Harewood Trail Races – Sunday 8^th November

 

If you’re not available on Sunday, come and help Saturday evening 17:15 to 18:30 at Harewood Village Hall – 6 to 8 people needed to stick labels on beer bottles – the more the merrier (although you don’t get your free bottle of beer till you’ve finished labelling

 

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help on race day.  Dan has just published his first draft plan of marshals names and responsibilities, and we now have the following vacancies:

 

·         Sunday 08:00 to 09:50 – 3 more people for entries desk for 2 mile race, one to hand out numbers for pre-entries, the other two to take registrations for entries-on-the-day – would suit parents of children running 2 miles race or if you want to run the 5 or 10 mile

·         Sunday 08:00 to 10:30 – 3 more people for car parking – you will then be able to run the 5 or 10 mile

·         Sunday 10:00 to 10:30 – sweeper for 2 mile

·         Sunday 10:25 to 10:45 - 10 people to marshal the first mile of the race in the fields either side of the arch.  This will suit parents of children running in the 2 mile race, they will have time to watch their children finish, go from the finish to their position in these fields and then (if they want) get back to the Village Hall in time for the presentations of the junior race.

·         Sunday 10:35 to 12:00 – sweeper for 5 mile

·         Sunday 10:35 to 13:00 – sweeper for 10 mile

·         Sunday 10:00 to 12:45 – 5 more marshals on the route (although a few more would give us some safety marshals i.e. one to point the runners and the other to talk to the general public and/or look after injured runners)

 

Email help@valleystriders.org.uk if you can help, check your name at www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsmarshals.htm

 

Harewood Recce Run – Sunday 1^st November 09:00

 

Whether or not you’re helping at Harewood (and whether or not you’re a Valley Strider), come along to our recce run this Sunday.

 

We’re meeting at Harewood Village Hall, Church Lane, Harewood, LS17 9LJ at 9a.m.

 

I’m hoping that we can have 3 groups to satisfy a variety of speeds – 2 groups for the 10 miles and 1 group for 5 miles.  The 10 mile includes 2 miles of private paths in the Harewood Estate.

 

Afterwards, coffee and cakes in Muddy Boots Café at Harewood Village Hall.

 

Let us know on https://www.facebook.com/events/1662544440624762/ if you’re going!

 

Peco – final call – names required by 4 November

 

Final call for Peco.  We need to register all adult runners in advance as we need to buy in the race numbers which for the first time will have a “chip” attached.  No need for juniors to enter in advance; just pay £1 per race on the day.  (Juniors are school years 4 to 12, but if age 16 or 17 may be able to enter the adult race – please email me)

 

Adults please email teams@valleystriders.org.uk if you wish to be entered - click www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsteams.htm to check list of entries.

 

The new payment scheme for adults is that it is £3 to enter the series, payable IN ADVANCE, plus £3 per race payable on the day.  Please pay the £3 advance fee to account “AC Payments” Sort Code: 53-70-00 A/c Number: 72143851, include your name and “PecoXC” in the reference. 

 

All dates are Sundays - Nov 22nd at Temple Newsam, Dec 13th at West Park (organised by VS), Jan 3rd at Middleton Park, Jan 24th at Golden Acre (tbc), Feb 14th at Meanwood (tbc)

 

The adult races are usually just under 5 miles, and are usually a mixture of country footpaths and grassy fields, that said, given the amount of rain we’ve had recently, don’t wear white socks!  Fell/trail shoes are advisable but you’ll get round on studded road shoes.  And the races are suitable for a wide range of abilities, many of our intermediate group have already entered, so if you can do the distance, sign up and join the fun!

 

Food on 3 November

 

It’s the first Tuesday of the month so it must be food after training at Leos.

 

For 6pm training session / 7:15pm food email earlyfood@valleystriders.org.uk  .  For 7pm training session / 8:20pm food email food@valleystriders.org.uk  .  Please choose meat pie or veggie bake (£3.50), and please choose mushy peas or baked beans.  Also say if you’d like apple pie (£1.50).   Note to parents of juniors, you can’t book a half portion of apple pie, if you have 2 children wishing to have a half portion each, please book  a full portion and ask one of your children to go to the serving hatch and ask for a portion and an extra dish.  Book by 10pm Sunday 1 November.

 

Other races coming up

 

·         Saturday 31 October – WYXC race 2 (entries closed)

·         Sunday 1 November – lots of Striders at Guy Fawkes 10 – race full

·         Saturday 14 November – WYXC race 3 (entries to me by 2 November please)

·         Sunday 15 November – expecting lots of Striders at Abbey Dash – entries still open at http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/events-and-challenges/leeds-abbey-dash/

·         Sunday 15 November – entries still open for Junior Abbey Dash, but note NO ENTRIES ON DAY (unlike last year!)

·         Friday/Saturday 20/21 November – Kirkstall Trail Running festival http://www.malcsblog.net/uncategorized/kirkstall-abbey-trail-running-festival/  - Half marathon, full marathon and ultra on the Friday, Half and full on the Saturday, note that entries close 31 October

·         Sunday 22 November – Peco race 1

·         Sunday 10 January – Templenewsam 10 – new race! see http://www.sttheresasac.org.uk/

 

Bonfire Night at Leos – Saturday 7 November

 

Judging by the height of wood already in Leos car park, this is going to be a big bonfire! 

 

Pay on the night, £5 per family (one car) or £2 per person..

 

V S Christmas Events

 

V S Christmas Party and presentation evening will be Friday 11 December, so save the date.

 

V S Junior ditto date to be arranged!

 

RESULTS

 

V S 70 metre sprint championships at GSAL

 

Definitely not 100 metres but probably over 60 metres

 

Boys school years 1 to 4 – 2 heats, first 4 qualified for final

·         Heat 1 – 1 Theodore Rosenberg, 2 Zak Reisman, 3 Taylor ?, 4 Dexter Rosenberg

·         Heat 2 – 1 Sam Chambers, 2 Felix Linley, 3 Charlie Beaumont, 4 Nathan Ellis

·         Final – equal 1 Theodore Rosenberg, Zak Reisman, Sam Chambers (all qualified for grand final) 4. Taylor

Girls school years 1 to 4

·         Final – 1 Edie Souter, 2 Martha O’Shea (first 2 qualified for grand final), 3 Isabella Marsh, 4 Skylar Purvis

Boys school years 5 to 6 – 2 heats, first 4 qualified for final

·         Heat 1 – 1 Max ?, 2 Leon Jones, 3 Alec Twigg, 4 Jude Gordon

·         Heat 2 – 1 Alfie Jones, 2 Thomas Steel, 3 Max ?, 4 Tye Wesbter

·         Final – 1 Alfie Jones, 2 Max ? (first 2 qualified for grand final), 3 Leon Jones

Girls school years 5 to 6

·         Heat 1 – 1 Milly Sofilas, 2 Keira Jones, 3 Abi Stoneman, 4 Amy

·         Heat 2 – 1 Tally Diamond, 2 Josephine Pawley, 3 Lucy Cliff, 4 Ella Hollis

·         Final – 1 Milly Sofilas, 2 Tally Diamond

Boys school years 7 to 12

·         Final – 1 Naz Dogan, 2 Alex Irvine

Girls school years 7 to 12

·         Final – 1 Eleanor Ford, 2 Alessia Teoli, 3 Pippa Wolstencroft, 4 Evie Lock

Ladies

·         Heat 1 – 1 Jo Chambers, 2 Naomi Casper, 3, Nancy Graham, 4 Emma Blythe

·         Heat 2 – 1 Pascale Fotherby, 2 Esther Hollis, 3 Sarah Ellis, 4 Elaine Craiggs

·         Final – 1 Jo Chambers, 2 Pascale Fotherby

Men

·         Final – 1 Stuart ?, 2 Martin McElhone

Girls / Ladies Grand Final

·         Grand Final – 1 Jo Chambers, 2 Pascale Fotherby

Boys / Men Grand Final

·         Grand Final – 1 Stuart ?, 2 Martin McElhone

 

Sorry, a few question marks because there were a few new members that night and also too many Max’s, so if you can help me fill in the question marks I’ll put a corrected version on the website.

 

Round Ripon 35 (from Richard Adcock)

 

The weather started a bit chilly but turned out nice on Saturday for the 35 mile trail race around Ripon.

It was a nice route starting at Studley Roger, with trails across the fields and through the woods but a lot more road than I expected.

Finished 37/126 in 6:32:06

 

NB you may remember this item from a previous edition but I had credited it to Steve Dixon – I should have known as Steve’s reports usually run to multiple paragraphs.  Richard emailed me to say “Steve did say this morning he couldn’t remember doing the race but was pleased with his time!”

 

Yorkshire Veterans “Road” Relays (from Steve Webb)

 

Another apology from me, Steve Webb reminded me he’d sent this a couple of weeks ago but noted that his report had been “bounced” in favour of the “Autumnwatch edition” about goosanders.

 

Mission accomplished!

 

The V50 team of: Jerry Watson 15.47, Graham Jones 16.18 and Steve Webb 15.45 were Yorkshire champions ahead of Bingley Harriers and Holmfirth Harriers,with a further 7 teams competing in this category.  The individual lap times were 3rd, 5th and 9th overall so it was a really consistent effort giving overall victory by 1:15.

 

The FV55 team of Mary Egan 20.41, Maureen Coffey 24.55 and Sara Dyer 24.30 was 4th out of 5 teams in a category won by Bingley Harriers.

 

This was a really good event based at Roberts Park in Saltaire with the course including firm paths alongside the river and canal.  It was well organised by Baildon Runners, albeit the prizegiving was rather difficult to follow at times.

 

Maybe we can get some more teams out next year.

 

FRA Fell Relays – 17^th October 2015 (from the V S Fell Relay Team)

 

Six Striders made the trip to Lancashire to race the annual FRA Fell relay championships at Pendle Hill on Saturday. The race was a four-leg relay with a mixture of navigational and marked routes - the two longer legs being paired and the opening and finishing legs being shorter solo legs.

 

On paper the Striders team looked strong with Ross Bibby having just completed a fast marathon time in Munich the week earlier and Mick Loftus in good form in preparation for the OMM Elite Race next weekend. Steve Webb and Simon Vallance brought the navigational experience and expertise. Clive Bandy had just had a few weeks of holiday tapering and Dan Price was looking forward to the prospect of a fell run without a swim and bike first.

 

We arrived at the event in good time and whilst registering it was obvious that we were indeed amongst many of the best Fell Runners in the country. Teams were present from across England as well as a few Scottish Teams. The VSCC team was organised as Leg 1: Clive, Leg 2: Ross and Mick, Leg 3: Steve and Simon and Leg 4: Dan.

 

Clive ran a strong first leg and held position about 2/3rd down the field of the country’s best fell runners. A short run of just less than 5 miles but having two ascents, and descents of Pendle Hill within just two miles of distance gave him a good post-holiday workout. Maybe proof that there is such a thing as 'over-tapering'.

 

Ross and Mick ran the 15k 'non-navigation' leg.  The course was almost all good runnable ground.  There was one point where taking a good line away from the crowd gained several places, only to be lost again moments later when taking a more scenic route to the next control. Ross remained strong throughout while Mick provided suitable restraint to prevent Ross from getting too out of breath.

 

Steve and Simon took the ‘baton’ and managed to improve the team position for the longer navigational second leg. To start they had to run almost half a mile before picking up our map, but a quick scan and they were off to checkpoint A, a fairly straightforward follow of the path past the wonderfully named ‘Buttock’ and then contouring to pick the path that descended and re-ascended.  Except that it wasn't where expected... both Steve and Simon (and a few other runners) felt that it was too low.  So a hell for leather descent to the checkpoint allowed them to dib and be away.

The route kept the team to the north west and western flanks of the hill, before following a ridge to drop down for the final control.  Steve was suffering a little from tight hamstrings as they approached the final control at the Bill Smith Memorial Plaque  Then onto a track, across a field and back onto the outward path to return to the start, - a pleasing 15 places up from our starting position.  They were greatly helped in that the visibility was good throughout, and were rewarded with some great views from the top of Pendle Hill.  Their total distance was a shade under 7 miles, but it felt much longer.

 

Dan set off on the final leg with the team in a mid-table position of the 140 teams and came back to the finish line after his own two ascents of Pendle Hill to discover that he’d positioned 28th place in the final leg. Further analysis of the results showed that he’d actually managed to rank 3rd on the first ascent of the hill……and missed out checkpoint 2 (conveniently saving a kilometre of running). Hopefully his navigation skills are better for the OMM next weekend!

 

The results show Valley Striders in 71st, but we should probably inform the organisers of Dan’s ‘shortcut to the summit’!

All in all, a great day and well organised event in good company.

 

Regarding Bill Smith, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Smith_%28fell_runner%29

 

World Mountain Running Championships (from Ross Bibby)

 

The 31st running of this event saw Snowdonia as hosts, the third time Britain has held them (Keswick in 1988, Edinburgh 1995) and saw a week of running festivities starting with the world masters running championships, an uphill only race at Moel Siabod and finishing with the world mountain running championships. We attended the last Saturday to watch the world champs, with the under 23 races, women's and men's. 

 

The course consisted of 4.5k laps from the centre of Betwys y Coed, climbing 250m through some technical terrain up towards Lyn Elysi reservoir, before looping around and returning steeply and very quickly via forest roads to the town. Women completed two laps and men three. A strong showing from the British teams saw Georgia Malir (Leeds City) 8th in the junior women's race and Emma Clayton (Leeds City) bronze medalist in the women's race, alongside two other Brits in 2nd and 4th, which led to a gold medal team prize too. In the men's race Fred Musobo from Uganda won in 49 minutes, ahead of Bernard Dematteis of Italy in 2nd and Robbie Simpson of GB in 3rd. Other local British team members Tom Adams (Ilkley) finished in 27th and Tom Addison (Helm Hill) was 42nd. This indicated the standard of running on show, as the two Tom's usually win most fell races they enter. GB collected the bronze medal in the team event to round off a successful week for the British teams.

 

A real bonus of this event is the "open" race straight after the men's world championship race finishes- which allows anyone the chance to race the same course only a few minutes after the worlds best. I had a crack at this and it was a nice touch that many of the spectators had stayed to watch, and many of the international athletes also came out on the course to support too. The climb was certainly steep but at the top afforded some fantastic views over Lyn Elysi, with a fast descent back to the bottom, which I didn't feel was particularly technical but was indeed very quick running. The key to this course was being able to continue climbing at a decent pace, run quickly downhill but crucially be able to maintain it over three laps (two for the women). I managed to run all the way on the first climb but for the second lap my pace on the climb slowed a little and I had the odd walk, it really was a lung burner! By the time the third lap arrived you knew you could afford to give it your all so my pace improved and really went for it on the last downhill. Simon Bailey (Mercia Fell runners) won the race in 56 minutes (he won the over 35 masters world championship the week before, and would have come top 50 in the world champs race with that time) and I finished in 12th place in 1hr11m. I worked out that time would have put me in 115th (out of 118) in the actual world championship race, so I will take that!

 

Langdale Horsehoe 10 October 2015: 13 miles, 1450m (from John Marsham)

 

Only two striders at Langdale this year. Some Striders seemed to get confused and go to Munich, which the last time I went was quite flat, had fewer pubs per mile than Langdale, and had pubs that served a cold fizzy alcopop that the locals called beer. Others did make it to the right county, but then did the 80km Ultra, as they wanted a race that was flat for at least half its length. Anyway, Steve and I enjoyed a day of blue skies, no wind and a run around what I think is my favourite race. Steve got a PB, I didn’t (I blame the cold I had the week before). Ahead of both of us an unusually young crowd led the way, and Jasmin Paris missed the women’s record by three minutes.

 

1 Sam Tosh 2.11.57

24 Jasmin Paris 2.26.37

96 John Marsham 2.49.10

221 Steve Dixon 3.18.04

387 finishers

 

Munich Results

 

FULL MARATHON

   Pos  CatPos                       Cat  ChipTime  Gun Time

     1        Stelzle, Florian (GER)  35  -         02:29:57

    F1        Viellehner, Julia (GER  30  -         02:40:26

   231    40  Ross Bibby              30  03:02:54  03:03:13

   923   171  Joe Hanney              40  03:26:50  03:27:19

  1143   220  Tom Button              40  03:29:53  03:31:23

    76     1  Sue Sunderland          55  03:31:50  03:33:21

  1912   362  John Batchelor Boy      45  03:45:32  03:47:04

  2733   359  Jonathan Brownbill      50  03:58:21  04:00:10

  2731   161  Roy Huggins             55  03:58:21  04:00:10

              John Shanks             30    DNF    

HALF MARATHON                                          

     1        Schreindl, Tobias (GER      -         01:06:45

    F1        Ölhorn, Susanne (GER)       -         01:21:18

    50     6  Jeremy Ladyman          35  01:21:31  01:21:39

    95    14  Dan Murray              35  01:25:32  01:25:57

   284    37  Ian Sanderson           45  01:31:30  01:31:48

  F27     2  Liz Wood                40  01:35:52  01:36:37

   583    15  Alistair Smyth          55  01:37:33  01:37:52

   748   166  Jon Smyth                   01:39:35  01:39:43

  1277    46  Patrick Barrett         55  01:45:05  01:45:38

  F196    30  Chloe Hudson            35  01:47:22  01:48:08

  3726   542  Richard Clough          45  02:13:01  02:16:33

F1712   201  Becky Murray            40  02:13:10  02:16:41

10K                                                  

     1        Hallmann, Sebastian (G  35  -         00:31:28

    F1        Fischl, Tina (GER)      35  -         00:35:05

   F74    11  Holly Button            30  00:49:02  00:49:21

   864    42  Tim Towler              55  00:56:17  00:56:27

  F289    20  Carole Towler           50  00:56:18  00:56:27

 

Other marathons earlier this summer

 

Berlin

 

Berlin

   1236 James Tarran       2:56:43  2:58:00

   F287 Alison Price       3:19:52  3:23:54

        Justin Mong        3:53:46

Reykjavik

    398 Jonathan Brownbill 3:55:23

Dublin

   1809 Adam Parton        3:28:31  3:28:59

 

Please email me and marathons or half marathons you’ve run recently to claim your V S Grand Prix “Any Other Marathon” or “Any Other Half” points

 

More results

 

Last weekend, congratulations to John Hobbs and Hannah Corne (winners at Wistow 10k), Daz Hibberd (runner-up at Bradford half marathon), Andy May (4^th at Holmfirth 15, Y Vets M40 champion) and Ian Sanderson (14^th at Holmfirth 15, Y Vets M45 champion) – full results of these races in next V S Update

 

Future marathons

 

Alison Price emailed “on 4th December I will be running the Everest Marathon from Everest Basecamp to Namche Bazaar raising funds for Everest marathon Fund. Sponsorship would be great. To find out more about what I'm doing and why, please visit http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/danali  where you can also sponsor me online”