This week we go back to the track at Halo on Holmer Rd for a speed session led for us by Phil Butler. COVID secure so you must book in on the club app (or Facebook if you must) . The sessions are open to all members of any ability - you do not have to be fast - come along and give it a go. 6.15 for a 6.30 prompt start.
Club Kit online store open for business
Online Shop
We are delighted to announce that our new Online Club Shop is now open for business!
Wye Valley Runners in partnership with leading local sportswear company Silver Fx is now able to supply a range of Wye Valley branded kit. The kit features our new club logo, and club members can choose from a wide range of fantastic run wear and accessories - all with the Wye Valley brand and colours. Look no further for all your Christmas shopping needs. The shop even features a Wye Valley face mask to ensure you stay safe whilst flying the flag. Just follow the link and off you go. Thanks to Martin Flowers for setting this up.
AutUmn TrainiNg final brIefing
We start our four weekly rolling programme of speed, road, speed, tempo this week.
Join us at 6.15 for warm up. Then a 630 p.m prompt start this coming Wednesday , 9th Sept at Halo Leisure Centre Track on Holmer Rd. The speed session is for all abilities and this week is led by Phil Butler.
We are operating as a COVID secure session. We need to know who is with us for track and trace requirements.
So, Wye Valley Runners members only or new members who give us their contact details in advance.
Members should book in on the club App or via Facebook and potential new members just need to drop us a line at wyevalleyracing@gmail.com.
Second claim club members also welcome as we hold your details.
Details of future sessions will be published a few days in advance every week.
Looking forward to seeing you all there. Bring something to keep you warm before and after session if weather looks dodgy.
AUTUMN AND WINTER TRAINING
As the nights begin to draw in our thoughts turn to a new Club training programme to keep us all fit and ready for racing once restrictions are lifted.
With COVID 19 safety still uppermost in our minds the programme will look something like this:
SPEED, CLUB, SPEED, TEMPO - REPEAT
Starting Wednesday 9th September, we will be running speed sessions for all abilities from the Leisure Centre Track. The speed sessions will normally operate in weeks one and three. Week two will be a club run with week four being dedicated to sessions such as hill reps, tempo running, or mile reps. The rota, names of leads, and plans will be on our website and shared on the member’s Facebook page.
From October onwards, these four weekly cycles will continue until the end of March.
All the sessions will need members to book in. We prefer this on the Club App, but Facebook is also acceptable. This is a requirement under our COVID 19 licence and risk assessment. We will use your club membership details for any Track and Trace details if ever needed.
From April onwards, Wednesday evenings will take on a different feel, with lots of alternative trail and off-road runs and hopefully summer cross country to take us through the sunny season.
We are waiting to hear if this season’s winter cross country will take place - but whatever happens, Wye Valley Runners will be out there as soon as possible, working hard to regain the County Cross Country Crown.
Look out for more club news coming soon.
Dinedor alternative Club run. 26 August
Join us for a relaxed 6.5 mile run starting from Castle Green. Taking us over the Canary Bridge the route then curls up Dinedor with a 470ft climb. Then an exhilarating downhill and flat final 3 miles back to the Green. Start 615 prompt. Trainers or trail shoes are fine.
Virtual Cotswold Way Relay - full results
Between us, we climbed over 132,000 ft, ran for over 170 hours covering over 1400 miles - or thereabouts.
We are very grateful to our pals at Croft Ambrey and Hereford Triathlon Club for taking on the challenge so enthusiastically. We hope you enjoyed the ride and look forward to seeing you all again on a road, mountain or even a Croft Castle never-ending hillside very soon
Thanks to James at HTC for collating results
Virtual Cotswold RElay: club report.
WYE VALLEY RUNNERS VIRTUAL COTSWOLD RELAY
REPORT AND VIRTUAL PRIZE LIST
Thanks to everyone who participated in our first virtual event!
It all started with an idea from Cath Watkins and I volunteered to get things going…
Firstly we had some injuries along the way and we know they were all really disappointed that they had to pull out ..Martin, Simon, Adam and Mark ,hope you all recover your fitness and are back running again soon.
But we had some very keen athletes who bravely ran extra distances to fill the gaps, Steven, Marc, Paddy and Ann. Kim stepped in at the last minute as a reserve.
It was a unique event and great fun, it was quite exciting getting all the results coming in and the photos are brilliant!
The Virtual Prize List as follow is in no particular order
Fastest WVR Leg 1: Dan Lewis
Best Photo with Cotswold t shirts Award: Laura Tootell
Funniest Photo Award: Jeremy Jehan
Fastest WVR Girl Leg 3: Maria Miles
Fastest WVR Boy Leg 3: Marc Kendrick
Scenic Sussex Run Award: Peter Flynn
Best Idea Award and Herding Runners Safely: Cath Watkins
Fastest WVR Leg 5: Christian Jones
New Mummy Award: Lara Seal
Fastest WVR Leg 6: Peter Nugent
Best Smiley Photo: Jo Ellis
New Daddy Award: Lea Wood
First Girl Result in: Jane Hayde
Fastest WVR Leg 8: Steven Flowers
Fastest Girl WVR Leg 8: Lou Foti
Best Scottish Run: Ward Linney
Best Video Selfie: Becky Ansfield
Fastest WVR Leg 10 (and hates XC) Ian Sockett
Fastest WVR Female Leg 10: Fran Greenough
Bravest Toughest Runner: Ann Pritchard
Hottest Runner: Ade Johnstone
Welcome Back Special Award: Kelly Rose
Last Minute Reserve and a tough long Run: Kim Handley
Most Senior Male Award: Brian Symonds (and still chased by girls)
First Male Result in: Ricardo Martins
First CWR and hates off road: Rachael Toolan
Social Distance Group Prize: Lynne Compton
Haugh Woods Prize: Ralph Lloyd
Happy Married Running Couple Prizes: Tony and Sian Champken
Best Looking Strava Route: Paddy Nugent
Most Lost on Run: Marc Kendrick
Most Windswept Selfie and Merbach Trig Award: Billy Smallwood
Fastest Ginger: Steven Flowers
Merbach Trig and Elevation Award: Michael Smallwood
Guest Runner (London) Caz Edwards
First Timer Cotswold Relay: Peter Smith
Most Senior Female WVR: Jan Edwards
Haugh Woods Route Planner Award: Dave Sherwood
Lockdown Belly Award: Paul Davies
Escorting Paul Davies + Belly: Shaun Hoyes
Social Distance Group Prize: Emily Davies
Run after Reopening Pub AND WORKING: James Vidler
Run escorting Betty Nugent: Paddy Nugent
Welcome to Guest Runner (Hereford) Sarah Sayce
Most hazards on overgrown path + step climbing: Lauren Williams
Windy Laps Award: Brent Lowson
Covid 19 Club Risk Assessment
As we begin to slowly introduce socially distant Club Runs we have been asked by England Athletics to consider the risks of Covid 19 infection - to club members and the public. Please read the attached short assessment - this is a minimum standard so feel free to better this. We need to ask everyone to comply with this assessment - it forms part of our licence to run and is part of our liability insurance. Basically, be sensible, follow the leaders guidelines, no spitting, stay distant and be kind. Easy. Here it is
Cotswold virtual Relay teams.
Get out and enjoy your virtual leg of the relay. Don’t forget to take a selfie, wear the club vest and enjoy. Team list here
Herefordshire Summer Cross Country League Cancelled
It has been announced that this year’s Herefordshire Summer Cross Country League has officially been cancelled due to the Covid-19 restrictions in place.
Fingers crossed we will be back in time for the Winter League later this year.
Wye Valley Runners change of HQ
The lockdown has given us time to review members experience of our move away from the Rowing Club and we are very pleased to announce that once Covid 19 restrictions are lifted, Wye Valley Runners will be based at Hereford Leisure Centre, Holmer Road, Hereford Herefordshire HR4 9UD. The team at Halo who run the centre are keen to welcome us and have also indicated that we can use their other venue at the Leisure Pool if we want to start and finish some runs there once in a while. We will be able to use all the facilities at Holmer Rd - all you will need to pay for is parking if you choose to park on site - which is currently £1 a go or £28 a year - unless you happen to have Halo membership of course. In any case - if you can, try and run, walk or cycle to club nights. Track sessions will resume as well in due course - now very handy for our new club base!
Supporting your club
As the Covid 19 restrictions continue there are all sorts of things we can do to support each other and keep the club momentum going until we can meet again.
Always follow the government guidelines for your daily exercise. Keep looking ahead and make sure you keep at least two metres from anyone
Wear your club vest and smile. Keep the Wye Valley Flag flying
Make sure you are signed up as a member. That way we can ensure you are notified about virtual club events. It also will help the club to get through this difficult time in good shape. We have taken a financial hit by cancelling the Muddy Woody. It was the right thing to do and we will be okay. But we have had to pay out for fixed costs and it will really help if everyone is signed up as a member. It’s less than 50p a week
Use the club team app and the Facebook pages to share your news. As time goes on this will become more and more important.
Muddy wOody news
Following the postponement of the race due to Storm Dennis, and subsequently the outbreak of the Coronavirus is it becoming difficult to find a new date for this years race. With the increasingly busy race calendar in September/October, the committee has reluctantly decided to cancel this years race and put all our efforts into next years 25th anniversary event.
We have set a provisional date of Feb 21st 2021 and we would love to see you all to celebrate with us. Places will be very sought after. So, next week we will announce how to defer, transfer or get a refund. We are working on the process with our provider over the weekend and will be in touch with all registered runners just as soon as we can. We can’t thank everyone enough for their patience, messages of support and offers of help. It means a lot to us.
Standby for details next week. Keep safe, keep running and look after each other.
Crocodile 8 2020
New date. Sunday 13th Sept. More details very soon. Something for us all to look forward to.
Covid 19 - club activity suspended
England Athletics has now updated its advice to all clubs and advises that all face -to face activity such as club training sessions, committees, running groups and social events are suspended for now. As a result all club activity (including this weeks track session and Friday evening session) is cancelled until further notice. We know how much the club means to everyone - but we also know that everyone will support this decision.
Looking ahead, the Cotswold Relay committee are considering options - but that looks unlikely to happen as things stand . We will keep you posted.
Let’s concentrate on looking out for each other, training sensibly, keeping well and looking forward to normal business resuming soon.
Wye Valley Runners Award Winners 2019.
On Saturday 14th March we had our annual awards night at the Castle Green Pavilion,
There were 4 awards given out on the night, The most improved runner, The Mighty Oak (Male and Female) and a new award the John Tarrant Trophy for outstanding achievement.
2019 Most Improved Runner Award - Christopher Daw.
2019 Mighty Oak Award- Peter Nugent & Emily Davies.
2019 John Tarrant Trophy - John Miskimmin.
A big well done to all of our award winners this year and all of our members.
Final Reminder - membership fees
Time is up. Huge thanks to all those who have paid their annual subs - for those who haven’t you have a few days left before we close the doors. If you haven’t paid up you won’t be able to register as a club runner at any race, wear club colours, run in the XC league or Cotswold relay or enjoy the friendship of such a lovely bunch of people. Just click here before time runs out. Thank you
MUDDY WOODY 2020 RACE POSTPONED
Wye Valley Brewery Muddy Woody 6 2020 postponement
Why did we postpone the race?
This weekend Storm Dennis is due to hit our region, bringing with it 2 yellow weather warnings for wind and rain. This means gale force gusting winds of up to 50mph and heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday. With the combined risk of falling woodland debris, volunteer marshals being exposed for 3 hours plus and no cover for participants, we felt that the risk was too high for the event to take place this weekend as we have a duty of care for all runners and marshals. The Forestry Commission is working closely with us and we take their advice seriously. They have already advised that the woods will be closed for public access on Saturday making course set up impossible. Obviously the forecast could change between now and Sunday, but we have left it as late as we could so to keep our stakeholders, runners, and volunteers marshals informed. We didn’t take this decision lightly.
What happens now?
We’ve decided to postpone rather than cancel and will confirm a new date as soon as possible. We need time to consult with the Forestry Commission, landowners, friends in local running clubs and our licensing authority.
As soon as we announce the new date we will also offer a refund to those who can't make it. Full details on the refund process will be announced in conjunction with the new date.
Many thanks for your patience and understanding.
Wye Valley Runners
Muddy Woody Important Update - Storm Denis
The Forestry Commission has informed us that they will be making a decision at noon tomorrow Friday 14th as to whether they will allow us access to the woods for the race. We will make a further announcement at 1pm tomorrow with a complete update. We apologise for the uncertainty and ask for your understanding as we work through the detail. We will of course update on possible new dates, any refund procedure etc tomorrow if necessary. Many thanks
Presteigne Winter Cross Country Race 5 Results
This Sunday was the final Winter Cross Country Race at Presteigne, We had a good turnout in what was a tough race.
The results are now in and as follows
Mens Individual Click Here
Mens Team Click Here
Womens Individual Click Here
Womens Team Click Here
We hope to see even more of the club for the summer league, information regarding scheduling to be announced soon.