(TLDR. For those short of time…. Tuesday kicks off the Evening League and we’re hosting, so you’ll probably be marshalling and not running. On Thursday, we’ve got a run from the club, and on Sunday we have the Charlesworth Chase. There’s loads of other important stuff about the last chance to enter the Evening League, the Mob Match, a parkrun takeover, and some up and coming races).
We’ve got loads to get through this week (I’ve bumped the results to the bottom so you get all the important information before you lose the will to live while wading your way through the parkrun results). Firstly, though, you’ll have to forgive me for delaying for a moment to celebrate the return of Lianne Coiley to the good ship Nidd Valley. Lianne made her first post-coronavirus trip to the club after 18 months on Thursday night. It just hasn’t been the same without her and it was so good to see her back. And, to make good news even better, Fell Running Phil got himself back into his racing shoes and out on the Jack Bloor course on Tuesday after a six month lay off. Lianne back at club, FRP back on the fells. Things are just as they should be. And with those stars aligned, we best have a look at the week ahead.
The Week Ahead
On Tuesday, we’re hosting the first of the Evening League races. I know a few of you have been extra good and been given special permission to wear the black and gold vests and race, but for most of us it means a stint on a corner with our marshal swag on. Babs sent out all the relevant information via email, so go and have a read of that (once you have finished this, obvs.). Key points: check in with Babs at the Hockey Club by 6pm, be in position by 7.15pm, and try to avoid parking at the hockey club if you can.
Thursday brings us another club run. I know, exciting times. Obviously, feel free to make your own plans but, should you need some inspiration or guidance, then why not have a run down the gorge? You know how to get there by now (over the bridge, up the cycle track, over Bilton Crossing, and down to your right). The weather looks brilliant this week, and it would be a shame not to make the most of the fantastic environment on our doorstep. Afterwards, beer, bantz and a bag of beefy in the bar.
On Sunday, we are back in the hills with the next instalment of the fell championships: the Charlesworth Chase. Now this is a perennial Nidd favourite and a great introduction to the joys of off-road running. It’s about five miles long and only has 1200ft of ascent so isn’t too much of a ball-breaker. It’s essentially an out and back from Appletreewick to the summit of Simon’s Seat, the sting in the tail being that you are required to neck a pint of ale (or a fizzy soft drink) outside the Craven Arms before you can cross the line and clock your time. This alcoholic challenge has been the undoing of many a serious athlete, and helped many a less-serious athlete work their way up the results table. I’d really encourage you to enter. It’s only £7 EOTD and there’s a soup lunch and a massive range of spot prizes, so a really good social occasion too. All the relevant information is here: https://tinyurl.com/5n7rucs7.
Evening League
The deadline for Evening League entries is today. Look, I don’t really like racing and even I’m signed up to this bad boy. It really is good fun, and a great chance to go out and represent the club. Every single runner gets some points, and so every runner and every place matters. Just imagine it, running in your glorious black and gold while others from the second rate and imitation running clubs look on with envy. This is your moment. His Lordship is counting on you. You were born to do this for him: https://racebest.com/races/2zeut.
Again, don’t forget the exclusive Nidd Valley discount code NVRR22, which will get your £3 off to reimburse you for your marshalling efforts on Tuesday.
Mob Match: 18 Sep 2022
Talking of lesser running clubs, we’ve got our annual mob match against the Knaresborough Striders in September. We’ve previously raced this at Burton Leonard, but this year they’ve thrown down the gauntlet and are challenging us to the Beck Busters 10k at Bishop Monkton. Make no mistake, we’ll take the athletic cane from the cupboard and give them a damn jolly good thrashing but, as ever, every runner counts. Get signed up and make sure that the trophy is returned to the cabinet here at Nidd Valley House: https://tinyurl.com/yckpbt2r.
Booking Now Open
Your club captains Sarah and Dazzler have been giving me brain damage and pestering me to make sure that I advertise a few forthcoming club championship races for you. I’m not one to argue, that’s for sure, especially with Sarah, so without further ado…
If you’re on the hunt for some points, why not have a look at the Otley 10 on 08 Jun 2022 (FYI, Mike Kaye, this is 10 miles, not 10 kilometres)? It’s got one hell of a brutal climb, but the views are good from the top and the descent is tremendous fun. Plus you can get chips from the Maypole afterwards. Have a look, why don’t you: https://tinyurl.com/6b8nfvcm.
On 26 Jun 2022, we’ve got the Staveley Stampede, and this will only set you back £13. It’s a cracking little run, and takes in a lot of the trails by the nature reserve. Entries are here: https://tinyurl.com/337mwz25.
The last race in the pre-entry list is the Ilkley Half Marathon. If you’ve got other plans on 10 Jul 2022, I suggest you cancel them and get yourself entered into this little corker: https://tinyurl.com/2am9tsr4. I mean, what else were you planning on doing? Going to Homebase and looking at the power drills and wall plugs?
Parkrun Takeover: 09 Jul 2022
Keep this date free, if you can. The ever-lovely Jeff Walker will be coordinating a Nidd Valley takeover of parkrun. So he shall be on the look out for run directors, barcode scanners, token sorters, marshals, timers and all of that kind of thing. He’ll be in touch, and I know you’d hate to let him down.
Results
I’m going to start this week with Carol Morgan, who climbed the steps of Keswick Moot Hall on Saturday afternoon, and concluded her non-stop tour of all 214 Wainwright Fells in the Lake District. If you want the statistics, that’s 320 miles, 120,000ft of ascent, and all within six days, ten hours, 43 minutes, and 45 seconds. In doing so, Carol clocked the fifth fastest time ever recorded, and the second fastest female time. I’m not going to do the gushing and soppy praise (she wouldn’t thank me for it), but I couldn’t let it pass without mention. Although Carol has moved onto pastures new from Nidd Valley, we’re more than happy to call her one of our own (whether she likes it or not). Well done, Carol.
214 hills later…
It seems like the world and his Nidd Valley wife were racing at Rudding Park on Tuesday night (the things people will go to get their hands on a hog roast, I suppose). Captain Dazzler (43:04) was leading from the front, with ex-captain Kev Dalton (45:35) snapping at his athletic heels. Loz Hawksworth (47:10), Kevin Clark (48:14), Jamie Dilasser (48:34), and Phil Ventress (48:40) were next in. We’ve not seen Fozzy (50:39) out for ages, so it was lovely to see him back, and just as lovely to see Richard Evans (50:45). They’re like buses, the Nidd Valley ladies, as you don’t see them and then they all come at once, and in this case it was Fiona Deacon (50:47), Captain Sarah (51:03), and Chris Orr (51:16). The marvellous Nick Crebbin (51:54) kept the good times rolling with Jose Jimenex (52:40), Jim Cook (53:34), Paul Manning (55:03), Rachel Mills (56:09), Christine Jones (56:46) and Jeremy Leggings (57:17). It’s also well done to Alister King (57:48), Sam Heathcoate (57:51), Laura Francis (57:57), Susie Mallet (59:02), and Hannah Percy (59:42).
God, this is taking for ages. Back in a moment.
Right, back to it, and where better place to get back to it than with Heln Cook (1:01:24), Katie Coppack (1:01:36), Guy Parker (1:01:40), and Nadene Wilkinson (1:01:50)? After that, we were equally as jubilant to see results from Rosemary Thompson (1:02:02), Debbie Burrett (1:02:18), Reb Ventress (1:02:37), Moira McTague (1:03:32), Jemma Escreet (1:03:33) and Rachael Prince (1:03:41). And here are your final Nidd finishers for the Rudding 10k: Debbie Dilasser (1:04:43), Jeff Walker (1:04:56), Emily Wighton (1:05:56), Suzy Rhodes (1:07:56), Andrea Leng (1:08:03), Chris Nelson (1:08:40), Maroc Montana (1:09:37), Helen Trevasani (1:10:27) and Mike Kaye (1:14:34).
You might find it hard to believe that there were any Nidds going spare to run elsewhere on Tuesday but there were and they went to do the Jack Bloor Fell Race (a classic, if you want my unsolicited expert opinion). Martin Lofthouse (49:52) was the first Nidd to make it back home safely, with Nigel Scaife (55:15) not too far behind. Brian Hainsworth (58:38) was tearing up the peat bogs, maintaining his lead over Russ Geraghty (1:06:45). Phil Running Phil (1:08:58) was triumphant in his return to the hills, setting a jolly good example to Dave Prince (1:21:28), Dave Seaman (1:24:00) and Sarah Chalmers (1:34:13). Well done to you all.
Given we have given a mention to Brian Hainsworth, we might as well give him another mention. Well, this weekend our Bri headed up to the Lakes to run the Fairfield Horseshoe Fell Race. The first climb up Nab Scar is enough to break most mere mortals, but Brian was a proper little trooper and finished the full course in 2:10:48. Full and formal results are not out yet but you don’t need them. Brian is a bloody hero, and that’s all you need to know.
Sarah Barker has emailed in to dob her mate Denise Allsopp into the results team here at Nidd Valley House. Sarah would like you to know that Denise (50:05) took second place at the Canicross 10k at Dalby Forest today. So, it’s well done to Denise and well done to her dog.
We had another cracker up near Ripon yesterday with the Fountains 10k. Adam Kirk (36:54) was the first to claim points for the club, seeing off strong competition from Billy Fox (39:15), Captain Dazzler (39:46) and Matt Wilkinson (40:26). Fingers Harris (40:32) just held Martin Lofthouse (40:35) and Kevin Dalton (40:56) at bay, with Steve Newbould (41:58), Andy Todd (42:04), and Andy Iddom (45:03) bearing down on them. Nigel Scaife (45:03) matched Andy to the line, and was motoring enough to keep Babs (46:23) out of harm’s way as she powered through to claim first Niddette. We’ll celebrate the results from Kev Nicholas (46:33), Captain Sararah (47:18), Fiona Deacon (47:48), Jamie Dilasser (48:17) and Damien Handslip (48:58).
Why does Jamie insist on dressing like he’s from the Backstreet Boys?
There’s no Nidd Valley without James Coulthard (49:00), Laura Francis (49:03), Helen Gregory (49:12) and Jim Cook (49:54), and it would feel like we were missing our right arm if we didn’t have results from Richard Evans (50:12), His Lordship (50:51), Christine Hollerson (51:49), Rachel Mills (52:41), Alex Leslie (53:39), and Jane Evans (54:15). It’s three big cheers for Susie Mallett (54:46), and three cheers more for Katherine Dolan (55:18), Helen Cooks (55:37), Karen Mills (56:02), Nadene Wilkinson (57:51), Guy Parker (58:47) and Debbie Gibson (58:50). Don’t stop cheering just yet, as need to sing the praises of Debbie Dilasser (59:01), Plippy Wilkinson (59:29), Moira McTague (59:33), Emily Wighton (1:00:13) and Rachael Prince (1:002:25). To finish off the results from this hilly challenge, let’s celebrate times from Philippa Thompson (1:00:47), Macos Montana (1:01:50), Sarah Chalmers (1:06:24), Susan Rogers (1:06:32), Michelle Smith (1:09:34), Jill Hornsby (1:06:16), Treasurer Sylvia (1:12:35), Graham Hyde (1:15:56), and Nick Smith (1:15:57).
I do wish His Lordship would take this a little more seriously.
And to parkrun, where Ian Foy (26:29) was at Cheltenham, Alan Ward (28:23) was at Keswick, Mike Kaye at Chevin Forest (35:58), John Mallet (25:36) was at Nostell Priory, and Fiona Robinson (40:30) was at Whitehaven. Well, someone has to, I suppose. Having taken on the mantle of proper little parkrun tourists, Adam Kirk (17:58) and Lisa Gibson (29:56) continued their adventures with a trip to Bradford.
Pram Man Braddon (20:41) was the first Nidd out of the church door at Fountains Abbey and Andy Todd (21:35) had his foot off the gas in readiness for his race at Staveley. Lovebirds Babs (22:45) and Andy Iddon (22:46) ran together – gnaaaaww, how sweet – while Damien Handslip (23:01) made a great time round the course. Marcos Montana (28:15) tells me that he only races at Fountains for the scones in the tea room afterwards, but I can’t tell you anything about the culinary preferences of Lorna Eley (31:46) or Michelle Dinsdale (36:26).
Okay, make yourself comfortable and we’ll rattle through the Harrogate results. This weekend, 19 Nidds performed their parkrun ablutions on the Stray under the watchful eye of an incredibly good looking and witty run director (thanks). And Jon Easton (21:17) was the first of them, soon to be joined by Richard Evans (22:13), Nick Crebbin (22:37), James Cook (23:45), Kris Northfield (24:53), and Paul Manning (25:09). We’ll say a huge congratulations to Roger Duckworth (25:49), Alex Leslie (26:22), Jeremey Scott (26:54), and Darren Townend (27:51). Again, the Niddettes came in a three, and they were Captain Sarah (27:52), Karen Mills (27:55), and Emily Wighton (28:21). Fingers Harris (30:21) was also resting up before race day, and enjoyed the chance to run with Sarah Lofthouse (30:46), Laura Francis (30:57), Tony LC (32:04), and Jane Evans (32:47). Debbie Dilasser (33:54) and her hound Monty (also 33:54) concluded the parkrun showing for the team, and also the results for the week. Very well done to you all.
You can call me baby / You can call me anytime, you got to call me / Give me one reason to stay here / And I’ll turn right back around: samfugill@gmail.com.
Committee Meeting Minutes
If you want to know what we talked about when we had our last get together, then you can find the minutes from our latest committee meeting here: https://tinyurl.com/27n3wns9. Page turning and riveting, I’m sure you’ll agree. As an aside, the quality of the biscuits this time was very much improved, so thank you to whoever brought those nice chocolate ones.
Word to the Wise
She’d only been back in the club ten minutes and Lianne Coiley was ready to share her observations on our very own captain Sarah. And these are her wise words…
“That’s the thing about Sarah, she likes the pied piper when she goes for a run. She just finds more and more people to chat to…”
And ain’t that the truth?
Whatever you do, have a lovely week. His Lordship loves you.
Sam x