Sunday 18^th April saw the running of the Flitwick 10K, which was once again, both the county and club championships. There was a very strong turn-out, with 17 club members making it around the 6.2 mile course, with a small contingent of supporters making the trip over as well.

Six ladies took on the undulating course on a what was a warm spring morning in the middle of Bedfordshire and for the second week in a row, Louise Flack was the first lady home and will collect a gold medal for her efforts, this time next year! Louise' time of 47.36 and 28^th female represents some really good form that she has come into recently. Following her home was Amelia Wallace in 50.01 and Amy Inchley in 51.52 to complete the ladies team in 40^th and 60^th out of the 269 ladies taking part. Just behind Amy was Ann Hirst, in her second race for the club, who has started her competitive year very strongly by completing both of the club championships so far. On her way back from injury Fiona Towell posted a respectable 56.30 before Rebecca Gooch crossed the finish line of her first ever race in 61.50.

In the men's race, their were a number of battles going on throughout the field between various club runners. The most fiercly fought one was between Joby Hobbs & Pete Mackrell. Having exchanged positions all the way around the route, up and down the hills, Joby eventually pipped a fast finishing Pete by a metre on the line, with them being awarded the same time of 38.11 in 25^th and 26^th respectively. A little way in front Nick Clay and Andy Inchley pushed each other on, over the first few miles before Andy pulled away around 4K to be first home and complete the course in 18^th position in a time of 37.03 and just a touch under 6 minute miling, while Nick split the gap between Andy and the other boys with 37.42 in 21^st out of the 793 finishers. The only other person to get under 40 minutes on the day, was 10K debutant Chris Norman, whose 39.29 shows much promise for the summer months ahead.

Behind Chris, Gary Stratford and Joe Hurley finished twenty seconds apart in 40.11 and 40.32, before Fred completed a consecutive trio of London marathon runners with 45.00. In his first race for the club, in his shiny new club vest, Tony Hincks managed a very respectable 47.00 before Richard Inchley finished in 51.14 and Pete Watkins took a late entry to cruise round the course in 54.55.

The team results have yet to be published, but we believe that the men's team were 4^th with the ladies in 7^th place. There will also be the county championship placings to be published in the near future, but as yet they are unknown! There are however, a few images taken by Tom May in the gallery.

The next local 10K is the first of the East Midlands Road Race Series at Silverstone on Tuesday 4^th May. The next club championship race is the 5K in Luton on 18^th July (although the Cranfield 5 mile date is still TBC) so get your entries in for those.