V S Update - 3 September

- Training (and food) (as always)
- Committee meeting on 6 Sept, all members welcome
- West Yorks XC
- Juniors results - WY Track & Field and 100 metres at GSAL
- Race results - updates to Fell Championship, Grand Prix and some Ultra race reports and results

Apologies

I had a few problems with last week's V S Update.  All the BT email addresses (btinternet, btopenreach and talk21) rejected the email.  I think I'd pasted in some text directly from Facebook, and I've had problems with this before.  I always upload the email to the website (emails can be found at www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsupdate.htm) but I think the upload failed as well.  That email is definitely uploaded now, so fingers crossed for this edition ...

Training (and food)

Tuesday 6 September

- Juniors, parents, beginners and improvers meet 6pm Leos (this session is not available to those on the waiting list nor prospective new junior members)
- Intermediates meet 7pm Leos for session at Bedquilts : 7-8mins easy, medium, hard 'triangle running'; 7-8 mins of Indian File running; 7-8 mins of 3 per team relays; followed by a 1km time trial.
- Experienced runners meet 7pm Leos for 3 by 10 minutes by Eccup Reservoir.
- Fell runners see VS Fell Runners Facebook group.
-
Early sessions followed by pie and peas at 7:15pm - book at [email protected]
- Later sessions followed by pie and peas at 8:30pm - book at [email protected]
- Book before 10pm Sunday 4 September choosing meat pie or veggie bake (£3.50), also select mushy peas or baked beans.
- NB there are still gremlins in the email system, if you get a "not delivered" reply referring to virgin.net, don't worry, the message will have reached us.

Looking forward

- Tuesday 13 September - 6pm sessions at GSAL and 7pm sessions at Leeds Met
- Tuesday 20 September - junior 1 mile and club handicap 5 miles at Eccup Res (note that these will be at an earlier time than normal due to dark evenings) - the junior race is open to all on the waiting list and to friends of existing members

VSAC Committee Meeting open to All Members - Tuesday 6 September - 8:30pm

- We'll continue the discussion, started in July, of what V S do well and what could be improved.  I've now added 3 documents to the website, go to www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsconst.htm
- The first document is the list of topics that came out of the meeting in July.  The only changes to that list are to put the topics into groups and add information about the work that Sam Harris has done regarding the Tuesday intermediates group and track sessions. We'll add to this on Tuesday.
- The second document is an initial list of Role Summaries, a one-line entry for every "job" in VS.  We'll add to this on Tuesday.
- The third document is for detailed Role Descriptions, just contains a contribution from 1 member, but is a good example of what we need.

West Yorkshire Cross Country - entries required by 13 September

We'll be competing in the West Yorkshire XC League (4 meetings, October to December), the Peco XC League (5 meetings, October to March), the Yorkshire XC Championships (January), the Northern XC (January) and the English National XC (February).

First off is the West Yorkshire XC, and race dates are as follows
- Sunday 2 October at Wakefield (Thornes Park)
- Sunday 30 October at Guiseley (Nunroyd Park)
- Sunday 20 November at Spenborough
- Sunday 4 December at Keighley

Age categories are as follows
- Under 11 must be aged 9 or 10 on 2nd October, i.e. are a few of year 4, all of year 5 and most of year 6
- Under 13 must be under 13 on 1st September and at least 11 on 2nd October i.e. are a few of year 6 and all of year 7 and 8
- Under 15 cut off date is 1st September i.e.school years 9 and 10
- Under 17 cut off date is 1st September i.e.school years 11 and 12
- Vets age categories are as at 2nd October

Note that all categories except under 11 must be affiliated with England Athletics.  Juniors who have competed in West Yorks Track and Field will already be affiliated.  Other juniors won't be affiliated, that will involve payment of a further £13, we will send you details.  All adult members will now be affiliated.  See www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsmemreg.htm .

Entries need to be in to us by Tuesday 13 September.  Please email [email protected] if you wish to run.  Fees are £12 for adults, £6 for juniors - this is the fee for the series, not the fee per race.  Payments should be made to "A C Payments"  Sort Code: 53-70-00 A/c Number: 72143851.

You can check a list of entries at www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsteams.htm

RESULTS

Juniors Track & Field

During the summer our juniors have taken part in the 6 meetings of the West Yorkshire Track & Field League. Although new to the league, they finished mid-way in the second division.

10 juniors took part and competed in 84 events.  See www.valleystriders.org.uk/WYTF2016-VS-results.xls   which opens up with the VS results, and also has another tab with all results.

Juniors 100 metres at GSAL

During August, four of our juniors' sessions have been at GSAL, and as one of the activities they've been practising starts and then running 100 metres which have been timed.

See www.valleystriders.org.uk/junior100metres-aug2016.xls

NB when looking at these times, note that they were hand-timed on just one watch by an unqualified timekeeper (me), so may be inaccurate by a couple of tenths of a second.

Fell Championship - from Steve Webb

Latest version of the Fell Championship table is now on the website www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsfc2016.xls  and includes Round Hill, Bingley Show and Borrowdale - a good cross section of events.  I'm very pleased to note that Myra picked up 100 points as first female finisher at Bingley Show - do you get a rosette for that?  I was interested to read in the Otley AC report of Round Hill that runners came across a 4x4 vehicle abandoned in the bogs; that must have been an embarrassing phonecall to AA Relay!  Steve Dixon's report of Borrowdale in the last email update showed the points on offer in that race are certainly hard earned.

V S Grand Prix

The table is now updated at www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsgp2016.xls. This now includes the "group" A through to F which has been calculated using performance data for 2015.  There is a prize for the winner in each group. Email me if any queries on this. 

All the race results are now on the website at www.valleystriders.org.uk/vsgp2016results.xls . 

There are categories for "any other marathon", "any other half marathon" and "any ultra", so if you've run any race of 13.1 miles or more, please check your result has been included, and if not, please email me.

Ultra Running - from Ian Sanderson

Confession from Bob, Ian sent me the first few items in June but I omitted to report them

Ultra Update

A brief round-up of recent VS ultra-marathon exploits, not all of which involved finishing the race, or even being in a race. Apologies if I've missed anyone.

21/05/16  - Transylvanian 50K: 31 miles / 10,600 ft

Now that the weather has warmed up in West Yorkshire, Ross, Andreas and Amanda decided to head off to central Romania for a 50K race through the snowy mountains around Bran. Ross managed to finish tenth despite stopping to take photos every 100m. Andreas and Amanda finished well up the field, too.
1.    Radu Milea   628 (minutes, I assume)
10.  Ross Bibby   757
15.
  Manishe Sina  805 (1st female)
66.  Amanda Seims 1003
67.
  Andreas Mayer 1003
195 finishers, 10 retired.

22/05/16 - Cape Wrath Ultra: 250 miles / 37,000 ft

Steve Dixon was one of the 95 competitors in the inaugural Cape Wrath Ultra, an 8 day, 250 mile, multi-stage race from near Fort William up to the far north-western tip of mainland Scotland. He completed six days of this amazing route through some the most remote areas of Britain but, despite making the cut-off for the last checkpoint of the day, made the difficult decision to retire when a previous injury flared-up (59 finishers, 36 retired). http://www.capewrathultra.com/

And Sarah Smith decided she'd not wait for the race and just do the Cape Wrath Way herself, solo, unsupported, carrying her own tent & kit.  It took her ten days, but at least she made it to the lighthouse, Steve!

28/05/16 - Dorset 100: 101 miles / 13,800 ft / More stiles than you'd think possible

Sara Dyer took part in the LDWA's annual 100 mile 'walk' (it's not a race) for the umpteenth time, this time down in Dorset. She completing 40 miles before retiring after 14 hours (347 finished, 144 retired). Not sure if she missed the thunderstorms. https://www.ldwa.org.uk/2016Hundred

29/05/16 - Comrades Marathon: 56 miles / 3290 ft (despite being a down year)

James Tarran got a much coveted back-to-medal for completing his second Comrades (you only get it if you complete two consecutive Comrades at the first attempt). It's a point to point road race in South Africa which alternates the start and finish locations between Durban (coast) and Pietermaritzburg (in the mountains); so one year is 'up', the next 'down'. Down isn't as easy as it sounds. James kept an excellent blog of his training, injuries, physio, training and race: https://runforyourmoneyblog.wordpress.com/

1.       David Gatebe     5:18
6859.
 James Tarran    10:32

05/06/16 - Calderdale Way Ultra: 50.5 miles / 7100 ft

Closer to home, Eirik had a few navigational issues running the full Calderdale Way but did eventually find his way to the finish. The event website says "If you can do basic map reading and orientate a map you have very little chance of going wrong". Well done, Eirik!

1.     Clark Hind      8:33:50.1
34.   Eirik Stangnes  14:25:59.9
35 finishers, 10 retired. http://cannonballevents.co.uk/calderdale-way-ultra/

Lakeland 50

1.     Jayson Cavill 7:38:48
14.   Sabrina Verjee 8:54:39 (1st W)
56.    Andreas Mayer 10:06:26
59.
    Amanda Seims 10:09:55
194.
 Sarah Smith 12:14:25
267.
 James Loftus 13:20:55

Race to the Stones 100km

1.      Wyclef Forbes 8:19:13 
13.    Hannah Turner 10:41:14
324.  Hannah Corne 15:24:17
901.
  Lucy Irvine 25:38:13 
902.  Richard Irvine 25:38:13 

Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB)

You may have seen the Facebook posts and photos.  In this event the winner's time was 22 hours and Simon Redshaw finished in just over 40 hours.  Hoping for a race report in the next edition of V S Update!

In training, Simon had run the Dales Way from Bowness-in Windermere to Bramhope (80 miles) back in early May; "If I was to do it again I would take more than two days to enjoy the scenery, pick a sunny few days and not run with a rucksack with tent, sleeping bag stove etc... but a great experience." And a few weeks later, he ran the whole of the Leeds Country Way ... overnight!