Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club

It was another frosty morning in Bedford for the club and county half marathon championships in Wootton. There was barely a flicker of breeze despite the cold temperatures and so once into the race it was almost perfect conditions for running. The course at Wootton lends itself perfectly to running a negative split (second half faster than the first) as the three or four hills that there are, are all in the first half. Many of the runners achieved the unusual feat, including numerous members of LBAC. read more

Last Saturday saw the third fixture of the Chiltern League Cross-country season take place at Stowe School near Buckingham in cold snowy conditions.

Some of the club's junior representatives were possibly put off by the freezing weather and so numbers were a little reduced after the excellent turn-out at Watford, but eight U16's still made a great effort to score valuable points for LBAC. First out on the course was Mathilde Sammons, who has run all three U11 races this year and clearly (judging the photo's) had a whole range of experiences during her run! read more

Three LBAC athletes took to the redways around Willen Lake on Saturday afternoon for the somewhat chilly running of the Wolverton 5. Whilst the race has not been run in Wolverton for many years, as a long standing fixture on the calendar, it attracts a great many runners of all abilities to what can be a very fast course.

On a day when conditions barely crept above a couple of degrees centrigrade, the top three runners all ducked under 25 minutes on the traffic free course around the Milton Keynes' lake. The standard was highlighted by our own Simon Coombes who ran an excellent 26:53 by only just made the top twenty. Having returned from International duty, Gail Duckworth finished 73^rd in 31:26 while Theresa Keefe completed the course in 52:17. read more

Last Saturday, while most of us were trooping around Watford, Gail Duckworth was over in Dublin waving the English flag in the British & Irish Masters International Cross-country.

The women's event is run all together with the F35's running alongside all the others up to F65 on a 6K course around Santry Park. Each of the home nations selects a team of four in each age group and then there are both individual and team awards presentedin five year age categories.

These days Gail competes in the F55 and seems to be jetting all round Europe representing the country. On this occasion she arrived to find a twisty and muddy course set-up in Santry Park with four 1500m laps to take on! Early in the race Gail was lying in 5^th, out of the sixteen F55's taking part, but by the end of the first lap had managed to work her way through into 2^nd place. From there on, despite the sapping conditions she managed to retain her silver medal position and was over a minute in front of third. read more