Sent: 27 June 2011 00:29
Subject: V S Update - V S Events, Events Diary, Results and Reports (including BMW, Yorks champ & Welsh bronze), Other messages

 

VALLEY STRIDERS EVENTS

 

Tuesday 28 June - Vets Race at Leos,

 

Thank you to the 25 who have volunteered to marshal.  Please meet on the patio in front of the clubhouse at 6:45pm prompt.  If you want to run, bring your running gear with you in case we have “too many” marshals!

 

If anyone else is available to marshal, please let me know before Monday 10pm or just arrive on the night before 6:45.

 

If for some reason you are delayed but can still marshal, please phone Ian Place on 07980 033 998.  If you don’t let Ian know, someone who wanted to run will have to take your marshalling place.

 

Tuesday 12 July – Club Handicap

 

The Summer handicap trail route is 5.2 miles from the Reservoir, via Eccup village to Emmerdale and back across the dam.  Meet by the Res at 7pm prompt. 

 

Afterwards, lasagne, order carnivore or vegetarian and whether you want apple pie to [email protected] before Sunday 10pm.

 

As we nearly lost a couple of runners on the last handicap, we need 7 marshals to keep everyone on route.  Please email me if you’re able to help.

 

Sunday 2 October – Harewood Trail Race

 

As we’re now up to strength for the Vets race, we can start recruitment for the Harewood Trail Race.

 

The 2009 and 2010 races raised a total of £6,000 shared between Lineham Farm Children’s Centre and Yorkshire Air Ambulance.  However this race has large fixed costs – we pay over £1,250 to Harewood House - so it is essential to have over 300 runners otherwise the race makes a loss.

 

We’re looking for marshals for the day, but we’re also looking for volunteers to hand out race entry forms at local races including Eccup 10 (10 July), Pudsey 10k (24 July), Harrogate 10k (24 July), Golden Acre Relay (27 July).  Please email me if you can help at one of these, you only need to be there for an hour.

 

EVENTS DIARY

 

Saturday 2 July - Lineham Farm Open Day

 

Barbecue and lots of treats to eat - Musical Entertainment – Lineham farm goodies – Plant stall – Who will be the mystery guest?

 

11am to 3pm, £2 per child, £1 per adult   www.linehamfarm.co.uk

 

Also Saturday 2 July – fell race at Kettlewell in V S Fell Champs

 

Steve Webb writes

 

There are races counting in the fell champs over the next three weekends.  Saturday 2 July is an A Medium (with navigation) as part of the Wharfedale Triple T at Kettlewell - the whole event is heartily recommended.

 

Saturday 9 July at 2.15 is a B Short at Baildon Carnival.  All the fun of the fair, very easy to get to by public transport, and a junior run at 3.15.

 

Sunday 17 July is an A Long at Holme Moss.

 

Don't forget you need at least one from Short, Medium and Long to maximise your score in the champs.

 

Tuesday 5 & 12 July - sessions still not back to normal

 

The Striders track session will be, for a change, on the 1st Tuesday of the month i.e. July 5th, so meet at Leeds Met not at Leos.

 

July 12th will be the Summer handicap see details above

 

Tuesday 5 July – Run Leeds @ Alwoodley

 

Our beginners and improvers group, “Run Leeds @ Alwoodley” resumes for season two at 6pm on Tuesday 5 July.  New “members” welcome.  If you have friends that are occasional runners and want to improve or friends that are healthy and want to take up running, ask them to contact [email protected] for details or check our website www.valleystriders.org.uk/ril.htm   No necessity to join Valley Striders.

 

Saturday 9 July - additional race for Fell Championships

 

Steve Webb writes,

 

I suggest the Baildon Carnival Canter is included in the Fell Champs as the replacement for Blackshaw Head in the Short category.  It is a B Short. Is easy to get to, even by public transport, has all the fun of the fair and a fun run for kids, and no nasty climbs or descents.  A good sharpener for Eccup10 if anybody wants to do both.

 

Here are the details from the race organisers

 

Once again Baildon Runners are organising a 3.5 mile off-road race in conjunction with Baildon Carnival on Saturday, 9 July. The race starts at 2:15pm and climbs over Baildon Moor to the trig point on Hope Hill with a good "let’s go for it" descent to the finish. There will also be a 1 mile fun run at 3:15pm for the kids (though open to all ages) on the edge of the Moor.

 

Entries will be taken on the day only.

 

For more details see  www.baildonrunners.tk

 

Sunday 10 July – Eccup 10

 

V S Club Championship race

 

Sunday 4 September – Leeds Country Way Relay

 

60 runners needed, email [email protected] if you’d like to run.

 

Saturday 15 October - the 2011 UK Hill and Fell Relays at Kettlewell

 

While our road runners are in Palma, our fell runners will be able to compete in the UK championships in our “back yard”.  Teams of 6 required.

 

Announcement from Halifax Harriers

 

Date change, Calderdale Way Relay and Mytholmroyd Fell Race swap dates

 

Calderdale Way Relay - To overcome major logistical and organisational problems; the CWR Committee has come to the decision to move this tremendous event to an annual May Date. The decision was made in response to positive feedback after this year’s rescheduled event, as well as the capture of a suitable long term race HQ. The 2012 CWR will be held on 13th May 2012 and this will replace the advertised December 2011 event. On behalf of the CWR committee, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Linda Crabtree for all her hard work and effort in organising the CWR for the last 10 years. She has played a major role in making the CWR such a popular and well supported event. We wish her the best of luck in the future and look forward to seeing her compete in the May 2012 event.

 

Mytholmroyd Fell Race - The popular Mytholmroyd Fell race will be moved from its traditional May date and will instead be run on the 11th December 2011. We hope that this event will be supported so it can be established in the fell race calendar.

 

Race Listings

 

I’ve updated our Dates page with all our Grand Prix races, all our Fell Championship races, all the local races in Leeds and a few others besides.  Go to our website www.valleystriders.org.uk, click on the “Club Information” tab, and click on “Key Dates and Events next 3 mnths”.  It actually takes you through to the end of the year.

 

Good websites with race listings include

·         www.ukresults.net

·         www.runbritain.com

·         www.runnersworld.co.uk

Try them all and see which one you like.  NB if you find a race on our website, it is probably worth double checking on one of the other sites – races have been known to change dates or be cancelled.

 

There are lots of races in July in the Grand Prix and Fell Championship.  Three other races I can recommend are the Harrogate 10k (two laps starting and finishing in the town centre), the Pudsey 10k (good roads and tracks but challenging (i.e. hilly)), and the Golden Acre Relay (teams of 3 on a 2.2 mile route on good tracks, make up your own team and team names and turn up on the night).

 

RESULTS

 

Bradford Millennium Way Relay Result and Report from John Wallace

 

After a two year period where the Striders only managed to raise one team for this very fine event, a 100% increase saw 20 Striders (2 teams!) taking on the 47 mile route from Bingley via Denholme, Haworth, Silsden, Ilkley and Shipley and back to Bingley – absolutely nowhere near Bradford and very picturesque.

 

As a run this is the middle one in terms of difficulty of the big 3 relays in the region (LCW and Calderdale being easiest and hardest respectively) and provides a challenge whilst not being out and out pain. The start of the race was greeted by excellent weather, which slowly deteriorated such that the leg 5 pairings got drenched, albeit their causes were not helped by a) being late (and thereby joining the exclusive Elika Tasker/Dave Cusack club of 2008), b) getting lost (despite the recces), and c) falling over and getting injured – whether any (or all 3) of these problems were due to the weather is no doubt up for discussion over a beer.

 

Nonetheless, both teams successfully navigated to the finish, with many pairings exceeding their predicted times – good incentivisation obviously.  The mens team were 12th overall in 6.28.48 and the mixed team were 20th (3rd mixed) in 7.08.39

 

Fastest pair (unsurprisingly) were Rob De’Giovanni and Andy May, 2nd fastest on their leg (2) in 1.09.01, only behind the all conquering Bingley Harriers Men (1.03.08). Big hand for Myra Jones as well, fastest woman on leg 1.

 

Bingley men (actually 9 men and 1 woman but Bingley’s a bit of a weird place) won the overall event in 5.29.28, by 25 minutes, and set course records on legs 2, 3 and 4 fighting their way from 5th to 1st in leg 2. They were pretty strong!

 

Thanks to all the team and to all those that helped the newbies with the recces (special note to Ian Sanderson for doing this the day after Wharfedale marathon and Bob Jackson for taking Rob and Andy out – bonkers)

 

Perhaps next year we can get three teams in – the winning women’s team time of 7.07.31 looks well within the grasp of a club that has won the LCW the last 3 years!

 

John

 

Striders Results

 

“A” team

 

Leg 1  Kevin McMullan & Steve Webb   1:22:33   8   8

Leg 2  Rob De’Giovanni & Andy May    1:09:01   2   5

Leg 3  Tim Towler & Ged Coll         1:16:34  31  10

Leg 4  Alastair Smyth & David Vidal  1:17:26  11  11

Leg 5  Simon Vallance & Dan Murray   1:23:14  13  12

 

(Rob and Andy 7th fastest ever on leg 2)

 

“Mixed” team

 

Leg 1  Myra Jones & Ian Sanderson    1:29:15  17  17

Leg 2  Sue Sunderland & Bob Jackson  1:31:49  29  23

Leg 3  Pam Lomoro & Alan Hutchinson  1:10:04  22  22

Leg 4  Amanda Seims & John Wallace   1:23:11  20  21

Leg 5  Holly Williams & Tom Button   1:34:20  24  20

 

(Myra and Ian 7th fastest ever mixed team on leg 1)

(Pam and Alan 9th fastest ever mixed team on leg 3)

(Amanda and John 9th fastest ever mixed team on leg 4)

 

Messages

 

From Holly - Thanks for organising it all John, I had a marvellous day! the consequent days have been more painful but no pain no gain eh?!

 

From Kevin -  can I also pass on my thanks, and for your inspired choice of allowing me to run earlier to get the best of the weather!  My only disappointment was not being able to keep up with Steve but he was very polite about it and his urgings to 'keep up this tempo' and 'lets get going again' and 'we need to bury ourselves here' and 'keep your feet up and don't lean backwards' were all delivered with more patience than I'm sure he was feeling!  And many thanks also to Ian for picking me up on two occasions and for expertly recceing the leg and delivering the sound advice that 'if in doubt - its up' which was very true of leg 1!

 

From Pam - Indeed, It was wonderfully organised John, and just the right kind of race I needed after a depressing 8wks off due to serious injury.  Also, well done to all, especially those who had to run in the rain, and many thanks to Tim Towler and Alan Hutchinson for the lifts, encouragement and good company.

 

Yorkshire Vets Champion – Carole Towler

 

Results from “Full Bronte 5” which was also the Yorkshire Veterans’ 5 mile championships

 

  1 James Walsh     24:33

 43 Tim Towler      35:18

 70 Carole Towler   40:12  1st W45  (4 in category)

 97 finished

 

Congratulations to Carole – trophy to be presented at Leos on 28 June.

 

Welsh Track Bronze Medallist - Katie Parry

 

Jerry Watson reports

 

Active in a Valley Striders vest on the track has been Katie Parry. Last weekend at the Welsh Track & Field Championships in Cardiff, despite spending most of the last two weeks either cycling or aqua jogging she came 6th in the 1,500m - 4:49:97 on Saturday and topped it on the Sunday with a bronze medal - 3rd in the 800m - 2:23:88

 

Welsh Weather and Triathlon Report from Richard Adcock

 

It's official, Welsh rain is harder than English rain!

 

We travelled over to Bala in Snowdonia for a weekend of fun starting on Saturday with a couple of charity swims in Bala lake http://www.visitbala.org  , followed by a Middle Distance Triathlon (2000m Swim, 81km Bike, 20km Run) on Sunday.

 

Saturday

The rain had passed and the sun was out but boy was the water cold.

750m - nice swim, finished 14th out of 67 followed straight after by

1500m - the safety briefing said turn at the second buoy, the safety canoeist had different ideas and made the leading group swim to the third buoy, so with some doing an extra 400m the final positioning was slightly inaccurate, came 51st out of 72.

 

Sunday

We woke in the morning and it was cold (5°c), windy and raining... and it rained ALL day.

 

2000m Swim

Well the good news was, as the air temp was so low it didn't feel as cold as yesterday, the bad news was it was a little choppy on the way back, but all the usual fun of a 3 wave mass start  with most competitors making it back into transition albeit cold...

 

81km Bike

Everything in transition was wet and in fairer conditions you would warm up on the bike and it would have been fun, but with the rain and the windchill hands and feet soon became numb so you were unable to change gear or hold on properly, didn't feel like eating/drinking with a number of competitors coming back having drunk half a bottle or even nothing at all.

 

Thanks have to go out to the St Johns Ambulance guys as they were extremely busy - around the 40km mark there was an ambulance with loads of bikes scattered around, apparently at one point there were thirteen competitors huddled together in the back trying to warm up and there were stories of people seeing competitors dropping out and seeking refuge in the burger van en-route, and I saw one guy shivering in a phone box waiting for rescue. It did make me smile to see one competitor doing star-jumps and running on the spot in the middle of nowhere to try and warm up

 

I hit 48mph at one point on the bike, downhill, barely holding the bars, eyes squinting to try and see, and the rain trying it's best to kill me and then turned round into the wind and that dropped to less than 7mph as it tried to blow me off.

 

141 competitors dropped out on the bike stage.

 

20km Run

Back down in to the village and the weather was completely different with the sun breaking through and thanks must go the volunteers in transition as they were helped frozen competitors get off the bikes, changed and even tying shoe laces that were impossible to do with wet frozen fingers.

 

To take advantage of the warmth I removed my Featherlite top and went out in just my tri-suit, big mistake, as at 3km it started raining again!

 

It took approx 5km before I could even feel my feet and then at about 10km just like two weeks ago I ran out of energy (last time was lack of sleep, this time was lack of food) and I just slogged it out to the very welcome sight of the end.

 

Finished

5:38:36 (159th) Splits 41:04, 2:59:04, 1:52:46

Full results here http://www.stuweb.co.uk/default.asp?a=2&e=753

524 competitors started, 383 finished.

 

Finally into the sports centre for a nice hot shower... and to top off the day the fire alarm went off and people were ushered outside, some in just their towels to wait for the fire engines.

 

All good fun

 

Richard

 

There is an amusing report from the organiser’s side of the day here http://www.wrecsamtri.org.uk/

 

Freckleton Half Marathon – report from Bob Jackson

 

Standing in the rain waiting for the start of the Jane Tomlinson 10k, followed by handing out leaflets, was not ideal preparation for a half marathon in the afternoon, but both events had been on my agenda for 6 months and unfortunately the dates clashed.

 

So the answers to the questions you’re asking:

 

Where’s Freckleton? – it’s about 7 miles west of Preston on the road to Blackpool.

 

Why Freckleton? – the race route runs through a village called Wrea Green where my Dad was brought up and where we used to spend our summer holidays (I remember that it always rained).

 

And another fact about the Freckleton half? – it’s the oldest half marathon in the UK, it was started in 1965 as an event in the village sports day after the organiser was inspired by Ron Hill running in the 1964 Olympics.  Ron Hill won in 1965 and also won in 1969 in 1:04:45 which still stands as the course record.

 

Contrary to my expectation of rain, by the time I got there it was sunny and breezy so not too hot.  I parked in the sports field.  The start, finish and changing rooms were all less than 100 yards away – one of the benefits of a “smaller” race, albeit 600 runners.

 

The race started at 2pm and most of the route was country roads - slightly undulating but certainly not hilly. Wrea Green was at the 5 mile mark, taking in the village green (cricket match in progress) and past the village pond.  The biggest crowd of the route was there but whether they were there for the race or the cricket, I wasn’t sure.

 

By halfway, I noticed it was considerably warmer than when we’d started and the sun was fully out with no shade.  There were 5 water stations and a couple of times I took a cup to swallow and a cup for over my head. 

 

Miles 8 to 12 were on a main road with breeze behind.  This was some relief as I was definitely getting slower, running 7:45’s rather than my initial 7:15’s.  The last mile was through a housing estate and back into the wind, definitely hard work.  Across the line just under 1:38.

 

The race brochure promised unusual mementoes and was true to its word, we all received a bright blue full size umbrella.  The hander-outers said it was a sun parasol.  I didn’t believe them – the umbrella lent weight to my childhood memories of rain.

 

I went for a shower and then checked the results (John Schofield was there so they were prompt).  I’d finished 1st M60 so I stayed behind to collect the prize - £15 of sweatshop vouchers.

 

The only other Strider there was Eric Green who spends half of his racing life in Lancashire as this is where his partner, Pat, lives.

 

  1 Ben Fish      race time 1:11:03  chip time 1:11:02

 64 Eric Green    race time 1:31:40  chip time 1:31:37

108 Bob Jackson   race time 1:38:00  chip time 1:37:53

548 finished

 

A grand day out!

 

VARIOUS MESSAGES

 

Personalised car number plate for sale

 

FA57 RUN is available from www.regtransfers.co.uk.  Abbey Runners need not apply!

 

Pics from Amanda

 

Click on the link below for the Leeds Half pics.
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54554862@N05/sets/72157626686744775/
 
Click this link for the MVT pics but the quality isn't very good as it was a bit dark where I was and the camera couldn't cope with the movement of the runners for some reasons!
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54554862@N05/sets/72157626922810610/

New Strider – message from Lisa Wilyman

 

Again, thanks for keeping me informed of all Valley Striders achievements!  Thought I'd let you know that we had another baby last Monday, 6th June.  We had another little boy, name still to be confirmed, its between Toby and Joe.  He weighed 8lb 7oz and is GORGEOUS!!!   My labour was a lot easier this time, 6 hours in total, no stitches!  We only just made it to the hospital in time, he was born within 10 mins whilst Jonny and my Mum were parking their cars.  OOOps!!  I've  now got a lovely double buggie so I'm hoping to get to a Roundhay parkrun in the near future and burn off my jelly belly!!