Southern Inter Counties

Leighton Buzzard AC were well represented by four lads in the South of England Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships held at Lloyd Park in Croydon.
 
Stars of the day were undoubtedly our U13 boys Owen Drabwell and Sam Nicholas who were making their debut for the county following a series of excellent Chiltern League performances.
 
In a very fast race in perfect cross country conditions over a 3000m course, Owen was just 7 places ahead of Sam finishing in a fine 28th place, and being the fourth scorer in the team. He gained himself a South of England bronze medal for helping the team to an excellent 3rd place. Sam was 5th home out of the eight team members and both look good to gain many more honours in the coming years.
 
In the U15 Boys Jordan Clay was the 4th finisher for Bedfordshire in 60th place, running a very solid race and beating some fellow team members who he would often struggle to finish in front of. The team finished in 9th place and Jordan’s run was an encouraging start to the forthcoming very tough season ahead.
 
The representation was completed with Billy Mead running very well by finishing 63rd in the Under 17 race with six Bedfordshire runners finishing within 35 seconds of each other, bringing the team home in 8th place overall.
 
It is good to see the youngsters performing well at this level, with several others knocking on the door for County selection. Richard Inchley (County Team Manager) will be watching closely the County Championship results and the final two Chiltern League races, to see who shows enough to make the county teams for the Inter Counties in Birmingham in March. read more

Bedford Half Marathon

Fifteen LBAC members rocked up to Wootton Upper School on the edge of Bedford at around 9am on Sunday morning to take on the very popular Bedford Half Marathon. With a capacity of 2000 runners, the race is often full before the day and Bedford Harriers do a fantastic job on the organisation front, which is why it retains it popularity.

As the club half marathon championships, the turn out was pretty good on the male front, although the ladies were down to two, by the time we got to the start line. Amongst our line-up there were a couple of debutants with Ben Corfield well used to running the distance but never before in a race, while Laurie Parr hadn't run more than six miles this year so was really treading on new ground. read more

December Stag Trophy

The December Stag Trophy race was run on a cold but still night in Leighton Buzzard. The numbers were a little low, presumably put off by the cold weather, but there was some excellent runs by the ones who were there.

Having started running just a few of months ago, Kelly Paine's efforts are really starting to show through now. She has improved so much over the last month that when she had a lap to go, four other runners still had two to go. This run meant that she cruised round the final lap to win comfortably and take the 25 points. read more

Lanzarote 2011

Even as those of us from the delayed Monarch flight were checking at Club La Santa, the senior Inchley's were already playing their first competitive round of crazy golf of the trip. For those that have been before, the Canarian sports resort is something of a home from home that can be settled into immediately. For most La Santa virgins, the challenge is deciding what to do first.

As a club, we have been going for the last week in November since the dawn of time to take part in the International Challenge. The challenge consists of four quite different races over four days which can be taken as seriously as you like. The general attitude is that it is a holiday first and races second. We all want to run as fast as we can on the day, but not to the detriment of the night before! There is also no compulsion to take part in the races, but if you are up to it then you are encouraged.

Once you are there, all of the sports facilities are free to use and you can enter tournaments, take lessons in most sports, join fitness classes both in the gym and outdoors, take a bike around the island or simply sit by the pool and get a tan. It is entirely your choice and all are included in the price. There are approximately 20 sports covered and facilities include a 50m pool, a full size track, 6 court badminton hall, 10 tennis courts and the resort's own lagoon for windsurfing. However, there were a decent number of our crowd that settled into their first day by acclimatising in the bar for a few hours.

This years group consisted mostly of Leighton runners but we had four MKACers, a couple of Ampthill & Flitwick Flyers, a Bearbrook Jogger and two biddies from Richard's old tennis club in Birmingham, all of whom contribute massively to the atmosphere of the trip.

British Masters Cross Country

 

While some LBAC members were enjoying the warmer climate of Lanzarote I was competing for England in the annual British & Irish Masters Cross Country International. Running as a Master this is the only race where you have to be selected – a process of various races throughout the year in Masters National competitions.

This year the event was hosted by SVAC at Bellahouston Park Glasgow where the 1978 World Cross Country Championships took place. My coach Tony Simmons was 4th on that day and he warned me how muddy it could be – he wasn’t wrong. read more

1 … 91 92 93 94 95 … 139