TALES FROM THE VALE

It was great to be back with the Yorkshire Veterans Athletics Association (YVAA) community after the long winter layoff. As one runner remarked, “You feel like wishing everyone happy new year, then remember it’s April”. These masters runners hadn’t gathered since last autumn’s final race of the series at Ackworth, so the first YVAA Grand Prix of the season really does feel like a meeting of long-lost friends.

The first of ten multi-terrain Grand Prix races was hosted, as it is every year, at Honley by Holmfirth Harriers. The course is testing and hilly, with 1200 ft of total elevation up and down the Pennine hills. There are some tricky technical sections akin to a fell race that can at times take your mind away from soaking up the beautiful views. And there are llamas, which you don’t often see in the Pennines.

I can’t quite believe it’s been 5 months since Andy Sim surprised me at Selby Leisure Centre by pulling my name out of the actual London Marathon Ballot hat!

Since then, Vale of York women have been promoted at PECO, I’ve moved house, we’ve relocated athletics outdoors and introduced Bubwith as one of our new training locations.

So here we are, my final London Marathon blog.

Huge congratulations and respect to the Vale of York community athletes who have completed marathons in Boston, London and Manchester in the last few weeks.

Sam Robinson – a long-serving and popular club member – ran Manchester on 19 April. The day after, Steve Middup ran the oldest marathon in the world, Boston. Steve has now completed four of the original world marathon series, with two more to complete to gain the coveted Six Star medal.

A full Vale of York crew enjoyed the events across London marathon weekend.
Archie Hadfield ran for the Yorkshire and Humber team in the mini marathon championships, while Megan Sanderson took on part of the iconic course as part of her school team.

Last month we said goodbye to Amelia Griffiths, one of our pioneering female Young Leaders, as she moved away from Selby ahead of starting university in September. Before she tackles her all-important A-levels and begins the next chapter of her life, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate everything she brought to Vale of York Athletic Community.

One week ago I crossed the London Marathon finish line. In the lead-up to the race I was in two minds: target a sub-3, or settle for a Good for Age. At 59, the M55 GFA standard is 3:12, so anything under 3:10 would hopefully secure my place for next year.

By race morning I’d made my decision: focus on the GFA. It came down to four factors:

A holiday in Madeira two weeks before the race where I’d done next to nothing. I felt stiff on my return, particularly in my left calf, and I couldn’t fully shake it.

It was a fairly warm day. I’m a bigger runner at just under 80 kg, and I knew this probably wasn’t going to be the day for a big sub-3 effort.

Starting at the back of Wave 3 in a very crowded field.

Most importantly, what would a sub-3 at 59 actually mean to me? There are far fewer runners doing this in the M60 age category and it would make for a better, more meaningful challenge to save myself this year and go for it properly next year.

So I ran London as a hard tr

Some of you will know Will Haw. He’s our 800m specialist who headed out to Michigan last year on an athletics scholarship at Northwood University, competing in one of the toughest NCAA Division II conferences in the country. He’s just wrapped up his first ever indoor track season, and has provided us with this update.

His headline number for the 800 is 1:52. He ran it five times indoors this season and Will says he’s happy with it. Though Will being Will, he’d have liked to go a bit faster.

Boom! I started March with a very hilly half marathon around the hills of Cleckhuddersfax. I was really apprehensive about the Liversedge Half on 1 March, despite running the Brass Monkey in January on very little training plus a few 10 milers. I guess the pressure to perform is now mounting. There was no expectation back in January. My legs were tired and anyone who knows me knows how I love a hill, but it turns out that I needn’t have worried. I finished in 2:16 — only one minute slower than a very flat Brass Monkey course.