Richard Bate from Fairlands Valley Spartans flew round his first half marathon ever to finish in a superb time of 1-18:23 and a magnificent 45th out of 2,702 finishers. He was first of the 25 Spartans who enjoyed a brilliant sunny day at the Great Eastern

Richard Bate from Fairlands Valley Spartans flew round his first half marathon ever to finish in a superb time of 1-18:23 and a magnificent 45th out of 2,702 finishers.

He was first of the 25 Spartans who enjoyed a brilliant sunny day at the Great Eastern Run in Peterborough.

Times: 45 Richard Bate 1-18:23, 97 David Bowker 1-24:21, 195 Jim Brown 1-29:52, 257 Richard Sidlin 1-31:50 pb, 391 Sean Thompson 1-36:11, 392 Annette Bell 1-36:15, 417 Andy Garrett 1-37:02, 520 Sara O'Callaghan 1-39:27 pb, 567 Tracy Pez 1-40:39 pb, 660 Chris Leigh 1-42:12, 899 Gerry McCabe 1-47:16, 907 Marie Colucci 1-47:30, 1042 Mark Glading 1-50:13, 1136 Paul Holgate 1-52:09, 1318 Bev Aitken 1-55:48 pb, 1341 Sharon Crowley 1-56:17, 1499 Tricia Hopper 1-59:14 pb, 1683 Ben Collier 2-03:16, 1777 Alison Suckling 2-05:23, 1780 Nikki Nation 2-05:26, 1816 Sue Leigh 2-06:17, 1943 Ron Cohen 2-08:52, 2161 Tracy Stiles 2-14:37, 2267 Balwinder Kandola 2-18:13, 2356 Michelle Long 2-22:28.

Simon Jackson and Andy Patterson brought home a gold medal in the Men's Health Survival of the Fittest Rat Race.

The 12k course through Nottingham proved eventful. On their way to winning their wave - the race was separated in to four different start times - they had to overcome a few hurdles.

First up were the two hay bale walls, after the first challenge Simon and Andy moved their way to the front of the pack and built a substantial lead on their wave through all the obstacles.

These included a parkour challenge, an army assault course, a swim across the Trent, a postman's walk, a roadwork slalom course, a maze, running over a half pipe, climbing over and through a couple of cars, a basketball and rugby challenge, running up and down the terraces of Nottingham Forest's football ground, and an archery challenge!

A few others were thrown in for good measure along the way before the most intimidating obstacle of the lot - the Men's Health Wall.

Simon and Andy then sprinted to the line to finish in a time of 58:01 which was good enough to finish sixth and eighth overall. The Spartans team won first prize which included a couple of bottles of champagne, and a Land Rover Experience Day.

Sally Beasley ran her first half marathon in London. Running with Mark Beasley in atrocious wet conditions, she finished in 2-07:10.