COVID-19 has meant there have been no official races for Striders to compete in for four months. Last weekend, 21 Valley Striders competed in the England Athletics Virtual 5K Championships.
Although the course was of the competitors’ choosing, there were restrictions on the maximum elevation loss (no more than 10m) and competitors were not permitted to use courses with more than 3 laps (although perusing the results, it appears not all have fully appreciated these criteria).
The most popular venue for Striders was the old service road through the disused Kirkstall Power Station. We had plotted out a pan-flat out and back from the canal to Kirkstall Road and a suitably socially distanced group met at 9 am on Saturday to run the Time Trial. Other Striders ran at various locations around North Leeds.
The Ladies A team (best three to score) finished in an aggregate time of exactly 60 minutes and finished in a highly creditable position of 22nd out of about 122 teams and were led home by Jihanna Bonilla-Allard in a flying 18:58. Striders had three teams in both the Womens’ and Men’s events.
The Men’s A Team finished in 116th position. Fastest for the men was John Shanks in a very rapid 17:33.
| Place | Name | Cat | Cat Pos | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 338 | John SHANKS | M35 | 46 | 17:33.00 | |
| 565 | James TARRAN | M50 | 33 | 18:36.00 | |
| 634 | Jihanna BONILLA-ALLARD | SW | 31 | 18:58.00 | |
| 674 | Tim STRAUGHAN | M55 | 24 | 19:11.00 | |
| 679 | Ian SANDERSON | M45 | 81 | 19:13.00 | |
| 767 | Kevin MCMULLAN | M50 | 55 | 19:39.00 | |
| 809 | Vernon LONG | M50 | 58 | 19:50.00 | |
| 870 | Richard BALSHAW | M50 | 69 | 20:06.00 | |
| 893 | Myra JONES | W35 | 21 | 20:13.00 | |
| 996 | Rachel BENTLEY | SW | 60 | 20:49.00 | |
| 1066 | Sean COOK | M35 | 139 | 21:16.00 | |
| 1085 | Sarah SHANKS | W35 | 30 | 21:25.00 | |
| 1130 | Alexandra WATSON-USHER | W35 | 32 | 21:42.00 | |
| 1173 | Liz ADAMS | W45 | 32 | 21:59.00 | |
| 1255 | Nicola HARTLEY | SW | 87 | 22:36.00 | |
| 1258 | Dinesh KAULGUD | M45 | 146 | 22:37.00 | |
| 1289 | Sue SUNDERLAND | W55 | 24 | 22:58.00 | |
| 1386 | Liz REDDINGTON | W55 | 28 | 23:56.00 | |
| 1479 | Stephen DIXON | M65 | 34 | 25:04.00 | |
| 1591 | Leila KARA | W55 | 37 | 26:52.00 | |
| 1606 | Michael TINKER | M65 | 39 | 27:12.00 |
The full results can be found here.
Everyone thought it was great to be out competing with team-mates again, albeit in a time trial rather than a mass start. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can run some normal races again.
Thanks to Kathy for the team photo.