Duo win medals at Herts 10 Road Race

Monday, January 23, 2012
10:21 AM

Silver for Harlow and bronze for Bowker at Hertfordshire County 10 Mile

The new vice chairman of Fairlands Valley Spartans is Beverley Harlow and on Sunday she won a silver medal in the Hertfordshire County 10 Mile Road Race Championships.

The Fred Hughes 10 mile race incorporated the County Championships for veteran women (35 plus) and men (40 plus), and Harlow won silver in the competition for women aged 55 plus with a time of 1 hour 28 minutes 57 seconds.

David Bowker won bronze in the category for men aged 50 to 59 with his time of 1:03:57 and took third prize in that category for the open race.

The St Albans 10 mile course is far from flat but on a bright but breezy morning six Spartans improved their personal bests (PBs) for the distance.

Nicola Lorimer took a 4:25 chunk off her PB when she finished 384th out of the 701 finishers in 1:23:41. Barry King improved by 3:42 to 1:28:59, Lisa Burgess by 3:14 to 1:15:14, Liz Morgan by 44 seconds to 1:40:10, Stephen Block by 39 seconds to 1:27:05 and Matt Gill by 36 seconds to 1:15:0.

Paulette Eldridge, Karen Ellis, Maria Thorne and Martin Hannah were all running their first ever 10 mile race and they finished in 1:27:45, 1:33:07, 1:35:20 and 1:44:01 respectively.

Twenty-one Spartans took part. The others were: Mike King (168th in 1:13:31); Jo Laing (169th in 1:13:32); Mick Connell (235th in 1:16:33); Jim Brown (374th in 1:23:11); Rob Shaw (383rd in 1:23:39); Paul Holgate (445th in 1:26:49); Sharon Crowley (494th in 1:29:04); Karen Palmer (499th in 1:29:26); Tony Argyrou (518th in 1:31:23).

Roger Biggs spent the weekend in Las Palmas for the Gran Canaria Marathon and finished in 4:24:19. Fellow Spartan Barbara Wilson completed the associated 10K race in 58:04.

Biggs also recently completed the Winter Tanners off road event over 30 miles of Surrey countryside from Leatherhead along or near the North Downs Way. He finished in 7:20:28.

Fairlands Valley Spartans will hold their presentation evening at Knebworth Barns from 7.30pm this Friday (January 27).