Club mail No. 59 - October 2008

• YORKSHIRE VETS
• LEEDS COUNTRY WAY
• PB's AND OTHER WORTHY MENTIONS
• NEW MEMBERS
• DESIGNER T-SHIRTS FOR SALE
• CHRISTMAS MEAL
• DARK NIGHTS
• KIRKSTALL VALLEY TRAIL RACE
• CHAIRMAN'S CHASE
• WEST YORKSHIRE CROSS COUNTRIES
• PECO CROSS COUNTRIES
• CALDERDALE RELAY
• UP & RUNNING
• HELLRUNNER

YORKSHIRE VETS

Apologies to Richard Thomas for missing him off the last race, especially as he gave Mario a good challenge, just pipping him at the post by 6 seconds.

The final race is at Spenborough on Sunday 9th November, so let's see if we can go out with a bang and have lots of members as possible competing.
The Yorkshire Vets are organising a Dinner Dance Presentation evening at the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford, just off the M606. It is on Saturday 29th November with a disco until 1.00 am. It's a full 3 course meal plus coffee and mints with Grand Prix runners paying £10 and any guests £26. Anyone wishing to stay overnight can have a subsidised room. Places are limited so it's first come first served.
The club has some booking forms or you can print them out from the yvaa web site.

LEEDS COUNTRY WAY

The Provisional results make good reading for the Harriers. The men's team came 8th in their category, the ladies 4th and the mixed team coming 33rd out of 38 teams. Well done to everyone.

Jill Camm and Anna Crook just missed out on winning the ladies fastest leg for Leg 4 by 34 seconds.

PB's AND OTHER WORTHY MENTIONS

There was a good turnout at the Leeds half marathon with at least 24 members taking part.
The following pb's have been reported:
Matt Marsh knocking 5 minutes off his previous and finishing in a very commendable time of 1.23.36, Mark Vickers (helped possibly by arriving 5 minutes after the start!) got round in 1.31.07 knocking 2.5 minutes off his previous time. Suzie Flexer knocked an amazing 10 minutes off by finishing in 1.44 and Kerry knocked 2 minutes of her only other half marathon time finishing in 2.07. At that Nottingham Marathon, Matt Hooban ran 4.07.44 knocking a whopping 38 minutes of his London Marathon time and Gary did a very good 3.50.07 for his very first marathon, especially considering his injury just prior to the event.
Another commendable feat is Matt Hooban raising £1,869 for Whizz Kids by running the London Marathon in April.
If you have or know something worthy of mention, please pass it onto the committee

NEW MEMBERS

Please welcome to the club Neil Maxwell from the Wortley area who is used to sprinting rather then the longer runs we do. This didn't stop him winning the Chairman's Chase however! Also joining the club despite coming down to the Chairmans Chase on his first night is Rob Owen from the Burley area. He must have thought we were a "proper" running club! Finally, please also welcome back after a break of over 3 years and a round-the-world trip, Amanda Seims. Hopefully she is getting fitter for the cross countries.

Just to remind you the subs are due, Men £17, Ladies £15.00. Cheques can be sent to Tony Downham, 17 Stainburn Avenue, Leeds, LS17 6PQ, payable to Kirkstall Harriers.
We have an up to date list of those members who have yet to renew their subs. As we now have to pay England Athletics £5 for each registered member, we will either be catching up with those who have not paid or deleting you from both our records and those of England UK.

DESIGNER T-SHIRTS FOR SALE

We have a wide selection of designs and sizes, short and long sleeved, available from previous 10k races should you require any. If you need them for training they are £2.00 each, if you need them for polishing the car etc, they are £3.00

CHRISTMAS MEAL

Yes it's that time of year again - nights getting colder and darker earlier - possibly not much wetter, and only 6 months to go for Spring. Jill Stocks has provisionally booked a Christmas meal at the West End for Thursday 18th December. Due to limited places - 35 approx, it will be the first £5.00 deposits per person that secures a seat, payable to Jill.

DARK NIGHTS

Talking about dark nights - it is an opportune time to remind all runners that turn up for training runs to wear light coloured clothing - or better still fluorescent tops, when running in the evenings. Carol (our bag lady) has limited stocks of fluorescent tops and bibs, but if we do not have any in stock they can be ordered if you have trouble obtaining them yourself.

KIRKSTALL VALLEY TRAIL RACE

Many thanks to all of those who turned out to marshal our first trail race. Everything seemed to go better then planned, possibly with the exception of the trophies with having 5 men and ladies all coming first! I don't think the other 4 trophy winners would object - and it has all been sorted now. The feedback from the runners was all positive, I did hear one chap complain that it was not hilly enough! but hopefully that was not too serious. We had 197 entries and 174 finishers with one lady not completing the course. We had £112 in donations with Pat's friend Tabby donating an extra £50 cheque to Wheatfields making a total of £162. With Jill raising over £100 with her sarnies, donations from any surplus beer and anything left over after poor Tony has sorted out all the income and expenditure, I think everyone can be proud of themselves and the club. There is going to be a post race meeting on Wed 15th after the training run if anyone has any other comments/ideas about this and next years event.

CHAIRMAN'S CHASE

A good turnout of 24 runners ran the old 10k road race route and Jill did another splendid job with the handicaps, especially bearing in mind the number of new members running and those who had done the Nottingham or Para's 10 the weekend before. First across the line was Neil (Maxi) Maxwell, followed by Collette with a pb for 10k (she puts this down to the Thursday Hill Club if anybody is interested) with Garath being 3rd. The evening finished well with many staying behind or just coming down specially to help in sticking 300 labels onto beer bottles for our race in good team work and record time. Could go down well at Tetley's (Carlsberg) if their bottling line ever breaks down... Then finishing off with some nice sarnies etc. Thanks for all those who helped in the race and the labeling.

WEST YORKSHIRE CROSS COUNTRIES

Just to remind you all, of the dates of the West Yorkshire cross countries. We have entered a men's and ladies team, 7 men to finish and 5 ladies. If you are available to run any of these please let Martin or Collette know.
The dates and hosting clubs are as follows:

• Sunday 12th October Otley A.C.
• Sunday 26th October Skyrac A.C. - so presumably Nunroyd Park Guiseley
• Saturday 15th November Wetherby
• Sunday 7th Dec Wakefield so presumably Thornes Park

PECO CROSS COUNTRIES

The provisional dates and venues for the 5 races are:

• Sunday 16th Nov - Ilkley
• Saturday 20th Dec - Abbey, Golden Acre Park
• Sunday 11th January - STAC, John Smeatons
• Sunday 8th February - Rothwell, South Leeds, or Fell n Dale, Otley Chevin
• Sunday 1st March - Woodkirk, Shaw Cross

All races are hoping to incorporate a junior race of about half the distance, for clubs with junior members as well as children of club members. The junior races starting at 10.00 with the main race starting at 11.00 and the age range for junior races will be from 11 to 16 inclusive.

All clubs can have 2nd claim members running, but only the first one home for each club counting - so if anyone is interested please shout out. There is a possibility that Kirkstall men may be running in the Premier! Due to York Postal Harriers joining there are now more clubs in the first then the premier. On a countback system, either the club getting relegated from the Premier may stay up, or the 3rd team in the First may be promoted. At the time of writing last years results are not at hand but will be frantically sought in the next few days.

CALDERDALE RELAY

This is a 50 mile relay with 6 legs run in pairs, as in the Bradford Milennium Way and Leeds Country Way. It's fairly tough and climbs a total of 12, 000 foot over the distance, the legs being pretty much fell running. We have entered one team and its in the 14th December. It basically follows the Calderdale Way, Hebden Bridge/ Mythomroyd area and will be nice and scenic! Runners have to carry full kit including maps, compasses, full body cover, ice axes, crampons etc. We hope to have use of a minibus for the day to ferry between the legs.

The provisional team is an open team (could possibly change to a mixed team if 6 ladies are availble and willing!) and at the moment we have several names but this needs confirming soon. Please let Martin know if you are interested.

All legs definitley need reccying and here are some dates for as many people to turn out as can, we could also do these as walks so we see what is around!

• Sun 5th October, leg 1: North Dean Woods, West Vale (9.8 miles) - please speak to Mario if interested in doing this
• Sun 19th October, Legs 2 and 3 together: Cragg Vale to Blackshaw Head (13 miles total)
• Sat 1st November, Leg 4: Blackshaw Head (9.36 miles)
• Sat 22nd November, Leg 5: Wainstalls Road (7.55 miles)
• Sat 29th November, Leg 6: Shelf (10 miles)

The more the merrier on these, but once the teams are sorted it would be advisable for the pairs to try and recce their leg again.

UP & RUNNING

Local running shop Up & Running, who were one of the sponsors of our Kirkstall Valley Trail Race, are currently offering us all a 50% reduction on their NRG exclusive line of clothing. Fab!

HELLRUNNER

For those doing the Hellrunner - Hell Up North race on 2nd November, we have a minibus sorted thanks to Bal. 15 seats are up for grabs and we will allocate them on a first come, first served basis so if you would like one please let Eleanor or Collette know asap. In return we will just be asking for petrol money and a small donation to charity.