Subject: V S Weekly Update -
Barbecue, LCW, Dates, Canal caution, Jura report
Sent: 06 July 2012 13:35
Striders 30th Anniversary Barbecue –
Tuesday 24 July
Just as the Queen has
two birthdays, so does Valley Striders. 23 July 1982 was the date of the
founding of Valley Striders at Mick Dewhirst’s house on Woodhouse Ridge (click http://valleystriders.org.uk/resolution.htm) . And 10
December 1982 was the date of our affiliation with England Athletics (or
whatever it was called at the time).
We’ll celebrate the
first of our 30th birthdays with our Summer Handicap (7pm from Eccup
Res, a just-over-5 mile circular route as far as Emmerdale village), also a
Junior 1 mile race at 6:30pm, followed by a barbecue back at Leo’s clubhouse.
As usual, you need to
book in advance for the barbecue. Email our usual address [email protected] by Sunday 22 July
10pm, just saying whether you want veggie or carnivore. Cost is £6
If you are likely to
come but aren’t 100% sure, then please book anyway, you have until Sunday 22
July to cancel (at no cost).
Tosh Akhtar has just
given me some videos from 1992 of the Cardinal Heenan 10k (2½ laps up Stonegate
Road) and the Valley Striders 10k in Roundhay Park. Hopefully these will
look OK on the big screen at Leos.
We also have a large
number of photos on the website from 1997 to 2009 and a folder of newspaper
cuttings from 1982 to 1992. Is there anyone who would to create a “slide
show” from these? Can I tempt you to step forward with the offer of 2
free barbecue meals? Please!
Leeds Country Way – Sunday 2 September
This is a 60 mile route, run in pairs, so each pair runs 10 miles.
Last year we had 5 teams of 12 runners! Can we get 6 teams this
year? Maybe one from Kathy’s 6pm group and one from Holly’s 7pm group?!
Email [email protected] if you’d like to run. You can check you are on the list – there
is a link on the “home page” of the V S website. Please email as soon as
you can saying whether you are
·
Definite
(barring injury)
·
Probable
·
Possible
·
Unavailable
Proposed teams are “A”, Ladies, Vets (over 40), “D”, “H” (Holly’s
group), “K” (Kathy’s group).
Caution: The route uses country footpaths. It is irregularly
signposted and not marshaled. It is strongly advised that you do (at least)
one recce run a week or so before the race so you know the route. It is
not sufficient to rely on your partner to know the route (they might get
injured the week before the race and you’d have to navigate with your new
partner)
Please email [email protected] as soon as possible. Organising 5 teams / 60 runners last year
involved a huge amount of work (thanks John), so 6 teams will be even
harder. We need to get some provisional teams created as soon as
possible.
Dates
Sun 8 July – Run For All 10k in Leeds – who’s running? Also as the
results are not likely to show club names, please send me your results.
Tue 10 July – Kathy’s group at 6pm, Holly’s group at 7pm, both at Leos.
Club session 7pm at Leeds Met track
Fri 13 July – Washburn Valley Relay – teams of 3 – make up your own
teams http://www.fellrunner.org.uk/races.php?id=2142
Sun 15 July – Eccup 10 mile – V S Grand Prix – also junior races (3
different distances depending on age) http://www.abbeyrunners.co.uk/ . Can anyone help at the finish by handing out Harewood Trail
entry forms?
Sun 15 July – Holme Moss Fell Race – V S Fell Championship
Tue 17 July – Kathy’s group at 6pm, Holly’s group at 7pm, Club session
7pm, all at Leos
Sat 21 July – Ingleborough Fell Race – V S Fell Championship
Sun 22 July – Pudsey 10k – V S Grand Prix – also junior races (2
different distances depending on age) http://www.pudseypacers.com/ . Can anyone help at the finish by handing out Harewood Trail
entry forms?
Tue 24 July – VS 30th anniversary – see above
Wed 25 July – Golden Acre Relay - teams of 3 – make up your own teams –
details will be on http://www.abbeyrunners.co.uk/ . Can anyone help at the finish by handing out Harewood Trail entry
forms?
Sun 9 Sep – Yorkshire Vets relays at Saltaire
Caution re running alone particularly
on the canal
I received this
message from a couple of my contacts at other clubs:
VS Vets Race update
Apologies to Jeni
Sword-Williams and Rich Clough who I omitted from last week’s list of marshals.
Jeni was at the end of the lap turning the leaders to the finish and sending
the lapped runners for a second lap and I was standing with her for 15
minutes. Rich was part of “my” team when I set out the marshals on the
Northern section. Maybe I need to go for a memory test.
Also to mention that
Andy Stoneman took a short video and uploaded it to Facebook.
When we were asking
for marshals we were looking for 25 based on last year, this was a serious
under-estimate, on the day there were 42 Striders involved. So not
surprising that there were only a few Striders free to run and perhaps
optimistic in my last email to suggest we could get 50 runners next year.
30 maybe?!
Jura: More than Just a Fell Race
- report from Steve Dixon
Jura has been on my
wish list ever since I walked on the Arran hills decades ago. The distant
Paps of Jura made a stunning back drop to the walking and when I discovered
that there was a fell race over these peaks I was determined to be back and to
do the race.
It was thanks to a
posting earlier this year by Alun Davies on the forum that triggered a
forgotten determination to do this race. He made it sound all too easy to
get there and back in a long weekend. Why hadn’t I done it before
now?
I was not the only
one hooked on the challenge of the Jura Race.
Amanda Seims, Sarah
Smith and Andreas Mayer all got places in the race to be held in the last
weekend of May and we soon started planning routes and modes of
transport. Alun, having started the ball rolling, had to pull out due to
ongoing knee issues (what did he know that we four didn’t?). This was the
Jura Posse.
Sarah was the
driving force behind getting to Jura using pedal power! We
all eventually adopted that method although with different routes and timings.
Waterproofs, midge
repellent and thermals were at the top of my packing list.
Sunglasses and sun cream a lot lower down!
Sarah started her
Island Odyssey early by cycling across Arran in typical weather –
Rain! Sarah has her own blog on that adventure: http://cyclingqueen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/cycling-to-jura-magical-island.html.
It’s an inspiring blog
for anyone toying with the idea of cycle touring, particularly up in Scotland.
Andreas set off soon
after and cycled in from the south across the Scottish southern uplands from
the English border.
I travelled north
early on the Monday morning with Amanda, with our bikes stowed in the back of
the car to catch the first ferry out of Ardrossan bound for Arran.
The weather forecast
was, untypically, very good with sunshine and increasing warmth in the week
leading up to the race and throughout the race weekend.
And so a warm
and sunny Lochranza campsite on Arran was our meeting place with Andreas but
not before an afternoon run along the coast and a hill climb back over to the
camp site. The next day saw us mountain climbing and swimming in a mountain
tarn before travelling onwards by two ferries and a cycle ride across the Mull
of Kintyre to end up on Islay - having arrived too late to get the ferry across
to Jura. The hardships of having to camp in the garden of the loch
side hotel and local bar!
We got the early
Wednesday morning ferry across to Jura with just a short hilly ride around the
coast to arrive at the Jura Hotel in Craighouse and the camping field between
it and the sea. Sarah had already taken possession of a prime
position on the field for our Valley Strider encampment before hordes of other
runners arrived later in the week.
We quickly got the
tents up and in glorious sunshine and set off on our bikes to cycle further
north along the coast road to commence our reccie of the race
route. Graham the race organiser warned us to not to attempt
to run the whole race route as we would not recover in time for the
Saturday. We took this advice and missed out the first 3 peaks and
concentrated on the 3 paps. It was hot and humid and the terrain
was unforgiving - pathless through tussocks, bogs or steep scree
slopes. On one occasion descending the 2nd pap we
stumbled on a path that was actually runnable! - but it took us off route!
Having said all
that, the unique setting was magnificent and not another soul in sight all day.
We managed to get
back to the Jura Hotel for 9.30 – far later than we thought but just in time to
order food in the hotel whilst we showered.
My confidence in
getting round the whole route within the cut off times was low and struggled to
convince myself it would be better on race day. Sarah, with limited
running this year due to a string of injuries, decided that those cut offs may
have been a bit beyond her and valiantly volunteered to man checkpoint 7
on the 7th and final peak. Probably the most onerous of the
marshalling points having to carry lots of water up from the road to quench the
thirst of the hundreds of runners making it there.
The reccie done we
allocated Thursday and Friday as ‘rest days’ and Amanda had arranged our
accommodation in an exclusive loch side estate cottage in the northern half of
the island. All that was required was to pack our overnight
bags and cycle to the road access point and have a stroll across to ‘Coruib’ on
the shore of Loch Tarbert. The cycle ride was along a 15 mile
stretch of very beautiful but very hilly coastal road and the stroll was over
pathless terrain across the grain of the island involving lots more climbing
and route finding than anticipated. It was infested with ticks
(thankfully most were attracted to Andreas) and, more worryingly, with
adders. We counted what we innocently thought were 4 grass snakes
on this walk. We found out later grass snakes don’t exist on
Jura. The distinctive diamond patterning on all 4 snakes we saw was
that of the adder. Glad we didn’t know that at the time.
Coruib was
eventually located and it was a real gem! The loch side setting was
indescribably stunning with mountain views and its own beach with shallow
crystal clear water warmed by the sun! Coruib itself was midway
through renovation by the Mountain Bothy Association and they were doing a
magnificent job with it. It was well equipped with cooking pots and
even had a well stocked library (for those rare rainy days)!
Next morning the sun
was still shining brightly and tempting though it was to linger and swim some
more we said our goodbyes to this beautiful location. We took an
alternative coastal route back to the road and our bikes hoping it would be
easier then yesterday’s trek. It wasn’t and we were relieved to be
reunited with our wheels.
Craighouse had been
transformed during our short absence. Our tents were surrounded by
a multitude of tents of all shapes colours and sizes. Immediately
next to our encampment was a large Wetherby Runners encampment with their own
‘flag’ fluttering below the White Rose flag. We were a small patch
of Yorkshire in a foreign land. Our neighbours on the other side
were from Dark Peak.
An early start for
everyone meant that the buzzing campsite became deathly quiet soon after 11pm
but was soon buzzing again the next morning with pre race activities and
preparations.
A notice pinned to
the door of the Distillery building, acting as race HQ and registration,
detailed the weather forecast: ‘Scorchio, Scorchio, Scorchio!’
The three of us
found ourselves at the back of the pack at the start and ran the first part of
the race together a little bit slower than we would have liked as overtaking
opportunities were limited up to the first peak. From there we were
able to run more freely and start to move through the field to some
extent. Andreas with more success and he soon become a distant
figure. These first 3 Pips are the warm up act for the main act the 3
Paps. They would in their own right make an acceptable medium
category fell race in the lakes and once on the ridges between these peaks the
running was exhilarating. However the long and steep technical descent
to the foot of the first Pap is a reality check. This is where the
challenge begins. The main positive at this point was that we were
well within the cut off times.
I’m not sure, given
the clear conditions we had, whether it was helpful to reccie these three
beasts as we knew what was to confront us. Innocence may not
have been bliss but it may have lessened the mental torture of the
unrelenting climbs and the ankle breaking descents. There was very
little let up until I stopped at the foot of the last Pap to empty the half ton
of rocks in my shoes. Amanda amazingly ran on without the need to
empty. I think she explained later it was a ploy of Joss Naylor to
let the grit ‘bed in’. I didn’t see Amanda again until the
finish! The last peak looked a doddle after what we’d run
over and that was where we would find Sarah manning CP 7 and provide us with a
drink mix Andreas had prepared to see us through to the end. I
thought the race was done and dusted. Not so as the climb was hot,
slow, hard and never ending and the drink was so salty I couldn’t keep it
down. The run down to the road was my low point and was frustrated
to see runners overtake me and disappear into the distance. The
reward on finally reaching the road was a supply of undiluted water and my road
shoes for the final 3 miles along the coast to the finish. With little
breeze and the rising heat it was not an easy jog to the finish.
A fantastic race and
all three of us were well happy with our times and place in the field.
1st
Rob Jebb (Bingley) 3 hrs 17 mins
107th
Andreas Mayer 5 hrs 20 mins
120th
Amanda Seims 5 hrs 32
mins
133rd
Stephen Dixon 5 hrs 41 mins
191 finished out of
the 208 starters
We were all very
saddened to hear after finishing that John Dare a long time supporter of the
race suffered a fatal cardiac arrest whilst climbing up to marshal Checkpoint
4.
The magic of Jura
though has taken hold of me and definitely want to do the race
again. Not sure we will ever be as fortunate with the weather but
the end of May does appear to have a reasonable record for good weather in
these parts.
There is an
interesting report from the race organiser for those considering the race for
next year http://www.artxraykishorn.co.uk/juraaspnet/pdfs/Jura%20Write%20up%202012.pdf