Two LBAC athletes popped over to Bedford on Sunday for the 25^th Anniversary Bedford 10K at Bedford International Athletic Stadium. On what was a lovely September morning, Craig nelson and Gary Stratford finished with a minute of each other over the flat course round the East side of Bedford.

In his first race since breaking his leg twenty months ago, Craig's cycling fitness saw him through to a commendable 39:29 and 27^th out of the 293 finishers. Meanwhile, Gary took the time to put out lots of Leighton entry forms and claims that this extra weer and tear on his trainers meant that he just missed the 40 minute mark in 40:05 and was just seven places behind Craig, but at least it's good for his soul!

Warm and sunny weather greeted two LBAC members to Wiltshire on Sunday. The small village of Broughton Giffard, near Melksham was to host the Foxtrot 5 and the Foxy Fun Run and what an excellent event it turned out to be. Starting from the village common (next to Broughton Giffard's second pub!!) the runner sped off into the Wiltshire countryshire on a flat one-loop course, taking in neighbouring villages.

Word must have gone out that the course was flat with certain PB potential as nearly 200 runners had turned out with some high class athletes among them. With a half mile downhill finish to Broughton Giffard's first pub, with promises of beer, live music and a barbeque, fast times were the order of the day. Finishing in 13^th place and two seconds outside a PB, Joby Hobbs completed the course in 29.54. In 65^th place and 3^rd F40, Jill Richardson came home in 37.47.....a new PB!

The 6^th 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 2^nd place in the V60 category.

The men were represented by two Tims, with Tim Inchley coming home in 35^th place in a time of 31:42. This was a little quicker than he was hoping for so was pleased with his efforts. Following Tim Inchley home was Tim Bacon, who official time of 35:00 gives him a healthy 7 minute mile pace to give as a target for future races.

On Sunday morning, we have also spotted that Roger Seldon went off to Aylesbury to compete in the Bearbrook 10K, hosted by Bearbrook Joggers. Roger has had many years of injuries that have meant it's been a struggle to run but on Sunday he managed an excellent 43:41 and just missed the top 100 in a race of over 500 people.

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.......