Subject: V S Update - training, Peco XC relays, kit, Peco race 5 and series results, reports from National XC and High Cup, and more

Sent: 08 March 2013 10:16

Sorry for the delay, if the last V S Update you received was 24 February, you haven’t missed one.

Training next week

Two sessions at 6pm both at Leos – beginners/improvers led by Kathy & Ken, and separate juniors session led by Andy & Richard

Two sessions at 7pm both at Leeds Met track – Holly & Grace’s intermediates and the experienced runners group.

Peco XC Relays - Sunday 10 March, 11:00 at Templenewsam (juniors at 10:20am)

Congratulations to Sue Sunderland and Carole Schofield who have been selected for the Peco League F50 team and Roy Huggins who has been selected for the M50 team.

Are any Striders going?   It seems that many of you have been distracted by Spen 20 or a long run from Smithy Mills and/or lunch with your mum.

If you’re going or thinking of going, let me know by text on 07775 898 558 and I’ll make up some teams.  I’m hoping that there will be at least 3 Striders (at least one M40, at least one W) so we can have a club team.  Other teams can be any combination of men and women, young and old.

I do know we have at least one junior team (start is 10:20)

Details at www.pecoxc.co.uk

Note that the league presentations, planned to take place after the XC relay, have been postponed.

Events

Lots of Fell Championship events coming up in the next few weeks.  The next GP race is the Baildon Boundary Way (but is full), then the Esholt 5k series and the Leeds Half.  I’m told the Leeds Half is nearly full but this may just be a rumour to get you to part with £26.20 (incl booking fee).  See www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsdates.htm for GP and FC races.

V S Food

We had 26 for first sitting and 15 for second sitting Tuesday just gone.  As the next first Tuesday in the month is Easter Tuesday, we’re proposing the bring food a week forward to 26 March.  Good idea?

V S Kit

Mr Kit has emailed me with the following message

As there are a number of events coming up over the coming months, now seemed like a good time to order some more VS branded hooded tops. The cost per top is £21 and this buys you a black top with ‘Valley Striders Leeds’ on the back in white print and the same on the chest only smaller and embroidered.

Sizes are Small, Medium, Large and XL. Please ask to try a fellow Striders top if you’re unsure about size.

Can I please request orders by no later than Tuesday 19^th March 2013 to [email protected]

Peco Results – Race 5

Junior 1 mile

     1  Joe Sherman

24  Ceara Sexton (1^st run)

31  Adam Mills

34  Emily Stoneman (1^st run)

35  Sarah Brady

36  Abigail Stoneman (1^st run)

    39  finished

Junior 2 mile

     7  Callum Parton

    14  Alex Irvine

    26  Elliott Hudson (1^st run)

    27  Eleanor Ford

    33  finished

Senior Race

Striders                   Race  G.Prix

   Pos                      Pos   Pts

     1  Andy May              5   100   M

     2  Paul Kaiser          16    99   M

     3  Jeremy Ladyman       22    98   M

     4  Gwil Thomas          33    97   M

     5  Jon Parker           36    96   M

     6  Steve Wilkins        43    95   M

     7  Tony Mills           45    94   M

     8  Gary Mann            47    93   M

     9  Simon Vallance       51    92   M

    10  Julia Leventon        3    91   W

    11  John Shanks          69    89   M

    12  Franco Pardini       74    88   M

    13  Myra Jones            7    90   W

    14  Adam Parton          95    87   M

    15  Joe Hanney          102    86   M

    16  Sue Sunderland       16    85   W

    17  Rob Marsh           115    84   M

    18  Sharon Tansley       24    83   W

    19  Tomas Mildorf       131    82   M

    20  Alistair Smyth      139    81   M

    21  Carole Schofield     29    80   W

    22  Sean Fitzgerald     152    79   M

    23  Malcolm Coles       161    78   M

    24  Sarah Smith          42    77   W

    25  Bob Jackson         186    76   M

    26  John Hussey         188    75   M

    27  Chloe Hudson         48    74   W

    28  Sarah Harper         52    73   W

    29  Graham Ford         198    72   M

    30  Bob Wilkes          214    71   M

Race 5 Teams

· Ladies: Abbey & Valley joint 1^st, Kirkstall 3^rd

· Ladies Vets: Valley 7^th

· Men: Valley 1^st, Abbey 2^nd, Saltaire 3^rd

· Men Vets: Valley 9^th

Peco Series Results

Juniors (4 races to count)

Joe Sherman – 2^nd in boys school years 4-6 category

Adam Mills – 12^th  in boys school years 4-6 category

Callum Parton – 4^th  in boys school years 7-9 category

Alex Irvine – 5^th  in boys school years 7-9 category

Also

Sarah Brady ran 3 races in girls school years 4-6 category

Eleanor Ford ran 3 races in girls school years 7-9 category

The following junior Striders ran 1 race – Ceara Sexton, Emily Stoneman, Abigail Stoneman, Callum Chambers, Ben Hollis, Nathan Brady, Elliott Hudson

Seniors

Race 1   2   3   4   5   Tot  Runner pts

Men

1^st Valley    1   2   1   7   1    12   1405 

2^nd Abbey     2   1   4   3   2    12   1700

3^rd Saltaire  3   4   2   2   3    14   1873

Ladies

1^st Abbey     1   1   1   1   1.5   5.5

2^nd Wetherby  2   2   2   2   4    12

3^rd Valley    8   3   5   3   1.5  20.5

Mens Vets

1^st St Theresas

5^th Valley    4   4   5   6   9

Ladies Vets

1^st Horsforth

6^th Valley    7   6   7   7.5 7

Individuals
1^st W50 – Sue Sunderland

1^st M70 – Malcolm Coles

2^nd M70 – Bob Wilkes

3^rd W50 – Carole Schofield

4^th M45 – Simon Vallance

5^th M – Jon Parker

5^th W – Myra Jones

Message from Gwil

Well done to everyone who ran today: it was a fantastic team performance and whether in the counts or not, there was some gutsy running today. 

In the end, we won this Peco not thanks to a handful of fast runners but thanks to a large numbers of runners putting in some quality shifts. Whilst this Peco may have been more exciting than we could have expected, in the end, it's made the win all the more satisfying.

Thanks to everyone who turned out to run a Peco this season!

Other Results

Snake Lane 10

                        Chip     gun

    7 Andy May          00:54:56 00:54:57

    8 Daniel Fisher     00:55:02 00:55:03

   64 James Tarran      01:02:21 01:02:26

  100 Andrew Stoneman   01:04:23 01:04:31

  106 Gary Mann         01:04:33 01:04:41

  122 John Batchelor    01:05:30 01:05:38

  165 Myra Jones        01:07:51 01:08:00

  229 Louise Allinson   01:10:38 01:10:57

  500 Sarah Howell      01:23:01 01:23:27

  681 Hannah Stoneman   01:37:58 01:38:55

Trollers Trot (GP)

   10 Andy Stoneman   3:23

   19 Alan Walsh      3:33

   20 Dan Murray      3:33

   24 Ian Sanderson   3:37

   31 Ollie Cheyne    3:43

   40 Simon Redshaw   3:50

   56 Richard Adcock  3:59

   62 Alan Hutchinson 4:02

   77 Nick Barnes     4:11

 167 Meg Galsworthy  5:26

Grand Prix points will be updated on the website soon

Norton 9

   97 Tim Towler      1:01:39

  346 Carole Towler   1:16:40

  400 Grace Thomas    1:21:22

  415 Sarah Clark     1:22:43

  492 Becky Murray    1:34:28

The last 3 will be running the Edinburgh half marathon in April – they are following the Striders adage that there is no better way of training than racing!

Report from 2013 National XC Championships – from Kevin McMullan

Herrington Country Park, Sunderland

Many years ago when I was a young runner, I had very simple ambitions. Run a London,  compete in a National, and run the Tour of Tameside (older runners will remember this last one).

Anyway, I never did do the ‘Tour’ but I achieved my national ambition in 2011 at Alton Towers. If somebody had told me before running there that it would the most evil National course in living memory I may not have done it, but no one did, so I ran it.

Last December when the e mail came round asking for National 2013 volunteers it seemed a long way away and I reasoned adding a second National to the CV was probably no bad thing, and thought that the chances of Sunderland (the 2013 venue) being anywhere near as bad as 2011 were pretty remote.

The day arrived and I travelled up with Paul Fotherby who very kindly agreed to give me a lift. Halfway up the A1, it was as if we had been transported to another country, and the green and pleasant land of West Yorkshire was replaced with something more akin to a Scandanavian vista. Furthermore, the sky was an unforgiving, sullen dark grey, as the North East promised little cheer in the way of accommodating cross country weather.

The organisers had decreed that non VIPs had to use a park and ride to get to the course, so Paul and I disappeared into a labyrinthine industrial park, managed to park the car, and duly found a bus that took us to Herrington Country park. The ambient temperature was around 2 degrees, and as we trudged into the park, the concrete pathway gave way to a grassless, brown surface with a scattering of remaining snow.

We found a way to a very welcome tent to escape the mud and cold where we met Paul K and Sharon. It was a few minutes before the start of the ladies race, and as the Striders only lady representative, Sharon was putting on a very brave face for the ordeal to come.  In the tent were a couple of junior runners who looked as they had been dipped up their waist in the thickest mud imaginable. One was complaining bitterly as his mother tried to remove his socks, as his feet had long since lost the ability to send any signals to his brain other than pain.

Sharon duly, and bravely, made her way to the ladies start and we wished her luck. Shortly after, Steve W arrived, and after changing, we counted down the minutes to the men’s start.

The notion of a ‘warm up’ was rather fanciful as there was no suitable terrain with which to do this. Armed with 15mm spikes as our only defence, we exited our tent with ten minutes to go, and within 2 minutes my feet were completely frozen.

The start of the National is a truly inspiring site for a spectator as 1000+ runners are lined up in a cavalry charge in 200 plus team pens. At the allotted time the gun sounded, and we were off.  My ambitions were probably different to the other lads and can be summed up simply – survival. It became apparent as I ran across the opening 400 metres of sticky, snow covered field that it was going to be, for me at least a very long 12 kilometres indeed.

The course funnelled sharply at the end of the large field and we entered the serious mud which was to continue, more or less unabated, for the next 56 minutes. Now I am no cross country runner so navigating through thick goo is an art lost on me, but even for guys more accomplished, it must have been a tough day at the office. I waded and squelched my way round what seemed like an endless opening lap of 4K with the only consolation being that I only had 2 laps remaining. I plodded on gamefully, sometimes passing runners and often getting passed in return, most of us at this position in the field cocooned in our private misery.

Lap 2 came and went slowly, and I was into my last lap. There were three climbs per lap, 2 smallish ascents and a final drag made far harder in the absence of any sort of firm ground to gain purchase on. Having reached the top, one was then confronted with a steep descent in a surface that was a living organism of capricious, deep, gelatinous brown liquid. Some runners managed to charge quickly through this whilst keeping their balance but I only had dignity left, and discretion was certainly the better part of valour as I made this decent in the most circumspect of fashions.

Eventually we neared the end of lap three and we were directed up a hill toward the finish. The notion of finishing cheered my aching limbs and tortured breathing to the extent that I found 10 yards of vigour, but upon reaching the top of the hill I saw that the finish was still 200 or so yards away,  said distance protected by a sea of mud.  There was to be no sprint finish to glory for me I reflected.

The sight of mid field, exhausted runners picking their way through this final torment most have been a source of amusement or sympathy for the onlooking spectators, and with huge relief I finally crossed the finishing line.

The three other male striders had long since finished and were trying to remove excess mud back in the tent. Sharon was also there, having also survived the experience. Steve did concede that the course was a ‘little too muddy’ which tells you how bad it was!

I thought the other Striders all had very good runs and the results are below:

Paul K – 332 – 52.12

Steve W – 366 – 52.49

Paul F – 395  - 53.23

Kevin M – 583 – 57.39

Sharon T – 246 – 42.34

I cannot say I am anxious to repeat the experience but the National really is the holy grail for all you cross country aficionados – so why not give it a go next year! 

Race Report - High Cup Nick Fell Race – report from Steve Dixon

23 February - 15Km and 460 metres of climbing

Dufton in the Eden Valley, a staging post on the Pennine Way, was the start of this race.

There were plans for a number of Striders to travel across to race along what many consider to be one of the most dramatic stretches of the Pennine Way.  Social commitments, illness and indecision meant that the number was whittled down to two - me and Mark Woodhead.

Never having walked or run in this area  I was keen to set off early and have a jog around Dufton Pike as a bit of an exploration and warm up.  Mark planned to drive up later in time for the race.

I never did see Mark that day. 

The race was held and the winner Ricky Lightfoot of Ellenborough finished in 1hour and 2 minutes. I finished almost half an hour later in about 90th position , not quite making the top half of the field (this is the modest goal I set myself and not managed it for a long time).   I've not seen any results for this race yet.

The race itself can be highly recommended.  It is flagged for a lot of the route and the climb up to the Nick is steep and rocky and easy scrambling was needed.  The reward was and exhilarating run along the rim of the Cup in Arctic like conditions.  Then came a very fast descent along a flagged route back to the finish on the village green.

And Mark?   All became clear later when he owned up to relying upon his sat nav to get to Dufton.  It seems he ended up in a small village called Garrigill, way to the north, with the sat nav still insisting that he follows the unmade road called the Pennine Way that in theory should end up in Dufton.  Mark insists that he can see his car in some of the race photos taken at the top of High Cup Nick: https://plus.google.com/photos/112660024446587293959/albums/5848650979181279297?banner=pwa

Message from Andy Stoneman

For all you Strava addicts out there, I’ve set a club page up for ‘Valley Striders AC’. Sign up, join in and have a go and setting a PR on the segments on our favourite training routes....feel free to add your own. Its a great way of adding some motivation to try even harder on some of those familiar/challenging/boring sections.