Sent: 26 February 2007 23:31
Subject: VS Update - Pie and peas, Special meeting, Sport Direct xc, Results, Leeds Sports Awards, Yorkshire Vets, messages from Alan Hutchinson and Mick Tinker and much more ...

 

Special Meeting and Pie and Peas – Tuesday  6th March

 

Please place your orders – choose whether meat or veg pie and whether mushy peas or bakes beans – by 11pm Sunday 4 March

 

We will also be discussing

 

- A new organisation – the Association of Running Clubs – should we join?

 

- Women’s showers - we have £800 in the bank, how should we spend it?

 

- Performance Awards – we’ve results from several races in 2007, how shall we grade them?

 

Hopefully we should also have available the new club jackets in sizes XS, S, M, L for you to try for size and then order.

 

Sport Direct Race 5 at Thackley – Sunday 4th March

The registration and event is at Immanuel Community College A657 Leeds Road Thackley Bradford BD10 9AQ   From Leeds Outer Ring Road, at Rodley Roundabout (Olive Tree Restaurant), head out of Leeds on A657, one mile to Calverley, another mile to Greengates traffic lights, then a further mile to Thackley, the College is on the right just before the centre of Thackley.  Please see Map

 

Register from 10am for 11am start.  Studs recommended, NOT SUITABLE FOR SPIKES.  Please note: There are no toilets at the start please ask club members not to use the school grounds!

 

For food after the race: this is at Idle Cricket Club Cavendish Road Idle BD10 9LE.  Please see Map   NB this is a mile from Thackley along back roads, so if you’re thinking of going for the food have a look at the map before Sunday.

 

League positions are indicated in the next section, let’s have a good turnout next Sunday to ensure promotion of both teams. That means everyone!  Please!

 

Oh and in case you’re wavering, Grand Prix points are at stake!

 

Sport Direct Race 4 at Bramley Falls - Results

 

The women were the Striders stars of this race, their total of 33 was only 3 points behind the division 1 winners Horsforth and was well clear of all the other women’s teams, so they are now well in the lead in division 2.  They will need 4 runners at the last race to guarantee promotion.

 

Lisa Wilyman again came across from Manchester, Caz’s 20 mile London training run the previous day didn’t have much effect on her overall position, Laura got her best position of the series, and Carole had another good placing.  Mary also had her best placing.  There were first SDXC appearances for Hayley and Kathy.  Lyn had a good sprint at the end but was just pipped by Hetta Morath.  There were 74 finishers.  In the overall positions it is confusing because there is a Rothwell runner listed as W45 in some races and W50 in others.  Depending on what age she actually is, Carole is either 3rd or 4th W45 and Mary 1st or 2nd W50.

 

The men were seventh overall on the day and second in division 2.  They were behind the div 2 leaders St Theresa’s but have now overtaken Ackworth to be in the second promotion spot, we now just need to beat Ackworth again in the last race. 

 

Brian was the star in his come-back race, he has only been back training since just after Xmas.  Ian Sanderson was also placed well and then we packed 61-91 to secure a good team position.  Seventh counter was Jonathan Brownbill who only joined the club last Tuesday.  Eighth counter was Jim Towers, running in his second claim Striders vest instead of his usual Nidd Valley vest.  Peter Lambert still leads the M70 category, I have 3rd place in M55, and Bob Wilkes has 3rd in M65.

 

Our ladies vets were third, and the men vets seventh on the day.

 

There was a superb spread of sandwiches, pies, quiche, salad, fruit cake, other cakes etc at Kirkstall Leisure Centre afterwards, I was the only Strider there but put in a good effort and ate on behalf of at least two other Striders.  If any runners had shoulder muscle pains the following day, they would have been due to the weight of the doggie-bags full of food taken away afterwards.

 

Vets counters marked *

 

  3 Lisa Wilyman        S

  6 Caz Farrow          S

  9 Laura Clark         S

 15 Carole Schofield    45 *

 19 Mary Egan           50 *

 23 Hayley Palmer       S

 54 Kathy Kaiser        55 *

 60 Lyn Eden (2)        60

 

 18 Brian Hanley        S

 38 Ian Sanderson       35 *

 61 Bob Jackson         55 *

 68 Dan Murray          S

 78 Steve Morley        35 *

 86 Tony Haygarth       55 *

 87 Jonathan Brownbill  40 *

 91 Jim Towers (2)      55 *

109 Geoff Webster       60

111 Bob Wilkes          65

116 Peter Lambert       70

 

Snake Lane 10

 

115 Gary Sutherland     64:36 PB

140 Eric Green          65:57 PB

145 Roy Flesher         66:12

156 Steve Trout         66:38 PB?

162 Dan Murray          67:09 PB

182 Alison Bogie        68:09 Chapel Allerton

198 Paul White          68:45

235 Carmel Barker       71:07

380 Paul Sanderson      79:22

 

Huddersfield 10k (very hilly)

 

253 Peter Lambert       51:09   

279 Mike Brown          52:38

 

If you’ve run a race anywhere this year and I haven’t reported it, please let me know so that it can be included in an email and recorded towards the Performance Awards.

 

Membership and Subscriptions

 

Since my V S Update of 18 January, of the 36 who received a gentle reminder, 12 have now paid – thank you.

 

We have also 10 new members in the last 5 weeks, welcome to Liz Adams, Sarah Spruytenburg, Jonathan Brownbill, Xanthe Hannah, Gareth Moules, Paul McGuigan, Joanne Newbould, Tom Ridgway, Zoe Ridgway and Sally Taylor.

 

We now have 152 paid up and 13 honorary members, probably an all-time record.

 

Club Jackets

 

An initial order has been placed on behalf of 16 Striders.  Hopefully they will arrive in time for 6 March and others will then be able to view them and try them for size before ordering their own.  The cost is £20 which covers the initial setup charge and delivery charges from our supplier.

 

Yorkshire Vets Races (from Geoff)

 

The Yorkshire Vets Grand Prix is a series of 10 races for runners aged 35+ but younger runners may run as guests.  Entry fees are £2 per race.  The races are 5 to 6 miles in distance and are run over mixed terrain (roads and footpaths).  There is one race per month February to November.  Everyone counts for the team so more V S runners = more points.  The next race is at Meltham on 25 March.

 

Sun 4 Feb Horsforth

Sun 25 Mar Meltham

Tue 22 May Meanwood (V.S. promoting)

Sun 3 Jun Wakefield

Wed 20 Jun Pudsey

Wed 11 Jul Birstall, Halifax

Wed 1 Aug Knavesmire, York

Thu 23 Aug Starbeck (Nidd Valley)

Sun 16 Sep Honley

Sat 17 Nov Halifax

 

There are also (separate) Yorkshire Vets Championships incorporated in races such as the Rothwell 10k and the Bridlington half marathon.  These are not included in the YVGP.  The first Championship race is the Fell Championship included within the Marsden Moor (Ian Blakely Memorial) race on 11 March.

 

Sun 14 Jan Cross Country at Rotherham

Sun 11 Mar Fell at Marsden

Sun 29 Apr 10k at Rothwell

Wed 2 May 5k at Esholt

Thu 7 Jun 5 miles at Haworth

Sun 15 Jul 10 miles at Eccup

Sun 9 Sep road relays at Esholt

Sun 23 Sep track & field at Spen

Sun 14 Oct half marathon at Bridlington

Sun 28 Oct 15 miles at Holmfirth

 

See www.yvaa.org for full details

 

Leeds Sports Awards

 

As spotted in Yorkshire Evening Post by Sylvia

 

Athletics winners included

 

- Tracey Morris – highly commended in “Sportswoman of the Year” category

 

- John Lunn – winner “Outstanding Voluntary Service Award.  John is coach, newsletter editor and chief archivist of Leeds City AC, if you have a rainy day with nothing to do, enjoy his history of Leeds City articles on their website

 

- Phil Townsend – highly commended in “Coach of the Year” category.  Phil is coach of Leeds City cross country team which won the English National XC last year.

 

- Serena Blackburn – winner “Disability Performer of the Year”.  Serena (from Horsforth Harriers) won the bronze medal in the European cross country championships for the deaf.

 

Another winner with Striders connections was Carl Johanneson – winner of “Player of the Year”.  Carl ran with Striders from 1999 to 2002 whilst being trained by Tony Foster (a current Strider).  Carl won the British super-featherweight boxing title 2 years ago and has successfully defended his title 3 times.

 

Chris Jackson

 

As spotted in Yorkshire Evening Post by Peter Lambert.

 

Chris features in a Breast Cancer Care DVD informing patients how to exercise and eat healthily after treatment.  Chris found he had breast cancer in 1998 and has successfully undergone surgery, chemotherapy and drug treatment, completing this treatment 4 years ago.

 

Chris was shown in the YEP in full running gear, looking much fitter, at 66, than the average runner.

 

[Chris was a Strider from 1984 to 1998. He is not currently running with a club but was on the original committee of the Pulse Race, and this led to our involvement with the race]

 

From Mick Tinker

 

Thanks for all the best wishes from VS members after my recent heart surgery and for the card that last Tuesday's Pie'n'Pea'ers sent to me.

 

I am now back home and on the slow road to recovery. I'm pleased to say that my problem - a mitral valve prolapse ("heart murmur") - has been repaired and not replaced which means that I won't be on blood-thinners for life (and so can drink again soon !). The reason that surgery became necessary was that my heart was starting to grow due to the extra workload the valve put on it, and apparently the heart can only grow so far before exploding.

 

The road to recovery is slow because my chest was split into two to get to the heart and so anything which involves any chest strength and movement is right out for at least 6 weeks. However, I have to walk often and can do upper body stretching to keep all the bits mobile. There is no doubt that my fitness has massively helped in my first week recovery, so keep up the good work guys and continue to feel the pain - you never know when you'll need that fitness.

 

For me, sleeping is a problem, having to lay on my back all night so I'm in the spare room with a chair, blanket and books for my overnight wake-ups. Currently I'm also in the process of disposing of 10 hours of general anesthetic (the op was 4 hours) through my eyes - a bit of an emotional roller-coaster this, such that Lynda now just passes it off as "oh, blubbing again?"

 

Two special thanks to .... Bob, for organising the card, acting as middle-man, and for saving my peg in the Arcadia changing room; and to .... Liz Ball, who, as my cardiac consultant at Jimmy's, has been keeping an eye (ultra-sound actually) on my dodgy valve since 2001. Liz and I joined VS in the same month way back when (no's 46 and 47) but the words she said to me last September which I will remember forever were "I think it's time we did something about this" (valve) !

 

By the way, some of you will know my surgeon (I know that Alistair Fale does) as he is an ex-Horsforth Harrier, I think, called Chris Munsch. A good man in my book.

 

I hope to be at the next P'n'P night (without the run) so if 10 people want to pay 20p to see the scar then I'll get a free tea.

 

cheers, Mick

 

From Alan Hutchinson

 

I am pleased to confirm I have just about recovered from the experience having reached Gilman’s Point on the crater rim in time to see the spectacular sun rise and then trekking round the crater as far as Stella Point before altitude took its toll and I had to beat a hasty retreat down.

 

This was without doubt the toughest challenge I or any of us had ever done. Every day involved at least 6-8 hours trekking and acclimatisation at ever higher levels. Just getting out of the tent in the morning left you breathless. Of our group of 29 only 10 made Gilman’s Point after an all night climb with the rest retiring ill, and only 4 made Uhuru the highest point (and a further 4 hours trekking around the crater).

 

The mountain was stunningly beautiful with various geographical zones from rain forest to permanent ice cap. I will bring my photo album in on Tuesday for you to look through.

 

And No, I will not be attempting it again but if you ever contemplate it let me know.

 

A very big thank you to all in the Club who so kindly sponsored my efforts - I am delighted to report I have raised over £6,000 for Cancer Research UK.

 

From Ingo Zoller

 

Hi, just in case someone wonders if the German Strider still exists... I had to change my email address due to excessive quantities of incoming spam mails.

 

Competition-wise I turned more to triathlon, basically a result of a foot injury several years ago. Having bought a road racing bike friends thought I am sitting on a bike far too well to waste it. Now I learned not to drown while swimming for a mile or so, worked both on my running and cycling, and not forgetting the difficult transition between riding a bike and starting to run (have you ever tried to ride hard for twenty-odd miles, and then to try to break your 10k PB? It is fun even to get going!). And I even managed to finish a few short distance triathlons by now, swimming anything up to a mile (more drifting), racing hard on the bike for up to 30 miles, and then trying to run for anything up to 10k. The distances are hardly ever measured properly, so times don't really matter.

 

This year I face my first ever middle distance triathlon, swimming for about a mile and a half (Kulmbach - they extend the swimming leg a bit), cycling for something around 55 miles (undulating terrain), and then running a half marathon (luckily this should be flat, but might get hot on the day!).

 

Afterwards it is time to think about the summer holidays...

 

[Ingo ran with us from 1999-2002 while at Leeds University, he was part of the International Squad of 2 Danes, 1 French and 1 Russian.  More recently he has turned up once or twice on Geoff and Sylvia’s door to run a fell race]

 

From Erica Hiorns

 

I was interested to learn that the Striders club was born at 18 Lucas Place. I lived at that address when I was a student from 1985-1987. Perhaps there was something in the water!

 

From Jane Speight

 

Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be leaving Leeds very shortly - to get married & move to Brighton in March.  I know that I've not made it to any Striders activities since the AGM, or done much running for that matter, due to the aforementioned major life changes (!), but I enjoy keeping in touch with what's going on & for inspiration to get out there and pound the streets once again...

 

My plan is to start running again, along the seafront, once I'm moved and settled in.

 

I'll keep my membership going to the end of the season, and let you know if I compete in any races "darn sarth".

 

Women aged 50 and over required for research

 

[NB V S Update takes no responsibility for the spelling or grammar of this item]

 

My name is Michael Rawson and my colleges and i are conducting some research for the University of Leeds at both Bsc and PHD level. We are looking to recruit some highly fit women (10k in under an hour)age 50 and over for some research into exercise and cardiovascular risk factors in postmenopausal women. Your running club has been recommended to us by some of our previous participants, who all agreed they enjoyed taking part in the study, and received valuable information that they found extremely useful.

 

The female participants would be expected to attend leeds university for approximately 1 hour in a morning and then for approx 1-2 hours in the afternoon. These two sessions can be done on the same day if convenient or on different days if prefered. Non of the test are invasive, the 1st session involves measurments of various things, and the second session involves a treadmill test.

 

If you have any quieries dont hesitate to contact Michael Rawson (07841042330) my email address is: [email protected]

 

This could be extremely beneficial for the participants as they will be told many interesting findings about their cardiovascular health and fitness. As ive said previously, all our participants really enjoyed the tests.  For any extra information the ladies can contact me and ask any questions that they may have.

 

Mark Hetherington emailed : “This guy is a final year undergraduate student in Sports Science (hence the illiteracy!).  He is doing a project with two of my colleagues (Dr Karen Birch and a PhD student called Sally Barber). They are both experienced in working with postmenopausal women, and in carrying out exercise testing, etc.  In short, the study should be properly supervised, so it would probably be worth letting your 'more mature' ladies know about it!”

 

Your support is requested

 

Before I tell you about an email that I have received from Race for Life, I need to tell you about the five events that Valley Striders are specifically supporting this year

 

-                      Meanwood Trail Races, Saturday 14 April, organized 100% by Valley Striders, raises £1000 for Lineham Farm Childrens Centre, 70 Striders needed

 

-                      Roundhay Pulse Races,  Sunday 20 May, Valley Striders provide technical support at start, finish and prime marshalling points, 15 Striders needed

 

-                      Yorkshire Vets race 3 at Meanwood, Tuesday 22 May, hosted by Valley Striders, 15 Striders needed

 

-                      Cancer Research 10k, Sunday 16 September (probable date), Valley Striders and Abbey Runners provide marshals, 10 Striders needed

 

-                      Harewood Trail Race and Junior/Fun Run, Sunday 7 October, organized 90% by Valley Striders (Lineham Farm provide catering), raises £3000 for Lineham Farm Children’s centre, 70 Striders needed

 

We would like ALL Striders to marshal at one or both of Meanwood and Harewood.  And we need volunteers for our three “smaller” events too.

 

If you’d also like to help at the Race for Life, the venues are

  • Peak District, Bakewell Showground - 20th May 2007 x 2 races (10:30am and 2:30pm start)
  • Bradford, Lister Park - 3rd June 2007 x 2 races (10:30am and 2:30pm start)
  • Huddersfield, Greenhead Park - 16th-17th June 2007 x 3 races (2:00pm start on 16th, 10:30am and 2:30pm start on the 17th)
  • Leeds, Temple Newsam - 30th June-1st July 2007 x 3 races (4:00pm start on the 30th, 10:30am and 2:30pm start on the 1st)

Let me know if you are interested and I’ll pass on the information to you of how you can volunteer

 

P.S.

 

All contributions to V S Update are welcome!  You send them, I’ll email them!