Sent: 04 February 2011 00:24
Subject: V S Update - Dewsbury & lunch, various events, Peco results, Stanbury report, 2011 Fell Champs events and more

 

Sunday 6 February - Dewsbury 10k post-race refreshments (message from Elika Tasker)

 

Sunday 6th February may to some of you mean the date of your next 10k, Dewsbury 10k, but to me it’s also the 1st time I've had a drink since the start of 2011! Trust me it's a big deal.

 

So to celebrate such occasion and of course a hopefully decent 10k time (it is a running club after all), I hope you can make it for the planned drinks following the race.

 

The plan is to head to Mustard Pot, Chapel Allerton for 1 o'clock for Sunday Roast and a few warm up drinks. A great chance to share fellow Valley Striders results from the morning and of course some great grub! The Mustard Pot is a really family friendly venue, so feel free to bring the kids.

 

Then a bit later, we'll head on down to the newly opened 'East of Arcadia' in Meanwood (the former Becketts Arms), to continue on sampling the local ale.

 

All are welcome, so hope to you see you there.

 

Give me a shout if you need anything!  [email protected]

 

Note from Bob – Dewsbury 10k has now closed, there are over 1000 entries so get there early as there are likely to be queues for the loos, and also get a good place at the start, however, Grand Prix points will be based on chip times so no need to be on the front row!

 

Another note from Bob – I’m sure Striders who don’t run at Dewsbury will still be welcome at Elika’s do.

 

A final note from Bob – if you’re considering using someone else’s number in this race, remember the 17 rules www.valleystriders.org.uk/17rules.htm and if you’re a fast M30, don’t use the number for a W45!

 

Wednesday 9 February “Celebrating the Games”

 

There is a series of 9 lectures at Leeds University related to the 2012 Olympic Games. 

 

There may not be hundreds queuing to see the Director of Ceremonies lecture “All eyes on London: Opening The Games.” nor to see the Head of Security talk about “Creating a secure environment for The London 2012 Games”.

 

But how about Wednesday 9 February 6:15 – 7:30pm to see Alistair Brownlee (2009 World Triathlon Champion), Jonny Brownlee (2010 World u23 Triathlon Champion), Malcolm Brown and Jack Maitland (Coaching team – Leeds Carnegie High Performance Triathlon) talk about “Leeds Triathlon and Golden Ambitions for London 2012” at the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre, Michael Sadler Building

 

Full details at http://sport.leeds.ac.uk/core/core_picker/download.asp?id=434 .  All lectures are free & open to the public.  Please email [email protected] to reserve a place at any of the lectures. For further information, please see www.leeds.ac.uk/olympics or call 0113 3434881.

 

Saturday 5 March – Visually Impaired Event

 

This event, organized by University of Leeds, Leeds Parkrun and The Vision Charity runs from 9am to 2pm

  • 9am to 10am – normal Leeds Parkrun
  • 10am to 11am – the Vision mile, races for blind and visually impaired runners and also for fully sighted runners to be blindfolded and guided
  • 11am to 12noon – 5km race for visually impaired runners
  • 12:30 to 2pm – motivational talk by Noel Thatcher, winner of 42 gold medals at major Paralympic championships

 

I don’t have any official information for this, so if you’re interested, keep your eye on the parkrun website www.parkrun.com or  www.visioncharity.co.uk/sportslegacy

 

Sunday 6 March - Peco XC race 5

 

The final race in the Peco series is being held on Otley Chevin and ORGANISED BY VALLEY STRIDERS.  We need about 8 people to set up the course and registration area and 10 to marshal.  If you can help, please email me

 

So far, thanks to Laura Clark, Mick Tinker and Paul Hunter for volunteering for course set-up and to Peter Lambert for offering to marshal.

 

Saturday 26 March – Yorkshire Vets XC Championships

 

Details at: http://www.yvaa.org/

 

Closing date 18/03/2011. Contact Drew Taylor at [email protected]

 

Wednesday 29 March (provisional date) - Tom Williams Marathon Talk

 

The second of Tom’s talks will specifically focus on tapering down for the marathon and preparation for race day.

 

I have suggested to Tom that he might do another talk in April for runners in the Leeds half marathon, I will let you know if this is going to happen.

 

Tom and Martin Yelling’s marathon talk website can be found at http://www.marathontalk.com/

 

Sunday 3 April - Wakefield 10k

 

We’ve proposed this race as the date of the Abbey Valley challenge and Abbey Runners have agreed.

 

This will be the sixth time the Abbey Valley cup has been contested, and we currently lead the series 4-1.

 

Note that all runners count in the scoring but faster runners score more than slower.  So it is important to have fast runners but also important to have as many runners as possible.

 

http://valleystriders.org.uk/abbeyvalley.htm

 

Everyone, please put 3 April in your diaries for Wakefield 10k.

 

Apart from scoring in the Abbey Valley challenge, you also score Grand Prix points and also it is a fast course with potential for a PB.

 

NB you can enter online at no extra cost at http://www.ukresults.net/11apl.html#wakefield

 

Running London or another spring marathon and looking for long races?

 

Races to consider include

  6 March – Trimpell 20 at Moreecambe (but we’d prefer you run the final XC)

 13 March – Spen 20 at Cleckheaton

 20 March – East Hull 20

 20 March – South Yorkshire Half at Wath-upon-Dearne

 27 March – Wilmslow half

All races on www.ukresults.net

 

Peco XC results – men 2nd, women 1st

 

The men’s team were narrowly beaten by Abbey Runners, just 4 points difference.  To win the league, we have to win the final race and Abbey finish 3rd; our only chance seems to be to spike the beer at Adel Memorial Club.  We will still need a good team on 6th March to guarantee the runners-up trophy.  Overall Malcolm Coles leads the M70 category.  In the meantime, on the back of two great results the men will go with confidence to the English National at Alton Towers on 19 February. 

 

  6 Simon Midwood

  7 Rob De’Giovanni

 10 Gwil Thomas

 15 Dan Fisher

 20 Matt Allen

 25 Dave Penman

 27 Jeremy Ladyman

 30 Dan Murray

    team total 140 points

 38 Roy Huggins

 39 Tony Mills

 48 Eirik Stangnes

 76 Paul Hunter

 77 Alistair Smyth

 89 Andy Settle

102 Joe Hanney

104 John Wallace

112 Patrick Barrett

115 Bob Jackson

126 Malcolm Coles

127 John Shanks

130 Tony Haygarth

139 Leroy Sutton

201 ran

 

The women’s team finished first in the first division (i.e. the second division) and have a clear lead in the series going into the final race, where a win or 2nd place will secure winning the league and some more silverware for the trophy cabinet.  Our points total was third best women’s team on the day so on this form we will be challenging for silverware in the premier division next year.  Liz Wood ran her first ever XC and was one of the scorers.  Overall Sue Sunderland is well placed in the W50 category.

 

 14 Myra Jones

 15 Laura Clark

 22 Liz Wood

 23 Amanda Seims

    team total 74 points

 28 Sue Sunderland

 43 Sarah Smith

120 approx ran

 

North Wales Cross Country Championships

 

Jerry Watson has emailed “After improving position in each race of West Yorkshire Cross country League before Christmas, Katie Parry has continued to improve and came 3rd in the North Wales Championships on Saturday. This has regional status (like the Northerns), and the run has earned her selection for that region in the Inter-Counties & World Cross Trial in Birmingham in March. This is her first season of cross-country running so some improvement!”

 

Brass Monkey photos

 

See http://www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsalbum/11brass/index.html  for about 40 photos taken by Ken Kaiser (thanks!).  The photos look great except for a blurred one of Dan Murray – slow down next time, Dan!

 

Stanbury Splash report from Amanda Seims

 

I'd been talked into this by curly Matt who filled my head with promises of lots of chocolate at the finish.  What he'd forgotten to tell me was that it is quite a tough course, especially in the wet and it was only at the start that he remembered to tell me that there were some stream crossings!  Silly me really for forgetting to ask why it is called The Stanbury Splash!
 
The 7 mile course starts in the quarry at Penistone Country park and heads out through the car park, across the fell and back again.  This was my first proper fell race and although I did OK on some of the downs and ups, the really steep descents proved quite tricky and very nerve-wracking!  The stream crossings were actually not so bad as I had a decent pair of wool socks on and they were usually followed by a sharp uphill section which was definitely enough to get a sweat on! 
 
There were some nice fast(ish) sections on good hard track to give you some recovery but the rest was very slippery-slidey and my legs were like jelly on the return leg back.  There were quite a few cameramen around to get those awful pictures of everyone with their twisted faces of pain and the videos capturing this were shown on a huge screen back in the pub at the end of the race for everyone's amusement.  Watching the playback from the junior races made me wish that I'd been as fit as they seemed when I was their age, although if someone had bribed me into a fell race with the promise of sweets when I was young, I'm sure I would have taken up running back then! 
 
After the soup and a roll came the prize giving and my word it was never ending!  The elite runners were laden with arm fulls of tubs of chocolate, tubs of baked beans, soreen loaf, fruit cakes, beer and lots more.  After that, they seemed to go through the list of finishers so that at least the first hundred or so walked away with a few tubs of cholate or bottles of beer.  Then came the frenzied throw-out......first it was packets of crisps (during which one flew straight at my head!), then carrier bags full of maltesers, then handfuls of sweets, then the soreen loafs, then t-shirts followed by goody bags of sweets and so on until it had all gone.  I can tell you that it wasn't just the juniors that were going crazy during this either - grown adults were grabbing what they could from the air and on the floor!  Unfortunatley we were too far back to catch much, however  Matt spotted on the results list that I hadn't been counted as a female finisher and therefore didn't get called out in the endless prize giving.  Amazingly the organisers insisted I should have something and suddenly produced two big selection boxes of chocolate biscuits!
 
When I got home I was amazed to see that the results and photos were already up which was very quick! 
 
So to summarise, a well-organised 7 mile tough race in the mud, where participation is encouraged by making everyone worthy of a prize!

 

Results info from John Marsham

  1 Chris Steele  43:30
  3 Ian Holmes 42:51
Striders finishers
 76 Tony Mills 53.51
 81 John Marsham
 84 Eirik Stangnes 54.31
 86 Matthew Allen 54.37
187 Mark Hunter  63.05
261 Amanda Seims  68.06
406 finished
410 started

Full results and pictures at http://woodentops.org.uk/index.php?topic=stanbury

Trial Trail Shoes? – message from Hi-Tec

 

I work with Hi-Tec, who I’m sure you know are a leading outdoor brand. To celebrate the launch of our brand new V-Lite Infinity trail running shoes we're looking to start partnering with a select few trail running clubs across the country.

 

We want to find out what real runners think of our kit and we really value the opinions of the people who use outdoor products on a regular basis (you guys are the experts after all!).

 

The idea is that we'd send you two pairs of shoes, which you could use when out on the trail and then review for us. Your review would feature on the Hi-Tec Infinity website, alongside advice from adventure racing pro Martin Dreyer, and help to inform anyone who is considering buying the shoes.

 

I really hope this sounds like something you might be interested in- if this is the case I'd need you to get back to me as soon as possible so that we could get the shoes out to you in good time.

 

Please do get in touch if anything needs clearing up or if you'd like any further information.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Best wishes,

 

Sophie Coley [email protected]

 

2011 Fell Championship

 

Short

  • Bunny Runs (CS) 5, 12, 19 & 26 April (best time to count)
  • Jack Bloor (BS) 10 May
  • Otley Chevin (AS) 1 June
  • Buckden Pike (AS) 18 June
  • Another (Steve/Holly to decide)

 

Medium

  • Noonstone (AM) 26 February
  • Wharfedale TTT Day 2 (AM) 2 July
  • Round Hill (CM) 7 August
  • Withens Skyline (BM) 23 October
  • Shepherds Skyline (BM) 5 November

 

Long

  • Heptonstall (BL) 20 March
  • 3 Peaks (AL) 30 April
  • Wharfedale Offroad Half (BL) and Full (CL) 4 June
  • Holme Moss (AL) 17 July
  • Yorkshireman Offroad Full (CL) 11 September
  • Any one other AL

 

Same rules as last year.  Best 5 scores to count to include at least one short, one medium and one long.  1.1 factor for A category, 0.9 factor for C category.  Eirik's argument for 1.05/0.95 factors dismissed for lack of supporting statistical evidence.  Only AL races to count for the one additional "wildcard" score: if anybody runs alternative races this year which they think should have counted, then let us know so the issue can be considered again next year.