Sent: 03 July 2008 00:50
Subject: VS Update - Dates for your Diary (action required) and Race
Reports
Lots of Dates for Your Diary – note that some require urgent action
Geoff and Sylvia have emailed to say:
Grand Prix races coming up: Honley on 6 July; Stainland on
16 July; Knavesmire on 30 July: details on YVAA website www.yvaa.org. These are
only open to over-35’s.
YVAA road championship races are held as part of normal road
races. The Askern 10 mile on 10 August and the Spen 10k on 14 September
host the YVAA Championships. The races are open to everyone but to be
eligible for Yorkshire Vets trophies, you need to be over 35 and you
need to pre-enter.
Track Training, Tuesday 8 July
Remember 2nd Tuesday of the month is track training at Leeds
Met (Carnegie) (
Eccup 10 mile, Sunday 13 July
There are still places available and probably taking entries
on the day. And Valley Striders Grand Prix points are available too!
And it is also an ideal opportunity in qualification for a
Valley Striders Performance Certificate. This requires 5 competitive
races but these must be at at least 3 different distances. Many of you
have run several 5ks and several 10ks, but need a third distance.
See http://valleystriders.org.uk/vsperfs.htm
for details of the performance awards system. I’ll be updating the
website soon with the latest awards.
Golden
Teams of three, two and a half miles each, route fully
marshaled. Enter on the night, £10 per team.
Just get together to make up a team, invent a good Striders
name, ensure at least one of you arrives by 6:30 to register and the others by
6:50 at the very latest. NB parking can be tricky.
The meeting point is the back car park to Golden Acre, on
Message from Chris Carver, Otley AC: "Otley AC will be
organising practice runs over various sections of the course on Thur 10 July at
7.15pm. If any of your members are interested they are more than welcome to
join us and perhaps get to know the terrain ( and opposition) a bit better. I
suggest that all interested parties meet initially at the Yorkshire Water
Swinsty Moor car park - which is the start and finish of all the stages." http://www.otleyac.co.uk/Washburn%20Relay/WVR.htm
Teams of three, about 4 miles each, no marshals, so you need
to recce. I can’t find on the website whether you need to enter in
advance, so suggest you contact Chris Carver on the Otley AC website or get the
info if you go to the recce run.
V S Anniversary Run and Barbecue, Sunday 20 July (OR NOT)
The plan is to meet at 10:30 at Leo’s, run down the Meanwood
Valley Trail to Woodhouse Moor (just over 4 miles), then run back again to
celebrate the 26th anniversary of Valley Striders. Followed by
a lunchtime barbecue.
We need a minimum of 50 barbecuers to make the event viable,
so far we have only 12!
I need to let Tony know by next Monday whether the barbecue
is on, so please email by this Sunday (6 July) or text on Monday
to 0777 5898 558, to say if you are coming and how many family and friends you
are bringing with you.
We had a great do last year and did decide it would be an
annual event, so please email or text straight away, otherwise unfortunately we
will have to cancel the barbecue.
Summer Handicap, Tuesday 29 July, 7pm
Five and a quarter miles from the Res, a clockwise route via
Eccup and Emmerdale. Afterwards it’s lasagne night!
We’re trying to get four teams of 12. We already have
39 names but 6 or so are listed as possible or subject to recovery from injury,
so at least 12 more required.
Please let me know by Tuesday 8 July whether
you are a definite, a probable or a possible.
Then Paul Furness and myself can start putting teams
together and allocating runners to legs so there is plenty of time to recce.
Leeds Half Marathon, Sunday 7 September – message from Ian
Rosser
I will be
writing a story later in the week for the Yorkshire Evening Post about the
Just to
give club members advance notice that about 2,400 of the available 3,000 places
have already been allocated. If you are planning to run it, make sure you
get your entry in fast!
Horsforth 10k, Sunday 28 September
Reminder
that this is the return match for the
Race Reports
Six
Striders (that I saw) took part with varying degrees of success. There was a
pretty big field but no chip timing so we all made sure we started at the
front.
The
organisation was very good with ample water stations but the course was brutal
with a harsh slip road off the bridge, a never ending hill between miles 9 and
10 and then the slip road back on to and across the bridge.
I made the
stupid mistake of running the first 10k at my recent 10k race pace then, not
unsurprisingly, struggled to get round the remaining 7 miles and
finished around 6 minutes slower than my PB . The boys (JB, Chief
Marshall, Patrick and Jeremy) all managed decent times with Patrick in
particular beating his target time by a couple of minutes. But the most
impressive performance had to be by Chloe who knocked several minutes off her
PB.
There are
some pre and post race photos that might make their way to you; including Chief
Marshal's owl.
JB, as
usual, did his best to tarnish the good Valley Striders name by telling the
lady mayor that he liked her thong as she climbed up to the starting podium.
She seemed quite pleased by the attention though.
I did the
At the
bottom of the hill, I was on for an 85 minute run. By the top of the bugger, my
legs were shot and I struggled back in just over 89 mins.
The hill
aside, it’s a pleasant enough run with the obvious attraction of running over
the bridge, which is one mile between its main supports.
Other VS
runners on the day included Jeremy Ladyman (87.09), Dan Murray (96.00),
Jonathan Brownbill (96.51), Patrick Barrett (98.43), Xanthe Hannah (105.03),
Chloe Hudson (106.35) and Michael Grant (119.42).
I thought
the organisation was excellent (although as my father-in-law organises it, I
may be biased). Apart from the apples, pears and water at the finish, there
were even free cakes, muffins and Mars bars, a leg massage tent and a bouncy
slide and castle (very important when you have four young ‘uns waiting
impatiently for your return).
Midsummer
10K
Not a bad
little event if you're in the
1
Nathan Holmes (
15
Drew Taylor 37:31
206 Ran
That’s
all folks
That’s all
for now, but expect another VS Update next week with details of UK Athletics
membership registration, more information about the Performance Awards, results
from the Hyde Park 5k, an ironman report from Bill Murphy and more.
And don’t
forget to let me know about the Anniversary Barbecue and the