Sent: 17 March 2011 12:18
Subject: V S Update - things you have to do quickly, Bob's thanks, Peco
thanks and results, race reports (2 from Amanda), results
Things you have to do fairly quickly
Details of these and more below
Heptonstall Fell Race – Sunday 20 March
Steve Webb has emailed me to remind us that the next fell champs counter is this Sunday at Heptonstall. All details on www.heptonstallfellrace.org.uk He says “first time it's been staged and it looks like it should be a really good event.”
Pie and Peas – Tuesday 22 March
Please book to [email protected] before
10pm Sunday 20 March selecting meat pie or vegetarian bake, mushy peas or baked
beans, and whether you want apple pie.
Three Peaks Recce – message from Simon
Vallance
A few of us are planning to run a recce of the
If you are running the race and want to know what to expect, are thinking about it for next year or just fancy a long off-road run in the Dales please get in touch with me [email protected]
Blimey this has crept up on us. This is
everyone’s chance to score for the Valley Striders team in the annual
match against Abbey Runners. The scoring system is a bit complicated but
the simple rules are (a) the more runners we have the more points we get, and
(b) the faster runners we have, the more points we get.
Can we get 50 Striders out for this race? For
those of you whose winter training has gone well, there’s an opportunity
to get a PB. For those of you just dusting off your shoes, then
here’s your first 10k of the spring and you can aim to make little improvements
during the summer.
For entry details (including online entry), see http://www.ukresults.net/11apl.html#wakefield
Note no extra cost to enter online, and if you enter before 21
March your number will be posted to you, otherwise collect on day.
The race start and finish is in
This race is a V S Grand Prix race and is FULL, but
Email me if you’d like a number, and if anyone
else has a number available I’m able to act as broker for it.
Leeds Half
For the last 3 years we’ve had over 50 runners
in the Leeds Half Marathon. Might be more of a challenge as the
Calderdale has been arranaged for the same date, but let’s give it a go.
Entry information at www.leeds.gov.uk/runleeds Entries
close Friday 8 April.
We also need 10 marshals for this race – we
normally “man” miles 1 to 3 on
Calderdale Way Relay – Sunday 8 May
It seems as though we have about 18 Striders keen to
run, and coincidentally Abbey Runners also have about 18, so the plan is to
enter a Valley Striders team, an Abbey Runners team, and an
Bridlington Festival of Running – 4 and 5
June
Mark Hetherington of Abbey Runners asked me to mention
the Bridlington Festival of Running. He says they are hoping for a big
turn out from the
Bob’s Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who so very generously
contributed to the Bob Jackson birthday fund. Those of you who came to
the do will have seen the two smart new waterproof jackets that I’ve
bought, one lightweight for summer, the other goretex medium weight for getting
on the trails in the winter. These have now been emblazoned back and
front with the Valley Striders logo (Andi Barrett at Peco does a professional
job at a reasonable price).
With your generous gifts I could have bought another 5
or 6 jackets but have decided to invest in a new laptop. The current one
gives me plenty of time to make a cup of tea from when I switch it on to when
it is actually ready to use, plenty of time to read a book while it runs anti-virus,
and then gently warms my hands and the desk as I use it, so for the sake of
speed and reliability it is time to change. I have to buy a Toshiba as my
nephew works for the company, but does anyone have advice on the cheapest way
to buy Word, Excel and Outlook, and what’s your recommendation for
anti-virus these days (I’ve been using free AVG but read a horror story a
few weeks ago about an AVG update that broke all Windows 7 PCs).
Peco XC Series
Peco Race 5 at Danefield – thanks from
Mick Tinker
Mick
emailed me “Please pass on my thanks to those who helped at the Peco XC
on 6th March.”
“As
far as I know we had no major hitches and even the weather turned out good for
both runners and helpers (although I'm told that it stayed cold in the dip by the
foot-bridge - sorry Mike, Eileen and Helen).”
“Without
my blue file I don't have a full list of who actually helped on the day but
from memory it was: Laura Clark, Nick Barnes and Sarah Smith on course set-up,
Dans Murray and Fisher on tent set-up, Nick, Sarah, Peter Lambert, Ian
Sanderson, Eirik Stangnes,
And
a big thank you to Mick for doing at least 3 recces, co-ordinating with Airecentre
Pacers (they provided more marshals), organising Red Cross support, bringing
the tables and chairs, organising all the signage, etc etc
Peco Race 5 Results
Grand Prix points awarded on finishing position.
Unfortunately, even though I was exactly on the finishing line, I forgot to
take a note of the Striders finishing sequence, so I’m not sure which men
finished in front of which women and vice versa, so please email me
corrections!
2 Rob
De'giovanni 100
5 Andy
May
99
10 Simon
Midwood 98
13
16
19
28 Matt
Allen
94
30 Tony
Mills
93
32
37 Dan Murray
91
45
52 Joel
Giddings 89
W 4
58
64
89 John
Batchelor 85
90 Joe
Hanney 84
92 John
Wallace 83
102 Patrick
Barrett 82
W 26
W 27 Laura
Clark
80
118 Leroy
Sutton 79
W 33
W 34 Chloe
141 Malcolm
Coles 76
166
170 Dave
Jones
74
Race 5 Team results
Peco Series Results
Race Reports
Liversedge Half (from Sarah Smith)
I found it very hard going, but was so glad I did it, I am
determined to do better next year... My philosophy of going in blind
certainly had the last laugh as I quickly realised that it was downhill
straight away and that's rarely good in the medium to long term. Next
year I will know what is coming and I am sure I can do a better time.
Photos of me on the hill at mile 6-7 are rather embarrassing - I look like a
toddler having a temper tantrum, whereas the photos of Chloe on the same
hill show a woman summonsing incredible strength, grit and determination in
times of extreme duress. I will definitely try harder next time. As
for the other Striders well they were amazing times, I think a new Strider came
third and Jeremy and Joe got fantastic times as did Chloe.
I am really fed up because I think I might have a hairline fracture in my
patella from when I was knocked off my bike last November just before the Abbey
Dash. Whilst I did my PB in that race, and also my best half marathon
time in the Brass Monkey, so my leg was ok for those, I fell on my knee recently
and think I have caused further damage to my patella as it is very painful and
swollen now. I am awaiting x-ray results. I might pull out of
Noonstone Fell Race (from Amanda Seims)
It was a
chilly and start but the steep climb in the first km soon warmed
everyone up. As reported by Richard, it was indeed very steep, wet
and boggy with a long ascent to Stoodley Pike and a stream
crossing thrown in for good measure before you hit the exceptionally wet
and boggy section on the top of the moor with added head on wind and rain
thrown in just to make the race a little tougher!
The aim of the race for me was to stay close to the person in front....not for
the purpose of beating them but to scream for help if I fell into a deep
bog! Most of the time the only sound you could hear from the pack was
'ooops, sorry, sorry, probably best you don't follow my footsteps
really'. After the long section of slow jogging/wading through bogs it
was a hop skip and a jump down and over the concrete ditch and a nice descent
for a while which soon turned into a scary steep descent followed by a steady
uphill and final steep descent where the race turned into fight to stay upright
and many people falling over not so gracefully! The fast finish on a
solid track was a good end to the race and I felt very honoured (although
slightly guilty) to see the Valley Striders team waiting for me at the finish
line (looking rather cold and tired!).
Yes I finished quite a way down the field and yes I wasn't able to run
particularly fast over much of it (and I lost so many places on the final steep
descent) but overall I found it very enjoyable and look forward to running it
next year (even though there wasn't any cake at the end......)
I heard through those with GPS that it wasn't anywhere near 9 miles which
makes me slightly more upset about my time but I feel pleased with myself that
I can now say I have completed a 'proper' fell race.
Amusing pics of the VS crew can be found on the race website listed in
Richard's report but just to pick out a couple of amusing ones.......
http://www.todharriers.co.uk/noonstone/2011/imgpages/image041.html
https://picasaweb.google.com/kevinb846/noonstonefellrace2011#5578054911123119970
http://www.sportsunday.co.uk/photo8765608.html#photo
http://www.todharriers.co.uk/noonstone/2011/imgpages/image113.html
To Ell and Back (report from Amanda Seims)
I decided
that since I've been missing Rombald's Stride and its array of cakes and
biscuits on route, I'd enter the 15 mile LDWA event 'To 'Ell and
Back'. The start-time for runners was scheduled for 9:30 and when we (my
housemate Andreas, his friend from London Joss and her dog Jess) arrived at 9am
having driven through torrential rain we were all reluctant to leave the car
due to the observation that snowflakes were falling and it was bitterly cold
outside! I made the sensible decision to change out of shorts and t-shirt
into something warmer and we went to register, where we learnt we were amongst
only 12 people running and they'd already set off so we could leave when we
liked! Yes, this was such a low-key event that there were no
prizes, no finishing place, no mass start and the route was unmarked the
whole way.
Lucky for us the rain stopped just after we set off and the weather was a mix
of cold winds over the tops and warm sunshine in the valley. We had a written
description of the route which we'd managed to partially map and set off from
Greetland rugby club out to Copley where we had our first (and only) decent
stretch of fast runnable terrain along the canal. After a few
miles I was longing for a change in scenery and incline and after passing
the first checkpoint I got my wish....a steep long climb out of the valley onto
the tops where I could see Stoodly Pike from Noonstone fell race a few
weeks back. As I wasn't navigating that much I'm not sure of the exact
race route but we seemed to touch on some stretches of the Calderdale way which
were nice and we ran through forests, along rivers, over boggy moorland and
took in some very scenic villages.
We saw quite a lot of walkers along the way and caught up with most of the
field of runners before we decided to stop for a break at the food checkpoint
for a cuppa and a sandwich [no cake though? :-(] before the final steep
climb back out of the valley. My pace had subsided to a slow shuffle by
this point and although we'd easily covered the first 10km in an hour our
finish time was around 3:20 although to my surprise there didn't seem to be
many people at the finish so I think we did well overall.
My only gripe was that most of the checkpoints only had water and squash, with
only one offering tea and food (I know I've said it already but where was the
cake????) although we did get the true Yorkshire fare of pie and peas at the
end which always tastes good after a tough cold run. Lucky I'd planned
ahead and bought homemade cake with me as a back-up plan and we recovered by
the fire in The Sportsman pub next door
Some Race Results
Lots of
people preparing for marathons so lots of results of long races
Trollers
Trot
23 Eirik Stangnes 3:39:59
24
26 Steve Webb 3:42:54
28 Simon Redshaw 3:45:18
52 Nick Barnes 3:59:11
108
Adela Reperecki 4:34:56
118
Geoff Webster 4:41:55
259
Sara Dyer 7:47:58
(I think
this counts in the Grand Prix “Any other marathon” category”
Trimpell
20 at Morecambe
74 Eric Green 2:18:37
116
Spen
20
76 Gary Sutherland 2:31:04
96
139
Paul Gill 2:45:22