By Chris Williams

For the penultimate race of the East Midlands grand prix series, the three musketeers ventured off to Weedon, and arguably the most feared and daunting of all the series races. A 10k consisting of 8km of uphill and the last 2km of serious downhill!

It was always going to be Pat's race, having won his age category at Harborough last week, even his warm up this week took in some of hills of the course! In fact the only thing that caused him concern was where to hide the car key; at one point both he and Richard were underneath the front of the car looking for a suitable hiding place!

At the gun Chris Williams found the pace steady and easier to settle in to than at Harborough the week before. The two serious uphills were tough but manageable and he finished in 46.38. Having set a target of 46 minutes and not knowing the course, this was fine on a route never designed to be a PB course! Close on his heels was Pat Neilan with a fantastic time of 48.05. Pat had enjoyed the views throughout, and the particular view he had enjoyed finished her race about 10 seconds ahead of him!

Richard Inchley brought the team home in just over 51mins. Unfortunately Richard's views were just of the town of Weedon as he went over the brow of the hill! I think it is fair to say that whilst the race was tough it wasn't as bad as any of us either had thought or, for those that had done it before, remembered.

We have a week off for good behaviour next week before the final race of the series at Milton Keynes. A flatter faster 10k on our doorstep; it will be great to have more LBAC runners out in force and maybe bag some PBs for good measure.