Its hard sometimes to find the motivation to go out in such prolonged cold
conditions especially when Mother Nature is in control. However, the need to run
takes over and Nidd Valley Road Runners have braced the elements to pursue their
passion.
A newcomer to the race calendar is the Lightwater Valley 10 km Challenge,
in aid of servicemen and women, it is growing in popularity and four Nidd Valley
Ladies went to try it out. The course had something for everyone, first back for
Nidd was Lizzie Medwell in 55.49, Rebecca Ventress, running at the top of her
game, with a pb of 57.56, next came Julie Mooney 58.06 and Aimi Blueman
63.50(pb).
Over the Pennines two half marathons attracted Nidd Valley support,
Liverpool saw Mike Deacon, 1 hour 27 and Fiona Deacon, 1 hour 38 finish fourth
in their age groups. Meanwhile Stafford welcomed Stuart Hatfield, 1:55.16(pb)
and Judy Greenwood 2:15.36.
The concept of parkrun sees thousands of people roll out of bed early on a
Saturday and two Nidd Valley runners got up that little bit earlier to head to
York, an all tarmac affair around the race course. Amanda Metcalfe pushed hard
for a pb of 24.31 and Clairwyn Richardson, with tremendous encouragement ran a
pb of 30.49. At Harrogate Andy Todd ran 19.34, Dan Eagling 21.35, coming back
from injury, Dave Rushton managed 27.00 and Tony Ledwaba-Chapman ran 30.01
