Note that, for safety reasons, many of our coaches and leaders have access, via their mobile phones, to a full list of members which shows their home phone, home address and emergency contact number. It is essential that you let us know if these details change.

There is limited information regarding cycling on this page, so for more information, go to http://www.valleystriders.cc/ (opens in new tab) or email [email protected]

When you have joined, we will send you an email which includes

• the level of your Valley Striders membership
• First claim running - entitles you to enter races as a Valley Strider and claim £2 off race fees (most adults are registered as such)
• Junior first claim running - as above - certain junior championship races require E A membership
• Junior "social" running - most junior races do not require E A membership so most juniors are not registered with E A as competitive - but all juniors should wear V S vests at races!
• Second claim running - someone who is a first claim member of another athletics club. There are rules saying, for a particular race, whether you must run for your first claim club or run as a Strider, see below
• Note that all running members can join the cycling section (VSCC) for training and social rides at an additional price but lower than for cycling-only members
• Social - non-running and non-cycling member
• Volunteer - non-running and non-cycling member who frequently volunteers at our events
• the date your Valley Striders membership expires
• the level of your England Athletics membership - competitive (first claim) or social
• your England Athletics registration number - we register everyone to give them a number
• the date your England Athletics membership expires
• All of the above information can be found on the website by clicking this link
• This link also shows whether we hold an emergency contact number for you. Please email us if ever you need to change your emergency contact number

England Athletics

• For first claim running members, we send off payments to England Athletics in batches. It will take 4-6 weeks for a membership card to arrive. In the meantime, if you are asked for proof of membership of an athletics club, refer to link.
• Note that E A do not send membership cards out between late December and March, so if you join during this time, you will get your membership card in April or May.
• NB other levels of membership do have a registration number but don't get a card.
• Regarding details registered with England Athletics, we just input name, address and date of birth. With effect from 1 Jan 17, our policy is always also to input email address. We do not input phone number. When you receive your membership card, the letter will tell you how you can log on to the England Athletics myathletics portal and sign on with your registration number. You will be able to report "lost password" and have a new one emailed to you (this is why we input your email address) You can then subscribe and/or unsubscribe to various features. You will also see a list of benefits of EA membership.
• There are two major benefits of EA affilation that the EA portal seems to have omitted (a) When you are entering races, with your “competition licence” you can now enter as a member of an "affiliated" club, which will save you £2 off your race entry fee. (b) You can also participate in races that are only open to club members - not only national, regional and county championships but also local leagues (e.g. Peco XC) and local relays (e.g. Leeds Country Way)

Renewals

• The Valley Striders year runs from 1 September to 31 August and we'll send reminders during September (when we've decided the rate)
• When you renew you will also pay the EA affiliation fee for 1 April to 31 March for the following year. This means we don't have to collect fees twice a year and ensures your EA affiliation is always up-to-date. Note that if you resign before 1 April we will refund the EA component of your membership fee.

Racing

• For first and second claim and junior running members - you can run races anywhere, but if you want to run in a race where there will be other Striders present then we suggest you run in races included in our Grand Prix series and/or Fell Championship series. Points are awarded for running these races and there are various prizes at the end of the year for the two series. For more details, see the club website www.valleystriders.org.uk and click on the “For Club Members” tab.
• Second claim running members can run for Valley Striders if it is a team race where their club has not entered a team.

Training

Note that all running and cycling members can do as many (or as few) training sessions/rides as they want. Unlike many clubs, there is no session charge, except for track sessions at Leeds Met where the admission charge must be paid to Leeds Met - as at 1/1/17 this was £4.50 for adults, £3 for students.

Kit

• We have two suppliers for Valley Striders club running vests, both in Ilkley.
  • Complete Runner (Fastrax), on the left hand side of the Leeds road about half a mile before the town centre (they have a selection of styles)
  • Dobson and Robinson (Intersport) at 46 The Grove (near Betty's Cafe) (some of the women prefer their style).
• There are examples of each of these at the club. For both of these, printing is done individually. You will need to go in and try for size, then probably best to have it mailed on to you (they may make a small charge for this).
• You can buy a vest and/or a short-sleeved T-shirt and/or a long-sleeved T-shirt. If you're only going to buy one item, then we suggest you buy a vest - you can wear it over a long-sleeved thermal in winter, over a short-sleeved technical T-shirt in spring/autumn, and on its own in summer.
• You should always wear your club vest when racing, the only exception being when running for charity when you may prefer to run in the vest of that charity. When wearing your club vest in local races, you will find that you get lots of encouraging comments from many people that you don't know! And you may also get other runners asking you about the famous Valley Striders!
• We also have hoody jackets in black or grey with the Valley Striders logo in white on the back. These can be personalised with your name or initials. Click here for more details.
• NB Showerproof jackets are not currently available
• There is also a wide range of cycling kit. see the VSCC website http://www.valleystriders.cc/ (opens in new tab)

Communication

• You'll find lots of information and news on the club website www.valleystriders.org.uk .
• Email updates are sent out to the whole club every 1 to 2 weeks, and back copies are on the website.
• Cyclists receive separate email updates. To get on the distribution list for these, email [email protected]
• The club has a Facebook page click (opens in new tab)
• The club has a number of active Facebook groups including:
  • Valley Striders Athletics Club (closed group, VSAC adult members only)
  • Parents of V S Juniors (closed group, parents of VSAC junior members only)
  • V S Fell and Trail runners
  • V S Cycling Club
  • V S Triathletes
  • V S Yoga
  Details of these can be found on our website. Click on the Facebook symbol in the top bar of the website to get a list of groups and links.
• We also have club Twitter account. Click on the Twitter symbol in the top bar of the website to connect.

Safety

• We recommend that you always carry some sort of identification if out training on your own. There are various websites selling tags which link to databases of contact details e.g. www.cramalert.co.uk . But almost as good is to wear a waterproof tag with a contact number of next-of-kin in indelible ink. If you run parkrun, they have two types of permanent plastic tag with your barcode printed on - one version just has an emergency contact number, the other allows space for more details www.parkrun-barcode.org.uk
• We recommend that you wear a reflective top or reflective bib while training after dark. In fact it is compulsory at Striders night-time road-running training sessions to wear a reflective top. Bibs can be purchased from all good running shops (e.g. Up & Running) for about £7 or Sports Direct for £5.
• We strongly advise you against wearing an iPod or other MP3 player while running or cycling, so that (a) you are more aware of traffic (b) you are aware of other people around (c) you can take in the sights and sounds (d) you can chat to other runners.

Membership of Valley Striders gives you access to some discounts

• Bodyline Gym Membership - Leeds City Council are now offering 15% discount on 12 month Bodyline memberships to all Valley Striders Members – runners, cyclists and triathletes. Click this link for more info. on what a membership gets you. To get the discount you will need to show your England Athletics membership card or VSCC membership card. (Thanks to Michael Hall for negotiating and arranging this.)
• Complete Runner will give you a free pair of socks with every pair of shoes bought.
• Up & Running (Leeds City Centre, West Park(Leeds) and Harrogate) will give you a discount of 10% off full-price merchandise on presentation of your club membership card.
• NB If you don't have a card then take a screen snapshot of the VS membership page!
• Sportsshoes.com gives 10% discount on all online purchases (www.sportsshoes.com). You'll need a discount code, these change monthly, see the Facebook groups.

Cycling and Triathlon

• Cycling membership is now handled separately, see the VSCC website http://www.valleystriders.cc/ (opens in new tab)
• We also have a triathlon section. It is compulsory for triathlon members to be members of either VSAC or VSCC, and preferably members of both email [email protected] for details
• Members of VSCC or VSTC who are first claim members at another athletics/running club are encouraged to join VSAC as a second claim member

Yoga - on a Monday evening Liz Wood leads 2 sessions specifically for V S members - you must be a running or cycling or social member to take part. See the V S Yoga Facebook group.

The final thing we need to tell you about is that we organise three races each year, in April, June and October. And sometimes a 4th in February. We need on average 60 marshals and officials for each race so we ask you if possible to make yourself available for at least one of these races. We do have a substitution feature whereby you may run the race if you can get a member of the family or a friend to marshal in place of you.

We also help with a few other local races where we are requested to supply about 10 marshals. We find that Striders who have "associations" with the charities (Cancer Research, Jane Tomlinson, and others) tend to volunteer for these.

We hope you enjoy your running and/or cycling and/or socialising with us!

P S Click on this link to find

• VS Membership status (current or due)
• EA membership number, level (first claim or other) and status
• whether or not we hold an emergency contact for you