Treble Relay success in 24 hours for LBAC!

Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club had success over the weekend from two different relay competitions. Firstly, a group travelled down to Wiltshire to attend the inaugural RunFestRun festival at Bowood House. Organised by Chris Evans and Vassos Alexander, the event is a festival with all things running, including inspirational and motivational talks by the likes of Jo Pavey and Fearne Cotton and races throughout the weekend from 2.5km up to a half marathon including a family fun run on the Sunday to score points for your team. Team captains included Natasha Evans, Paula Radcliffe, Colin Jackson and Steve Cram and it was great fun mixing with some athletics heroes before the musical entertainment from Razorlight and Olly Murs hit the stage. The last running event on the Saturday was a 4 person running club relay with 1.3km loops around the festival site. LBAC’s team of Stuart Read,Tom Inchley, Jo Sharples and Sam Dear took on 59 other teams from around the country and were comfortably in second place through the first three legs. However, with Steve Cram commentating from the Main Stage to the entire festival, they managed to catch and overtake the leading team with 200m to go to take the unexpected win as the golden ticker tape exploded into the air. Closer to home on the Sunday, the local Dunstable Downs Relay, organised by Dunstable Road Runners, is for teams of 3 completing a lap of trail Kensworth Quarry each. Having won the mixed team last prize year, LBAC were back to try to reclaim their title and managed to win the overall and mixed team prize with Peter Mackrell coming home in first place with Sam Dear and Jo Sharples already having run the earlier legs. The other victory on the day for LBAC was for Ruth Mitchell, Coralie Anderson and Amy Farnfield who were the fastest ladies team. Congratulations to all those involved over both days and a big thank you to the organisers for some great events!

Round MK Relay 2017

by James Bell

Alan Turing, mathematician and computer scientist of Bletchley Park fame, once said that ‘We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.‘  How prophetic he was. Perhaps you don’t know but Turing was an avid runner whose best marathon time was 2:46.  Maybe, just maybe, the tow paths that were run over the weekend were also used by Turing to train.  In any case, I think he would have liked the fact that runners would orbit the great city like possessed electrons zooming round a 31 mile course. read more

Olney Squeaky Bone Relay

by Sam Dear

Having run this last year for the first time, Andy had been hounding people from the club to enter a team this year it seemed like he was barking up the wrong tree so entered his own team joint with MKAC (Milton Buzzards). Finally, having got their act together, it was down to Dan, Jo, Laura and Sam to step up to the plate as the Leighton Buzzard Bulldogs.

The race is a 4 person team taking on a 3.5 off-road lap each near Olney, just north-east of MK. With almost 100 teams of all abilities it’s a good mix meaning that every dog can have his day here. read more