon, Rhia Botha and Tracy Pitcairn taking the county female senior silver team medal, while the club’s male veteran also took team silver: Shahab Ahmad; Matt Sayers; Daren Matussa and Vince Wright. In the mixed open event, NHRR team Ground Squirrel comprising Shaun Allin, Hannah Ridley, Natalie Phillips and Richard Springall came 3rd. Men’s team captain John Auld commented, ‘It’s such a fun race, unusual in it’s format and distance and brilliant to be able to run as well as watch and cheer fellow team mates. It was a fantastic atmosphere and great end to the summer club racing.’
 
On Sunday the trio of Sue Foot, Miranda Morgan and Andrew Cook fancied a longer distance and they were in luck as Spartans held their second event in 3 days which included a a self-navigating route of 26.5 miles starting and finishing at Marriotts School and mainly on trails and across farmland.  Sue reported, ‘We had to battle our way through some very tall sweetcorn fields with no clear path to follow. We had perfect weather and finished in 6 hours and 50 minutes.’

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Full relay results:
4th – Red 40:10
94/A      Shahab AHMAD                MV40   10:21    Senior Male       
94/B      Matthew SAYERS              MV40   10:29    Senior Male       
94/C      Ben HADMAN    MS         09:29    Senior Male       
94/D      Mike ROBERTS   MS         09:50    Senior Male       
 
22nd Grey - 45:15
96/A      Oliver PARSONS MV40   11:28    Vet Male             
96/B      Darren MATUSSAMV40 11:04    Vet Male             
96/C      Michael OVER    MV50   11:33    Vet Male             
96/D      Nick MALPELI     MV50   11:09    Vet Male  
           
27th Black - 45:56
97/A      David EDWARDSMV40   11:25    Vet Male             
97/B      Mike PHILLIPS    MV40   11:13    Vet Male             
97/C      Peter SIBBETT    MV60   12:10    Vet Male             
97/D      Vincent WRIGHTMV40  11:06    Vet Male             
 
32nd Ground - 46:53  (2 M + 2 F) 
99/A      Shaun ALLIN  MS   10:38    S Mixed             
99/B      Hannah RIDLEY  FS      11:47    S Mixed         
99/C      Natalie PHILLIPSFV35  13:35    S Mixed          
99/D      Richard SPRINGALLMS  10:52   S Mixed              
 
37th Flying - 48:04
98/A      Rhia BOTHA        FV35     11:28    Senior Female   
98/B      Katie HARBON   FS           10:41    Senior Female   
98/C      Tracy PITCAIRN FV35     12:25    Senior Female   
98/D      Helen NUTTALL FV35     13:29    Senior Female   
 
61st Funambulus - 54:53   (2 M + 2 F) 
109/A   Andrew WALLIS MS         12:30    S Mixed             
109/B   Frances STANTONFS       14:53    S Mixed              
109/C   James GODFREYMS        12:52    S Mixed            
109/D   Helen HARBON FS           14:37    S Mixed             
 
66th Giant - 56:14    (2 M + 2 F)  
102/A   Natasha PITMANFV45   15:16    Vet Mixed   
102/B   Paula HOLM       FV45     13:25    Vet Mixed   
102/C   Paul O'SULLIVANMV50  13:06    Vet Mixed   
102/D   John AULD           MV40   14:25    Vet Mixed  

​73rd Tree - 57:19   (2 M + 2 F)
100/A   Lucy O'CONNORFV55     15:31    Vet Mixed     
100/B   Linda AIRD          FV65     16:22    Vet Mixed   
100/C   Adrian S'WOODMV50     11:59    Vet Mixed    
100/D   Lee VARLEY         MV50   13:26    Vet Mixed   
 
78th Marmot - 59:01
108/A   Dave BRAYBROOKMV40 13:15    Vet Male             
108/B   Steve BRENTON MV40   12:49    Vet Male             
108/C   Andrew COATES MV40   14:58    Vet Male             
108/D   Alan HAZLEHURSTMV50 17:57    Vet Male
                 
89th Groundhog -1:02:31
101/A   Hannah KEEBLE FV35     16:02    Vet Mixed 
101/B   Jo HARBON         FV55     17:14    Vet Mixed    
101/C   Richard WEBER  MV50   13:40    Vet Mixed    
101/D   Laurie SCOTT     MV50   15:34    Vet Mixed 
                 
102nd Palm - 1:12:23     (2 M + 2 F)
107/A   Richard BARKER MV50   13:08    Vet Mixed   
107/B   Victoria MARKHAM FV35     16:34    Vet Mixed 
107/C   Amanda GREIG  FV45     19:34    Vet Mixed
107/D   Jon BOYS        MV60   23:06    Vet Mixed    
 
104th Pine - 1:13:13    (2 M + 2 F)   
104/A   Dawn POWER    FV45     16:12    Vet Mixed 
104/B   Caroline NOBBS FV65     20:01    Vet Mixed   
104/C   Geoff MURRAY-ROCHARDMV60 19:35    Vet Mixed 
104/D   Meyrick JENKINS    MV50   17:23    Vet Mixed
 
106th Prairie dog - 1:18:17
106/A   Sheila LEAVY       FV65     23:28    Vet Female         
106/B   Georgia BARKERFV45     18:11    Vet Female         
106/C   Lindsay COOK    FV45     18:24    Vet Female         
106/D   Helen GIFFIN      FV45     18:13    Vet Female          

Parkrun roundup 20th July
Philip shared a lovely report from Didcot:   I spent this weekend visiting my daughter and family and joined them (first time for me) at their local parkrun at Didcot. It's a lovely course with the runners nicely spread out at the start. When they asked for any tourists, I got a few funny looks when I said Letchworth Garden City, North Herts but I wore my club shirt with pride. Over half of the fairly flat route was on grass and the rest on tarmac. You could hear the sound of the steam trains tooting their whistles at the famous railway centre behind the trees bordering the route. I shunted my way round to come 100th out of 227, 2nd out of 3 in my age group. I was very pleased to record my best parkrun time for this year 28:33. As usual, the marshalls and spectators were excellent. I would recommend this parkrun should you find yourself in this part of Oxfordshire.

​Andover: Georgina Quayle (25:05), Carina Quayle (41:59)

Bug Hunter Waters: Carl Haskell (24:38)

Conwy: Daniel Wrigley (24:16)

Didcot: Philip Flack (28:33)

Henlow Bridge Lakes: Lucy O'connor (28:12)

Letchworth: James Dalton (22:43), Chloe Lucas (23:45), Steve Brenton (24:14), James Godfrey (25:28), Laura Fairbanks (25:38), Katherine Gourd (26:24), Jennie Fraser (26:37), Daniel Mallett (26:38), Viv Lucas (27:47), Frances Stanton (30:27)

Reading: Jon Hunt (23:50)

​Roosevelt Island DC: John Russell (28:58)

Sizewell: Chris Stokes (21:48)

Southampton: Tom Barclay (16:37)

Stevenage: Ian Harvey (21:30), Ellie Scott (29:21), Barbara Sayers (29:22)

Stratford Park: Kris Whitmore (22:24)

Teignmouth Promenade: Elwyn Howell (22:48)