Otley Athletic Club

A fantastic evening for a 3 by 2.75 miles relay on an undulating, loopy circuit of Golden Acre park.  This is a very popular event with about 140 teams towing the start line, so it was a little disappointing that Otley only managed a single full team of president Matt Podd, Julian Mawson & the hon. handicapper, plus Jackie Ackroyd joining up with a couple other ‘spare’ runners from other teams.

A stirring speech from team manager Tom Hannah, fired up Matt to ignore his tired legs and have a good run, finishing with a time of  20.49.  In his first race for several months Julian took the baton on leg 2 passing loads of teams to finish with a great split time of 16.20.  The hon. handicapper took over on the last leg and was pleased to record a split of 16.31, again passing several teams en-route.

Running leg 2 for her composite team Jackie recorded a split of 21.46.  (Note these times are all unofficial timings thanks to the team manager Tom).  Full results will be available from the host club Abbey runners later here.

Report from Caroline Marler:

For the 2nd time I took charge of getting a Northern Veterans Team together for an Inter Area match – this time outdoors. We did better this time, coming one place higher – 4th out of 7 teams. Midland Masters with home advantage came 1st, Southern Veterans were 2nd and Welsh Veterans were 3rd; we beat Eastern Vets,Vets A.C. (London based, the 1st Vets. club ever) and South West Vets.

It is always hard to get some athletes to compete and there were some top class ones missing from our team unfortunately but the ones who competed showed a lot of team spirit and were willing to do unusual events. Especially sparse on the ground were Women 60 to 70 years- there was only me and a 3000m runner so I ended up doing 7 events! Fortunately my most important event, the 400m came first and I won easily in 70.6, best time outdoors for 2 years. Later in the afternoon I came 2nd in the 100m in 15.8, 2nd in 200m in 32.2(best times for a few years), won the shot put, got 2nds in the long jump, discus and did an opening height in the high jump just for a few points.

It was a great event and we hope next Inter Area to get more from the North involved.

Next events on the horizon are the British Masters Champs. at Birmingham on 9/10th August, The European Masters Champs. in Izmir, Turkey from 25th- 31st August and later on Yorkshire Vets. Champs on September 27th.

Report from Sara Elliott:
A few of us decided to do the somewhat more low-key Harrogate 10k rather than JT Leeds.

Hot and definitely not flat, it wasn’t a day for PBs but Scott came a fabulous 4th!!

Despite the fact I thought I was going to die, it was a great race and one I’d definitely try again. Well done all…

1st Marc Scott, Richmond 30.55, 1st Lady Sharon Barlow Ripon 36.40

4th Scott Harrington 33.38,   14th Tom Midgley 36.34,  38th Tom Potter 40.13,  123rd Andy Webster,  132nd Louise Riches 46:53,  187th Sara Elliott 50:21,  220th Billy Rayner 52.17,  360th Toni Midgley 1:02:20.
See full results on the Harrogate Harriers www here.

1st Nathaniel Williams 31:43, 1st Lady Pauline Munro Wetherby 35:34

Jamil’s Biology lesson report for Leeds 10k, 

Judging by the amazing crowds at the Jane Tomlinson 10k in Leeds, some of the Tour de France enthusiasm has spilled over into road running. The conditions were warm but as is often the case people confuse the effects of the sun with humidity. At 9.30am the humidity level in Leeds was an incredible 94%.

http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/uk/leeds/historic

When humidity is at this level the body cannot transfer heat because the rate at which perspiration evaporates is lower. As blood flows to the surface of the skin, less oxygen is available to the heart and muscles meaning we have to rely on the anaerobic respiration system earlier. This effectively means the build-up of fatigue inducing lactic acid is earlier and the muscles tire. The way to tackle it? Acclimatize. (Some of you will remember Ian Fisher training for the Mumbai Marathon in a boiler suit). Since in the UK we are not acclimatised to running in 94% humidity, race times are likely to be a bit slower. So whilst people were saying it was a hot day, the shade temperature in Leeds was actually 19C. However when you factor in the direct exposure to the sun, you have even hotter conditions increasing the impact of the humidity and further reducing the body’s ability to cool itself.  The brain’s natural reaction? Slow down. Sounds like a traditional running excuse but believe me it isn’t.

To put this into perspective, the weekend before the Leeds 10k I ran the Harrogate park run 5k in 16.01 approximately 30 seconds faster than I reached 5k on Sunday. However, the humidity level was 73% which may actually have lowered the perceived temperature slightly. On Sunday at the 5k mark I felt I was working much harder than the week before. The final results left many people scratching their heads why the normally flat Leeds 10k did not produce Abbey Dash style times but humidity plays a key role. Science lesson over children.

In light of the above, everyone ran like champions. One such hero was Richard Smith who was so delirious at the finish that he failed to spot he had a pb. After a few seconds of swearing and coughing by the finish line, his vision returned and then the realisation that he had entered the pantheon of humidity runners. A few minutes earlier a hot and bothered Zack crossed the line. Next in was Robin Outtersides who barely knew which city. Nicky Lee crossed the line and fell into my arms. Charlotte managed to beat her husband Chris. Not a good day to lend someone your wife’s watch I must say. Well done all sorry if I didn’t catch you at the end. I have pencilled in the next training weekend for the Brazilian rainforest.

Otley results 5th Jamil Parapia 33:19,  Zack Whitehead 34:33,  27th Robin Outtersides,   41st Richard Smith 37:12,  Stephen Boddy 46:52,  Chris Batley 47.21,  Cadan Hoare 49.08,  Nicola Lee 49.23,  Charlotte Tomlinson 53.09,  Melvin Hoare 53.54,  Reid Haddow 53.57,  Emma Jones 56.15.

Full results here,  there are lots of club details missing so please comment if any members have been missed.

Report from Frank Beresford:

Just to let you know that i managed to win the Bingley race for Otley AC. It was a really hilly course and terrible weather. Which suits me.

Early news give Frank a time of 41:08, & the first woman was Jo Buckley from Bingley Harriers,  see Woodentops race photos here.

Thanks to all the teams supporting this years Washburn relay’s and it has to be said that the support of fellow team mates was particularly vocal this year including horns & mini cow bells cheering the runners on.

The Otley ‘A’ team, of Tom Midgley (18:23), Scott Harrington (22:06) & Liam Dunne (18:16) arrived at the start line with seconds to spare and battled away with Wetherby Runners from start to finish.  Liam extended the smallest of leads at the end of the second leg to a 10 second one as he crossed the finish line in a total time of 58:45.

Idle were 1st mixed team with the team of Leon Winder (19:19), Sam Clegg (23:59) and Donna Edmondson (21:07) and the first Ladies team was Kirkstall Harriers with the team of  Shamiso Sisimayi (21:42), Niamh Jackon (28:16), Emma Ballantyne (20:14).

Otley’s other men’s trio finished 14th with Jeremy Stewart (19:32), Steve Robinson (27:13) and Andy Webster (23:53), whilst Caron Ralph (24:48), Gemma Harrington (37:26) and Laura Martin (23:24) finished 42nd & 7th ladies team.

Thanks to all those helping out on the night & John Dade for all of the pre-race day organistion,  see full results here.

Report from Andy Webster for the Thorner Fox Trail Race 16th July 6.4 miles

Another fine sunny evening apart from a brief heavy shower lead to an enjoyable evening run. The obligatory shredding of the legs from running through corn fields just added to the fun. Steve Robinson and Ruth Muir (unattached and finished second female) ran with me and seemed to trust my map reading skills and luckily the navigation was straightforward. However we were delayed by a couple of minutes by a skittish horse but we finished well up the field of 76 runners. Oliver Smith unattached finished in 44:30. Steve and I finished in 54:14 I was given 13th position and Steve 14th. David Cattanach of Otley finished 62 in 1:17:52.

One more race left in the series.

Tom Potter comments:

This evening I ran the Nostell Priory 10K trail race in Wakefield. Quite a tough 10K that I would describe as ‘worse’ than undulating.

The race hosted by Ackworth Road Runers is an annual event held in the grounds of the National Trust site. The 10K race is a two loop course, with a 5K variation also run on the same evening (1 loop). Soon after setting off I realised that my legs didn’t which to cooperate after Sundays Eccup 10. As a result of this fatigue I decided that I would back off a tad and run the race as a ‘session’ type race – 2 x 5K with a 60 second recovery in-between.

The race was won by Simon Newton of host club Ackworth RR in 36:48. The first female, in 15th Position overall was Hanna Oldroyd (UK Netrunner) in a time of 40:38.

I finished in 21st position of 395 finishers in a time of 42:07.

Onwards and upwards.. Upwards to Harrogate actually for Sundays 10K road race, legs willing!

A cracking race was ran this morning at The Eccup 10mile. This years entries included some of the very best club runners in the area, many of which were competing as part of the Yorkshire Veterans 10 mile championship.

The race was won by this years Otley 10mile winner, Nathaniel Willams (Unattached) in 54:05. 2nd, and first Otley AC finisher was Scott ‘The Bridesmaid’ Harrington in 56:01 – Scotty was also the winner of this years YVAA 10mile title.

The first female finisher was Fiona Davies (Kingstone Runners Barnsley) in 33rd overall with a time of 1:03:57.

Other finishers for OAC were: New member Frank Beresford 3rd in 56:03, Mark Hall with another super performance finished in 16th and claimed the MV50 title with a time of 1:00:04 (dam those 4secs!), Tom Midgley 18th in 1:01:32, Richard Smith 30th in 1:03:21, Graham Lake 35th 1:04:07 (New PB), Tom Potter 69th 1:07:22, Mick Jeffrey 347th 1:24:07, Billy was 447th in 1:29:07, and the only OAC female on the day, Sara Richard who finished 503rd 1:32:44.

Special thanks goes to Tom Hannah for his superb support today, he seemed to be at nearly every point of the course! – How did he manage to do that?

Results.

Mick Jeffrey  adds,