Early Clay Domination

The first Stag Trophy race of the season kicked off yesterday in fine style. We had 25 runners taking on the three lap course, plus a few others helping Dave with the timing and general encouragement.

 There are still six races to go and you only need to score in five to stand a chance so everyone is still very much in the game, but there were a few people who set their stalls out early. Leading the way was Mandy Clay, who having completed a cross-country season a few years back has not run for some time and managed to persuade Dave into a "nice" handicap on that basis. She came home 40 seconds clear. read more

Swineshead 10

By Richard Inchley    Having sort of been inspired by some great running at the MK Tour last week as well as some gutsy performances hanging in there all week, I thought I should put away the marshal vest and put on a race number!   No messing about with Park Runs, 5 miles or 10Ks, let's go for a 10 miler! As I have not run that far since The Lanzarote Challenge half marathon in November 2013, it was perhaps a little adventurous. A nice sensible 11.30am start, except it was starting to get warm as we set off from the village of Swineshead in North Bedfordshire.  

The pace for me was sensible but I'm afraid the many inclines slowed me as I am far from fit. The faster runners would call it a pretty flat course as testified by a 54 minute winning time by a Serpentine runner who with lots of other Serps arrived by coach and dominated the prize giving! read more

Great North Run 2014

This was a race that I have wanted to run long before I was a runner. I remember watching this as a child, always tuning in for the television coverage and vowing to take part. This must be one of 100 races to do before you die……

 

I got a place via the charity Headway and I am grateful to them for enabling me to take past in this epic event.

 

The first challenges were booking hotels and transport, most of the hotels are booked at least a year in advance and the first hotel I booked went into administration! The train tickets were £400 return and I didn’t fancy the really long drive, so I took a chance and booked National Express coach tickets and got a return ticket for £20. read more

Bedford 10K

By Elliot Hind

 

After the Brighton Marathon in April I promised myself that this was the year I beat all my personal bests. I’ve cut back on my weekly mileage and really concentrated on speed work and tried to run as many Parkruns as possible. 

 

I’ve had some brilliant recent results breaking my parkrun PB in Portsmouth in 17.24 (previous best of 17.29 in May 2009) and then my 5k road PB in Hyde Park (17.15) two days before the start of the Tour of MK.  I was delighted with my week at the Tour finishing in 4th place just behind Jordan who had a quite stunning run in Campbell Park to push me out of 3rd place.  read more

The Final Flourish

By Adam Haylock

Day 6 already, and the ultimate race of The Brian Graves Tour of Milton Keynes. For the final time I rush home from work, pack my stuff and make my way from Aylesbury through the rush hour traffic towards race HQ. The week has taken its toll and instead of bouncing out the door like before this time it was more of a weary shuffle. However, I was still excited to arrive at the Sports Pavilion at Woughton on the Green and meet up with the rest of the guys and race one final time.

It was great to see everyone wearing the white tour vests, I felt proud to wear mine and was ready to crack on seeing what I had left in my legs. There were quite a few exhausted looking athletes standing on the start line ready to take on the 6.4 miles and any personal battles for positioning. I was knackered but not ready to give up on finishing the tour in 7th place, though that would require taking sixteen seconds off Andy Kirschner from Shenley Striders which would be tough. read more

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