Peco XC, WY XC, December bookings and LOTS of results including school races
This email contains
- information about the Peco cross country league (book by 1 December 2pm if you’ve not already entered)
- information about the final West Yorkshire cross country league (book by 2 December if you’ve not already entered)
- booking for training in December (book by 1 December if you’ve not already booked)
- results including two LSAA meetings and the Primary School Games meeting at Roundhay School
Please do not reply to this email nor store this email address in your address book as this email address is only used for outbound bulk emails, instead reply to Facebook posts or email [email protected] .
Peco Cross Country League
(for school years 2 to 11)
This really is suitable for all abilities. Anyone capable of running a junior parkrun is capable of running a Peco XC race. We strongly encourage all junior members (year 2 and older) to take part.
There are 6 meetings, 5 with individual races, the last is relays for teams-of-3.
Each of the 5 meetings has a 1 mile race for under-11’s (school years 2 to 6) at 10:00 and a 2 mile race for under-16’s (school years 7 to 11) at 10:20. Distances are approximate – it’s cross country! The relays are for teams of 3 of any age, each runner runs just over a mile.
72 V S juniors have already entered (75 entered last year) and 40 ran in the first race.
The remaining dates (all Sundays) and venues are
- 3 December at Templenewsam
- 17 December at West Park (junction of Spen Lane and Butcher Hill)
- 28 January at Middleton Park (this is a change of venue)
- 25 February at Roundhay Park (this is a change of date)
- 10 March relay race at Bramley Falls Woods
Details for this Sunday at Templenewsam are at https://pecoxc.co.uk/pages/race2.html
- If you ran race 1 and remembered to keep your race number, you’re ready to run on Sunday (don’t forget to bring pins)
- If you ran race 1 and have lost your number you can buy a replacement from the registration desk which will be in the courtyard near the café (which is near the farm)
- If you entered prior to race 1 but didn’t run race 1 your race number will be in a pack by the Valley Striders gazebo. The runners’ names are printed on the BACK of the race numbers and will be in alphabetical order – please do not shuffle them!
- If you entered after race 1, same as above
- If you haven’t yet entered you can enter up till 2pm on Friday using this link https://racebest.com/races/zrke3 . NB there is a space on the form to put an England Athletics number – you can leave it blank as it is not needed for these races. Your number will be at the gazebo on Sunday. It only costs £8 to enter the whole series.
- If you’re not sure whether you’ve entered, use this link https://racebest.com/races/zrke3 and find the section “Latest Entries” and click on the button “See All”, this lists ALL entries for the series, not just for race 2.
- If you try to enter after 2pm on Friday you’ll have to pay on the day, it will cost £4 and then if you want to run one of the other races you’ll have to pay the full rate. It’s a no-brainer, invest £8 before 2pm on Friday!!
If you’re wearing a Valley Striders T-shirt or vest, people will be calling “Come on, Striders!” and it will look good in team photos. If you haven’t got Valley Striders top, email [email protected] before Saturday 6pm and I’ll put one aside for you to pick up from me AT REGISTRATION before 9:30 on the day.
Just a final tip. When leaving Templenewsam, I advise you to go towards Halton rather than Whitkirk as the lights at the Brown Cow only let 3 or 4 cars through at each change.
More information at www.pecoxc.co.uk and https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-autumn-winter-2023-24/
Please post general questions on the Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/groups/369749209844475/posts/2641163129369727
or email individual questions to [email protected]
West Yorkshire Cross Country League
(for school years 5 and above)
We recommend the Peco League XC to all of our members. And I know that many of you run in the Leeds Schools Athletics Association XC League on Saturday mornings (three races have already taken place).
The West Yorkshire Cross Country League (WYXCL) is the next step up for club runners. This takes in clubs in West Yorkshire (surprise!) and a few beyond such as City of York and Skipton. The youngest age group is Under 11 (years 5 & 6).
There are 4 meetings in the series. We had 19 runners at the first meeting , 8 at the second (it was half-term holiday week) and 13 at the third. Our U11 Girls, U11 Boys and U13 Boys teams are all in contention for top 3 team awards.
There is just one meeting left – near Rothwell Leisure Centre on Sunday 10 December. If you fancy running and want to get some experience of the WYXCL so that you’ll know what it’s like for next year, then the link to enter race 4 is
https://www.race-results.co.uk/onlineentries/user/login.php?raceid=5068
Entries close on Saturday 2 December and it will cost you £10.
There was a lot of information in https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/email-to-parents-19-october-2023/ so please read this if you are considering entering the final race.
Training for December
The booking form is now available https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/booking-junior-training-sessions/ . Please complete the form by Friday 1 December if you want to come to the session on Tuesday 5 December.
We will have 3 “normal” sessions (weather permitting) on 5/12/19 December.
Then on Wednesday we will be having our traditional Christmas run meeting at 10:00 by the Lakeside Café to start running at 10:15. We’ll be running round both lakes with a bit of sprinting and a lot of jogging. On return to the Lakeside Café we’ll have the field set up for some relays – instead of “Adel or Alwoodley” we’ll have “Lake or Mansion”! We do need a lot of volunteers to support the juniors running round the lakes – no-one has fallen in so far – and if you can’t keep up with your junior athlete then jogging at the back making sure we don’t lose anyone is just as (or more) important!
The booking form also includes booking for a “normal” session on 2 January – this saves me pestering you on New Year’s Eve to fill in your form.
Events for Autumn/Winter 2023/24 and Results
I have updated the page on our website
https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-autumn-winter-2023-24/
Not only does it contain information about future events, it also includes results.
- Wetherby Junior Race
- Golden Mile
- Abbey Dash Junior Race
- West Yorkshire XC League meetings 1,2,3
- Peco XC League meeting 1
- National XC relays
- Leeds Schools AA Cross Country (Saturday mornings) meetings 1 and 2
- Leeds Primary School Games (northeast) XC meeting at Roundhay High School
Regarding the Schools events, I only have limited information – the LSAA meetings only show surnames and for the School Games I only have surnames and/or initials and the top 20 finishers, so please check and email missing results to [email protected]. Also if your child ran at one of the other four midweek School Games meetings, please send me your results.
It’s amazing to see so many junior Striders taking part in so many events!