Sent: 05 May 2008 17:45
Subject: VS Update - MVT marshals, John Hallas 5 mile, reports from 3
Peaks and Blackpool, and more
Re: VS Mini-update -
Lists
We’ve a
better turnout percentage than the local elections, but not quite there yet
Meanwood
Valley Trail
Needing 80,
got 57. NEED 23 MORE PLEASE! Thanks to everyone who has volunteered so
far. There will be four main groups.
-
marshals
for junior race (they’ll also marshal the senior race, some of them at
different locations) – meet Leos at 9:30
-
marshals
for senior race Leos to Seven Arches – meet Leos at 09:45
-
marshals
for senior race Seven Arches to Ring Road. – meet Smithy Mills Lane (south side of Ring Road)
at 09:45
-
marshals
for senior race Meanwood
Park – meet Smithy Mills Lane
(south side of Ring Road) at 09:55
In a week’s
time we’ll let you know by email which group you’re in. The email will
also contain some instructions e.g. emergency phone numbers, what to tell
passers-by etc; you’ll also be allocated a specific location and this will have
an instruction which way to point the runners. There will be a
reflective bib for each of you to pick up at the meeting point. Please
bring with you a plastic bag to collect any marker tape, and a small
screwdriver to remove drawing pins from notices that I’ve put round the route
today!
Bradford Millennium Way Relay
Needing 20
or 30, got 15 plus 3 “possibles”, but only two women has responded so far, so
unless something changes, no chance of a women’s team (or even a mixed
team). Entries must be in by the end of May but it’s also important to
have time to recce the route, so we need to make a decision on how many teams
by the middle of the May.
5 mile handicap on the
canal – 8 May – from John Hallas
I am
organising another 5 mile handicap race on Wednesday 8th May. The
course will be the same one as before, start from the Whitehall Road
Bridge, out 2.5 miles (to
a marked bridge) and return. The start time for an estimated 35 minute time
will be 12:20 again
Please let
me know if you are interested. Handicaps will be based around the finishing
times for the last handicap. Any new entrants please provide an estimated 5
mile time. No prizes, no entry fee, just potential glory and a good
lunchtime workout on an accurate (5.02 miles), flat course. Feel free to circulate this to other lunchtime
canal runners
I will be
doing the timekeeping again so if you can try and remember your finishing
time (that I shout out) and ensure I have captured it on my start list.
Fell Championship and Race Report – from Geoff Webster
3 Peaks Race
Mick Loftus was first Strider to finish in the
excellent time of 3:51. He was followed in by Caz in 3:58. This is
also a very good time but she was disappointed as she expected to do better
having recently finished as first woman at the Edale Skyline 20 mile
race. Simon Vallance got home in just over 4 hrs followed by Anthony
Fryer in 4:17.
There was some competition between the V.S.
internationals, Eirik for Norway
and Ingo for Germany, with Norway getting round quickest in 4:28 and Germany
4:40. Needless to say both Eirik and Ingo were disappointed with their
times and felt that they could have done better so we should expect a rematch
next year.
Meanwhile GW had a desperate day out running in slow
motion and just managing to avoid being timed out. The poor old bloke
staggered to finish in 5:30 – he will return next year to do much better (it’s
not possible to do worse is it?)
The race incorporated the world long distance mountain
running championships which was won by Jethro Lennox of Scotland in 2:53. The women’s
championship was won by Anna Pichrtova of the Czech Republic
in 3:14
175 Mick
Loftus 3:51:03
227 Caz
Farrow 3:58:36
244 Simon Vallance
4:00:50
347 Anthony Fryer
4:17:52
415 Eirik Stangnes
4:28:31
495 Ingo
Zoller 4:40:34
678 Geoff Webster
5:31:49
685 finished
Fell Championship Scores to date
SCORES AFTER 3 PEAKS (NB 7 best results to count)
317 Caz Farrow
230 Mick Loftus
224 Geoff Webster
184 John Wallace
182 Simon Vallance
178 Eirik Stangnes
152 Richard King
151 Richard Adcock
147 Anthony Fryer
90 Ingo Zoller
82 Lyn Eden *
82 Jim Towers *
80 Dan Harman
78 Rob Bumstead
73 Paul Sanderson
72 Peter Stevenson
71 Eric Cusack
70 Pam Baird *
69 Adela Reperecki *
66 Simon Redshaw
45 Laura Clark
43 Howard Jeffrey *
41 Andy Duffield *
39 Paul Hunter
37 Eric Green
37 Sylvia Watson
35 Bob Jackson
33 Andrew Cutts
29 Sue Sunderland
27 Steve Dixon
25 Sharon Tansley
23 Mick Tinker
19 Bob Wilkes
17 Sara Dyer
* second claim members included for reference only
(unless they can run the Fellsman in 9 hrs)
SCORING SYSTEM
AL=100 BL=90 CL=80 }
AM=70 BM=65 CM=60 } maximum points per race
AS=55 BS=50 CS=45 }
Caz is making the running but Mick L has come from a
long way down the field after his good run in the 3 Peaks, while G.W. has taken
third place after his bad run in the same race.
There are still plenty of races to go at so the
Championship is wide open. We hope to get a good turnout for the
Wharfedale off-road marathon and half marathon on 7 June.
Road Race Reports and Results
Bradford
10k – from Jonathan Cocker
Did the
Bradford 10K on Sunday and I thoroughly enjoyed it beating my pb by over
3½ minutes with a time of 43.14 (chip time) it seems like everything
is coming into place for my first marathon at Blackpool
on Sunday! My position was 78th (13th V40) with a total
of 292 runners taking part.
The only
other Strider I could see in the results was Ian Rosser who did a chip time of
39.28 finishing 33rd (15th in his category).
It was a
fast course with just one short steep hill at the beginning which got the heart
going! To sum up. Well organised and well worth a go next year for
Striders.
Blackpool Marathon
– from Bob Jackson
A couple of Striders have emailed me saying they were
missing the long reports that used to appear in V S News. We also had a
few in early editions of V S Update, mainly from Bill Murphy reporting on a
triathlon from a far corner of the world where he’d just happened to be invited
to do a lecture the same week.
This is the nearest I can get to a race report from at
an exotic foreign beach resort. (Lancashire is
abroad, isn’t it?)
It was
quite a clear day as I drove into Blackpool
last Sunday morning. The signs took me to the Central Blackpool car
parks, which was where there were a lot of runners but not where I wanted to
be, so using the Tower as a landmark, I drove round to the North Shore
and managed to park within 400 yards of the race HQ at the Hilton Hotel.
Nearby I found a very short queue to one of the public toilets, this was a good
move as the queues for the portaloos at the Hilton were about 50 people
long. I don’t know how many missed the start because of this.
I joined
the runners at the start with just under 10 minutes to go and saw Eric,
Jonathan and my nephew Chris. Eric had run London in 3:02, would he break 3 hours for
the first time? Chris had run London
in 4:05, a PB, but he felt he’d been slowed because of the quantity of runners,
so he was hoping to break 4 hours with the much smaller field. (The race
limit here was 1000 for the marathon and 2000 for the half).
Jonathan
had been disappointed to miss out on the Striders club places at London which had been taken by father-in-law Eric Cusack
and Eric’s son David, so he’d entered Blackpool
instead and trained with Eric and David during the winter months including
running Morecambe 20 and Spen 20. This, he promised, was to be his first
and last marathon. He’d had a very serious leg injury just over 3 years
ago and counted himself fortunate to be running at all. He’d already
decided he would stick to shorter races in future.
Also on the
start line were 6 more Striders – Dan, Greg, Eran and Paul for the full and
Jeremy and Chloe for the half.
Jonathan’s
wife took a picture of him, me and Chris. Then I saw another friendly
face – Pat Umpleby! She and John had decided to come to Blackpool
for the weekend and to watch the race. It was a good race for spectators as
they saw the runners 6 times (as will be explained).
It started
drizzling as we lined up at the start. The skies were grey and it looked like
it was going to get worse. Two years ago we started 30 mins late because
the water was not in place on the route, it was the middle of summer and some
runners were dehydrated before they started. This year, fortunately, the
race started on time (well 3 mins late to be precise), otherwise we’d have been
shivering before we set off.
I drank
half a bottle of Lucozade on the start line (a recommendation by Steve O which
I have followed ever since for all marathons and half marathons). There
would be Lucozade in sachets at four drinks stations so I had decided not to
run with a bum-bag of supplies.
Jonathan
and I decided to run together for a while. He was hoping for sub
3:30. I ran 3:13 at Windermere last year, but having lost the whole of
January this year due to a cough, I’d set a plan of 3:25 and a target of 3:20
if everything went well. My longest run this year had been 20
miles. My plan was to run the first 6 at a very steady pace, then I only
had a 20 mile race to run.
The first
bit of the race was a two mile loop, down to the Tower and back to the
Hilton. Then we set off towards the Pleasure Beach.
Jonathan and I set off at just under 8’s. There was a turn to the Pleasure Beach so we could then see the runners
coming back. First we saw Eric and Jeremy close together, then Dan, then
Greg, all running well. We’d just passed 6 miles and they were coming up
to 7 miles. I decided that I could go a fraction faster and Jonathan
wanted a fraction slower, so I took my leave of Jonathan as we wished each
other well!
As we
headed back towards the Tower, the rain came down steadily and, looking up, I
couldn’t see the top of the Tower – it was covered by cloud. The wind was
very slightly against and I got in with a group of four runners from Manchester (3 doing the
full) and we kept each other company for the run towards Bispham.
The first
Lucozade station was at 10 miles and I took a sachet which I sipped for the
next 5 miles.
When we’d
got 2 miles past the Hilton (the 11 mile mark), the half separated from the
full, and the half runners turned to head for home. But there were still
plenty of marathon runners around including my new friends from Manchester. We
turned at 12 miles and then rejoined the half marathon field at our 13 miles
(their 11). This was very strange because we were running 7½ minute miles
while the half marathon runners around us were doing 9’s. So we were
overtaking at what seemed to be a fast rate (I later looked at my split times
and found I’d been running 7’s around then!). Past the Hilton, the half
marathon runners split off to their finish but we had 11 to go. Back down
towards the Pleasure
Beach again for us.
This time
at the turn near the Pleasure
Beach, Eric, Dan and Greg
had a bigger lead and all three were still going well. It looked like I
was going to be well down on the “Any Other Marathon” points.
16 miles
was just before the turn and my watch said 1:59-something so I’d made up some
time and I was now averaging 7½ minute miles. It was just water at the
turn, we’d got past 16 miles and we’d still only had one Lucozade station.
I turned into the slight wind, it was still drizzly and headed back to the
Tower again, overtaking three or four on the way. I saw Jonathan, Eran
and Chris coming in the opposite direction and they were all going well.
The
Lucozade station was at 19 miles (it was the same one as at 10) and it didn’t
look like there was going to be another one, so I took two sachets, drank half
of one, threw the rest of it away, and carried the other one.
Heading up
to Bispham again for miles 20 to 23 was tough, there were not many runners
about (I passed a couple), the concrete promenade was not the easiest surface
to run on, and there were quite a few puddles to dodge.
At 23 we
turned for home. I took water at the turn and drank most of the rest of
the Lucozade. I hadn’t seen the other Striders because at this end of the
course the runners in the different directions were separated by a high
wall. The weather had cleared, the sun was almost managing to get between
the clouds, I caught a lady runner at mile 25 and we talked each other in from
there – 10 minutes to go, a mile to go, 5 minutes to go etc.
We crossed
the line together in 3:16. She was interviewed by the announcer, while I
was pleased to collect my T-shirt, medal and goody bag. John U was there and
took my picture. (I look like I’ve just finished a marathon).
Eric was
also by the finishing barriers. He’d broken 3 hours by 5 minutes!
Dan and Greg were just at the end of the finishing area and they had PBs
too. There were two slices of buttered malt loaf in the goody bag –
perfect!
Jonathan
wasn’t far behind, he beat his target of 3:30 by a few seconds. John U
took his picture. He looks like he’s just won the race!
I needed to
get changed out of my damp kit so I missed Eran coming in, and also my nephew
Chris’s first sub 4 hours in 50 attempts! I did see Paul who just missed
4 hours by one minute.
I was very
pleased with my time, considering the interruption to my training in
January. Everyone else recorded PB’s, so a very successful outing for all
Striders.
The results
were on the website later that evening. For the third marathon in
succession, I’d finished fourth in my category, just outside the prizes.
I’ll have to enter another one.
FULL
35 Eric
Green 2:55:12 PB
4th M50, no prize
60 Dan
Murray 3:03:29 PB
83 Greg
Skerrett 3:07:35 PB
113 Bob
Jackson
3:16:21 4th M50, no prize
172 Jonathan Cocker
3:29:44 PB
210 Eran
Gal-or 3:36:37 PB
338 Paul Sanderson 4:01:41
PB
HALF
44 Jeremy Ladyman
1:26:55 PB
394 Chloe Hudson
1:51:41 PB
Lochaber Marathon (from Ian Sanderson)
A nice race, about 400 runners, flat as a pancake with
views over Loch Eil and Ben Nevis. No other
striders there but I waved at a couple of Abbey Runners.
41 Ian
Sanderson 3:08:59
Club Championship
Here’s the consolidated “Any Other Marathon” category
in the Club Championship after all these races
1 Eric
Green 2:55:12
100 Blackpool
35
2 Dan
Murray
3:03:29 99 Blackpool
60
3 Greg
Skerrett
3:07:35 98 Blackpool
83
4 Ian
Sanderson
3:08:59 97
Lochaber
41
5 Dan
Harman
3:09:38 96 Boston
2366
6 Bob
Jackson
3:16:21 95 Blackpool
113
7 Jonathan Cocker
3:29:44 94 Blackpool
172
8 Carmel
Barker 3:32:40
93 Paris
6710
9 Eran
Gal-or
3:36:37 92 Blackpool
210
10 Bernadette Clayton
3:45:06 91 Paris
9921
11 Mick
Loftus
3:51:03 90 Three Peaks
175
12 Jonathan Brownbill
3:57:05 89 2 Oceans (split
time)
13 Caz
Farrow
3:58:36 88 Three Peaks
227
14 Simon Vallance
4:00:50 87 Three Peaks
244
15 Paul Sanderson
4:01:41 86 Blackpool
338
16 John
Wallace
4:09:49 85 2 Oceans (split
time)
17 Anthony
Fryer 4:17:52
84 Three Peaks
347
18 Gwil
Thomas 4:19:11
83 Devon Coastal
Trail 12
19 Eirik Stangnes
4:28:31 82 Three Peaks
415
20 Ingo
Zoller
4:40:34 81 Three Peaks
495
21 Geoff
Webster
5:31:49 80 Three Peaks
678
Stop press! Jonathan Brownbill moves up to 9th
place with 3:23 at the Hanover
marathon
Handicap Race Result
Richard Adcock hung on to win despite a late challenge
from Erica Hiorns and Paul Hunter.
Gwil Thomas with 37:41 had the fastest run time (and
100 GP points), just 6 seconds ahead of Rob Bumstead. As could have been
predicted from our efforts versus Abbey at Wakefield, there were a good number (18) of
runners in the 39:00 to 43:00 band.
Our two juniors, David and Eddy, ran their first ever
10k races and were ranked 14th and 15th of the 44 runners. They’ll both
be racing in the Esholt 5k series.
Those that had run 3 peaks (3 days earlier) or Blackpool (2 days earlier) had mixed fortunes.
Simon was just faster than Mick. Eran took it very very steadily after
his first marathon but was back before dark.
Thanks to the timekeepers Mike and Eileen, to
number-hander-outer Pat, to subtractor Max, and to halfway marshals Sylvia,
Geoff and John. Mike and Eileen were kept busy with the first 26 finishing
in a space of less than 2 minutes.
36 Pie and peas were enjoyed afterwards. Eran
announced that this would be his last training session at Striders as he was
moving back to Bristol,
and thanked Striders for making him very welcome.
Race
Race
Hand- Run Pts
Pos
Time icap Time
1 Richard
Adcock 55.18 10.15
45.03 74
2 Paul
Hunter 55.24
16.00 39.24 96
3 Erica
Hiorns 55.29
12.45 42.44 84
4 Nick Barnes
55.32 10.45 44.47 75
5 John
Bucktrout 55.39
8.15 47.24 68
6 Jeremy
Ladyman 55.42 16.10
39.32 94
7 Alan
Hutchinson 55.46 15.15
40.31 91
8 Mary
Egan
55.53 11.45 44.08 78
9 Rob
Bumstead 55.57
18.10 37.47 99
10 John
Wallace 56.03
13.15 42.48 82
11 Bob
Wilkes
56.07 7.00 49.07 65
12 Simon
Redshaw 56.13 13.15
42.58 81
13 David
Bass
56.14 14.15 41.59 87
14 Ian
Sanderson 56.18
17.15 39.03 98
15 Eirik
Stangnes 56.22 15.45
40.37 90
16 Tony
Haygarth 56.28
11.45 44.43 76
17 Eddy
Robinson 56.37
14.15 42.22 86
18 Graham Needham
56.38 17.15 39.23 97
19 Kay
Duggleby
56.47 4.45 52.02 62
20 Hayley
Nancolas 56.51 12.15
44.36 77
21 Matt Allen
56.55 13.15 43.40 80
22 Gwil
Thomas 56.56
19.15 37.41 100
23 Adela
Reperecki 56.57 7.00
49.57 63 2
24 Lucy
Carey
57.05 2.45 54.20 60
25 Maureen
Coffey 57.09 7.45
49.24 64
26 Christine Bradbourne
57.10 9.00 48.10 67
27 Sharon
Tansley 57.25 10.15
47.10 69
28 Eric Green
57.30 16.10 41.20 89
29 Simon
Vallance 57.38 18.10
39.28 95
30 Andrew
Cutts 57.52
16.30 41.22 88
31 Jonathan Brownbill
58.01 14.15 43.46 79
32 Jon
Uttley
58.03 18.10 39.53 92
33 Mike
Brown
58.19 7.30 50.49 63
34 Mick
Loftus 58.36
19.00 39.36 93
35 Xanthe
Hannah 58.45 12.45
46.00 71
36 Elika
Tasker 58.46
16.00 42.46 83
37 Natalie Crossland
59.46 11.30 48.16 66
38 Greg
Skerrett 59.48
14.15 45.33 73
39 Elissa
Bilton 60.33
2.45 57.48 59
39 Bob
Jackson 60.33
14.45 45.48 72
41 Ian
Rosser
61.28 18.45 42.43 85
42 Joel
Giddings 63.06 16.10
46.56 70
43 Maria Dixon
64.43 3.15 61.28 58
44 Eran
Gal-or 67.15
13.30 53.45 61
Grand Prix positions now updated on the website