PB for Mick

MTB-er Mick W took a huge chunk from his 5K running best at York's parkrun on Saturday. Hands up who wouldn't settle for taking the best part of a minute off such a relatively short distance race?

Mick got close to the 'magic' sub-20 mark clocking a 20:07 and we reckon that if he'd have fully concentrated on the race and not his Stevie Wonder impression, he might have dropped into the 19s.

Emma Smith and Rosie W were also in 5K action, Emma at Pontefract and Rose at York. Both were within half a minute or so of recent bests; all boding well for upcoming open events.

North Yorkshire Fun

Both Mick W and Emma S were in action in North Yorkshire last Sunday and though seperated by only a few miles were in very different events.

In a build up to later targeted events, and in order to get a good long race-pace effort in, Emma did the Thirsk 10 mile road race. The event was a good one and though the racers were subject to hailstone in parts, quite a few PBs were recorded. Emma was just short of her own but successfully accomplished the 'training-race' objective and was able to sustain her target pace right up to mile 8.

Mick on the other hand was on MTB duty, with his first race of the season in round 1/6 of the Altura Nutcracker series. This series is fiercely competitive and attracts many notable and sponsored riders. Past champions and ex-pros are fairly commonplace amongst all the age groups competing.

Round 1 was on the internationally acclaimed and purpose-built Dalby Forest XC track (rarely made available to the public) and was, unsurprisingly, a challenge to simply ride. Huge drop-offs and some highly technical sections had competitors picking lines with care. A flavour of the event can be seen here.

Mick performed admirably in the company with a top half of the field finish. First time out on a new race-bike too. Promising stuff.

Dua Duathlon

Saturday saw Steve W involved in his second world duathlon sprint qualifier in under a week. This time the event was held at Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire and was in the standard format of: Run 5K / Bike 20K / Run 2.5K.

The event was massively subscribed and somewhere in the region of 450 competitors took to the start line. As at Oulton Park the weekend before, the level of competition was high and though still lacking some bike speed, Steve managed a 2nd in age group finish and a better-than-could-be-hoped-for 18th overall.

This year's world duathlon age-group championships are to be held in Pontevedra in Spain and it is probable that Steve will qualify for the GB team in a strong position. Only one qualifying race remains before the full team is announced.

Rose Clocks 50

Rosie Wigg has hit something of a milestone in completing her 50th parkrun. As well as being presented with the official T-shirt she also knocked off an age group win at today's Pontefract event.

Respect!

Weekend Round-up

Mick W and Rosie Wigg tried out a new (to them) parkrun on Saturday: Cross Flatts in south Leeds. The course is reportedly a lumpy affair with a flight of steps to negotiate (upwards) and has a ready-made pool of enthusiastic spectators in the form of some good old-fashioned tramps on benches. Urged along by the good-natured residents, Mick finished a very creditable 7th overall and got to within a few seconds of his current parkrun PB. Rose was on great form too and finished 3rd female and an impressive 15th overall. Both avoided the impromptu drinks station.

In the Lake District meanwhile, Steve C and Len were again engaged in another perfectly sane assault of 'the tops'. On this occasion Len briefly became the highest dog in England whilst waiting patiently for Steve to capture the moment, and his breath, at the top of Scafell Pike. The duo made the full ascent / descent from Wasdale head in an impressive 2:15, much to the bemusement of regular hikers who must have wondered what was going on as the combined man/dog machine hammered by. When leading, Len - naturally - will often pick lines that make perfect sense to a dog, if not to the following biped. Whilst pottering round the local park this is of little consequence; when running up and down the slopes of England's highest peak it is slightly more concerning. Fortunately only one mishap occurred and that was near the end of the trek when Steve mentally switched off for a few seconds with the inevitable consequence of a slam. Both are OK though.

In Cheshire, Steve W took part in the Oulton Park Spring Duathlon (run 4.3K / bike 21.5K / run 4.3K) which was a heavily contested affair thanks to its world sprint duathlon championship qualifier status. About 350 people took part and the vast majority had virtually no body fat and a very purposeful look about them. Notably, with about 5 minutes to go to the race start, not one huddle-near-the-start-line formed - every single person there was very seriously warming up. The race was made extremely tough by a total of about 14K of bitingly raw block-headwind which saw many a shoulder sag in despair every time it was encountered in the multi-lap event. Though Steve is still lacking a little bike form he managed to win his age group and, given the quality of competition, was happy enough with a top 10% finish overall.

Weird Weekend

A couple of GO VEGGIES were a bit out of sync this last weekend. Rosie Wigg was held up in traffic and missed the start of the local parkrun by 5 minutes or so. Undeterred she dutifully went to the start and under the perplexed eyes of the parkrun officials got on with it anyway. Her official time was 28mins and change; her actual time was at least 5 minutes quicker.

Steve W meanwhile took to the open time trial scene in a Teesside based 21 mile sporting course event. The idea was to set up a bike for the Kitzbuhel (mountainous) sprint triathlon event in a few months time and to evaluate how much bike-speed damage had been done by the enforced two months lay-off over winter.

The bike set-up went quite well but it was established the damage was substantial...

New Member Welcome

Welcome to new member Jenna Greenwood, better known to many by her Roller Derby name of ‘Bonnie Bubonic’. Jenna plays derby with the Leeds Roller Dolls collective and has featured in many bouts in her primary role as blocker for the LRD Whip-Its. Amongst her highlights she has played in an international bout in Austria where the Whip-Its took on the renowned Vienna Roller Girls.

As well as derby, Jenna is also known to take on the occasional 10K race and Zombie survival run.

A most welcome – if slightly scary – GV addition.

More Muddy Madness

Last Sunday (2nd March) saw the last in the series of this year's PECO cross country races, this time held at Northcliffe Park in Shipley. Though not the quagmire of round 4, the race was once again dominated by lengthy ankle-deep mud sections. Adding to the fun were a couple of very steep climbs; climbs of the sort that make even very serious runners wonder why they didn't just stay in bed. It was, altogether - as is the norm with these events - tough.

All told though, the event was again superbly organised and - once it was over - the GO VEGGIES present were all pleased they'd made the effort. Emma S and Rosie Wigg finished the race valiantly and remained upright throughout - quite some feat. Mick W took a heroic tumble and finished about a kilo heavier than when he started thanks to a good deal of the local landscape stubbornly remaining attached to his leg. Steve W - though staying upright - again finished with odd scrapes and lacerations to both face and arms. Nobody understands why this happens.

Mick and Steve both 'counted' for the team's age group categories with Steve 5/41 in his age group overall.

All the GO VEGGIES took part in the PECO races for a bit of high-end 'off-season' training. Winter cross-country is a great way to achieve this and all who patronised the series are already looking forward giving it a go when it starts again in November: well in a dreading it kind of way, anyway...

K9s

There were two GO VEGGIE dogs flying the flag again this weekend. Stuart persuaded Emma S to parkrun at Pontefract (pic) and having previously been blamed for slowing Emma down re-established himself amongst fellow whippets as the faster of the pairing. Emma now complains he's too fast.

Steve C took Len down to Salcey Forest to compete in a full-on 5K cani-X event and - as is their endurance-machine wont - they padded the measly 5K out with plenty of training time and distance in both pre and post race runs / stick games / general loafing to break up the drive from north to south and back again. One such jaunt took in 2 full hours at Ladybower reservoir: it is worthy of a mention that Steve never sleeps.

In off-road conditions that are kindly described as 'moist' Steve and Len smashed the 5K Salcey course in 22:12 giving them a 12/33 position overall and a 3rd place rosette in their age category.