by Jo Sharples

There were five LBAC runners who turned out on a very sunny Sunday to run the Bearbrook 10K, including Pete Mackrell, Adam Haylock, Kate Johnson, Sarah Daniels and myself.

After a poor run at the Thame 10K a few weeks ago, I had unfinished business. But me being me I had already started to psyche myself out, come Sunday morning I was imagining injuries that had not been there Saturday, regretting the mileage from the previous weekend and generally  not feeling race fit. After arriving and getting into my somewhat anti-social pre-race routine I realised I wasn’t going to run well if I was expecting to do badly. So, positive mental attitude and a bit of Bruce Springsteen “Born to run”, was the way forward.

So it turns out the Bearbrook running club are home to over-helpful parking attendants, diamante clad race directors and an unspoken rule about not running on the rugby pitch. Both myself and Pete were shamed over the loud speaker for warming up there… “Can you – yes you the girl in the purple and yellow vest who’s pretending not to hear me – get off the rugby pitch!” I’m still not sure he was talking to me?

Overall, for what should have been a quick course the combination of pavements, hill(s) at halfway, drag to the finish round the rugby pitch, and heat proved tricky. I managed to slightly redeem myself, finishing in 42.28, edging closer to a sub 42 minute 10K. Pete and Adam finished in 5^th and 17^th respectively. Sarah had a brilliant run representing LBAC for the first time, as did Kate who wasn’t far off a PB. And Kate’s mum Susan took 2 minutes off her PB, well done ladies!

Bearbrook 2015 proved an enjoyable event, and was won this year in a new course record of 29.53, by Anuradha Cooray. Who my sources (aka Pete Mackrell) tell me is a Sri Lankan Olympian with a day job at Greggs in Aylesbury. All I can say is he clearly doesn’t eat their food as there is nothing of him, so what’s your secret Anuradha?

Name	Time	Gender Position
Pete Mackrell	00:34:54	5th
Adam Haylock	00:38:01	16th
Jo Sharples	00:42:28	8th
Sarah Daniels	00:53:08	68th
Kate Johnson	00:55:44	85th
Susan Johnson (Kate’s Mum!)	01:13:03	163rd