Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club

On Sunday Gail Duckworth made a trip up to Shropshire to compete in the Telford 10K. Gail, who was ranked as the number one F55 5000m runner in the world in 2010 with a time of 19.22, was aiming to duck under the 40 minute mark over the longer distance.

At the Standalone 10K in October she was just outside the 40 minute mark and so targetted Telford to beat the time. She completed the course in a fantastic 39.34 to finish as the 10th lady and beat the world's best 10K track time from last year. Not a bad start to the year! read more

The January fixture of the Chiltern League saw LBAC's best club performance in many many years. the major contributing factor was the fantastic number of senior men who ran on a very windy day at the top of a hill in Luton, however, there were great performances in many races.

For once we'll start with the boys, as the U13's had their best result of the season despite only having a team of three. Lloyd Milliken in 20^th was backed up brilliantly by Jamie Stancombe finishing 25^th in his first race of the season, while the ever present Patrick Clay also gained his best finish of the year in 39^th to help the team to 6^th, out of 14 teams in division one. read more

The club AGM is to held at 9pm on Wednesday 2nd February at Leighton Town Football Club. Food will be laid on for everyone and the bar will be open. ALL MEMBERS are invited and encouraged to come along and contribute. Any apologies need to go to Nick Clay (nickjclay@aol.com) please.

LBAC had a very successful day out at the Bedforshire and Buckinghamshire County Championships last weekend. The races were staged this year in Bucks as the two counties alternate the hosting duties year by year. The course that played home to the championships was at Hughenden Manor, a couple of miles north of High Wycombe and offered an extremely stern test to even the strongest of runners.

Every race started a little way up a very steep hill and simply went straight up so the first 200m "sorted the men from the boys"! There were 22 club members who made the journey to this picturesque part of Buckinghamshire and were wondering if that was the right decision when they arrived, but all decided they were up for the challenge. read more

Nobody likes running the Stag! If they say they do, they are either new or don't try hard enough! Three short flat out laps when you are either being chased down by the people behind, starting so far back you have to unlap yourself or just confused in the middle. It's during the dark damp winter months and Dave always gives you a much harder handicap than you should have because you are ill, injured and haven't trained for a year!

The January race is the epitome of this, as you can also add into the equation the habit breaking Christmas holidays, the over indulgence and the guaranteed cold weather. However, it is during the months of December to February that champions are made or broken for one of the clubs most prestigious and longest standing award. read more