D&T runners complete Stevenage Half Marathon

Organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans, it starts and finishes at Ridlin Athletics Track with the final 300m being on the track itself.

Richard Bentley, despite a comfort break, ran a speedy 1.43.12 to finish as 12th M50, David Stears finished in 1.50.50 and Michelle Ashwell in 2.05.45.

Tina Searle and Alex Bayliss mostly ran together with Tina just pipping Alex to the finish in 2.06.42 to be 5th W55, her ‘best time for ages’ with Alex closely behind in 2.07.29.

Louise Flower headed to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to take part in their Winter 10k series.

Over a relatively flat course she managed to set a new PB of 49.21, dipping under the 50 minute mark for the first time and finishing 30th lady out of a field of 251.

Six of our hardy souls headed to Higginson Park in Marlow on sunday morning.

In the half marathon Chris Marriott was first finisher for the club in 1:36:50 closely followed by Jamie in 1:37:11. Directly behind him was Niamh Dempsey who ran an impressive 1:37:12 to be sixth placed senior woman overall. Russell Morris and Samantha Hawkridge both enjoyed the challenging route and finished in 1:47:28 and 2:18:32 respectively.

Paddy finished in 29th position in the 7 mile race in a good time of 51:54.

Parkrun

Eighteen were at Gadebridge where Jamie Saunders was third male overall in 19:39 followed by Thomas Durrant in 20:50 and Chris Marriott in 21:48.

Michael Irvine and Michael Lamb were closely paced to 22:22 and 22:54 respectivly with Patrick Mostyn not far behind in 23:14. Wendy Pearson was first first D&T lady home and second female overall in

24:02.

A flurry of runners finished in quick succession led by Rasmi Nanda in 24:39, with Richard Stevens (24:45), Wendy Durrant (24:49), Andy Mitchell (25:28), John Stevens (26:55) and Carmel Sitkowski (27:18). Jamie Marlow crossed the line in 27:41 with Gwen Mostyn (29:56), Kirsty Russell (29:57), Andrew Guilder (43:21) and Annette Howard 45:42).

Karen Wishart, Kevin Moore, Erica Klein, Tony Reeve and Simon Evans were also on hand for a spot of volunteering.

Seven members took to the flat, fast loops of Cassiobury with Mike Carpenter first member home in a super quick 18:23. Phillip Pugh scored a 23:36 finish with Tim Coysh in 24:02 whilst Rachel and Duncan Hamilton ran together to finish in 26:39 and 26:40 respectively.

Louise Tainsh knocked over five minutes off her PB to finish in 28:25 with Helen Reardon just behind in 33:46.

In the spirit of parkrun, members are partial to a spot of tourism to experience a new venue.

Whilst not too far from home Jessica Morrison and Alan Grover took to the rugged hills of Tring to finish in 28:49 and 29:51 respectively.

Chris Kitchener and Danny Wells bumped into each other over at the Aldenham venue scoring 20:47 and 25:16 finishes, both of which are new PBs!

Janice Briggs tackled Panshanger parkrun in 30:07 and at Canons Park, Tim Churchill put in a superb run to finish in 20:40.

Our furthest travellers this weekend were Robert Davies who headed to Clacton Seafront turning out a 21:52 finish and Matthew Salt who took on Southsea in a speedy 18:15.