Olympic Experience

This weekend I made history as I was one of the lucky 5,000 runners, picked at random from almost 43,000 entrants, to take part in the National Lottery Olympic Park Run. The five mile run around the Olympic Park passes many of the iconic venues that will be used for the Olympic Games, including the Velodrome and Aquatics Centre, before finishing inside the Olympic Stadium.

After a week of unusually good weather and record high temperatures for March, I woke on Saturday to overcast skies and a drop in the temperature. This made for good running conditions with only the wind on the exposed parts of the course likely to be a nuisance. Having made my way to the park on public transport and queued for 45 minutes to get through security I finally got my first look at the Olympic Park. Walking down Stratford Walk, past the Aquatics Centre, I made my way inside the Olympic Stadium to soak up the atmosphere before the event started. read more

Reminders

Sunday Run

Jane is leading this Sunday's run, leaving her house in Northchurch at 9.30am to run 13 miles around leafy Ashridge. Alternatively you can meet her later and just do 8 miles. She has promised cake afterwards!

Club Awards Dinner

Can you please let Stuart know as soon as possible if you wish to attend our Club Awards Dinner on Saturday 12th May at Leighton Buzzard Golf Club. It is £30 per person which includes drink on arrival, 3 course meal and wine on the table. Partners are always welcome and are encouraged to attend! (Please email Stuart at LBACdinner2012@hotmail.co.uk.) read more

Brazilian at Olympic Venue

By Rod Lopez

This past weekend I did my first race as a build up for the London marathon. It was the Maxifuel Half marathon at Dorney Lake, near Windsor, where the Olympic rowing will take place in the summer. The event is well organised and quite small with just over 300 runners this year and the course has great PB potential as it is very very flat, consisting basically of four laps around the lake.

My training for the marathon has been going relatively well with all key sessions being completed and I have also been dieting since mid-January and have now lost nearly 9 pounds (4kg). Another bonus is that my 3 month-old daughter started sleeping through the night recently so I have been getting good quality sleep too. My left calf has been giving me a bit of trouble but I had physio treatmenton the Wednesday prior to the race. Needless to say I had high hopes for it. read more

Sandy 10 – 2012

As the sun shone down on Leighton Buzzard today, it really felt like spring had arrived as eleven merry club members made their way over to Sandy for the first of the 2012 club and county road race championships. However, as we headed east and crossed the M1 a mist descended and the 13 degrees of LB turned into 4 as we reached the far side of the county. This somewhat reduced our enthusiasm for shorts and vests, but most chose to brave the conditions anyway!

The course at Sandy is effectively a spoon shape with 3.5 miles out, followed by a 3 mile loop and the same 3.5 miles back in. This means the hill that you curse on after just a mile becomes a good friend at 8.5 if you have anything left to give. With a little bit of good pacing it can be an extremely fast course and ideal for negative splits (running the second half faster than the first). The race is on rural roads on the Cambridgeshire border and attracts the maximum 500 entries in recent years, with 476 finishing on this occasion. read more

British Masters Indoors

This was the 29th meeting of the Championships with over 600 entrants over the 2 days.

 

Being part of my World Indoor build up I ran the 1500 on Saturday winning Gold in a time 5 seconds quicker than last year and faster than I’ve run for several years indoors or out so was delighted with 5 mins 13.24. However I did pay for it in the 3000 on Sunday as my legs really felt like they had run a marathon!

 

Having taken 3 seconds of my British Record last weekend in the Southern Counties Championships I knew it would be tough. I started off well on target but with very tired legs could not find anything extra, although I did manage to better my time it was only by a whisker. Still every little helps as they say! My British W55 Indoor Record now stands at 11 mins 01.3. read more

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