After a very busy and successful July, there’s more to come this August and later in the year…
Alan Thompson represented the Striders at the Caistor ‘Sting in the Tail’ 10k on 10th July – 67th place 45.15. Good race for anyone who enjoys an uphill finish! [Alan]
On a personal note, this was a 10-mile trail event that I did not want to do. Originally posted by Rob in the Striders group, I decided that I would accompany him on this one and have a run around with him (such is his relaxed “enjoy it/training run” approach with local trail runs). Shortly after entering it, I checked the entry list only to see the complete absence of his name from the entry list. He wasn’t in, nor was he going to be. I didn’t want to do it on my tod!
My third time running this awesome 6.2 mile with 1125ft of ascent Gritstone series Fell race, rather a personal fave, it does have something of everything and a lot of fun. I had hoped to get a few more of us by pointing out that the mere £5.00 entry on the day is better than the £60 plus that many people will happily part with to adventure races. However we did get 7 Stilton Striders myself, Dan Valencia, John Houghton, Luke Eggleston, Steve Dewick, Stuart Shaw and Katie Hateley plus Leics locals Dave Lodwick from Roadhoggs and Haydn Williams from Barrow.
Even though rainfall has been heavy it`s still very muggy and will be wet under foot regardless, there is an absolute swarm of flies around the village, thankfully didn’t eat one today. Luke and Stuart have taken higher places up the start line, the race starts with a quick run through the village before heading offroad with a couple of downhill fields. This is followed by a very steep descent (aka drop) and rocky track before the long pull uphill and getting my feet wet for the first time. It`s not a too tough uphill but I’m stuck in my lines and can see Luke and Stuart pushing on, trying to manoeuvre forward would be a huge waste of energy I’d need later so I have to bide my time.
The highest point comes early on before a marshy downhill, a poll across the moors, a second peak and a long downhill to the only bit of road on the course. After two `shiny` races last week I overtake six people before we hit the offroad again, the following section I never told Luke about or he wouldn’t have come! You hit a wooded valley that is a really good slalom, its muddy, often cantered footpath, trees and branches come out of nowhere, footing is precarious, oh its superb but you really have to be on it!
You then come out in Griezedale valley which means readjusting your legs to the hills again and the sun is now out and beating down, I see Luke and Stuart who are still going superbly 30 seconds ahead but any thoughts of catching them are lost when I follow someone on the wrong path and end up surrounded by nettles! On the right path still going strong there is the really big uphill pull out of the valley before one large down and up and just the downhill through the woodland to finish.
Well I beat last year’s time so going right, didn’t catch Luke and Stuart who both ran superbly – Stuart`s first and definitely not last fell race, Luke who has now ran 3 superb races this week. The rest of the team come in and we partake of the awesome homemade flapjacks and those locally sourced Hucklow bananas (where do they grow them? Superb!). Steve Dewick ran a little slower than usual when a branch caught his glasses and flung them nearby which enforced a Thelma from Scooby-Doo type search!
Yonderman cafe after for the best chip cob in the peaks followed by a trip across the road to the Three Stags at Wardlow Mires, the saltiest pub in the Peak, absolutely awesome day – please join us people next time, we`d love to have you with us!
Stuart Shaw (34th, 58:45) Luke Egglestone (38th,58:55) Rob Beers (45th, 1:00:28) Katie Hateley (84th, 1:06:39) John Houghton (92nd, 1:08:22) Dan Valencia (98th,1:09:17) and Steve Dewick (148th, 1:29:41) [Rob]
With details of new Thursday sessions, summer outrun schedule, upcoming races and events and much more, please see this month’s newsletter below:
The sixth year of this popular ultra distance event put on by the very friendly lot at Long Eaton Running Club. You may remember quite a few of us did it last year and for most our first ultra distance, can you believe this is my third ultra Marathon of this year?
Just myself and Katie Hateley running today for Striders, this being Katie’s first 30+miler after doing 27.5 miles at Baslow two weeks ago, if it goes wrong it’s my fault for talking her into this! The race starts at 9:00am and at a nice social pace we quickly get onto the canal towpath towards Shardlow and before we know it we hit our first checkpoint at 10.5 miles where the rain absolutely hammers it down.
The rain continues as we pass Shelton and head into Derby, although it clears up its still ominous and showery throughout the day. The cycle route we are on through Derby isn’t the most interesting but I tend to find that working through it is actually a part which helps an ultra runners mind; it’s not too bad as we meet a great guy called Andy from Draycott who ran with us the entire race.
The second checkpoint is at 18 miles, very nice to see our Club Chairman Rich Gray out supporting us here, checkpoint 3 and the race finish. I really felt like I’d ran 3 miles which Rich said “Who’d have thought training makes you better?”, many a true word!
Next couple of miles along the trail path are followed by more serious offroad stuff as we hit Morley; this is very much the ‘second half’ of the race with far more offroad and undulation. Still happily we make it to the 3rd checkpoint at 26 miles and my only worries are being a little dry throated, although the team has spread out on occasion we pretty much ran together.
The hilliest part of the root is the long pull over Stanton on the Wolds before a long downhill over the golf course, a few fields and for me the hardest part of the race the seemingly never-ending half mile of tarmac along Longmoor Lane to the race finish.
The Nomad is pretty brilliantly put on by LERC, very friendly team, the signage was a lot better this year on what is a cracking route through South Derbyshire, how many races give you a pint of hand pulled beer and a large filled jacket potato on finishing amongst many other goodies? I cannot rate it high enough and so glad we have now had six Striders do this event who can testify how worthy it is.
The Nomad is a great step up for those looking at moving up from Marathon distance,
I guess I have to mention our lovely Katie Hateley who came 1st lady in her first 30+ miler! Not only did she run a great race (bit of a natural here if I’m honest), but she got a superb lot of prizes for doing so!
Katie is running this as part of her ‘Gambia Trilogy’, with Beacon24 next week and Snowdonia Trail Marathon at the end of next month. Katie is raising funds for Humanity first medical to raise money for things like defibrillators for disaster relief in countries less fortunate than our own. If you would like to sponsor this remarkable lady the link is below:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Katie-Hateley4
[Rob]
Starting on Thursday 23rd June 2016, the club is adding a new weekly structured session for all our senior members. This is a coached session, around an hour in length including structured warm up and cool down and a focussed session such as fartlek, sprints, hill repeats, relays, etc – all aimed to help our runners develop over time. Each session is planned in advance by our coaches and will flex to take into account popular local races, spring marathons, etc.
Over the summer months, the meeting point is at Melton Country Park Visitor Centre at 7pm, directly following the junior training session. Over the winter we will vary the location around town depending on the focus of the session.
The intention is to provide the opportunity for focussed training for motivated athletes, whatever their current ability and also for those keen to get involved in coaching to do so in a supportive, inclusive environment. Ultimately, we all run for our own reasons and have our own goals – we hope these sessions help us all to achieve them.
This month’s newsletter is attached below:
As in prior years, we will be entering teams in this great charity event, held at the Saffron Lane Athletics Stadium in Leicester. Mixed teams of around 20 runners – with each runner doing around 5 laps of the 400m track each in a relay. It really is a fantastic summer’s evening event, all run in a great spirit. Please let Mike Bryan know if you are interested in joining in.
