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Valley Spiders News |
January 2005 2005 Issue 1 Section 2 Trail, Fell & Cross-Country |
As in
January 2004, we have had to have two sections of the newsletter because my
stapler will not cope with stapling all the sheets into one booklet.
And
for the 25 Striders who have joined since last year, and any other who didn’t
read the explanation last time, the above is not a misprint. Several years ago, in the race results
section of the Daily Telegraph, amongst the fell race results was listed
"Sylvia Watson, Valley Spiders".
And it seemed an appropriate name for a fell running club being as the
sport requires keeping as many parts of the body touching the ground as
possible.
Having a second page 1 in this Newsletter means I
can have a front page advertisement for the Meanwood Valley Trail Race. This will be the 10th race (it
doesn’t seem 9 years since Geoff, Sylvia and I were sitting at their house the
Friday evening before the race hoping that more than the 35 who’d pre-entered
would turn up on the day). That first
race, the job of marshals was to point the way for each of the 60 runners as
there were gaps. Now that we regularly
have 300 runners, the marshals’ job is to point way for the leader but then
ensure the safety of the other runners, advise walkers and horse-riders, be
ready to cope with any emergency and generally ensure that the race is incident-free.
Because the route for the senior race is narrow, we
can’t take too many more entries otherwise people will complain about
queuing. Last year, for the first time,
we also held a junior race which had 30 finishers - we will have a junior race
again this year. The junior race gives us
potential to expand the event and we’ve already handed out entry forms at two
junior cross-country races.
Even if you can only spare an hour on Saturday 9
April, we'll find a job for you. If you
are free for 2 hours or more, that would help even more.
In This
Issue
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Page
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A Very Successful Day At Harewood............................................................ 35
Cross Country............................................................................................... 36
West Yorkshire Cross Country League 2004 (Martin Horbury)......................... 36
Fell & Trail Running Reports........................................................................ 37
Duddon Valley Fell Race 5 June (Rob
Bumstead).......................................... 37
Derbyshire Fell Races (spotted by Sylvia Watson)......................................... 38
Bramham Horseless Horse Trials (Eric Green)............................................... 38
Round Hill Fell Race 8 August (Martin Horbury).............................................. 38
Yorkshireman Off-Road Mar. 12 Sep (Mick Loftus)......................................... 40
The Lockwood Bounder 19 Sept (Simon Vallance).......................................... 41
Karrimor International Mountain Marathon - Brecon Beacons 30/31 Oct 2004
(Simon Vallance) 42
Thyon-Dixence Fell Race 1 August
(Ingo Zoller)............................................ 46
Sierre-Zinal Mountain Race 8 August
(Ingo Zoller).......................................... 46
Triathlon...................................................................................................... 48
Half Ironman UK Sherborne 22 Aug
(Bill Murphy)........................................... 48
Trail Relays.................................................................................................. 52
Leeds Country Way..................................................................................... 52
Calderdale Way 12 December (Martin Horbury).............................................. 53
More Fell...................................................................................................... 54
Race Report - Cragg Vale 6 (GW)................................................................. 54
Fell Championship End of Term Report
(GW)................................................ 55
Fell Championship Points final scores........................................................... 55
Wimmin’s Fell Report 2004 (SW)................................................................. 56
How to run downhill (Jerry Watson).............................................................. 57
Fell Calendar 2005...................................................................................... 58
Striders & Spiders Contacts.......................................................................... 60
Keep up-to-date with Striders Updates!.......................................................... 60
179 finishers in the 2 mile was a record by 32.
609 finishers in the 10 mile was a record by 43.
We sneakily put the entry fees up for those entering on the day,
so I can
reliably forecast a record profit (£3000 plus) for
More things went wrong than in any previous year
- we ran out of official race numbers
- the PA didn't work (and the battery in Geoff's megaphone was flat)
- mobile phone reception was unreliable
- Harewood were a little late opening the gates for the car park
- we caused a small traffic queue on the A61 (but everyone started on time)
- Yorks Water forgot to open the gates at Eccup Res
- the woman at the house by the drinks station wouldn't let us use her hosepipe
- a couple of marshals were unable to attend
- two runners had to be taken to hospital
- one ambulance went to the House rather than the village hall
- St John treated at least 6 more runners
- we ran out of milk for tea and coffee in the village hall
and I'm sure there are some more stories out there - please let me know
And despite all this (and perhaps because of all this)
- everyone coped brilliantly
- thank you to those who responded above and beyond their call of duty because
of the circumstances
- thank you to those who had to work much longer than normal because of the
extra numbers
- thank you to those who "just" had a regular day's marshalling
directing and encouraging the runners (especially those who got cold standing
around for an hour or more) (your turn for excitement may come next time)
And as a result we had all positive feedback from the runners
N B the woman who was injured rang to thank Mivvy for her
help and the rest
of the team for their prompt action and to let us know nothing was broken
NOW HERE IS A MESSAGE FROM
Bob, just to say congratulations on a splendid event yesterday and many, many thanks for all your hard work. Please pass on our thanks to the team from Valley Striders too - they do a fantastic job. Are you as tired today as we are? Janet and Judy. PS Refreshments took £406 gross! Amazing when you think most things were only 30p or 50p.
I SUPPOSE WE'LL HAVE TO ORGANISE ANOTHER ONE NEXT YEAR!!!
The Striders had high turn outs in this seasons
In total 16 ladies and 19 men took part in the 4 races.
This included 7 women and 10 men who took part in three or four races to appear
in the final league placings. Particular mention to
One highlight of the series was at the first race at Shipley. We had 14 ladies running that day, that’s 3 teams, and I am told that when they ran on mass to the start line there was an audible gasp from the gathering field as the wave of white vests descended.
Other highlights included:
· Sam winning race 3 at Ilkley;
· Brian 6th overall in the senior men, with 4 extremely consistent performances 8th, 11th , 10th & 10th.
· Lots of parent / child appearances together
o The Geddes-Bartons - Julia, David & Maddy
o The Harris’s - Mary & Sam
o The Watsons - Sylvia & Gerry
Besides the usual team trophies the League produced a new Pilot table with combined results. This included the first 9 male counters and 6 female counters. Runners from 36 clubs took part in the league this of which just over 20 had a significant turn out in either the mens or ladies races. With good turn outs for both men & women the Striders finished 6th in this table which is another excellent achievement.
Thanks to those who supported the league and I look forward to the Championship races in the new year.
This race is the easiest of the three races in the ‘Super
Long’ Lakeland Classic Series (the others being Ennerdale and Wasdale, both of
which are longer and involve more ascent over rougher terrain). That said, the 20 miles and 6000 feet of
ascent included in the
The weather conditions on the day of the race were of moderate temperatures in the valley, but cloud lingering over the tops. These were better conditions for running than in 2003 when it had been scorching hot and sunny, but there was more potential for navigational errors this year.
The race starts from the Newfield Inn in Seathwaite (the Duddon Valley one, not the Borrowdale one), and goes over the summits of Harter Fell, Hardknott and Little Stand before dropping to The Three Shires Stone and climbing back over Swirl How, Dow Crag, White Pike and Caw. I set off at what I hoped was a sensible pace and made sure I took the day’s steepest and most painful ascent (Little Stand) steadily, remembering the previous year when I pushed too hard early on and suffered in the heat later (i.e. for half the race!)
My worries about the low cloud were well founded as I made a distinct error coming off the summit of Hardknott, a smaller error on Little Stand, and took a dreadful route between White Pike and Caw. I eventually got round in 4 hours 38 minutes, which I think was about 5 or 10 minutes faster than the previous year. This was somewhat disappointing as I had been hoping to do 4:15 to 4:30. I guess the navigational mistakes would have cost me some of this time. I was obviously tired at the end of the race, but at least I didn’t feel as bad as in the heat of 2003.
The race was won by Rob Jebb of Bingley in 2 hours 57 minutes and there were 58 finishers including only half a dozen women. I didn’t think that this was many runners, but a couple of regulars commented that it was a decent sized field for a long race like the Duddon. For the record, I came in 41st position.
I was the only Strider in the long race, but there is also a ‘Half Duddon’ of 11 miles and 3000 feet ascent, which keeps to the south of Hardknott / Wrynose. This attracted a field about half the size of the full race, and Jim Towers (second claim Strider) ran this in 2 hours 26, finishing in 28th position.
For anyone wanting to run a long race in The Lakes, this is an excellent course, runnable as it’s not too rough underfoot, but the routes off some of the summits are not always obvious if the cloud is down, so a recce would be useful beforehand. Some serious training would be equally useful.
Bamford Sheepdog Trials, 31 May 2004, 4.5 miles, 1000ft, 3rd Jane Sutton, 43:25
Calver Peak F R, 2 June 2004, 5 miles, 900ft, 4th Jane Sutton, 39:54
Grindleford F R, 17 June 2004, 4.5 miles, 500ft, 3rd Jane Sutton, 40:28
Hunshelf Amble F R, 19 June 2004, 7.5 miles, 1300ft, 1st Jane Sutton, 66:50
Great Bakewell Pudding Race, 27 June 204, 6 miles, 700ft, 1st Jane Sutton, 51:27
Hope Wakes F R, 30 June 2004, 4 miles, 650ft, 1st Jane Sutton, 32:48
Both Brian and I came thru unscathed from the horses’ assault course apart from minor cuts. Brian came 4th not sure what pos I came but at least not last. There were 65 runners or at least nos issued, I think I came around 15th-20th, just beating a Horsforth Harrier (Kate) over the line. There were cups for 1/2/3 pos and medals for all finishers. We did 20 fences, but two which would have cut us to ribbons were taken out of the course. 1 water obstacle, 1 with rotting carrots, all the rest were fairly straightforward. Times were academic they were not taking times at the end only positions. Overall distance was approx 3.5 miles or so the man on the desk said.
We'd crowd support from Martin Horbury and family, but neither Brian nor I wore our Valley Striders vest, either we wanted to remain incognito, or we didn't want to rip it on the fences going round. There was only an Ilkley runner in club attire.
I was looking forward to this race partly because it is a
lovely part of
This was a day of many surprises, the first of which was
that
There was much anticipation on the start line and I have to confess I was clocking what other Striders were about trying to assess the potential Grand Prix points up for grabs. There was somebody I didn’t recognise, it turned out to be Alistair Fale, could this be a quickie I don’t know and Andrew Cutts was there and he was first Strider at last year’s race. Good points up for grabs I thought.
One mile in and first tactical decision, I am right behind Andrew Cutts, feeling good, thinking shall I sit in and race for GP points or shall I press on and go for race position. I could see the leading group just in front and I would guess that only 2 of them were vets….. GO FOR IT.
So with great skill 10 minutes later as we started the first climb of the race I found myself completely isolated in 7th position. The leading 6 guys were 150 metres in front still in a bunch and I was a hundred or so metres in front of small group. THEN THE SUN CAME OUT. This was not a steep hill, just a long drag, but it was hard work and I could see ahead that 2 had broken away as they reached the first check point and started the descent. I decided not to look behind.
As I started my decent I became concerned for the first time because I was finding this hard work. This was not a steep hill and was very runnable but today I just didn’t flow. I pressed on and could no longer see anybody in front and was doing my best not to look behind. IT WAS GETTING VERY, VERY HOT.
At the bottom of the hill there is check point and you turn for home, about 4 miles to go. A mile further on and the route is a little unclear as it hits a short but steep hill. I am flagging a bit and am over taken by a chap in a Skyrac vest and definitely a vet. Hang in I thought try to keep in top 10. Being the sportsman I am, at the top of the hill this chap was about to bear left and take a wrong turn but I called him back.
What I didn’t realise at this stage was that the 4 guys who had been immediately in front of me had made the same mistake and if I hadn’t have been such a gent I would have been in third place in the race. A few minutes further on, last check point and another long drag of a hill. THINGS WERE GETTING VERY, VERY, VERY HOT and I was flagging. I checked over my shoulder to see that I was about to be over taken by two youngish chaps and could also see Andrew Cutts a comfortable distance behind. I used the two younger guys to drag me up the hill and even re-directed them when they missed a turn off as the hill levelled out.
It was now the run in, a mile to go and I am really struggling, completely drained by the heat and an extremely painful blister on my heel. I even, quite pathetically, tripped and ended in a bit of a heap. I lost a couple more places and looked over my shoulder to see if Andrew Cutts was any nearer and was a little surprised to see that Paul Hunter was not very far behind. That’s all I need a race, I haven’t run all this way to lose maximum GP points in the last mile. So I dug in, attempted to chase the two guys in front, which alarmingly had no effect whatsoever but eventually held off Paul by 12 seconds.
The presentation was held, outside the village hall, in Timble and much to mine, and Paul Hunter’s surprise we picked up first and second vets prizes as it unfolded about the missing 4. The first Vet to finish, Bob Pritchard from Skyrac was third. So a good result all-round 100 GP points and my first ever (and so far only) vets prize which happened to be nice bottle of red wine, which is always handy to keep on the right side of my understanding wife.
This event is a combined half and full marathon. The route is a classic Yorkshire Pennine one, across open moors, down rough tracks, along muddy paths and lots of up and down. It supposedly has 4000 ft of ascent.
The start and finish for this event are at
The two races set off together with the half marathon turning back at around 6-7 miles to loop back to the finish. There were 186 finishers in the half which was won in 1:34.
The full marathon course continued relentlessly on. Although there were occasional way markers a good knowledge of the course would have been an advantage. I did use my map but not my compass!
My tactics of starting slowly, following someone who knew the route and then slowing down some more, got me round in one piece. I noticed in the results 3 Striders in total.
11th 3:57 Mick Loftus
49th 4:53 Jane Sutton
73rd 5:44 Sara Dyer
There were 95 finishers.
It was won in a remarkable time of 3:04 by Chris Loftus (no relation!) of Keighley and Craven.
There was also a 'walkers' event over the same course with an earlier start. However, the fastest walker would have come 66th in the running race and the slowest runner (in a time of 10:30) second to last in the walkers event. That last runner appears to have been taking 24 minute per mile, surely there is some mistake?
This race is run from Diggle over 10 miles and 1250 feet of
ascent on decent paths, including a section of the
1st Paul
Green
31st Robert Bumstead 1:20:23
112 ran
The
Lockwood Bounder 19 Sept (Simon Vallance)
Having been persuaded that 2004 was the year that I should take part in the KIMM by my colleague and now Karrimor partner Neil, I thought I ought to be doing a few long and lumpy races to get me reasonably fit for the weekend.
A small entry in the back of the Striders summer newsletter publicised an interesting sounding event:
Sun Sep 19 0830
LT Lockwood Bounder Trail
22/3300' nr Skelton
Quite hilly then, I thought and then, I wonder where Skelton is?
I looked it up on Multimap and thought I’d found it –
quite near to
It was a fine day and an earlier start saw me driving
below some of the landmarks on the route – Captain Cook’s monument, Roseberry
Topping and Highcliffe Nab. A good few
runners set off with me accompanied by a greater number of walkers, all hoping
to complete the 23 miles in under 10 hours (I felt reasonably comfortable that
I could achieve this). Up through
allotments and onto the moors to the first control dangling from a
fingerpost. It was pretty blowy and the
heather clad moors offered little in the way of shelter, so I was glad when the
route took us into a conifer plantation that skirted the edge of the
escarpment. It was great being able to
look to my right and see ships on their way to
There were three of us together at this point, each taking turns at the front to mitigate the effects of a not inconsiderable breeze, and this dropped to two as we hit the climb up towards Roseberry. And quite a climb it is. Control at the top, grab a few sweets from the marshals and leap into space to start the descent.
The next section involved some quite tricky navigation,
so I was pleased to be running with an old-hand who lived nearby. He led me through the woods and paths that
lead ultimately to the climb up to Captain Cook’s monument. It transpired that he too was competing in
the Karrimor this year and we spent a pleasant few minutes speculating on the
type of terrain we might encounter. As
we started to climb, my new companion encouraged me to continue as he stopped
to catch his breath on the sharp climb to the top. Control clipped I set off at a reasonable
pace eastwards on the
A long road stretch from the control at Nab End into Commondale was on the whole rather dull and uneventful. I was pleased that I had opted for my all-terrain trainers over my fell shoes at this point. Thus far the off-road had been fairly dry and the road stretch (approx 4 miles) would probably have crippled me.
Two controls in short succession – one coming into Commondale, one leaving it - kept me on the road, before a sharp right turn had me running northwards back to the start. In previous years this has been a bog fest, but erosion control means that a lot of the moor is now paved, so it was a question of leaping from flag to flag, and running on the softer stuff when it was available. This felt like a long stretch – exposed and colder – before I arrived at the final control (the first on the way out). Running alone without anyone in front of or behind me made the distance seem all the longer.
The final stretch reprised the route out, except that it was mainly downhill. My main objective now, as I glanced at my watch, was to complete the course in under 4 hours. I arrived at the village hall and burst into the room to announce my arrival – exactly on the 4 hour mark. Sitting opposite was the guy I had left at Captain Cook’s monument. He had assumed I’d shot off and completed the race - until he arrived at the hall 15 minutes before me.
Overall I was pleased with the day – ninth place overall, and, allowing for the detour, four hours for around 26 pretty hilly off-road miles. The main reason for doing it was to train for the Karrimor. My stamina and pace felt good. I just needed to brush up on the navigation a little… Oh yes and a delicious meal at the end by the lovely ladies who kept making me cups of tea and telling me to sit down and rest. Most welcome, just a shame they won’t be holding it again next year.
What is the KIMM? The following is taken from the KIMM website:
“The KIMM is a 2-day
Mountain event where a team of two navigate their way around a 2-day course, in
mountainous terrain, in a new location each year, carrying all food, stove,
tent and equipment for an overnight camp.
The event is split
into 7 categories, Elite, A, B, C and 3 score classes, Long 7+ 6 hours, medium
6+ 5 and short 5+ 4.The Elite distance varies between 75-85km (effectively 2
consecutive marathons) according to the terrain/year and height gain can be up
to 3,000m. The score class is a points-based competition along a route choice
probably unique to you and within the stated time limits which gives more
challenging navigation.
All teams are fully
self supporting. There is no team support and GPS and mobile phones are not allowed.
The map and course are unseen until the whistle blows. Any team not arriving
into camp on Saturday evening is deemed to have camped overnight en route or
have made their own way to safety.
It’s always held at
the end of October (the weekend that the clocks change) to allow weather and
darkness to enhance the challenge...”
I’d never done a Karrimor before so it made perfect sense to dive in at the deep end and do the Elite category. Neil, a colleague, had asked me if I fancied it in 2003, but I’d found a plausible excuse to avoid it. This year I was feeling pretty fit and so, after canvassing the opinion of people who’d done the KIMM in the past (most of whom said don’t do it!), I decided to commit to the serious training needed to get me round.
Day 1
Elite competitors got the chance to ride in a coach to their start. We lined up in darkness and boarded. The journey was enlivened by a competitor in front of us who had mistakenly brought a pair of his wife’s knickers instead of a hat to wear in case of cold and a coach driver who wasn’t sure where he should be taking us. He didn’t seem to understand that we would be given a map at the start and hadn’t a clue where he should drop us off.
We had seen a map of the area the previous night and it
covered the west of the
The start was resplendent with an enormous KIMM Start banner above a path heading all the way up to Corn Du and thence to Pen Y Fan. It was steep and long so we decided to take it steady and walk, saving energy for the remainder of the competition.
Control 1 was in the fog – up and over Pen Y Fan (should have gone round, never mind), Control 2 was two very stiff climbs away. We aimed north of Control 2 and managed to drop off into a valley about 2 miles further north than intended. Not used to the scale of the map yet, we had, rather shamefacedly, to ask a householder to confirm our location on the map. We got there in the end, along with a number of other competitors, so it seemed we hadn’t lost too much time.
Control 3 was a long, long way from control 2 back up Pen Y Fan and then across some pretty boggy terrain: we took a southerly route by Ystradfellte reservoir like most of the rest of the field (apart from the winners). It took us almost 4 hours to complete this section and we were 33rd on reaching control 3.
Between controls 3 and 4 we ran through a forest, then made a poor route selection to descend a very steep gully before gaining an old railway line. Control 4 was hard to locate – a stream that started and ended within 200 metres – had to be pretty accurate to find it amongst lots of long, tussocky grass. .
Control 4 to control 5 was a long way, and as we emerged from the cloud on Fan Brycheniog we were greeted by the massive bulk of Bannau Sir Gaer which quickly decided to contour rather than scale. We found Control 5 in the mist and quickly located Control 6, although by now it was very definitely twilight, with still two more controls to find.
We ran with two other elite competitors who we had previously seen at Control 3 - Jan Tridimas and Paul Hunter. Jan had been scheduled to run with Ranulph Fiennes, but he must have had too many Polar Bears to wrestle or something. By now it was completely dark and we could see a number of head torches converging on a spot near to where the penultimate control should be. Thankfully it was manned and we sped through, picking up a path to the final control – downhill on rocky terrain with only 45 minutes to spare before disqualification. At this point my head torch packed up. Yippee! Lots of swearing ensued before the final control and the descent into camp through a veritable quagmire whence thousands of Karrimor feet had passed.
The campsite looked very strange indeed, a bit like a field full of dancing pixies, with thousands of head torches bobbing in the darkness: although this probably had something to do with being out for 11 hours and absolutely knackered – we just made the cut off time with 27 minutes to spare.
We camped on a major thoroughfare and started the process of refuelling – 5 mugs of couscous later we were ready for sleep. I was assured that I had had it easy – no rain and quite mild. I even got some sleep that night, although with a strange feeling of having pitched the tent on gravel as people walked noisily past wearing plastic bags on their feet (keeping them dry for the morning).
Day 2
Having arrived late into camp we were on the “Mini-mass” start at 8.05 and slopped through the mud towards the first control. Today promised to be technical as opposed to arduous and was a mere 34 km with 1300m of ascent. A rest in comparison!
Controls 1 and 2 were close and in the fog. Control 3 was at the far side of some foggy bog. Control 4 was uphill of control 3 on a foggy slope. It was, as you may have gathered, quite foggy at this point. The run to control 5 was amazing – we gradually dropped off out of the fog on a bearing and hit a drainage culvert that led towards Llyn y Fan Fach. Suddenly we were in bright sunshine and blue sky, with the massive headwalls of Picws Du and Bannau Sir Gaer coated in banks of brilliant white cloud. We ran with the lake and the cliffs to our left for quite some time and then began to climb the flank of Waun Lefrith, before dropping into the col at Pant Tyle Gwyn. Here we met a number of the A class competitors taking a more southerly line. We seemed to still be ahead of the chasing Elite pack as we skirted round Carreg yr Ogof and into the valley to its west. Great running here – flat and downhill for almost four miles, before locating Control 5 in a sink hole.
As we climbed the hill behind the control, the mist descended again. This made locating the next control very hard indeed – a pond in a sink hole, invisible from twenty metres away. We found it, but in doing so, alerted the chasing pack of its location and led around seven pairs into the control. Bah!
At control 7, we were a few minutes behind the main pack. On the boggy and long approach to Control 8 they gradually receded into a warm and sunny distance. As we approached Control 8 we saw what looked like hundreds of people descending towards a knoll. We had begun to catch up with all the other competitors as they approached the main river crossing.
We joined them all at the control and fell rather than ran down the steep and boggy hillside towards the river crossing. The Afon Twrch was interesting to cross - we were nearly waist deep in fast flowing water. Neil fell in soaking his pack. Good job this was Sunday not Saturday.
There followed a gruelling speed walk and run to Control 9 with teams approaching from a variety of directions. We found the ruined sheepfold that was the control and, after scoffing a fistful of jelly babies, shot off for Control 10. Neil’s compass seemed to be giving a different reading to mine and as we set off he aimed further south than I thought appropriate. I caught him up and we compared bearings. His was 3 degrees different to mine. After a brief debate we decided to follow my bearing, and seemed to find the control. Only it was the wrong one. Some frantic searching eventually found us the control on the same bearing some 30 metres behind the first. And again we led a group of chasing pairs into the control. I was glad that the mist had lifted. The control would have been very hard to find in the fog.
It all became very competitive now as a number of teams began to catch us up. We fought valiantly but were overtaken by a number of teams with more at stake than us (like a share in the prizes). We navigated well to controls 11, 12 and 13 all a kilometre and less apart amidst more Elite competitors. We had a very fast run downhill to checkpoint 14 and then a jog to the finish.
We had done it – the primary objective had always been to get round and we finished in 25th position, later revised to 26th. Not bad for a novice, although I have to say I benefited from Neil’s experience, particularly early on.
Was it worth it? Well I’ve been injured ever since, my back was rubbed raw by my pack and I was walking like an old man for about a week afterwards, but as time mellows the painful memories and heals the wounds it doesn’t seem that bad after all. Will I do it again? It’s still too early to say…
In Class A (40+ miles &
12000ft) Mick Wrench and Mick Loftus came 29th in 14:19.
Everyone knows the English fells, and knows that they have
everything a fellrunner needs - everything? Almost everything! Just one little
thing seems to be missing, something inhabited mostly by small furry creatures
called marmots, and quite a lot of other more or less rare animals. This little
thing is usually known as "high altitude", and can be found in some
places around the world. One place which has a lot of it (basically it consists
out of it!) is a small country known to us as
Some British fell runners decided they'd like to taste its flavour, and met in a winter ski resort (Thyon 2000) on August 1st - right in the middle of summer. For some reason a few Europeans and even some Central and South Americans turned up for this meeting, and together they decided to race to the nearest water depot, the wall of it being known as "Grand Dixence" - just 10 miles away. Starting at an altitude of already 7000ft, this course involved another 2200ft of climb, and a few short downhills.
Good running right from the start, then a medium grade climb made sure the positions got shifted a lot. On the following downhill the next shuffle in positions occurred, the British (and German) fell runners mostly gaining a few positions here. Then a scenic, flat bit invited to have a good look around - the runners who accepted this invitation soon got invited to have a good look at the ground very soon after. But for anyone who remembered to lift his (or her) feet it was good smooth running, without much chance of gaining or losing a position here. On the next steep climb a few places could be won - the following downhill was even better suited for overtaking, and then the athletes already saw the wall - the "Barrage du Grand Dixence" - the finish! But no - they had to turn right up the hill again, another few hundred feet of climb, a long, but good runnable downhill, and then they reached the wall. Some of them managed to sprint along the top of the wall to the finish, others just licked their wounds and crawled, but all of them had a great sunny day out, and enjoyed the race.
Amongst the finishers:
1.: Ricardo Mejia (
6.: Billy Burns (Preston) 1:13
19.: Matt Whitfield (
20.: Stephen Bottomley (P&B) 1:25
77.: John A. Fish-Blair (
95.: Ingo Zoller (Valley Striders) 1:40
97.: Andrew Ward (
150.: Bev Whitfield (
(403 competitors reached the finish)
and supporting/walking/generally having a great day outside the competition:
Debbie Hardy (P&B) 1:56
Tracey leaves her mark?
This year’s international meeting was located in
Back to the race - during the pre-start preparations the
'Black Bottom Jazz Band' from Montreux entertained over 800 competitors, light
cloud covering ensured nice, comfortable temperatures. Just in time for the
start the clouds lifted, the sun came out, the countdown started. In the front
line there were the stars: amongst the world elite John Brown, Billy Burns,
Ricardo Mejia, and from
Results:
World Champion: Ricardo Mejia (
Second: Helmut Schiessl (
Third: Billy Burns (
Further fell-runner results
8. John Brown (2:42)
9. Tim Short (
24. Stephen Bottomley (P&B) (2:59)
40. Mason Duncan (
47. Steven Neill (N.Ireland) (3:12)
78. John Blair-Fish (
99. Paul Singleton (Kendal) (3:27)
147. Richard Rodgers (N.
151. Ingo Zoller (VS) (3:35)
166. Mark Kendall (N.Ireland) (3:37)
279. John Houghton (
300. Gavin Williams (
393. Michael Cronshaw (Lancs) (4:10)
417. Richard Hopkinson (
442. Mabbet Russell (
450. Debbie Hardy (P&B) (4:18)
455. Denis Rankin (
517. Philippa Leach (Derbyshire) (4:26)
690. Dick Wall (Lanarkshire) (4:54)
706. Denis Foxley (Middlesex) (4:57)
795. John Scaife (
832. Peter Fordham (
845 reached the finish... don't ask how many additional 'walkers' were on the course!
“the triathletes dashed past two by two, and
there were a couple of Valley Striders too…”
In the run up there was considerable discussion of …guess
what…. the weather. Hurricane Charlie having devastated a large part of
I diverted via
Andrew Wallace was staying in Ringwood in Hampshire which
was almost on direct route from
It is difficult to get an estimate of travel times at 4:30 am when you are actually travelling mid afternoon on a Friday. I should have realised this and given up. It is all the more difficult when you get stuck behind one tractor and a collection of elderly holidaymakers showing evidence of premature (and not so premature) senility. What possesses people to drive at 30 mph on a dual carriageway??? I could only conclude it was a desire not to disturb the cat on the lap, or dislodge the layer of dust from the gearstick. However a wild guess was made of about 90 minutes to be on the safe side (on race morning Andrew – speed demon – Wallace did it in 50 minutes) and I arrived in good time for registration and the pasta party on the Friday night where I met up with the aforementioned Kiwi. Thankfully, the quality of the food had improved since last year. The discussion over dinner was draughting and more importantly, where was Hurricane (now tropical depression) Charlie.
“Wally” and I went our separate ways after dinner to
return to our respective accommodation. I had been billeted (for want of a
better word) with Mike and Gwyneth Sugg approximately 5 miles from the town of
Sorry Tracey….relegated to second place event!!!!
Saturday morning dawned somewhat overcast – the
forerunner to Tropical depression (now more of a tropical bad mood really)
Charlie we all felt: ready to sweep wind and rain in from the west. That would
of course be ok as the bike course was effectively a north – south route I
heard someone comment. I found myself pondering whether this rather naive
individual had ever cycled in the wind. The race briefing was delivered at
Sunday arrived. I was awake at c. 3:45am I presumed it was the sound of rain beating against the window that did it. I finished the fresh raspberries, the fresh bread and made a significant dent in home made jam and honey and set off for Sherborne. It was dark, it was difficult to see, thoughts of wind and rain lashed waters roamed across my mind, but there were two things that kept popping into my head. The first was: it was very quiet for a large storm to be breaking overhead, and the second was “of course it’s dark you idiot – it’s the middle of the night!”
Those of you who ploughed through my race report last
year will remember the traffic management problems at HIMUK. The Rotarians had
given some thought to this and solved the problem completely. I drifted
effortlessly into
“Race day dawned bright and clear…” For all the dire
forecasts of the Met Office Hurricane Charlie had become not even an Atlantic
Depression, it was little more than an
The race started in two waves to avoid the melee of the
previous year. The first wave included all the age group athletes under 35 plus
all the professional triathletes (this included AW as a mere youngster). The
second wave was everyone else. As we were getting into the water I found myself
standing with Ian Kenvyn from
The swim was the usual grumpy brawl. This year in fact, it did become a brawl for me for two reasons. Firstly, I seemed to have major problems staying away from the main pack – which as a relatively poor swimmer I tend to do, and secondly someone (and I have removed the expletives to protect the innocent) tried to pull my goggles off!! As Auric Goldfinger once said “once is happenstance, twice is co-incidence and three times is enemy action” and I had certainly reached the Enemy Action stage with this guy. Ultimately he was foiled by two cunning plans: the first was that experience has taught me to wear my goggle strap under my swim hat, the second cunning plan was a particularly un-cunning right hook. The reason he was trying to slow me down was because I had over-taken him, so I reckoned that even if all else failed I would still get away from him in the water. The ploy worked and I left him vexed in the water – although not nearly as vexed as it left me….
After a mere 1900 m of frantic splash – I hesitate to describe my freestyle approach to the first discipline as actual “swimming” I was out the water and off on the bike. I took a moment in transition to encourage a chap who had struggled in the water and then I was off on the bike.
The bike course had not changed at all since last year. The sun was out, the sky was clear, the spectators were cheering (well, they were actually thinking – this is the same bunch of nutters who came this way last year…) and still feeling rather annoyed over the incident in the water I put down a bit of power on the bike to work off my irritation. The bike section was mainly uneventful to be honest. The only down side being almost run off the road by a camera crew – so much for road safety. I was passed by the Elite wave while still on lap 1. A few words of encouragement to Spencer Smith who I had chatted with after Ironman Austria where he had failed to finish (see footnote 1) drew a menacing glare – of course having “No Klagenfurt” shouted at him perhaps was not viewed as encouragement. The 90km bike route passed and I drifted into transition for the run in about 2:55ish. This was a personal best over that distance so I was feeling chipper.
The run was had been modified to make up the full 13 miles. It was noticeably short in the 2003 race. It managed to retain its rather undulating quality however. In fact it was up and down more times than….well, the strictures of the Obscene Publications Act restricts my comments, but I am sure you get the picture. God forbid that the Valley Striders Newsletter be relegated to the top shelf of your local Newsagent (see footnote 2) Anyway, back to the race.
I passed AW (going the other way – so I didn’t actually ‘pass’ him) on his last lap of the two lap run course and I actually had quite a pleasant 13 mile trot. It could hardly be described as a run. This had been a long season and I was struggling for motivation at this point, so I in fact took it relatively easy and enjoyed the sunny weather. At one point I even took the time to Waltz past one of the marshalling stations with another competitor who was wearing an Ironman Austria cycling top. This led to a cheer from the marshals – who by this stage were quite bored, a gasp from the poor lass who rather involuntarily became my dancing partner and a few damaged toes on my part (sadly, all my own fault). Alas, I do not see “Strictly Come Dancing” meets Ironman Triathlon as a television success. I also took some time to make a few encouraging comments to Jane Tomlinson who I also saw on the course and who finished in good order.
The finish line beckoned with Andrew Wallace cheering me on – along with everyone else to be fair as he was still feeling wildly enthusiastic about the whole affair. I crossed the finish line in about 5:45ish – in the process recording my slowest ever and I mean ever, half marathon time. Ho hum, c’est la guerre!
So the day began to wind down, competitors began to disappear and the prospect of the Ladies Olympic Marathon beckoned. Mike and Gwyneth Sugg had invited me to join them for dinner that evening – so good food was eaten, fine wine drunk along with some more of Mike’s Scotch and we settled down to watch Paula Radcliff not finish and to get widely excited about the fact that Tracey did finish in great order. So, although it is somewhat late – I am now delivering congratulations from Mike and Gwyneth Sugg.
Meanwhile outside the rain lashed down and the wind howled. Hurricane cum Atlantic-out-of-sorts Charlie had finally arrived.
Footnote 1 Not only did his wetsuit become undone during the 3.8km swim meaning that he had to take it off in the water, an age group athlete crashed into him while pulling away from a drinks station. You’ve got to say when it goes wrong for him, it REALLY goes wrong. Incidentally he also failed to finish HIMUK in 2003 due to a succession of accidents and punctures on the course. In fact, as he receded into the distance I was actually quite glad he was no-where near me.
Footnote 2 Actually, it is probably no bad thing that this august publication does not make it to the shelves of newsagents. I cannot imagine the Striders newsletter being sexed-up to boost sales. Bob tells me it is difficult enough to get race reports without having to try and get volunteers for the Striders page 3 girl as in “The Sun” or a front page model as in “Men’s Health”. We all know Paul Furness and Bren Kitson would offer their services (it would however be less clear which one was volunteering for which page…) All heads would turn, along with quite a few stomachs and I am uncertain the effects that this would have on our circulation.
Editor’s comment to footnote 2 Actually, Tracey did get a mention on page 3
of “The Sun” 2 days after
With a week to go, relays captain Paul Furness had done a great job and had filled all 48 places and all the recce runs had taken place or been arranged.
Then we we hit by an epidemic of injuries. We searched the phone book and thankfully
those who’d previously said “if you really need me” replied “yes”. These included David Barton, Eric Cusack,
Sara Dyer, Paul Hilton and Tim Towler. Erica was swapped from leg 1 of the B
team to leg 6 of the Ladies and recce’d the leg on the Friday evening; even
later subs on Saturday morning were Mike Brown and Julia Geddes, the latter
being registered as a Strider in the process (welcome!). Final problem: neither Elika or Julia knew
leg 3; solution:
So how did we get on? The previous year, we had been runners-up in men’s, women’s and vets’ categories. There will be no need to round up any of these trophies in 2005, but we still had a satisfactory day, 10th men’s team, 4th vets team, 4th ladies team and again the only club to have 4 teams. Well done everyone, thank you, hope you enjoyed it and you’ll run again next year
The table of results shows the time for the leg, the ranking for that leg, the cumulative time and the team position at the end of the leg. So, for example, Martin and Drew were the 5th fastest pair on leg 2 and took their team from 15th to 8th place.
|
|
Garforth |
|
Morley |
Thornbury |
Golden A |
Scarcroft |
|
A M E N |
Mick Loftus Mick Wrench 1:23:33 (15) 1:23:33 (15) |
Martin Horbury Drew 1:19:36 (5) 2:43:09 (8) |
Mal Smith Tim Towler 1:23:25 (14) 4:06:34 (10) |
Brian Hanley Steve Webb 1:25:54 (10) 5:32:38 (11) |
Andrew Cutts Jerry Watson 1:14:59 (11) 6:47:27 (11) |
Rob Liddle Simon Vallance 1:12:53 (9) 8:00:20 (10) |
|
V E T S |
Paul Hunter Bob 1:24:47 (15) 1:24:47 (15) |
Eric Green Mick Tinker 1:29:23 (14) 2:54:10 (15) |
Keith Cluderay Steve O’Callag. 1:31:09 (23) 4:25:19 (16) |
John Blundell Ian Place 1:34:29 (20) 5:59:48 (17) |
John Hallas Paul White 1:22:26 (18) 7:22:14 (15) |
Tony Haygarth Peter Lambert 1:21:16 (17) 8:43:30 (15) |
|
L A D I E S |
Jules Barltrop Sam Harris 1:25:40 (18) 1:25:40 (18) |
Caroline Lynch Mivvi Tekchand. 1:35:55 (22) 3:01:35 (18) |
Julia Geddes Elika Tasker 1:41:13 (33) 4:42:48 (23) |
Liz Ball Jackie Buxton 1:41:11 (26) 6:23:59 (25) |
Laura Mary Egan 1:31:28 (25) 7:55:27 (23) |
Sara Dyer Erica Hiorns 1:34:17 (30) 9:29:44 (24) |
|
B |
Eric Cusack Paul Hilton 1:48:22 (37) 1:48:22 (37) |
Mark Bean Paul Furness 1:50:26 (34) 3:38:48 (35) |
Mike Brown Jim Towers 1:40:57 (32) 5:19:45 (35) |
Ross Alistair Fale 1:44:04 (28) 7:03:49 (34) |
David Barton David Cusack 1:24:34 (20) 8:28:23 (31) |
Lyn Debbi Wagman 1:49:19 (35) 10:17:42 (31) |
On the 3rd
December 1994 I invited myself on a Saturday afternoon run with some of my team
mates at Keighley Road Runners. I had only been running for a few months,
and had was very much been a tarmac man.
This run happened to be a recce of Leg 4 of the Calderdale way from Blackshaw
Head to the Sportsman Pub on the main Keighley to
The following Friday night I got a phone call asking me to run leg three for the A team because somebody had dropped out and besides the fact that it was a complete disaster, I was hooked, I thought this kind of run through moors, farms, hamlets, mud, bogs, up hill and down dale was fantastic.
I was very aware that this was my 10th anniversary of the event so I took it upon myself to organise this years Striders teams. Organising 24 people to run round Halifax is quite a challenge given the combinations of who knows which leg, the busy race programme in the weeks before, where Halifax. Todmorden, Hebden Bridge etc are in relation to where most Striders live and the fact that it involves Geoff Webster.
A good example of what is involved in organising these
teams can be explained in a particular week in mid November.
Sunday morning, rendezvous near Halifax, Liz pulls up in the car behind me, out jumps Liz, out jumps Geoff. “Never done Leg 5 before so thought it would be interesting to come along”. This was from a man who knew most of the legs, couldn’t decide which one he wanted to run, and then eventually dropped out on the Friday night before the race through ill health.
The race itself went extremely well with our mixed team finishing 2nd in that Category and 36th overall and our A team finishing 48th out of 94 complete teams. Particular mention to Sam who was the first Lady through Leg 1 by nearly 5 minutes, Keith Cluderay who came in for Geoff with less than 24 hours notice and Ross Anderson who gave me a cracking run on Leg 4.
Thanks to all those who ran and humoured me as I put the teams together.
|
|
Leg 1 |
Leg 2 |
Leg 3 |
Leg 4 |
Leg 5 |
Leg 6 |
|
M I X E D |
Sam Harris Jerry Watson 1:18:49 (28) 1:18:49 (28) |
Jules Barltrop Paul Hunter 1:15:23 (44) 2:34:12 (36) |
Sylvia Watson Laura 0:52:20 (65) 3:26:32 (39) |
Mick Wrench Rob Bumstead 1:21:12 (37) 4:47:44 (39) |
Mary Harris Liz Ball 1:12:35 (58) 6:00:19 (42) |
Brian Hanley Drew 1:24:12 (25) 7:24:31 (36) |
|
A |
Andrew Cutts Neil Dutton 1:21:50 (39) 1:21:50 (39) |
Keith Cluderay Eric Green 1:23:34 (67) 2:45:24 (52) |
Sara Dyer Mary Egan 0:56:51 (76) 3:42:15 (64) |
Martin Horbury Ross 1:20:31 (34) 5:02:46 (51) |
Mick Tinker Nick Brown 1:03:37 (28) 6:06:23 (46) |
Steve O’Callag. Steve 1:34:46 (54) 7:41:09 (48) |
Ed writes: The mixed team were just 3 mins 33 secs behind
category winners Pudsey & Bramley.
We had beaten P&B by a similar margin in the
Only two Spiders turned out here, although a third (MickL) was camping nearby but failed to start. The two who did start (encouraged to do the race by aforementioned non-starter) were GW and Sylvia.
This race is suitable for those who like good footpaths, a sunny afternoon and a village gala with plenty of cups of teas and buns.
The start is outside the Hinchcliffe Arms in Cragg Vale village, which is also the start of the second leg of the Calderdale Way Relay. The route follows a good footpath through some woods and up onto the moor. After a short run on a moor-land path there is a long level run round Withens Clough Reservoir (highly recommended for those who enjoy V.S. Handicaps). This flat bit requires runners to make a bit of effort to get some speed up and having done 10 miles over the moors the previous day our two heroes found this more than a little strenuous. Once the reservoir loop is completed it is back across the moor and down through the woods for tea and buns. No prizes but a good afternoon out. (Bacon butties, bouncy castle and maypole dancing are advertised as added attractions for this year’s race).
Congratulations to Steve on winning the Fell Championship for the 3rd time. Commiserations to Andrew, who was on for a hat trick, but wasn’t fit enough in the first half of the season to get in the race. Congratulations also to BobJ on buying some proper fell shoes to enable him to score more points and beat GW in the Burley Bridge Race.
Most applause however should go to Jane Sutton who provided V.S. with 3 wins in fell races in Derbyshire. Maybe she can be persuaded to represent the club in next year’s 3-Peaks race?
Further congratulations must be handed out to Martin Horbury for his successful organisation of 2 teams for the Calderdale Way Relay, one of the which - the Mixed Team – ran Pudsey & Bramley (fell specialists) a close second: P&B gained revenge for the V.S. Mixed Team beating them by 2 minutes at the earlier Bradford Millennium Relay.
From my own experience of organising teams for this event I know only too well how difficult this can be. Runners get injured or ill and have to drop out with the consequence that the organiser has the problem of finding a suitable reserve, and there is always at least one runner who is fussy about which leg he runs; who he runs with and whether he’s got time to recce. This sort of chap usually changes routes and partners at least twice and then phones up the night before the event to announce that he can’t run after all. Fortunately the club doesn’t have anyone I can think of in the current membership who is vaguely like this so Martin probably found that his period as organiser was a thoroughly relaxing experience.
Steve W 486, GW 454, Sylvia 279, Andrew 241, Bob J 236, Brian 231, Sara 215,
Jane S 171, Mick L 157, Hutch 137, Martin 127, Mick T 122, Rob B 122, Eric G 115,
Peter L 103, Paul Hunter 92, Simon V 78, Roy 76, Lisa 68, Tony H 67, Jerry 64,
Rob L 63, Alistair 63, Bob W 54, Steve O 40, Tony F 40, Drew 37, Madeleine 30, Richard 30, Mal 28, Tim 28, Terry 26, Paul W 24, John H 24, Jules 24, Sam 24,
Ian 22, John B 22, David B 22, David C 22, Janet 21, Caroline 20, Mivvy 20,
Hayley 19, Keith 19, Mark 17, Laura 17, Mary E 17, Liz B 16, Jackie 16, Ross 14,
Lily 13, Erica 12, Annemi 12, Simon R 10, Mike B 10, Jim T 10, Bill 9,
Elika 9, Julia 9, Paul F 8, Debbie 7, Lyn E 7, Eric C 5, Paul Hilton 5
NB Anyone finding their name on the list and can’t remember
doing a fell or trail race – this is because points were awarded for the
Congratulations to out Madeleine (Watson) having completed her first season as FRA (Fell Runners Association) statistician, especially as she had to keen an eye on GW’s progress in the vets’ championship. Unfortunately she couldn’t scrape together enough points for him to win anything though he was 8th V … in the English Championship.
Our most successful fell runner, male or female, was Jane
Sutton who won 3 fell races in Derbyshire.
Those were the Hunshelf Amble 5m/1300’ on 19 June, the Great Bakewell
Pudding Race 6m/700’ on 27 June and the Hope Wakes 4m/450’ on 30 June. She was 3rd at Grindleford
4.5m/500’ on 17 June. In order to
encourage her further success, maybe we could get a wimin’s team together to
run in the
Sam and Mary Harris, Jules, Laura Clark and Liz all ran well (as did Sylvia, ed) in the Calderdale Way Relay, coming so close to taking the 1st mixed team prize. Sadly we had 2 men on the last leg … need I say more? Other wimin runners in our other team were Sara and Mary Egan. So there’s clearly plenty of interest in fell running amongst the wimin.
A welcome return to competitive running by Liz Ball sees her already picking up prizes on the fells – 1st LV50 at the Coley Canter on 28 Dec and leading Valley Striders to team prize.
Six Striders went spidering around Rombalds Moor and the
canal towpath in the 2004 event. Alan Hutch was first back to the run HQ in Ben
Rhydding in a time of 3h 6m. Not far behind came RobB in 3:14 with BobJ in hot
pursuit to finish in 3:15. Next in was GW at
Mention must be made of the result of the Coley Canter (28th Dec. 7 miles of hard fell/cross country) where not only was Liz Ball the 1st Vet but the team achieved the rare distinction (in fell races) of winning the Team Prize. Alas, not realising this and being on a tight schedule the V.S. crew left before the presentation and so forfeited some extremely valuable goodies. For the record, however, the team consisted of Liz and Steve Ball, Sylvia and GW. Consolation may be taken from the fact that the V.S. success was published in Athletics Weekly.
Most fell races end with a downhill finish, and so does this V S News, too!
These thoughts are a personal list of things that work for the author. The author is not responsible for any accidents that might occur when trying to implement these techniques!
Recent and not-so recent races have to led me to the conclusion that there are a lot of people out there who do not know how to or will not try to run fast downhill. Running downhill is an important skill that can be learnt. It is important because it can be used in a race to get away from or catch up the groups and individuals that you are racing against. And it doesn’t hurt quite as much as trying to do it on the uphill.
The techniques are often more relevant to cross-country and trail, but can occur in those euphemistically named undulating road races as well.
Try some of these out when you next come to a downhill – you may feel like you’re flying. And from experience I can say they are especially useful when doing relays in a pair and Steve Webb is murdering you on the uphill!
Sun Jan 23 1130 T Stanbury Splash 7/1200', PenistoneHill,Haworth
Sun Jan 30 Tigger
Tor 10, Tigers
Sat Feb 5 0900 TG Rombalds Stride 23 pre-enter
Sat Feb 5
Sat Feb 12 1000 FP Wadsworth Trog 20/4000', near
Sat Feb 12 1000 FP Wadsworth Half Trog 9/1500', nr
Sat Feb 26 F Noonstone 9, Lumbutts nr Todmorden
Sun Feb 27 1130 F Ilkley Moor 5½/1260'
Sat Mar 5 0800 T Trollers Trot 24 pre-enter
Sat Mar 12 1130 F
Windmill Whizz 6/800', Ogden Res, near
Sat Mar 12 0800 T
Wuthering Hike 31/4400',
Sun Mar 20 1030 F White Horse 7/1000', Sutton Bank Top, Thirsk
Sat Mar 26 1100 F
Midgley Moor 5/1250', Booth, near
Sun Mar 27 1030 T Guiseley Gallop approx 10k
Sat Apr 2 1400 F Pendle Fell, 4½/1400', Barley Village Hall
Sun Apr
Sun Apr 3 1030 TP Blubberhouses Moor 25 good tracks, Norwood Community Hall, Timble, near Otley pre-enter
Tue Apr 5 1900 F Bunny Run 3/300' (moor), Guide Inn, Keighley
Tue Apr 12 1900 F Bunny Run 3/300' (moor), Guide Inn, Keighley
Tue Apr 19 1900 F Bunny Run 3/300' (moor), Guide Inn, Keighley
Sun Apr 24 1000 FP
Tue Apr 26 1900 F Bunny Run 3/300' (moor), Guide Inn, Keighley
Mon May 2 1300 F Cragg Vale 5½/570', near
Tue May 3 1930 FR Bunny Run Relay 3 * 2½ miles
Wed May 4 1930 F Lothersdale 4½/600', near Skipton
Sun May 8 1000 T Bluebell 10, Heath Rugby Club, W.Vale,
Tue May 10 1915 FG Jack Bloor 5¼/1150', Ilkley Moor
Wed May 25 1930 F White Lion 3¾/800’, Kildwick
Sat May 28 1430 F Hutton Roof Gala 7/1300', nr Kirkby Lonsdale
Mon May 30 1300 F Austwick Amble 8/1200' nr Settle
Tue May 31 1930 F Rombald's Moor 3/700', Skipton
Wed Jun 1 1930 F Chevin 3½/900' Fell Race, Otley Clock
Sat Jun 4 1030 T Wharfedale Off-rd 26/2500', Grassington RugbyC
Wed Jun 8 FR Badgerstone Relay at Ilkley
Sat Jun 11 T Ulfkil Stride 24 from Buckden
Sat Jun 18 F Buckden Pike 4
Sun Jun 19 0800 TR Bradford Millennium Way 5 pairs * apprx 9miles
Fri Jun 24 1930 F } 3 { Wicken Hill Whizz 3/1000'
Sat Jun 25 1500 F } day { Tom Tittiman 4/600'
Sun Jun 26 1130 F }event{ Reservoir Bogs 8/1000'
Sun Jun 26 Settle Hills 7/1500’, North Ribblesdale RugbyC
Fri Jul 1 2000 F } Wharfedale {
Sat Jul 2 1100 F } Triple T { Fell Race 12½/3000'
Sat Jul 3 1100 F } Kettlewell { Fell Race 1½/500'
Tue Jul 5 1915 FR Danefield Relay at Otley 3 * 2½/500'
Wed Jul 6 1930 F Black Rocks 5½/850' Matlock Rugby Club
Tue Jul 12 1930 F Stoodley Pike 3½
Wed Jul 13 1930 F Stirton Fell 5½/800' Stirton near Skipton
Sun Jul 17 1130 F Oldfield Gala 5½/550' nr Keighley
Sun Jul 17 1100 F Holme Moss 16/4000' Brown Hill Res Holmbridge
Sat Jul 23 1430 F Turnslack 8/2000’ Calderbrook, Littleborough
Sun Jul 31 1100 FG Round Hill 9/1100' Timble nr Otley
F=fell T=trail R=relay P=pre-enter G=alsoGrandPrix
Martin Horbury is planning some long distance training and recce runs on Saturday afternoons. All will be round 16 miles. Call Martin on 393-5597 if you are interested
March 12 – from Timble to Round Hill, Beamsley Beacon and back, will cover part of Blubberhouses 25 Race and all of Round Hill Fell Race.
May 20 – will cover 16 miles of Wharfedale Off-road Marathon – Kettlewell, Kilnsey, Arncliffe, Malham area.
July 16 – part of Yorkshireman Off-road Marathon (
We will also be organising recce runs for the Bradford Millennium Way Relay in June.
Eric Cusack writes: Anyone interested in a weekend
away up in Northumberland? Friday & Saturday 4th & 5th - 6th
March. Bed, breakfast & 5 course dinner at The Riverdale
Hall Hotel,
website http://freespace.virgin.net/bob.jackson/striders.htm
or
http://run.to/striders
e-mail
We have over 130 Striders or
potential Striders on the e-mail distribution list - if you have e-mail and are
not receiving the Electronic Striders Updates that come out every two weeks
(sometimes more often), e-mail the
These
Updates are now also available on the Valley Striders website, so if you have
internet access but don't have email (or can’t use your work email for private
use), then look at the website every few days.
If
you have neither email nor internet, then do you have friends with
internet? If so then ask them to print
the Updates from the website.
No
email, no internet, no friends(on internet)? No problem! Phone me and I will make sure that every 4-6
weeks you will be sent printed versions of the Updates.