Hi all.
It’s all go at Nidd Valley House, as you can expect. We’ve finally finished the extensive and expensive renovations to the West Wing, the new carpets are down, the paint is dry and the fine artwork has just been rehung. It looks splendid. Still, we’ve had a bit of trouble with Fell Running Phil as he has been all excited about the new PECO season and in a moment of giddiness sent a fine and priceless Ming Vase flying so it shattered all over the floor in the Grand Ballroom. You cannot imagine Treasurer Dave’s response when he saw the excess bill from the insurers. You wouldn’t expect such language from him, to be honest with you. Still, with those expletives ringing in our ears, there’s only one place we need to be: the results.
Results
Modesty, thy name is Morgan! Yep, once again I left a result out from last week’s write up and this time it has fallen to Fell Running Phil to let me know Carol’s exploits as she was keeping them very much to herself. Well, Carol, if you won’t take that light from under your bushel then I will, telling everyone that you took part in the Tour of Pendle Fell Race last week. I did a reccie of it with Emma last year and actually cried. It’s a brutal 27k with 1500m of climb and is no mean feat, I tell you that much. But we weren’t talking about me, so we’ll congratulate Carol (3:19:30) on her incredible third lady finish. FRP describes it as “probably one of her best performances in a Nidd vest” and if that isn’t high praise, then I don’t know what is.
I know you’ll be itching to get to the PECO results, but let’s just hang fire on that for a moment and get the parkrun results out of the way. We start off this week with Rebecca Ventress. Rebecca was up visiting her bestie and Nidd Valley Runner Emeritus Aimi Blueman up in Edinburgh. It was great to see Rebecca stay off the booze long enough to knock out the Edinburgh parkrun, where she (28:40) put down a thoroughly impressive time for that early on a cold and wet Scottish morning. Aimi, I’m sorry if you ran it and you aren’t included. I can’t find your result anywhere, but know it is thoroughly unlike you to pass up the opportunity for a quick run. Adam Kirk (19:43) was, we presume, down seeing the old trouble and strife down in West Yorkshire but managed to sneak out to compete on the Dewsbury Course, taking sixth place overall. As ever, we had a faithful contingent up at Fountains Abbey, led home by the indefatigable Andy Todd (19:45), with Marcos Montana (24:27), Nick Smith (26:21) and Michelle Dinsdale (30:59) storming home behind him.
But I’m sure you’re all champing at the bit to hear the news from Harrogate. Well calm yourself and fret ye not. Martin Lofthouse (18:45) managed to hold Matt Wilkinson (19:29) off for long enough to take fifth place overall, with Jon Easton (21:44) pulling over a minute ahead of Sue Simpson (22:49), Steve Newton (23:29) and Alison Illes (24:39). It’s always nice to hear from Sarah Hughan (27:07) who managed to squeeze herself in between Mr (25:15) and Mrs Dilasser (28:11). Neil Wright (28:34) soon popped his smiley face at the finish line, with Jim Cook (29:33), Tony LC (29:56) and Moira McTague (30:59) never too far behind. With mummy up tossing the caber in Scotland, it was up to dad Phil get Eddie Ventress (34:01) up in time, but the early start was well worth it with a time like that. And with two great results from Hannah Peagram (34:06) and Mandy Smith (38:12), that’s your lot from the Stray for this week. Well done to all you parkrunners.
Okay, never mind Chico Time, this is PECO TIME! Oh yeah. Yep, it was the first of the PECO XC races at Temple Newsam and it was grand to see such a large contingent of Nidds out to race. With off-road running clearly one of the last bastions of arbitrary sexism, the results for men and ladies are separated, so you’ll have to forgive me for not trying to reorder them in time order. Let’s start with the ladies, who were led home by Sue Simpson (38:39), Debbie Gibson (40:48) and Catherine Barber (40:59). After that, Moira McTague (42:24), Hannah Peagram (43:24), Debbie Dilasser (45:29), and Michelle ‘PECO’ Smith (47:15) all put in really good runs on the difficult course. Christina Taylor (47:17) and Sarah Chalmers (51:01) finished things off for us with two brilliant finishes.
She smiles!
From the men, Warren’s boyfriend Dan tells me that his beloved had a difficult race, noting that “f*** me, that was terrible”. Still, he didn’t let that stop him (29:15) make easy work of the course and just hold Matt Wilkinson (29:22) at bay in a nail biting finish with Alex Patrickson (30:19) closing in within striking distance. All terribly exciting. Martin Lofthouse (30:43) was never too far behind Alex, with not even a hair’s breadth separating Adam Kirk (31:49) and Andy Todd (31:54). Who’s next? It’s Edoardo Piano (32:39), Matt Rickard (33:31), Andrew Peagram (36:19) and Jim Cook (36:54). It isn’t often we see Rob Snow (38:49), and it was just as lovely to see newbie Mike Benson (39:22) pop his NVRR racing cherry. Fell Running Phil (39:24) was, as I am sure you can imagine, very excited, and it was great to see Dave Seaman (39:50), Dave Prince (40:22), Nick Smith (42:23) and Neil Wright (44:29) out in force in the mud. Well done to you all.
The statisticians here at Nidd Valley House (with their newly appointed Team Leader, Edoardo Piano, very happy with his new surprise promotion) tell me that after this first PECO Race, the Nidd Valley Ladies team are keeping Striders at bay, whereas the men’s team are beating both Harrogate Harriers and Knaresborough Striders in the Second Division. We’re also third in the Vets category (that’s as in veterans, by the way, not the kind of vet that puts your pet rabbit down). This is amazing work from all of you, people, so let’s keep that going.
Bish bash bosh: chair@niddvalleyroadrunners.co.uk.
The Week Ahead
On Tuesday, we’re hard back at the intervals and this time Sarah H has a brand new hill session lined up for you. It’s going burn, it’s going to knack, but it is going to be worth it. You wouldn’t want to miss it. If you can get yourself to the top of Wheatlands Road East (the junction with Oatlands Drive) for 7.10pm, then that’d be great, but most of us will be meeting at the Hockey Club at 7pm for the usual gentle warm up jog together. Come and join us, why don’t you?
On Thursday, you have a choice. Martin Lofthouse and I will be leading a headtorch run down Nidd Gorge. All are welcome and the pace will be sedate but please don’t come unless you have a decent headtorch and some off-road shoes that you feel confident running in. Off road night time running is tremendous fun, but the right kit does pay dividends. If this doesn’t tickle your fancy, then Dave Seaman will be leading a more pedestrian route in town, sticking to paths and pavements and with the benefit of street lighting. As ever, there’ll be lots of different paces from the quick to the not-so-quick. Whatever you decide to do, we’ll be meeting at the Hockey Club at 7pm and hope you’ll join us in the bar afterwards for drinks and a good old bitch.
Ladies Santa Run: 11 December 2016
It’s like an inverse Yorkie Bar. It’s not for the boys. Ladies are invited to assemble themselves at Blubberhouses carpark at 9am for a run with Fewston and Swinsty Reservoirs followed by breakfast at Mackenzies Smokehouse. If you are wanting to come, please bring a gift to the value of £10 for the Secret Santa and get yourselves all booked in with that ringleader of festive cheer and jollity, Sarah Chalmers: scpyman@hotmail.com.
Awards Night: 28 January 2017
Yep, this shit is real and this shit is hot. We are in business and ready to rock. If you want to come along to this star studded glittering event, then you need to get yourself a place booked with Judy Greenwood: membership@niddvalleyroadrunners.co.uk. You also need to transfer £20 for the ticket to the club account (Nidd Valley Road Runners, AC# 12074796, sort code 40-23-12). If paying by this method, please include a reference based on your name and email this reference to Dave at dave.seaman2@btinternet.com. More details at our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/events/1803174683282877/.
Exciting details about menu choices, playlists and that sort of thing will all follow in due course.
Club Championship Final Results
Mark David has asked me to share the final results with you, and I am more than happy to do so. The road results are here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1auJ74kWsms6JbXP7eQcJnGAjJt2E6V1YmW-9xe8wdh4/edit#gid=0, and the fell results are here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13BmRuVyXleVUF1qju2Okw4JCYozY2rnvRRMpO_SQwMU/edit#gid=0. If you have any problems, questions, think you’ve been overlooked or omitted, then please raise it with Mark as he understands these technical things far more than I do: sqwubbsy@gmail.com.
Word to the Wise
We have another great wise word for you this week, this time courtesy of Catherine Barber and Nidd Valley House’s favourite intern Fingers Harris.
Catherine: What is the name of the Welsh equivalent of the Bob Graham Round?
Fingers: Isn’t that the Paddy Buckley Round?
Catherine: Oh yeah, that’s it. What about the Scottish one then?
Fingers: Oh, I know it…. it’s… hang on…. it’s the something Round.
Thanks for that, Fingers. Helpful.
See you tomorrow.
Sam x