Month: October 2014

Chester Marathon 2

By Helen Crossland

After a week of no mojo and then a week of getting back onto the supplements wagon I felt good about Sunday and had no tiredness or weakness leading up to the Chester Marathon weekend. I even felt surprisingly good on Saturday. A lovely cheese and tomato pasta bake for lunch and I’m on the road to Llanarmon-yn-ial to stay at my sister in laws which was a 40 minute drive from Chester. Three and a half hours later and I’m being sat on by a very large and friendly flat coated retriever. A lovely pub dinner and a chat and more cuddles with the dog and it’s bed time. No stress, no sleeplessness – I was out and it felt like a minute later and the alarm was telling me to get my arse out of the lovely warm, cosy, comfortable bed. UGH!!! I was good, I got out of that warm lovely bed and got myself ready and out of the door super on time for a very easy trip to Chester. Pulled into the race course along with loads of other cars and then noticed the temperature 4c BRRRRRRRR!!! My choice of running kit would be just about warm enough but it was an hour or so till the race start so I got myself to the loos and then back in the car to keep warm until 20 minutes before the start where I needed the loos yet again!! read more

Chester Marathon

By Ian Grimshaw

To Chester racecourse for the fifth Chester marathon on a cold October morning.  After the stress of traffic jams through the city centre and not being able to park at the marathon car park, there was a very well organised start area for the 4,500 people taking part in the join Chester marathon and metric marathon, including LBAC runners Amy & Andy Inchley, Helen Crossland and myself.

The race itself started in almost perfect conditions with a 2.5 mile tour of the city before crossing the river Dee and heading into the Welsh countryside.  The route varied along quiet county lanes with few spectators and through picturesque villages with lots of support from residents. Churton village even had a brass band playing… was that Colonel Bogey!  The course was attended by lots of friendly marshals, with drinks, fuel and toilet stops every three miles and marshals at all road junctions to ensure you took the right turning. read more

Early Clay Domination

The first Stag Trophy race of the season kicked off yesterday in fine style. We had 25 runners taking on the three lap course, plus a few others helping Dave with the timing and general encouragement.

 There are still six races to go and you only need to score in five to stand a chance so everyone is still very much in the game, but there were a few people who set their stalls out early. Leading the way was Mandy Clay, who having completed a cross-country season a few years back has not run for some time and managed to persuade Dave into a "nice" handicap on that basis. She came home 40 seconds clear. read more

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