Month: May 2017

Round MK Relay 2017

Round MK Relay 2017

by James Bell

Alan Turing, mathematician and computer scientist of Bletchley Park fame, once said that ‘We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.‘  How prophetic he was. Perhaps you don’t know but Turing was an avid runner whose best marathon time was 2:46.  Maybe, just maybe, the tow paths that were run over the weekend were also used by Turing to train.  In any case, I think he would have liked the fact that runners would orbit the great city like possessed electrons zooming round a 31 mile course. read more

ECCA President

Today was the English Cross-Country Association’s annual open meeting. The ECCA is fairly important in the world of athletics in England  and is responsible for:

  • Organising and managing all English national cross country championships.
  • Selecting athletes to represent England in cross country competition and managing those teams.
  • Promoting and supporting the development of cross country running.

They also confirm a new president or the year. This is an honourary title given to people who have contributed hugely to the sport over a number of years.

The new president only took up running in his late 30’s after entering the 1983 London marathon a subsequently New York in the same year. Despite tennis being his main sport in those days, a house move meant that he left his long-time tennis club. The following year he joined a small local athletics club with two of his sons, and almost immediately took on the fledgling junior section which included them and he oversaw this for a number of years. read more

Couch to 5k and a Little Bit More

MK Half Marathon

by Susan Johnson

I don’t think there are too many youngsters who take up running at the age of 60 but yep, that’s me!  There I was approaching retirement with colleagues suggesting I would be able to find new hobbies and slow down.  Sounded good to me but where to start?  I’d heard about parkrun and decided to give it a go.  Run, walk was my first attempt (and a few more).  Now, less than three years later and 102 parkruns completed, along with other races in between, I was approaching the start line for my first half marathon at the MK Marathon Weekend.  This was kind of surreal, this was 13.1 miles! read more

London Marathon 2017 – Part 2

London Marathon – Part 2

Elliot Hind – 2:33:13

To say I’d been looking forward to the London Marathon of 2017 would be an understatement.  Training had gone perfectly and I’d broken the club record for 20 miles twice in the build up (best was 1.52 at the Oakley 20).  

 

My brother’s girlfriend very kindly let me stay at her flat in East Dulwich so I was only 12 minutes by train from the Championship start at Blackheath.  I had a really relaxed journey down and had a quiet evening eating pasta and watching TV.  In the morning there were trains every half an hour from Peckham Rye station, I decided to go for the 08.21 which would get me to the start well over an hour before the 10.00 race and had plenty of buffer time if anything went wrong.   read more

London Marathon 2017 – Part 1

London Marathon – Part 1

Stuart Read 2:57:51

I’ve been very fortunate to get into the London marathon twice through the public ballot (feel free to punch me), with the last time being in 2008.  At that time, I was in my late twenties and thought I could get away without training much.  I certainly got what was due to me in last 6 miles of that race.  This time it was going to be different and I felt confident I could get a big PB on my 4.18 time.

With a fairly solid bulk of training over winter and a couple of good marathon paced long runs behind me I was feeling confident heading into a three week taper. read more