Sent: 19 March 2009 00:17
Subject: VS Update - Membership fees, Help requested, Calendar, Race results and reports, Thursday session

 

Another marathon edition of V S Update.  If your email system loses part of it, it will be on the Striders website late Thursday evening

 

Membership Fees

 

We now have 167 members for the Striders year September 2008 to August 2009, but there are still 53 who haven’t paid. 

                                                

We will be renewing registrations with England Athletics in April, and if you haven’t paid your V S Membership, your registration won’t be renewed, therefore you won’t be entitled to run in races as a Strider, nor get your £2 race discount, nor get your 10% Up & Running discount.  If you’re not paid-up and you enter the Leeds Half Marathon as a Strider, you are likely to get your entry returned!

 

Please check whether you have paid at www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsmemreg.htm .  If it says “08”, you’ve paid.  If it says “07” or your name isn’t on the list, then you haven’t, so please send a cheque for £14, payable to Valley Striders, to Paul White, 17 Whinmoor Court, Red Hall, Leeds LS14 1NX.

 

Your Help is Requested …

 

… for the races that we organise or support during the year.  Please put these dates in your diary and come and help at some of the races please.

 

Sun 10 May – Leeds Half Marathon – The running clubs in Leeds have each been asked to provide a small team of marshals to help marshal a relay change-over or a water station or a section of the route.  They will pay £5 per marshal to the club, and, if you marshal, we will deduct that from next year’s subs.  If we can get names in quickly, we may be able to ask for a position early on the route, but I can’t guarantee this.  Are you able to help?  Let me know as soon as possible.

 

Sat 16 May – Meanwood Valley Trail - We have over 100 runners so far but only 15 marshals.  If you’re able to help, let me know as soon as possible.  If you want to know what might happen when the are insufficient marshals, read the report from the Windmills Whizz below.  Bottle of beer for every marshal.  All race profits to Lineham Farm (we raised over £1,000 last year).

 

Tue 23 June – Yorkshire Vets Race at Leos – You’ll be needed for just over an hour for this race.  Sandwiches for every marshal.

 

Sun 4 October – Harewood 10 mile Trail - Bottle of beer for every marshal.  All race profits to Lineham Farm (we raised over £3,000 last year).

 

Sun 18 October – Cancer Research 10k at Harewood – 12 marshals needed.

 

Sat 27 February 2010 – National Cross Country at Roundhay Park – Many of England’s top runners (and many more besides) will be at Roundhay when “The National” is back in Leeds after a 9 year gap.  Valley Striders intend to have the biggest team running and marshal a section of the course.

 

Race and Training Calendar

 

Sun 22 March – Yorks Vets race at Meltham

 

Venue: Meltham Community Sports Centre. Excellent changing facilities & showers plus large lounge with hot drinks & snacks. The bar is usually open as well.

Car Parking: ample parking close by. Follow directions of marshals.

Route: mostly off road on tracks & fields with some long climbs & descents, approx 6 miles.

Entry: £2.00 on day.

Travel instructions: from the centre of Meltham follow signs for Slaithwaite & Marsden. Where Slaithwaite Road turns sharp left, turn right down Mean Lane just after Morrisons' supermarket. The sports centre is on your left just before the road peters out into a track! Link to map on www.yvaa.org.

 

Sun 22 March – South Leeds 5 mile from John Charles Centre

 

I think I’ve recommended this one before – it’s a chance to race at a ‘different’ distance. If you’re trying to get a Valley Striders Performance Certificate, you need 5 races which must cover at least 3 different distances so here’s your chance for a 5 miler.

 

Tue 24 March – last Winter Training – hills at Church Lane (meet at the club at 6:45)

 

Tue 31 March – first Summer Training – meet at the club at 6:45 and choice of short or long routes to get to the Res.  The session will be a pyramid session – 1½ minutes out and back, then 3 minutes, then 4½ minutes, then 3 minutes, finally 1½ minutes.

 

Sun 5 April – Baildon Boundary Way - entries closed, if you’ve a number and not running, or want a number let me know and I will arrange the swap.

 

Sun 5 April – Wakefield 10k  - fairly fast route – chance of a PB.

 

Tue 7 April – meet at the club at 6:45 and choice of short or long routes to get to the Res for the 3 by 10 minutes session. 

 

Afterwards - lasagne night please place your order by Sun 5 April stating whether meat or vegetarian lasgane and whether you want apple pie.

 

Tue 14 April – Track session – please note this may be an earlier start time – see website for details.

 

Thu 16 April – Thursday run from Scott Hall followed by curry night (see information below on Thursday training).

 

Tue 21 April – Club Handicap 10k, followed by pie and peas.

 

Sun 10 May – Leeds Half Marathon – get your entry in ASAP before the race fills up. 

 

Sat 10 October – World Long Distance Mountain Running – message from Ingo

 

Important news from the continental mountain running scene: the world long distance mountain running championships will take place on October 10th, 2009, starting in Söll, Austria. The link: http://www.tourdetirol.com/english/tour_de_tirol/informationen.html

 

The registration links just arrived, and the first entries are in already.  http://www1.your-sports.com/details/index.php?page=2&eventid=1729&lang=en . Since the list is expected to fill quickly, early entry is recommended.

 

Hope to see you all there!  Don't forget - it is a nice uphill finish!

 

Race Results and Reports

 

Peco Cross country League race 4 at Golden Acre

 

Grand Prix points based on finishing sequence in race.  Because less than 20 runners, new rules apply, first Strider scores 100, last Strider scores 80, others are equally spaced.

 

Men

                         VS Seq    GP Pts

    4 Panos Aristotelous    1       100

   10 Gareth Moules         2        99

   18 Jim Clay              3        98

   27 Simon Vallance        4        96

   32 Eirik Stangnes        5        95

   33 Ian Sanderson         6        94

   36 Andrew Thompson       7        93

   38 Mark Greaves          8        91

   43 Joel Giddings         9        90

   60 Andrew Cutts         11        88

   76 Bob Jackson          12        86

   81 Malcolm Coles        14        84

   84 John Wallace         15        84

  109 Bob Wilkes           17        81

      Team position 2nd. Men vets team 3rd.

Women                                        

    4 Hayley Nancolas      10        89

   12 Michaela McGarry     13        85

   26 Sue Sunderland       16        83

   40 Sharon Tansley       18        80

      Team position 6th. Women vets team ?

 

Juniors

   14 Josephine Mather-Hunter

 

Peco Cross country League race 5 at Eccleshill

 

    9 Panos Aristotelous   

   12 Steve Webb

   16 Matt Allen

   17 Jim Clay              

   23 Eirik Stangnes

   25 Jerry Watson

   33 Jeremy Ladyman

   37 Ian Rosser

   52 John Batchelor

   70 Alistair Smyth

   72 John Wallace

      Team position 2nd. Men vets team 3rd.

 

   20 Chloe Hudson

   40 Sara Dyer

      Team position 7th. Women vets team ?

 

The overall league positions have not yet appeared on the website, but my calculations say

·         Congratulations to the men who finished runners-up in the league

·         Commiserations to the women who finished last in the league and will be relegated for next year.

 

Little Strickland 10

   7 Dan Fisher          1:06:14

In the three years that Strider Mark Bean has organized this race, it has grown from 14 runners in the first year to 73 this year.

 

Windmills Whizz (report from Halifax Courier)

 

Todmorden Harrier Dave Collins enjoyed a rare moment in the spotlight when a mischief maker hit the Windmills Whizz race from Ogden Reservoir on Saturday.

 

A route marker flag had been moved overnight, sending half of a record field of 122 runners for the annual event on a detour towards Oxenhope.  A seven mile race suddenly became a near nine mile contest for the frontrunners.

 

However, the 53-year-old Collins had taken part in the event several times before and seized his chance to come home first in 46 minutes and 13 seconds - nine minutes outside the course record set by Adam Osbourne of Leeds in 2004.

 

Race favourite Chris Miller of Harrogate, who was leading when the leaders took the wrong course, beat only five other runners home.

 

Anne Johnson of Calder Valley was first woman over 40 in 51-16, just behind Jessica Riley of Stainland (49-29).

 

Organiser Allan Greenwood had put out the route markers in the fading light on Friday prior to Saturday's 11.30 am start.

 

Greenwood said: "I told all the runners that it was a simple left-handed route and that they would not have to turn right and would always have the windmills on their left. "Unfortunately a marker had been moved and even some runners who had taken part before didn't realise they had gone the wrong way."

 

Greenwood said the reaction of the inconvenienced athletes had been tremendous. "They were really good about it. In other sports there might have been a lot of complaints but many people seemed quite pleased that it had given some of the others a chance.

 

"Dave Collins said it was his best ever win - by default!"

 

Greenwood said a generous donation would be made to cancer charities from the race proceeds.

 

Click  http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/local/Athletics-Collins-takes-the-right.5078174.jp  for pictures of Xanthe and Andrew

 

Results to follow (look on website in a couple of days)

 

Trollers Trot

 

Four Striders trotted the 25 mile route from Threshfield.

      Alan Hutchinson     3:54

      Eirik Stangnes      3:57

      Richard Adcock      4:19

      Madeleine Watson    5:xx

 

St Annes 10 mile

     30 Jeremy Ladyman     1:04:19

  120 Chris Kilner       1:12:38

  153 Chloe Hudson       1:16:31

 

Trimpell 20 at Morecambe

   64 Eric Green         2:14:45 (3rd M50)  

 

Spen 20 (V S Grand Prix)

   35 Dan Murray         2:13:11      100 

   37 Gwil Thomas        2:14:21       98 

   77 Ian Sanderson      2:25:58       95 

   81 Patrick Barrett    2:26:56       93 

   83 Gary Sutherland    2:27:00       90 

   90 Hayley Nancolas    2:28:36       88 

   93 Simon Redshaw      2:29:26       85 

  115 Bob Jackson        2:33:29       83 

  120 John Wallace       2:34:53       80 

 

Grand Prix scores use the new system where if there are 20 or fewer Striders, the first Strider scores 100, the last scores 80, with the others being spaced equally.

 

Please share some commiserations for Hayley.  She was 5th woman in the race.  But the first woman did not qualify for the Yorkshire Championships so Hayley missed a medal by just one place.

 

Women’s Yorkshire gold medallist was a good friend of some of the Striders – Sally Malir from Ilkley.  Silver medallist was Nell McAndrew who finished 3rd woman in 2:22:57.  She had a steady start and overtook all Striders except Dan and Gwil.

 

Men’s gold medallist was Ian Fisher of Otley A C in 1:53:47.  Nine runners broke the two hour barrier which is the most for several years.

 

The Valley Striders club championship (Grand Prix) started 20 years ago in 1989.  The Spen 20 has been in the Grand Prix most years.  Here are the V S results from 1989.  Striders won the team prize and two Yorkshire medals.

    2 Steve O'Callaghan  1:51:14

    3 Terry Bean         1:52:23

    5 Keith Cluderay     1:54:38

    6 Hilary McEwan      1:55:04

    8 Angelo Feliciello  1:55:25

   15 Steve Thirkell     1:59:09

   29 Rob Jacobson       2:03:18

   39 Eric Cusack        2:04:56

   43 Fred Douglas       2:05:48

   74 Richard Lumb       2:12:22

  106 Ray Jones          2:15:29

  107 Yvonne Bissitt     2:15:29

  109 John Hallas        2:15:35

  122 Don Wrigley        2:17:30

  141 Bob Jackson        2:21:05

  144 Roger Mackintosh   2:21:38

  156 Chris Jackson      2:23:12

  192 Dave Taylor        2:31:32

  193 John Umpleby       2:31:43

  195 Andy Barritt       2:32:35

  196 George Dawson      2:33:16

  221 Chris Newman       2:47:06

 

More race reports wanted – just email them in!

 

Thursday Run – a plea from Gareth Moules

 

We are trying to drum up support for the Thursday training run. Throughout the last year or so numbers have dropped so much that on one occasion one person attended and had no-one else to run with. With so few turning up this is a week in week out risk and will ultimately lead to the Thursday run ceasing to exist. For a club as big and popular as Valley Striders this is simply not acceptable.

 

The Tuesday speed session has developed into such a popular and sociable run that it is hard to accept such a poor turn out for the Thursday evening run. On countless occasions potential new members have popped up on a Thursday night for a steady run only to be severely disappointed by the turn out and have never been seen again. Personally I can think of 2 or 3 very good runners who have probably joined a different running club. I believe that the vast majority of new members join to participate in steady, relatively pain free runs. We are robbing them of this opportunity and the club of valuable new members.

 

On a very frustrating note, club members have been spotted training on their own on the same roads we use. Considering a few of us travel across Leeds to Scott Hall to support the Thursday run, it feels like we are fighting a losing battle.

 

The main issue with the Thursday night training run has been the vast difference in running paces. With only a small number attending this is inevitable. It would be good if we could raise numbers to perhaps 12-15 at the very least and split into 2 or maybe even 3 groups. The faster group may cover 7-9 miles, while other groups may run 5-6 miles. All groups would run the first mile or two together before splitting. Planned properly both groups would finish at approximately the same time in order to maintain the social aspect of the run. Clearly both groups would need someone with local knowledge in order to plan the routes. This model has been adopted by the university cross-country club with paces ranging from 5.30 min/mile to 9 min/mile for the three groups. This ensures all members have a productive training run whatever their goal, be it a steady jog and a chat or a fast lactate threshold type run to improve racing performances. After all, the foundations of an endurance runner are based around increasing aerobic capacity. Without this speed sessions cannot fulfil an individual’s potential.

 

To add to the social aspect of the Thursday run, we are organising a post run curry for the 3rd Thursday of every month starting . Please support this run as I feel the club will ultimately lose out if not. Hope to see some of you on a Thursday night.

 

Gareth Moules   07782360577