YORKSHIRE VETERANS' ATHLETICS ASSOCIATION
(Click the above link to go the Yorkshire Veterans' Website)
| By Peter May Queensbury Member and YVAA Race Secretary |
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As well as being a member of Queensbury Running Club, I am also the Joint Race Secretary for the Yorkshire Veterans' Athletic Association.
I have been a member of Queensbury for over 12 years, joining at the age of 33 after a career playing Rugby Union. I started running on my own and decided to enter the local half marathon and at the race I met a member of Queensbury RC who invited me to one of their training nights.
This proved to be a turning point in my life as the members at the club made me feel very welcome and took me for a run up and down the hills of Queensbury. They were fitter than me, but gave me advice and support throughout the run, plus there were stopping points where we regrouped so that nobody got left behind.
Gradually I got fitter through a combination of hilly routes, speed work and long runs. I was also shown a variety of off-road routes around the Queensbury area which is one thing I enjoy most about running - around Queensbury you can run off-road almost indefinitely.
Even after all this time I am still running as a member of Queensbury and enjoying my running as much as ever. I have maintained a decent level of fitness and health and more importantly most of the runners originally at the club are still there and remain good friends.
Over the last few years, as various members of the club have turned 40 and become veterans, we have started to participate in the series of races organised by the Yorkshire Veterans Athletic Association.
The YVAA is an affiliation of local clubs who pay a nominal annual membership to participate in the various events that the YVAA organise. It is also possible to affiliate as an individual.
As well as having championship races which are incorporated into open events, the YVAA also organizes its own grand prix series of 10 races that are only open to members of clubs affiliated to the YVAA.
A different host club provides the facilities for each event, organises the race and provides the marshals etc. These only cost £2 to enter and are very enjoyable events, often on very scenic courses away from the traffic with around 100 runners taking part in each race from around 20 different clubs.
All finishers are awarded points based on their finishing position and these points count both individually and for your club throughout the series. It does not matter where you finish in the race as you still win points for yourself and your club.
After each race there is usually free food provided and you can have a drink and a chat with both your club-mates and rivals from other clubs. Nominal prizes are awarded to the leading runners of all the veteran age categories, together with spot prizes. At the end of the series trophies are awarded to the leading runners in each veteran age category.
I enjoy the YVAA races so much that I have now become involved in organizing the races as joint race secretary. This involves writing to the various clubs and asking them to put on a race, which most clubs are more than happy to do, and producing the fixture list which is circulated to all affiliated clubs.
The races are spread around Yorkshire, usually one a month, and give you plenty of opportunity to see places that you otherwise might not see. Whilst the races are competitive, they are not too overly serious and give you the opportunity to keep race fit, meet people and to go to different places.
