It was another frosty morning in Bedford for the club and county half marathon championships in Wootton. There was barely a flicker of breeze despite the cold temperatures and so once into the race it was almost perfect conditions for running. The course at Wootton lends itself perfectly to running a negative split (second half faster than the first) as the three or four hills that there are, are all in the first half. Many of the runners achieved the unusual feat, including numerous members of LBAC.

The sixteen runners were split into eleven men and five women, with six people gaining new personal best times. Additionally there were also two new club records set on the day, both in the V65 category by Liz Miller and Richard Inchley. Liz has not done a half marathon for a number of years and was the only F65 in the race so it is clearly a tremendous achievement for her to run 2:06:55 and finish in front of 279 people. Richard has eyes set on a few club records in the V65 age group, but has not been running too well recently. However, his 10 days of warm weather trining in Lanzarote has clearly started to reap dividends as he ran ten minutes faster than expected, to complete the course in 1:47:14. For those that are interested, there is a full list of club records that can be accessed via the front page of the site.

The other four ladies mostly ran superbly around the frosty roads of North West Bedfordshire, with three of them gaining new PB's by a significant amount of time. First home and club champion was Jill Richardson who completed the 13.1 miles in under 1.40 for the first time and smashed her PB. Fred Watt once again ran around the course with her and they both crossed the line in an excellent time of 1:37:28.

Despite a long term niggle, Amy Inchley also gained a new PB after a steady start and then running a big negative spilt to finish in an excellent 1:45:14. Just a minute behind Amy was the fast improving Jane Sauer who ran a really well paced race to gain yet another PB in 1:46:29, with which she should be delighted. She just nipped across the line in front of Steve Orlando on his half marathon debut. Last year Australian Steve had only just taken up running and is now confidently doing 13 mile races in the English winter! Fiona Towell was not too pleased with her run, but nevertheless it was fantastic that the club had five ladies running and hopefully she can put the race down to experience and look forward to the next one!

It was a surprise to learn that Simon Coombes was only running his fifth ever half marathon, but that didn't stop him storming around the course to gain a PB and finish in eighth place overall out of nearly 1500 people. His 1:15:03 also allowed him to take the first V35 prize. The final PB was gained by Joby Hobbs, who was considering not running due to a niggle, but is certainly glad he did, as he beat his previous best by nearly two minutes to finish in 1:23:09 and 66^th place.

Between Simon and Joby were Andy Inchley who ducked under 1:20 for only the second time to finish 30^th, Tom May who is finally seeing a return towards his old form, finishing 56^th in 1:22:21 and Pete Mackrell was 59^th in 1:22:34, running exactly as predicted. The only other three club runners were Warren Rose in 1:31:17, Mike Bryant in 1:32:50 and the hungover Gary Buckle in 1:53:15.

Although it has yet to be confirmed officially, it would seem that the men's team of Simon, Andy, Tom & Pete were clearly in second place overall, a little way behind the winners, but a long way ahead of third. All in all, a really good morning's running.