Subject: V S Update - pie and peas,
Templenewsam parkrun, BMW, Cycling kit, reports from Sheffield Half, Fairfield
Horseshoe and running the Dales Way
Sent: 16 May 2013 23:53
Tuesday 21 May - Pie
and Peas
An extra pie and peas
night this month! There will be two sittings, one at 7:15pm and the
other at 8:30pm.
Book at [email protected] before 10pm Sunday
19th choosing meat or veggie pie, mushy peas or baked beans, and
whether you want apple pie, and which sitting you want to go to.
Saturday
25 May – parkrun mobrun at Templenewsam
All
Striders are invited / requested to run the parkrun at Templenewsam on Saturday
25th May.
This is
the day of the Leeds club mobrun, a bit of inter-club fun to see which club can
turn out the most runners.
This is
the 3rd year the mobrun has taken place but the first time at
Templenewsam. In the previous two, Hyde Park Harriers have enjoyed home
advantage but not so this time.
So, if
you regularly run parkruns, please come to Templenewsam next Saturday. If
you don’t regularly run parkruns, please come to Templenewsam next Saturday.
If you’ve
never run a parkrun, you need to register at www.parkrun.com before
next Friday, then print out a barcode. Turn up on the day, no need to
register, nothing to pay, as you cross the line you will be handed a tag with
your finishing position, walk to the end of the funnel and someone will scan
your personal barcode and also scan the tag with your position. If you go
on www.parkrun.com later in
the day, you’ll see your results.
Final
note, please ensure you are registered at parkrun as a Valley Strider. If
you’re not sure, look out for your weekly newsletter from “News at Parkrun”, at
the top right of the message it will tell you your name and club, and there is
an option to edit your details, and also an option to print your barcode,
More
information at http://www.parkrun.org.uk/templenewsam/news/2013/04/26/mob-run-2013/ note that we are going
for the total runners prize not the average time prize so everyone please come
and run (or even walk)
See you
there!
Bradford Millennium Way Relay – from John Wallace
Never mind the normal
Sunday run – what you all want is a proper challenge, for which the BMW on
Sunday 16th June is just the thing
It’s a 50 mile 5 leg
route, run in pairs, that starts and finishes at Bingley rugby club with change
overs near Denholme, Oxenhope, Silsden, Ilkley Gates and on to the finish. It's
north and west of Bradford essentially going around the greater Rombalds moor,
parts coinciding with Yorkshireman and Rombalds Stride routes.
Harder than the Leeds
Country Way, easier than Calderdale, and in my (biased) view better than both.
The clubhouse is a good finish as it has beer and sandwiches and the results
come out pretty quickly.
Saltaire Striders
organise it and there should be more details on their website (if you can get
it to work!) www.saltairestriders.org.uk
Go on - you know you
want to
Email me back if
interested [email protected]
John
Valley Riders (or
Valley Striders C C) kit – message from Andy Stoneman
Due to demand we’ll be making another kit order. Please take a look at www.valleystriders.org.uk/CyclingKit2.pdf and let me
know if you’d like to order anything. The order deadline is Tuesday 4th June.
Popular items are the arm warmers and full back wind gilets which are also
useful for running, the bibshorts, short sleeve tops and the lightweight
training jacket. The caps are also very useful to wear under your helmet to
keep the wind off on cooler days.
Please also note we can order junior cycling tops with a short zip
(24/26/28/30/32” chest sizes ) at £35.
www.valleystriders.org.uk/CyclingKit2.pdf includes a
price list. Place your orders at [email protected]
Please state
Race results
Leeds Half Marathon -
I published some draft results in the “Special Update” earlier in the week, but
still waiting for some replies to my “who was who” question.
Jack Bloor – not yet
published but congrats to Julia Leventon who finished 3rd
John Carr 5k at
Esholt – this is a 3 race series, first two races published at www.saltairestriders.org.uk, I’ll compile the VS
series results next week
Race report –
Sheffield Half Marathon – from Tim Towler
As our youngest son
is at Sheffield Hallam University, and planned making his half marathon debut
in the Sheffield Half, Carole and I decided to join him. Unbelievably Sheffield
and Leeds both chose 12 May for their half marathons. I have run Leeds many
times but have never run Sheffield, so it gave me opportunity to compare the
two.
Giving ourselves an
hour to drive to Sheffield and park up, with the race starting at 9.00am it was
an early start for us, particularly for a Sunday morning. There was no parking
at the Don Valley Stadium where the race starts and finishes, but parking was
easy as the Sheffield Arena car parks were open for the runners, leaving you
with a 10 minute walk to Don Valley.
I am spoilt when I
run city centre races in Leeds, as my office is also in Leeds city centre, so I
never have problems parking, finding a toilet and leaving my bag. I thought Don
Valley was a great venue for the race. The stadium has plenty of toilets, a
good bag storage area and plenty of space where you can stay under cover and
keep warm (which shouldn’t be necessary in May!)
The race started on
the running track, and it seemed so much easier than I have ever found it in
Leeds to get into the right timing pen. Indeed I am sure I could have started
on the front line if I had wanted to!
Sheffield is known
for its hills, but the research we had carried out on the course suggested it
wasn’t going to be too hilly. From Don Valley you run a pretty flat 2.5 miles
to the city centre. There is then a gradual stepped climb as you pass through
the city centre and on to half way, which is the highest point of the course,
as you pretty well re trace your steps back to the finish. This means that the
second half is faster and providing you have fuel in the tank you will, as I
did, end up with a negative split. I think the Sheffield course is faster than Leeds.
I can’t say which of
the 2 courses is the most interesting as I don’t see a lot of the scenery when
I am racing, save the few yards of tarmac in front of me, though I do remember
there being lots of corners and turns.
Any Strider who runs
Leeds knows what great support we get on our home town course. There were
plenty out, in pockets, along the course watching in Sheffield, though not so
many shouts of “come on Valley”. The turn round point is a true out and back
section, so that for a mile you see runners going the opposite direction on the
other side of the road. It was this mile where the support was at its best, 2
and three deep along the pavement, and very vocal.
The winning time in
Sheffield was 1.06, and in Leeds 1.13. I was 372 in a time of 1.31.32. In Leeds
this time would have made me 172. Carole finished in 1.54.25 and came 2644. In
Leeds she would have been 1788. There were 5398 finishers as compared to 4529
in Leeds. So Sheffield appears to be a slightly bigger race and a better
standard, on what I think is a faster course (even though my half marathon PB
was in Leeds!) If you go to Sheffield you certainly won’t see as many runners
you know, though when we got to Don Valley we did bump into Lou Wardman (nee
Allinson) who ran 1.36.01 for a PB.
Out of the 2 races, I
hate to say it, but I prefer Sheffield, but that will be immaterial as Don
Valley closes and they look for a new venue next year, which may well be one of
the city’s football clubs. At least I got to run in Don Valley before it closes!
Fairfield Horseshoe
Report from Steve Dixon
It
was a busy May weekend for Striders running, Grand Prix runners 35 plus in
Leeds Half, Fell Championship runners 1!
This
year Fairfield in the Lake Distirict was an English Championship Counter as well
as being part of our Fell championship. It was heavily oversubscribed
and, with well over the 500 limit, the club were relying on the inevitable no
shows. We obliged by 3 striders becoming injured in the weeks leading up
to the race. It was nearly 4 when I fell off my bike midweek and twisted
my ankle. Intensive icing and mobilisation meant I was trudging through
the muddy parking field at Rydal Hall to register in good time. The poor
weather forecast looked as though it would be accurate and waterproofs were
straight out of the bag. There was no sign of the higher fells only dark
grey cloud down to about 100 metres.
There
was a mandatory kit check for everyone before your number was issued and this
led to disappointment for many and anything looking remotely like pertex was
rejected. I think Pete Bland Sports Van did good business selling
waterproof jackets. It does seem as though kit checks are becoming
increasingly more stringent and runners entering off road events should make
sure that they have with them all the required kit that may be demanded.
The
start of the race was delayed for half an hour to allow for all this checking
and to allow for difficulties in parking on the waterlogged field.
This
allowed for the weather to improve and apart from a chilly wind it was a
wonderful day out on the clearly defined horseshoe ridge that makes up the
race. After the brutal initial climb onto the ridge it’s a fairly
straightforward ascent to the highest point, Fairfield. Then it’s about
turn (after first taking in the breathtaking views across to the Helvellyn
range of hills) to run across the summit plateau with a welcome strong back
wind toward Hart Crag,. Having traversed Hart Crag and Dove Crag all that
remains is to negotiate the long, winding, descending ridge that takes you into
Ambleside, but to finish the race we turn right off the ridge and down into the
Rydal estate. I thought I was going to go under the 2 hour mark but the
estate road along the bottom of the valley is always longer than you think and
I was nearly 2 minutes adrift. A good reason to come back next year to
finally crack that sub 2 hour finish.! Success all the same as my time was a PB
by almost 10 minutes!
With
no other striders to report on I’ll mention my travelling companion Dave
McGuire of Hyde Park Harriers on his first ever Lakeland fell race. A
much stronger runner than me and he was well placed before the descent began,
but was handicapped by the worn studs on his shoes and was swallowed up by more
surefooted runners on what was a very slippery descent. I’m sure that
will be rectified before his next Lakeland race over the Wasdale course.
Wish
I could have seen the first 3 coming home to finish:
1st
Rob Hope Pudsey and
Bramley 1hr 19mins 18secs
2nd
Morgan Donelly
Borrowdale 1hr 19mins
26secs
3rd
Rob Jebb
Bingley
1hr 20mins 35secs
210th
Dave McGuire Hyde
Park 1hr 51mins
19secs
278th
Steve Dixon Valley Striders
2hrs 01min 38secs
408
finished and 4dnf’s (and lots of dns's)
Running the Dales Way
– from Amanda Seims
So a while ago a few
of us all decided we'd try and run the length of the Dales Way (circa 84 miles)
from Windermere back to Ilkley in 3 days.....as the date got closer the group
size whittled down to just two of us, despite trying to recruit more to our
gang via the FRA forum, Lakeland 100's facebook page, UKClimbing's trail
running section (340 views alone!) and various other outdoor forums
It began to dawn on me that maybe this wasn't such a good idea otherwise we'd
have been inundated with people keen to tag along surely?
The week before I started to question my fitness, having only run 27 miles as
my longest distance, never running two long days back to back, let alone 3, and
never having tried running with camping kit. Camping kit is quite heavy
and you actually need quite a lot of stuff even at this time of year......I got
on the internet and splashed out on a light mat and sleeping bag in the sale
and sold off my old heavier stuff to ease my conscience! Thanks to Holly
for the loan of a down gilet and Andreas loaning me his ultralight tent I got
my pack down to ~9.5-10kg with a little food and 1 litre of water.
We arrived in Windermere on the Saturday just before lunch and set off in
reasonable weather. The pack actually felt fine as it was rammed full and
I felt pretty good although slightly concerned that we had to get all the way
to Sedbergh to stand any chance of completing it in 3 days. The first
section is quite pleasant over gentle rolling hills in the Eastern lakes
but as the day went on, we realised how slow we were with the packs and that we
still had quite a way to go. After stopping a few times to keep on top of
blisters (assumingly caused by the pack weight as I never normally get them?)
and we got closer to Sedbergh where to knowledge of a food shop awaited
us. We were tempted by many goodies in the big Spar but unfortunately
unable to carry much with already full packs and knowing that we had to walk
another mile or two past town to find a quite spot to camp.
We found a great place in some woods and were looking forward to some proper
food - with the strong wind blowing through this took longer than we'd hoped as
the stove kept going out but finally we got some soup on the go and Andreas'
infamous cous cous and chorizo dish. The downside of our campsite was the
lack of water - after cooking we had little left and that meant sacrificing
making porridge before we set off in the morning.
We were disappointed to wake to drizzle and finally made the decision to pack
up the wet tent and get our weary legs going to Dent which was another 5 miles
on. We waited until the cafe opened and had a huge breakfast and picked
up a few snacks and water. As soon as we left Dent the rain
started. We jogged for a few miles out of Dent but then spent the rest of
the day trudging through bogs pretty much and trying desperately to keep
Compeed and plasters on our feet. This was a bleak day, staying in full
waterproofs all day and seemed like our longest thanks to all the
walking. We were really low on water this day and decided against the
peaty river water after seeing a good dozen dead sheep not far from it.
Once you leave Dent there really is nowhere to buy supplies until Buckden so we
just had to keep going with that in mind.
The campsite at Buckden had been upgraded since I last visited to now include a
hot shower and a great one at that! We were also lucky that the pub was
still serving food and treated ourselves to a Sunday roast and desert (and
heaps of water!). I was really starting to hurt in various tendons and
joints by this point though and tried stretching in the pub in desperation to
hopefully allow me to walk the next day.
Monday was a slow start but thankfully the niggles had eased off enough to
allow us to jog most of the day although we still managed to take a good 8-9
hours. This day was tough with tired legs and our first day of good
weather which made for some hot running but at least we had plenty of food
stops within towns along the way. Arriving at Bolton Abbey was akin to
stepping into Leeds city centre; rammed with people and quite noisy which is a
vast change from when I've visited there before. Although it was good to
see so many people getting out of the house and enjoying some fresh air though
but we welcomed the tranquillity of the river stretch through Addingham.
The last few miles to Ilkley seemed never ending and I was really struggling with
aches and pains but we made it just after 6. I don't think I have ever
been so hungry after running in all my life!
Doing something like this off little distance training was tough but taking
things really slowly at our own pace made it achievable. Camping meant
that we had the flexibility to change our daily distances if needed, but using
accommodation would have meant better recovery and the chance to properly
stretch each night. I'd probably opt for a route that has cheap hostels along
the way next time I do something like this!
Pics are on the VS facebook page.