There was success for Fairlands Valley Spartans at the Grunty Fen half marathon near Ely. Chris King scored a new personal best and won the women s 45 plus category in the race with a time of 1-34:19. Jim Brown won an East of England veterans bronze in t

There was success for Fairlands Valley Spartans at the Grunty Fen half marathon near Ely.

Chris King scored a new personal best and won the women's 45 plus category in the race with a time of 1-34:19.

Jim Brown won an East of England veterans' bronze in the half marathon championship which was incorporated in the event. He was third in the men's 50 plus category in 1-29:25.

Fastest Spartan on the day was Declan Clynes in 1-28:18.

Times: Declan Clynes 1-28:18, Jim Brown 1-29:25, Chris King 1-34:19 pb, Mike King 1-42:26, Rob Shaw 1-53:39.

Three Spartans tackled the full Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham on Sunday.

First to finish was club secretary Frances Ridgway in 4-08:28. She was followed by Chris Leigh in 4-10:47 and Julie Goodwin in 4-37:32.

Richard Sidlin and Mark Glading both took a 10 minute chunk out of their personal bests when they finished the Robin Hood Half Marathon together in 1-39:40.

Half marathon times: Mark Glading 1-39:40 pb, Richard Sidlin 1-39:40 pb, Mark Goodwin 1-44:29, Jon Wilson 1-49:09, Amanda Brook 1-50:39, Alison Hopwood 1-53:41, Jon Wilson 1-49:09, Alison Suckling 2-09:29.

Seven Spartans lined up at Watford Athletics Track to race round three and three quarter times in a 1500m race last Wednesday.

Times: Declan Clynes 4:54.30, Graham Blackburn 5:01.08, Steve Smithson 5:23.61, Andy Bramall 5:30.66, Jim Brown 5:39.70, Roger Biggs 5:40.33 pb, Paul Holgate 5:56.63.

Four Spartans continued their preparation for the Snowdonia marathon at the end of October with a testing off-road marathon in the Chiltern hills, starting and finishing from Lane End near Wycombe.

The hot conditions and steep hills produced times of Mike Newbitt 5-29:14, Paul Holgate 5-29:47 and Sharon Crowley 5:42:19. Gerry McCabe completed 13.1 miles in 2-45.

After his 1500m exploits, Roger Biggs found a new UK marathon on Sunday.

This was at Maplethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast. On a flat course in warm conditions, Biggs finished in 3-39:58.

Tony Osborne, organiser of the Stevenage Half Marathon, was the Spartans' distant runner at the weekend. He ran the Budapest Half Marathon in 1-46:54, fourth in his age group and 1,296th overall out of more than 5,000 runners from 45 countries.

Paul Maguire finished eighth out of 600 runners in the multi-terrain Audley End 10k race. His time was 41:02.

North Herts Road Runner Pete Sibbett finished in a creditable ninth place at the Grunty Fen Half-Marathon.

His time was 1-19:36 and he led home 14 Squirrels who were among more than 600 finishers.

Sibbett was placed second in the Eastern Veteran Club Championship and also led the North Herts men's team into second place on the day.

He was backed by Pete Northover, who bucked the trend to run a personal best of 1-22:26, Steve Taplin (1-29:55) and Stewart Bryant (1-30:57).

In the female category, Paula Adams was fifth overall and the leading veteran with a time of 1-26:46.

Karen Dodsworth won the Eastern Veteran Championship in the female vet 45 section with a time of 1-53:44.

All the club's runners finished under two hours with Allison Cook also producing a personal best of 1-59:45. Their other finishers were John Franklin (1-31:52), Mike Mello (1-32:51), Richard Thackeray (1-33:21), Martyn Annetts (1-36:31), Alan Jones (1-40:52), Paul Bowal (1-53:06) and Lysa Ralph (1-53:06).

Colin Calcutt also tackled 13.1 miles at the Robin Hood Half-Marathon at Nottingham the same day and finished in 2-06.