Chiltern Cross Country League – Race 5 – Campbell Park

by Tom Kimber

The call for a large final turnout worked a treat. A total of 61 LBAC runners headed to the wintry conditions of Campbell Park in Milton Keynes for the final event in the Chiltern League cross country season. Prior to the event, we were in 6^th place overall, but with the knowledge that a strong team performance would provide possibility of an even higher finish.

From a personal perspective I was looking forward to the Campbell Park event, as I happen to work a stones throw from the park and spend many a lunch hour enjoying its scenery. However I’m not convinced that any course knowledge particularly helped. I don’t know what others thought, but in my view it was one of those lumpy courses where you were running either uphill or downhill, with very little flat in between, which meant it was hard to run in a relaxed manner. Add in one or two very boggy spots, a tight ‘gate turn’, and a near vertical downhill section, and it is clear to see why this is viewed as a challenging course. read more

Southerns Cross Country Championship

28th January 2017

by Chris Large

After coming back from Lanzarote I was full of the joys of running and ready to get myself some races in the diary. Cross Countries seemed an obvious solution and encouraged by Andy Inchley I booked myself into the ‘Southerns’ down at Parliament Hill in London. It turned out to be in the words of Pepperami “A bit of an animal”.

The kind Amy Farnfield drove me and Jo Sharples to north-west London. It would have helped if I’d known the distance beforehand, funny thing was that I just assumed that it would be a normal cross-country distance i.e. the 9km or 10km. It was only whilst going down in the car that Amy and Jo told me that the men’s race is 14km. I knew at that point it would be a tough day. read more

The return to league cross-country running in a freezing new year, felt for many like a slightly awkward introduction at a new place of work – you know you have to do it, but actually you’re not that keen once you arrive and you’d rather be at home. This particular fixture also saw a few league debuts and one long lost returnee.

In reality, those that were first on site did genuinely get to break to the ice in the water “splash”. It’s a good job that most of the seniors didn’t get to see this situation as many of the field may have turned on their heel and gone home! read more

Chiltern Cross Country League – December – Stopsley, Luton

December’s Chiltern Cross Country League fixture came around surprisingly fast since the last one with only 3 weeks since the soggy conditions at Tear Drops in MK.

This month, our usual exceptional turnout of runners was hampered a little by the Lanzarote trip clashing and so we were without a number of the team, but that didn’t by any means stop the performances coming.

In bright, sunny conditions if a little chilly, up on top of Stopsley Common in Luton the crew set up the LBAC gazebo in time for junior after junior and senior after senior to prepare for the third and middle race of the season. read more

For the last few years, the club’s results across the Chiltern League have been heavily reliant on an increasing quality and quantity of senior men earning more and more points to push us further up the table but it would seem that at Teardrop Lakes this weekend the girls really came to the party.

It would be unjust to venture into the report on the races without offering a thank you to all of the volunteers to gave up their Saturday from very early to set up the course, man the car park, marshal the runners and de-rig the course. Some of these people sacrificed their own runs or days with their families to help out. A few of them were not even from our club, so particular thanks go to those guys who were really selfless to stand out in the drizzle all day. Finally, Richard should get a big pat on the back for once again co-ordinating what is actually a huge cross-country fixture that is now regularly featuring international athletes. read more