VS Junior and adult mile races, 5 mile handicap, and Barbecue – book now!

 

*** Please book BBQ meals by Thursday 28 August ***

 

Tuesday 2^nd September – Autumn mile races and club handicap from beside Eccup Reservoir

·         Junior 1 mile, meet 6:15pm for 6:25pm start – parents may run with juniors

o    Followed by junior barbecue (for juniors and parents) at 7pm, cost is £7 per portion (half portions may be booked), veggie option available, book to earlyfood@valleystriders.org.uk

·         Club 5 mile handicap, meet 6:45pm for 6:55pm start

·         *NEW* Adult 1 mile, meet 7:05pm for 7:15pm start.  This will take place while the runners are out on the 5 mile.  This is a new run/race, and all Striders who feel that 5 miles is a little (or a lot) too far are welcome to run. This includes beginners/improvers group members, social members, cycling members (this won’t compromise your cycling-only membership but you may get a mention in the race report), and prospective members

o    Followed by adult barbecue at 8:30pm, cost is £7 per portion, veggie option available, book to food@valleystriders.org.uk

 

LCW Trophies

 

We won 3 trophies last year.  If you have one of them, please let me know!

 

Harewood Trail Races – message from Alex Watson-Usher

 

Hello everyone,

 

Entries are now rolling in for our Harewood Trail Races and we’re grateful to all that have helped promote the event and Facebook page so far.

 

For those of you that have seen the new entry form, I’m sure you’ll agree that John Batchelor and Andy Stoneman have done a brilliant job. Now that entry is live, I have started to make my way around the local parkruns (this week – Harrogate!) with the forms and some of you may have seen the posters in Up & Running too. If any of you do think you can help out with entry form distribution, either at a relevant place of work, a local race/event, or at a another parkrun – Bradford, Dewsbury, York to name a few…..then please do get in touch, we’ve got plenty of leaflets and the extra publicity is just what we need over the coming weeks.

 

You may have also seen that the twitter account has been tweeting details of the race too, with a link for online entry, so any of you that are on twitter might consider retweeting to help spread the word even further.

 

Finally, we are busy rounding up prizes and spot prizes at the moment, so if any of you have any grand ideas or ways to secure anything extra from anywhere, then please do let either John Batchelor or myself know.

 

The race team will soon be in touch via the newsletter to ask for volunteers to marshal, but in the meantime, please do put Sunday 19^th October in your diary.

 

Thanks very much, Alex & John :-)

 

Imogen Idle

 

Imogen Idle wrote to the Brownlees to ask whether she could train with them.  To see what happened next, see the Valley Striders home page www.valleystriders.org.uk

 

Amy Hughes 53:53

 

Amy Hughes, from Shropshire, is attempting to break a world record by running 53 marathons in 53 days, all around the UK. 

 

Her 14^th day (which will break the women’s record), will be tomorrow (Tuesday 19^th) in Leeds. 

·         Website www.53marathons.co.uk

·         Twitter  https://twitter.com/53Marathons

·         Facebook    https://www.facebook.com/pages/5353-Marathons/188981147892380

·         Press coverage http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/06/12/shropshire-runner-amy-steps-up-for-53-marathons-in-53-days/

 

I was contacted by her support team yesterday as she is looking for support on Tuesday.  I have asked what time and where she will start tomorrow.  If I hear, I will put it on our website homepage.  Alternatively contact her on Facebook or Twitter.

 

Valley Striders Junior (and senior) 100 metres

 

As it was the holiday season, there were fewer juniors at the track at GSAL last Tuesday, so we were able to also give the adults an opportunity to run.  Everyone had 2 attempts, the results below show the best time for each runner.

 

I was asked whether decimals of seconds were rounded up or down.  The answer is not to worry.  In a championship race, the timer is electronically connected to the gun and the starting blocks are also monitored.  If a runner sets off less than 0.1 second after the gun fires, they are disqualified!  In VS 100metres trials, I click the watch as soon as I see the first runner move and I suspect my reaction time is about 0.2 secs.

 

Thanks to Mary Egan, Ken Kaiser, Kathy Kaiser, Ellie Twigg and Ian Rosser for assisting!

 

   Pos Name                Time     Age

    1  Simon Redshaw        14.0   >21

    2  Joe Hobbs            15.1   >21

   =3  Alex Irvine          15.6    13

   =3  Ben Redshaw          15.6     9

   =3  Ian Rosser           15.6   >21

    6  Isabelle Carter      16.2    12

   =7  Sam Hollis           16.8    10

   =7  Max Vine             16.8    12

    9  Cleo Vine            17.0    10

   10  Esther Hollis        17.1   >21

   11  Joe Irvine           17.4    12

  =12  Rhiannon Rosser      17.8    10

  =12  Bob Jackson          17.8   >21

   14  Ben Hollis           17.9    12

   15  Ella Hollis          18.9     8

   16  Liz Durrant          19.0   >21

   17  Lewis Rosser         19.2     9

   18  Sarah Clark          19.6   >21

   19  Lindsey McDermott    19.8   >21

   20  Alec Twigg           20.0     8

   21  Rebecca Noad         20.7    10

   22  Vishali Naik         20.8   >21

   23  Ellen Adcock         21.0   >21

   24  Isaac Durrant        22.9     7

   25  Katy Irvine          32.2     6

 

Long tour of Bradwell Race Report – from Steve Dixon

 

Bradwell, North Derbyshire, Saturday 9 August

 

This race is reputed to be one of the toughest to be held in the Peak District.  It falls  between being a long 'gentle' fell race and a short but 'brutal' ultra distance. It's no surprise the race is included in both the fell runners association calendar and the Runfurther ultra running series of off-road races.

 

Run on the same day is the half tour over a 16 mile course.

 

Whatever type of race it is it really doesn't matter as once you're out on the course you become spellbound by the constantly changing dramatic scenery. From the steep and rocky Cave Dale above Castleton to the hillside below Win Hill clad in purple flowering heather and to the boulder strewn edges of Stanage and Burbage. Squeezed in between there are the not insignificant climbs up to Hollins Cross over to Edale, up again to Druids Stone on Kinder before climbing out of the Hope Valley via Lose Hill. I could go on but best to run it yourself to discover what fell running and ultra running is all about.

 

My garmin told me I had run close to 35 miles and climbed a little over 2000 metres before I collapsed over the finish line in front of the Bradwell sports pavilion almost 8 hours after starting. I ran most of the route with Andreas Mayer who was reliant upon me for navigating. I'm sure he was capable of a much faster time if he knew the route. This is not a race where you can rely on following others. For long periods we were running on our own only occasionally seeing distant runners on the skyline. We did however keep looking over our shoulders for the stalking figure of Sarah Smith, reeling us slowly in. It was not to be though and we were already basking in the sunshine with our soup and a cuppa when Sarah crossed the line a few minutes  over 8 hours but still with the massive smile on her face that she had at the start.

 

Way ahead of us was John Bottomley a former strider now with his new running club Totley. He spent the first 2 miles jogging along side me and Andreas telling us this was a training run for an ultra later in the year. Obviously bored with my slow pace he moved up a few gears and sped off into the distance as we were descending into Castleton and finished in 10th place not that far behind the winner Ian Symington. John is running well!

 

Results:

   1st  Ian Symington     Calder Valley FR    5:10:14

  10th  John Bottomley    Totley AC           5:53:35

  18th  Helen Pickford    Sheffield RC        6:06:15 (1st Lady)

  47th  Stephen Dixon     Valley Striders AC  7:49:19

  48th  Andreas Mayer     Valley Striders AC  7:49:21

  56th  Sarah Smith       Valley Striders AC  8:02:27

At least 80 finished out of the 86 starters

 

There are now 3 races left in the Runfurther Ultra Series and after this race I moved into pole position in the M60 category with just one runner with a good chance of catching me. That runner is Andy Robinson and he was 10 minutes or so in front of me at Bradwell and slowly gaining ground as the series progress and as he recovers from a stress fracture sustained earlier in the year. Holiday commitments mean I can only run in the last race and I'm going to have to run like the clappers round Rotherham to keep 1st place!

 

Round Rotherham is by all accounts a 'gentle' introduction to the 50 mile distance for anyone toying with the idea of increasing their racing distance. Already 3 other Striders are intent on running round Rotherham on 18 October - Richard Adcock, Ian Sanderson and Sarah Smith.

 

http://www.rotherhamharriers.org/generic.php?recdir=trailandfell&page=rrInfo.php&ptitle=Round-Rotherham

 

Recover on the Sunday marshalling at the Harewood Trail Races!

 

Swissalpine, Davos - Saturday 26th July 2014 – from Ross Bibby

 

Becky and I travelled over to the highest city in Europe, Davos, to take part in the Swissalpine, a collection of ten races ranging from a 10k through to an ultra marathon, all on the same day and finishing at the sports centre in the middle of town. I went for the 42k mountain race, dubbed Europe's highest marathon, reaching 2739m and with a total ascent of 1840m. The race started in Bergun, an hours train ride from Davos (included in the entry fee) through some dramatic scenery, and following the same route as the "flat" marathon and ultra-marathon which started earlier in Davos. The sunshine of early morning had turned into heavy rain as we arrived in Bergun and this continued throughout the race. Perfect weather for me but there weren't too many there who agreed- lots were taking advantage of the free ponchos at the start and a high percentage of people ran the whole race in them! The fact that it was a mountain marathon in torrential rain, with snow on the tops and reaching a height of 2739m you would have thought would be enough to convince people to wear or at least bring a jacket, but bafflingly no. Most people ran in t-shirt and shorts, with no jacket and carrying no kit, something I couldn't quite get my head around (and would never be allowed in the UK).

 

The actual route was "fairly" runnable, certainly when you compare it to fell races in the Lake district, and the altitude had less of an impact on me than I thought it would (bar my right hand swelling up!). Fortunately through the torrential rain there were still fairly good views of the snow capped peaks and glaciers all around, and there were impressive numbers of spectators even on the highest points, who had braved the cold temperatures (and no cable car access so will have spent a good few hours walking to get there). The sound of cow bells ringing along the route and cries of "up up up" from the fantastic Swiss spectators certainly spurrs you on, although it was a bit disconcerting when having reached one of the highest (and most remote) points of the race at the Keschutte I was greeted by Bon Jovi playing from some huge speakers at full volume.....

 

At two points in the race I had to shout at runners for throwing their cups and litter on the floor- this happened at some of the highest points of the race at the feed stations, where there were plenty of bins to use but most ignored them, so really started to irritate me after a while! Upon reaching the final climb and highest part of the race there begins in effect about 19k of downhill running, and having heard from various people that "europeans are rubbish at running downhill" I decided to put this to the test. From where I was in the race this was certainly my impression too, as I managed to fly past at least 15 people on some of the steep terrain on the way down (I would like to state however that they were very very good at going uphill!!).

 

A party atmosphere greets you in the ski resort city of Davos at the finish, marginally muted by the still torrential rain. I was aiming for something around the 5 hour mark so I was very pleased to finish in 4hr41m in 59th position overall (out of 1000 starters). The winners were both Swiss in 3h30m for the men and 4h21m the women. 

 

Becky took part in the off road half marathon, starting in Klosters and with 700m total ascent to the finish in Davos, and despite the conditions also had a very enjoyable race, finishing in 3hr05m and 627th overall (out of 680). We would both certainly recommend these races to anyone looking for a challenge in spectacular scenery, with lots of other race options for friends and family to join in too.

 

Parkrun 16/08/2014 – Tony Mills - first Brit in the world to finish?

 

I got an email from Tony Mills, it’s in my inbox with a timestamp 16/08/2014 00:02

 

Just done Dunedin park run (came 6th i think) - lovely but tough course if you ever find yourself in this part of the world. - at Dunedin Botanic Garden.

 

Tony ran 20:26 see http://www.parkrun.co.nz/dunedin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=31