Subject: V S Mid-week Update - lasagne, Xmas, membership, WYXC, Peco, OMM
report, Treasurer wanted
Sent: 27 November 2012 09:34
Saturday 1 December – Roundhay parkrun
Just to let you know
that the parkrun at Roundhay is the penultimate race in the Leeds Race Series
2012. Note that it is still not too late to enter the Leeds Race Series
and any races that you’ve already done this year will count. See www.leedsathletics.net for details.
Tuesday 4 December - Lasagne, also
meeting to decide GP races for 2013
“Normal” training
sessions, followed by lasagne at 8:20pm - book at [email protected] before 10pm Sunday,
choosing meat or veggie lasagne, and whether you want apple pie. Followed
by meeting to discuss races for 2013 Grand Prix.
Friday 14 December - Xmas Meal and
Presentation Night
7:30 pm at Leos –
book by Friday 7 December at [email protected] saying whether you
want carnivore, veggie or half'n'half (cost is £10.00),
Please pay Paul White
on or before 11 December so that he can enjoy his meal rather than having to
spend the whole evening collecting money. Send a cheque to 17 Whinmoor
Court, Red Hall, Leeds LS14 1NX. Alternatively you can make an internet
banking payment as follows
·
Sort
Code: xx-xx-xx
·
Account
Number: aaaaaaaa
·
Please
ensure you include your name and “Xmas” in the reference.
To check your booking
go to www.valleystriders.org.uk, click “For Club
Members” and “London & Xmas”
Membership Fees
If you are still
owing for membership, please make payment as soon as possible, or kindly let us
know if you are not intending to renew. Address and bank payment details
above. Normal annual adult membership for renewals for is £20.
Please contact us for rates for juniors, second claim, social membership etc.
Also if you’re still
owing for West Yorks XC, please pay as soon as possible. Since the WYXC
and Xmas meal are the same price, if you are paying by internet banking please
indicate what you are paying for and/or email Paul [email protected] . Thanks
Grand Prix 2012
The final two events
in this year’s VS Grand Prix took place at the weekend. There were even a
few hardy (or foolhardy) souls doubled up for the honour of Valley Striders
and/or to claim their VSGP Points.
West Yorks XC at
Huddersfield
The women’s team
finished 8th and the men 6th – excellent results again,
considering that we were competing against the best clubs from West Yorkshire
(and a few from North Yorks too). For full results see www.westyorkshireathletics.org.uk .
Next race Sunday 9
December at Wakefield, hopefully we can continue the good run (Women 7th,9th,8th,
men 5th,6th,6th )
Women
Dist Pace/km GP pts
33 Myra Jones
0:27:46 5.6k
4:57.5 86
36 Hayley Nancolas 0:27:54
5.6k 4:58.9 84
57 Sharon Tansley 0:29:52
5.6k 5:20.0 83
59 Sue Sunderland 0:30:21
5.6k 5:25.2 81
83 Sarah Howell
0:33:45 5.6k
6:01.6 80
Men
32 Jon Parker
0:34:42 9.92k
3:29.9 100
38 Gwil Thomas
0:35:04 9.92k
3:32.1 99
44 Jerry Watson
0:35:36 9.92k
3:35.3 97
55 Paul Kaiser
0:36:10 9.92k
3:38.7 96
64 Steve Webb
0:36:40 9.92k
3:41.8 94
78 Paul Fotherby
0:37:22 9.92k
3:46.0 93
102 Dave Penman
0:38:59 9.92k
3:55.8 91
106 Alex Nancolas
0:39:23 9.92k
3:58.2 90
130
Gary Mann
0:41:46 9.92k
4:12.6 89
152 Nick Barnes
0:45:45 9.92k
4:36.7 87
Peco XC race 1 at
Fitzwilliam
Joe Sherman finished
3rd in the 1 mile race for School Years 4 to 6 and Alex Irvine was 9th
(I think) in the 2 mile race for School Years 7 to 12. With the remaining
4 races more local (and hopefully less wet) perhaps a few more junior Striders
will come and run (the series is best 4 races to count).
The men started their
defence of last season’s premier division title with a convincing
victory. Franco, in his first team outing with the Striders, was in the
counting 8.
It was disappointing
that he women’s team were one short of the required 5, and although not
eliminated (as they would have been in WYXC), were given a huge penalty
of 169 points (more than the scoring 4!) and placed them 8th in the
premier division.
Full results will be
on http://www.pecoxc.co.uk/ around the middle of
the week.
Next race – December
16th at Middleton Park (near John Charles Stadium)
Women
VS
sequence
W/M pos GP Pts
15 Myra
Jones
11 86
18
Sue Sunderland
26 83
20
Carole Schofield
32 81
24
Pascale Fotherby
76 77
Men
1 Jon
Parker
3 100
2
Simon
Midwood
7 99
3
Paul
Kaiser
13 98
4
Gwil
Thomas
15 97
5
Richard Balshaw
21 96
6
Franco Pardini
29 95
7
Dan
Murray
36 94
8
Simon Vallance
43 93
9
Jeremy Ladyman
44 92
10
Gary
Mann
54 91
11
Dave
Penman
56 90
12
Richard Irvine
80 89
13
Roy
Huggins
85 88
14
Joe
Hanney
99 87
16
Rob
Marsh
121 85
17
Steve
Dixon
127 84
19
John Wallace
167 82
21
Malcolm Coles
174 80
22
Tony Haygarth
182 79
23
Bob
Jackson
186 78
25
Dave
Jones
213 76
So, subject to
checking, I can now announce our Grand Prix Champions, Vets winners and Group
winners for 2012. Or I can just let you look at the website to www.valleystriders.org.uk, click “For Club
Members” and “Grand Prix & Fell Champ”
Note that if you are
in the list of 9 winners, you get a free V S Grand Prix 2012 technical
t-shirt. If you were one of the other 32 Striders who ran 8 races you can
purchase one. You will be contacted in the next couple of days and asked
your size!
Fell Championships
The website has been
updated with the Tour of Pendle results which concludes the 2012 Fell
Championships. Again, I’ll point you to the website to find the final
finishing positions.
OMM 2012 Howgills – report from Mick
Loftus
This year 5 Striders completed the
OMM. Simon Redshaw and Richard Adcock did the B Class, Simon Vallance and
his running partner Neil did the Elite, as did Mick Wrench and I.
This is how it was for me...
We arrived in a bitter cold wind early on
Saturday morning at the start near Sedbergh School. This year's OMM was
in the Howgills which was the nearest it has been to Leeds in recent
years. Mick and I were attempting the Elite course again with the aim of
getting round safely, if not comfortably. The sun came up on
Saturday morning to reveal a beautifully clear day. The visibility was
perfect but it was to stay very cold until into the afternoon.
You are given maps as you cross the start
line. Ours showed that we had 39km (straight line distance) ahead of us,
with 3100m ascent. We set off positively and picked up the first control
easily. Thus encouraged, we confidently set off down the wrong ridge
because you don't need to check your compass when you can see where you are
going. After correcting this error, we had probably wasted 15 - 20 minutes
within the first hour.
Now with renewed attention to detail we
pressed on. Simon V and Neil passed us at an impressive pace that we
couldn't hope to match. We saw them intermittently getting further and
further away. There were a number of route choice decisions to be made
along the way, usually this was a choice of up and over or contour round.
With multiple ridges of varying heights and angles between checkpoints, these
decisions were often finely balanced. Once we had made our choice we
executed them reasonably well, although as you are slogging through some bog or
over a huge hill you always regret your choice.
The day dragged on with hours flying
by. We kept on going and kept eating bars and drinking from
streams. The course led us across onto Wild Boar Fell. It was now a
little warmer but ground conditions were harder and there were fewer features
for navigation. We were also somewhat jaded as 8 hours passed and then 9
hours.
With the last couple of controls dibbed we
hobbled into the Day 1 finish including a wholly gratuitous and sadistic climb
up a mud slope churned up by some 2000 runners ahead of us. It had taken
us 9 hours and 41 minutes.
The overnight camp proved to be probably the
best I have experienced in the OMM. It was spacious and well drained
rather than the usual crowded mud bath. It was dark soon after we had got
the tent up and the temperature dropped again. We cooked our food,
gradually through the early evening and then crawled into our sleeping bags.
The expected rain began in the early
hours. It got pretty windy too; that dehydrated food can play havoc with
one's digestion.
On the Sunday morning we started in light
rain, low mist and strong wind. This continued to varying degrees all day
and we spent most of it in full water proofs. The Day 2 course broadly reversed
Day 1 but was only 31.4 km with 2650m of climbing. It included one leg of
over 10km straight line distance over about 5 ridges if you took a direct
route. During this leg we were disorientated for a while when the
topography around us didn't seem to correspond to the map or at least our
expectation of what it should look like. We quickly resolved that we were
in the right place, the poor visibility and exhaustion had been clouding our
judgement. On and on this leg continued, in the end it took us 3 hours
and 8 minutes to complete it.
Once this leg was out of the way, the route
choice became easier, it was just a case of not messing it up and keeping
going. The final controls led us back over the top of the 'Calf', the
biggest hill in the Howgills. The weather had now deteriorated to cold
driven rain with very little visibility up high. However, there were big
paths over the main peaks and these led us towards the end.
We unexpectedly met
Simon and Neil, they had visibly slowed. We joined up for a while over
the tops. Pressing on to the end we felt the familiar relief and elation
welling up. The finish line was, as ever, just that bit further away than
we thought. Then at last we entered the final muddy field and ran
in. Day 2 had taken us 8 hours and 5 minutes. We heard that there
about 100 teams still on the hill past 5pm, making a very long cold day out.
There was a bus back to the event centre but
we were quickly chilled to the bone. My delight at finishing was quickly
replaced with the need to 'sort myself out'. I felt really cold. I
changed into the dry kit I had been carrying as quickly as I could (we were
still another bus ride away from the car park). Then we went to get some
hot food.
We had met the other Striders and began to
swap stories of another OMM epic.
We came 21st out of only 25 teams completing
the elite course; 44 teams had started day 1.
Treasurer Wanted – message from Sarah
Smith
I am the Secretary
of the Management Committee of the Harehills and Chapeltown Law Centre.
Chloe Hudson is the Chairperson.
The Law Centre
provide free legal advice to people who cannot afford to pay for legal advice
and representation, in the Leeds area. The legal advice is funded by the
Legal Services Commission and also by various grants.
We are really keen
to have a larger pool of MC members, to ensure that the Law Centre benefits
from the experience the members of MC can offer, also to ensure meetings are
always quorate.
We meet once a month
at the start of the month, usually at 6.30 pm. The dates of next year’s
meetings are already fixed.
We currently have 9
MC members who attend fairly regularly, 2 are barristers, 5 are solicitors, 2
are non-practising solicitors. No legal experience is required, however
simply a desire to contribute to the smooth and efficient operation of the Law
Centre.
The Manager of the
LC, Paul Mann, presents an update at the start of each meeting and then invites
the views of the MC on a number of issues which may relate to staffing issues,
funding difficulties, future planning.
In particular, the
MC needs a treasurer. If you have the experience and skill to perform
this role we would love to hear from you.
If you are
interested in joining please contact me on 07912 093 259, you are welcome to
come to a meeting to see what happens before you decide.
Pink Leather Gloves
Left at Harewood
Trail Race, any claimants?