They do similar sharing venues with Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
Although an interesting feature is that the "old" counties of Warks/Worcs/Staffs are used for the county champs... which effectively splits the Birmingham/Black Country conurbation... so ourselves and the Worcestershire runners found ourselves travelling to a venue which is now in the "new" county of West Midlands.
I've seen the odd Skyrac AC vest over the years and always wondered from where or what the name originated.Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Can you shed some light Graham?
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
A perfect day weather wise for todays Derbys/Notts Championships at Bulwell Park. Half of the course was perfect for Mudclaws but the lower lying half was saturated with plenty of mud and standing water but the Mudclaws coped with that too.
A very short and strange briefing by the starter who's only instruction was "no spitting". I thought he was joking but he was serious and repeated the order with the threat that the "judge would disqualify" anyone caught partaking, in what I think is a normal act whilst exercising outside at full gas.
It was a very flat and fast course so I intended to start a little slower than I would in a fell race but ended up being further back than I planned when I got held up at a narrowing between two hawthorn bushes a couple of hundred yards in. However it turned out alright as I then had to pick up the pace and did not get overtaken throughout the race and was constantly reeling folk in. The race was over 6.5 miles consisting of a short lap followed by 3 large laps but I made a bit of a cock up in thinking the second large lap was the last and put a bit of an effort in to catch a team mate to find out to my horror I had to go around again.
I took it easy for the first third of the last lap to regain a bit of composure and spitting when there were no marshals in sight! I picked up the pace again towards the end and managed to finish 112th overall in the race but 36th of the Derbyshire contingent in 47.17 and 1st in my age category for a County Gold Medal. The race was won overall by Dan Haworth representing Derbyshire in 34:59. Fell Runners dominated the Derbyshire placings with Finlay Grant 2nd and Ewan and Tom Spencer 3rd and 4th respectively.
An early night tonight as its Lambs Longer Leg in the morning. Hopefully my legs will still work as I've not doubled up race wise for a few years!
Last edited by Llani Boy; 06-01-2024 at 10:28 PM.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
Well done Llani....!
This history lesson has encouraged me to investigate something that has always seemed rather strange to me, that a club called Cambridge Harriers should be based in south-east London. The reasons are revealed here: https://www.cambridgeharriers.org/history
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges
Well I never ...
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Are you sitting down?
The Danes divided Yorkshire into thridings or thirds. (Hence "Ridings"). Each of which was divided into wapentakes. These were the meeting place for decision making.
The "Shire Oak" in Headingly was one such place - hence Skyrack.
There is a pub in Headingly called just that and close by is a pub called the "Original Oak". There is a Shire Oak Road.
The pretentious co-founder of Skyrac AC decided to call his club Skyrac.
Go figure.
Of course only around three people now understand why the club is called that and soon we will all be dead.
The rest of the world has no idea where the club is based which is actually Guiseley/Yeadon. It will be up to you to explain to people who ask the question in future. Then you could become Chairman!
It is actually the second oldest athletics club in the Leeds area (after Leeds City AC) and is primarily a track and field plus road, rather than a fell, club. It has a very strong junior section.
Gary Devine and Simon Booth both ran for Skyrac once upon a time and it used to have 15-20 runners turn out for, say, the Three Peaks - but those days have long gone.
The club has a rather good modern clubhouse which it shares with the cricket and rugby clubs based at Nunroyd Park and is well funded because it organises the Guiseley Gallop off-road trail race through Esholt Woods which is always held on Easter Sunday. Why Easter Sunday? Because all the local supermarkets and retail parks are closed and so there is free parking for the 500 runners who have turned up because few races are held on Easter Sunday. The idea for the Guiseley Gallop was conceived by the then club Treasurer who didn't need to hear a moo to recognise a potential cash cow.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Just entered the Nationals. Never done them before and as they are relatively close this year thought I'd give it a go.
Looking at the start list it appears that Trav's Coventry Godiva have the biggest entry.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
Yes we always take a load to the National, usually at least one coach and a fleet of cars.
Llani they are always special, the start of the men's senior race is something to behold, you can feel the ground rumble as everyone sets off.... but you need to get to Parliament Hill for a National, that is something else again, and i suspect it will be next year as it is the south's turn to host them next year.
We had a league race last weekend, again at the excellent Warley Woods in Smethwick... the course was set up to be a lot more hilly than at the county champs a few weeks back and it really suited me. I managed to beat a guy who has consistently caught and beat me in the last km all year, by about 40 seconds, and got a lot closer to some better runners.
We have managed to pull ourselves away from any faint relegation danger, into mid table of about 10th or 11th, after a very poor first fixture.
I was 9th counter so scored in our B team, although i scored the for Masters team, who are in 6th place.
It looks like we might see one of the perennial Division One teams relegated this year, with Rugby & Northampton needing a miracle to stay up (if they got all their superstars out for the final fixture they may be able to pull it off).
Most years you can put your money on the three promoted teams going straight back down as the division is so tough to break into.
1500 Men on a start line 150m wide, funnelled down to 10 metres wide after 250m is typically what you are faced with - so get a good start if you want to be competitive or you'll be running for up to a minute then shuffling for another minute
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote