Category: Race Report

Blisworth & Bearbrook

The 6th August saw five LBAC members completing the annual running of the Blisworth Friday 5. The village of Blisworth is in rural Northamptonshire between Towcester and Northampton. The race was our club championship event for many years and is still very well run by Wootton Road Runners.

In what was a very unusual circumstance, there were more LBAC ladies taking part than the men. Emma Langdon, doing her first LBAC race for many years, was the first of the fairer sex home at sub 8 minute mile pace with 39:37. Nikki Inchley was pretty pleased with her time too as she’s done very little running over the last few years and managed to clock 42:43 to give herself a target for next time around. Nikki was about a minute ahead of Liz Miller, who has suddenly got a taste for racing again as she set a new club record of 43:45 and took 2nd place in the V60 category. read more

Long Haul (Updated)

Last weekend Joe Hurley, Ian Hosley and Stuart Blofeld all went off to compete in riduculous events! Most people these days are familiar with Ironman triathlons, but only a few actually contemplate doing one and then even less set-off from the start line.

Joe Hurley has now done six of these events that consist of a 2.5 mile swim, a 112 mile run and then a marathon just top it all off! His sixth and most recent one was Ian's debut and it took place in the only official UK version of the Ironman series up in Bolton in Lancashire. I did e-mail to ask for a comment from the man himself, but he has so far declined to comment!

Joe was hoping to complete the course somewhere in the region of eleven hours, but his total time of 12:02 is still a crazy amount of time to be exercising and was split into 1:11 in a lake, 6:17 sat on a bike and a 4:17 pounding the roads! Overall it gave him a finish position of 275 out of 983. Ian meanwhile was learning how to approach the event and started with a 1.27 swim before spending nearly 7.30 on a bike! He clearly was feeling fresh in the end though as he completed the marathon leg of this epic effort in 3.43 and was extremely chuffed.

While Joe and Ian were off doing that, Stuart decided that running around a 10K loop for 24 hours was a much better option! He was hoping to complete over 100 miles in that time, which for those of you not too quick on the maths, means 16 10K's on the same course, back to back! With absolutely no knowledge of ultra running and complete incomprehension as to why you would do it, I don't really feel in a position to comment. However, I do offer many congratulations to Stuart on a remarkable race and urge you to read his blog, which gives far more insight than I could ever offer here. Yes, I know it's a get out!

Since writing this originally, Joe has sent across a more detailed report.......

Gail Tastes Glory

On the 19th & 20th July Gail Duckworth spent a couple of days on the track. This is not unusual in itself, but the fact she was in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the European Masters Athletics Chapionships made it somewhat different to trotting around Leighton Buzzard with the rest of us!

Gail was entered for two events in the F55 age group with her speciality of the 5000m being preceded by the 1500m on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately I cannot tell you what each race was like exactly but the results probably say enough. In the 1500m, Gail was one of four Brits in the final and was not expecting too much, but the fact that the top three were within 3 seconds and 13 ahead of the rest of the field suggests a great race. As it turned out, Gail was pipped to the line by a German, but she did her own pipping too as she sneaked ahead of fellow Brit, Joan Howe to take the silver medal in 5:22. read more

FVS Relays

Last Tuesday, Tom May managed took a ladies and a mens team over to Stevenage for the 3K relays organised by Fairlands Valley Spartans. It is great fun event, that we have done for the last few years with 42 women's teams and 57 men's teams competing around a park in the town.

The ladies team consisted of Laura Smith, Jane Sauer, fresh from her PB in the Luton 5K and Liz Miller with her races shoes on for the second time in a week as well. With that many teams running, there are always a number that you can have a battle with, and on this occasion it was Royston Runners that Liz just managed to hold off in the finishing straight to bring the team home in a creditable 22nd position. The ladies ran 12:29, 12:47 and 15:51 respectively over what is a pretty undulating course. read more

Wardown Park 5K

Well, some things are just like buses. You don't have a race victiry for years and then two come along in one season! It would seem that fatherhood is doing Simon Coombes no harm at all as he took his second road race victory of the summer in the county 5K championships at Wardown Park in Luton. His time of 16:37 put him over 30 seconds in front of his nearest challenger and lead home a good qaulity showing by LBAC.

Behind him, Ben Corfield was someway off his best form, but looking to improve over the summer months and clocked 17:46 to finish 8th and Joby Hobbs took the 3 club place in 18:56. Fred Watt, Tim Bacon and John Adam also competed in the men's event with Fred finishing as 2nd V60 in Bedfordshire. read more

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