Sent: 10 September 2009 23:48
Subject: V S Update - Key dates, Charlie Spedding, LCW results,
Norwegian race reports, Up & Running offers
Key
Dates
Good luck to Striders running marathons
including the Yorkshireman, Fleetwood, Nottingham and
Two recent marathon results – John Wallace 3:40
at Guernsey and Eric Green 3:03 at
Harewood Recce – Tuesday 15 September
Meet 6:45 PROMPT at Harewood Village
Hall. There will be 2 groups, one running 8¼ miles, the other 5¼ miles.
If you are slow and want to run the long route, bring a torch! To get to
Harewood Village Hall, drive from
WYXC final reminder – deadline Thursday 17 September
Names to me and/or money (£7) to Paul White by
Thursday 17 September. NB £4 for under 17’s (minimum age 9 on day of
race).
Paul’s address is
Races are
- Sunday 11 October at
- Sunday 1 November at Bodington Hall, Adel
- Saturday 21 November at
- Weekend 5/6 December to be advised
Men’s race approx. 9k, women’s race approx. 6k.
If you are sending Paul some money, if you want
to pay your subs at the same time, then add £15 for first claim
membership. And add another £7 if you ran in the
Thursday Training – Thursday 17 September
Club Handicap and Pie & Peas – Tuesday 22 September
Meet by the Res at 6:45 PROMPT for a 5 mile
race to the farm at Eccup and back.
Afterwards pie and peas, please choose
- meat pie or vegetarian bake (£2.50)
- mushy peas or baked beans
- apple pie (optional, £1.50 extra)
Book by email by 10pm Sunday 20 September
Harewood Trail Race – Sunday 4 October
Thank you to the 33 who’ve volunteered so far,
but another 37 needed please.
Abbey Dash – Sunday 22 November
One of the fastest 10k races in the
http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/LeedsAbbeyDash/
Also a good warm up for the Thirsk 10 the following week.
Thirsk 10 mile – Sunday 29 November
This is the 4th race in the Abbey Runners vs.
Valley Striders head-to-head competition. Striders are leading 2-1 but
Abbey won at
Every runner counts in this competition; the more runners
we have, the better chance we have of winning.
Entry forms can be found at http://www.ukresults.net/09nov.html#thirsk.
It’s £12 to enter and a potential PB course - the only two hills are where the
race crosses the
Calderdale
Way Relay – Sunday 13 December
Like the
From
our Club President – Olympic marathon bronze medallist Charlie Spedding
Many years ago you bestowed on me the honour of being your Club President. Way back
then, I was thinking about writing a book and I am pleased to say that I have,
at last, staggered to the finish line. It is available from www.charliespedding.com
where you can find out more about it, and even read a few pages.
I would really appreciate it if you could spread the word among your members.
Best wishes,
Charlie
Charlie
came to run at the club on 24 September 1985. There are a couple of pictures
from that night
http://valleystriders.org.uk/vsalbum/85spedd/ph2sped1.htm
http://valleystriders.org.uk/vsalbum/85spedd/ph2sped2.htm
See if you
can recognize anyone still with the club!
That night
we ran what was our traditional Tuesday route, out the back of Leos, across
There were
two groups and I ran in the first group, we set off at a fair pace and we were
all thinking “I’m sure he’ll catch us soon” and of course he didn’t as he was
too busy chatting!
Steve
O emailed:
I have ordered Charlie's book today and sent him an
e-mail.
On the night he came to the club I ran with Charlie and he
held us back and we had a good chat. Some of us had run a marathon a week or so
earlier and he was surprised how well we we running so soon after a fast
marathon.
I think we presented him with a glass tankard and I have a
photo showing me filling it with beer as he held it but I can't find the photo.
I think Leggo has a good collection of the photos.
I went with Keith to meet him in
Paul
Furness emailed:
Many
thanks for the brilliant photographs - fantastic memories - my god, did
we all have moustaches in those days!!!!!
Thanks
for the update. I have bought his book!
I am now
back up North in Cracoe near Skipton.
I am
hoping to come down to the club soon but am having some surgery done on my knee
soon.
Team
results included
1
2 Striders A 7:21:05
3 Horsforth Vets 7:29:19
4 Pudsey & Bramley 7:30:59
5 Pudsey Pacers 7:33:52
6 Abbey
A 7:40:18
9 Striders Vets 8:12:37
15 Abbey B
8:45:56
16 Striders Ladies 9:00:58
17 Horsforth Ladies 9:07:21
20 Striders B 9:22:11
21 Abbey Ladies 9:22:23
31 Abbey C
10:54:56
32 teams finished
As
I suspected, Horsforth put out a Vets team as their A team. Full results
at www.kippaxharriers.org.uk
Eirik
The Viking's international 3 peaks
15 august, Adidas Skåla uphill
race. 8.2K -1829 metres ascent
With Matt and I on the start line
for this WMRA grand prix race, this may have been the biggest ever striders
turn out at a 'proper' grand prix race?
The start of the race was by a
lovely Western Norwegian fjord and the finish is at the top of Skåla, 1848 metres above sea level.
It was nice and summery at the
start of the race but it gradually got colder the higher we got and
at about 1500 metres, we were hit by 20cm of new snow and fresh snow showers.
This made the final part of
the race very 'interesting' and significantly slower than in previous years but
I managed to cross the finish line more than 4 minutes quicker than last year
and that wasn’t too bad.
John Sombol from
In the battle of the Striders, I
managed to pull away from Matt quite early on but he was only about a
minute behind at 1100 metres but I managed to increase the lead to just under 4
minutes on the, for me, very familiar snowy conditions in the final part
of the race. In the end I came 161st with 1.44.22 and Matt 208th
with 1.48.15. 600 ran.
Results:
http://www.emit.biz/races/2009.08.15/Adidas_SkAXla_rett_opp/resultat/COURSE1M.HTM
Pictures at the finish:
22 August, Storsylen
(1762 metres) Uphill race. 11.2K, 1000 metres ascent.
After checking the start list and
finding out that I was probably the only non Olympic athlete taking part, my
main aim in this race was not to come last!
During the warm up, I recognised
at least 40 well known elite Norwegian cross country skiers so in order
of not getting in the way, I politely took up a starting position at the
back of the field.
The route starts with a 250 meter
climb the first few K's followed by 6-7k with undulating terrain
before a 700 metre killer climb the last 2k or so to the top.
I was surprised to see at least a
couple of runners behind me up the first hill and managed to overtake a couple
of people before the end so in the end I had 21 out of the 84 runners behind
me,
So in the end I finished in 63rd
position with the time 1.41.11. I thought I did an ok
race but this by far the worst position I have ever had in
a race. The winning time was 1.11.29.
29 August.
Well, this wasn’t really a race
but I managed to walk through the thin air to the roof of the
With practically no acclimatising,
the altitude was always going to be an issue but I managed to get to the top
and back without any major problems. Perhaps it was Bob's hill training by the
reservoir that pulled me through it....
It was a bit windy on the
top but the conditions were really good and the views were
breathtaking. The walk along the very narrow and exposed Bossons Ridge to
the top was absolutely fantastic!
Up & Running
Are you
running the 2009 Great North Run
on 20th September ?
Pop into UP & RUNNING in Headingley to our
Great North Run advice clinic anytime this Saturday 12th September from
9.30 to 5.30pm.
We look
forward to seeing you on SATURDAY 12th
SEPTEMBER.
Regards
Alison,
A second
email from Up & Running advertised a “3 for 2” sale at Leeds Central Store.