Last Sunday, ten LBAC members travelled to Tring to participate in the 32nd edition of the Ridgeway Run. This challenging event over approximately 9.5 miles is run mainly on footpaths and bridleways, which in many places were saturated and slippery following over 12 hours of solid rain. Starting on the outskirts of Tring, the course ascends into Ashridge Forest, past the Bridgewater Monument, takes in a stretch of the famous Ridgeway Path, before descending back along quiet paths into Tring and finishing at the Cricket Club. It is a very attractive route which normally provides stunning Chiltern views, but not when there is low cloud cover and heavy rain!

It was a highly successful morning for the club. Since joining several months ago, Glen Turner has embraced our ethos by entering lots of races and drinking lots of beer. Sunday was no different and he finished in a highly impressive 2nd place out of the 536 finishers. His time of 57:14 represents 6mm pace over the hilly and demanding course, which emphasises the strength of his performance.

One place behind Glen in 3rd was Pete Mackrell, continuing his fine form after the Berlin Marathon. The next club finisher in 7th was Tom May – this may come as a shock to many but for our older members this is not a surprise, since Tom regularly finished races in such lofty positions (and even higher) before injuries and other commitments got in the way. This marks a welcome return to form for El Capitano. Behind Tom was Chris Norman, our other Berlin Marathon hero; he felt the recent marathon effected his performance so he was disappointed to be ‘only’ 11th. The event had a men's team award based on the first four finishers and with Glen, Pete, Tom and Chris finishing in the top 11, LBAC comfortably won this with their score of 23 points being comfortably ahead of Gade Valley Harriers (59 points).

Jordan Clay warmed up for the upcoming cross country season – where he will only have to race over around 3.5 miles – by placing 15th overall over the 9.5 mile course. This is highly impressive for someone less accustomed to racing over longer distances. Behind, Dan Webb and Chris Williams made it into the top hundred by finishing 74th and 97th respectively. Two of the club’s V60s also completed the taxing course, with Roger Seldon finishing 193rd and Richard Inchley in 372nd. The club’s sole lady representative was Nikki Elvin, who continues to work herself back to fitness and she finished 354th (77th out of 188 ladies).

The productive morning ended with beers in the bar whilst the victorious men awaited the prize giving for the team prize and various individual awards. Perhaps just as important, it enabled all the runners to re-familiarise themselves with the mud ahead of the start of the cross-country season next weekend. Cross country is a team event and we need as many people to run as many fixtures as possible to give us every chance of improving last year’s league placing, we hope to see you all at Watford next Saturday.