The National, Donnington Park, 27^th February 2016

by James Bell

Jolyon Attwool, the Telegraph journalist who of late has been running the Southerns and National XC events and committing those experiences to his broadsheet, wrote in his article of The National at Castle Donnington that ‘It looked like a festival: a Glastonbury with greater lung capacity’. To me the start felt tribal and like others I wanted a sword and shield because it felt like I was going into battle.

Start of the U13s boy’s race – On the count of three….Charge!.

There’s a report on the elite activities here so I shall not dwell on who won what races. A summary is that Chiltern League winners did appear in some of the top results and I am still in awe of anyone who is able to pull out the stops and beat their peers in this race. read more

The club has been in the Chiltern League since the 1980’s. In that time we have had some fantastic runners and excellent performances. We have spent much of that time in division two, with occasional (usually one season) forays into division one. In the early years we had a small but strong junior section, but low numbers in senior ranks with very few women indeed.

After a significant slump in the mid 00’s when we finished mid-table in division two, the last time we got promoted was the 2009/10 season. In our first season back in division one we had the grand ambition of trying to avoid relegation by keeping out of the bottom two of the fourteen teams and we were delighted to end up in our highest ever position of 9^th. The club managed to repeat this in the two following years and then dropped down one place in 2013/14 when St Alban’s joined the league. read more

I may be about to put a curse on it, but considering the Southern Cross-country championships are always at the end of January it’s amazing how often it’s a glorious day! In the middle of whole load of wet and windy weather there was a break again this year and last Saturday saw wintery sunshine spread over the Heath in Hampstead for much of the day.

This was a great relief to the thousands of runners and spectators who make an annual pilgrimage to this home of cross-country running for either the Southern champs (2 out of 3 years) or the national champs (1 out of 3). It isn’t the hilliest, longest or muddiest cross-country ever, but it is one of the longest and one of the muddiest on a pretty hilly course. In the world of cross-country that Leighton Buzzard lives in, it really doesn’t get any tougher. read more

And the award for the muddiest Cross Country conditions so far this season go to…. Wigmore in Luton!

With Aylesbury parkrun called off completely that very morning, we should have known better than to expect anything else than a run around a quagmire in the afternoon. As the majority of the seniors arrived midway through the juniors, it was immediately apparent that the area around the tent village was already “spike ready” so the course was probably far worse!

With the older folk standing around, moaning and wondering why we keep turning up to these things, the juniors were already out showing us how it was done and braving the conditions on the course and making it that little bit more muddy for all those to follow. read more

Big efforts near Biggleswade – Beds/Bucks County XC

by Colin Postawa

So last Saturday I embarked on a short trip to Shuttleworth for my second ever XC race, and no more “just testing this out” excuses so a top three was definitely on the cards this time. This was the joint Cross Country County race for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Having only been a club member since October, the first thing myself and fellow club newbie Amy F noticed was just how many LBAC members seem to turn out for these events. If not running, then vocally supporting other members or taking pictures. The XC scene also seems a lot more welcoming than your average 10k event, maybe the format helps with families being able to race in their respective category’s after cheering on their little ones….or maybe it is something else altogether. read more