For the first time in many years the Flitwick 10K was not the annual club championship race this year. However, it is a very well organised local race attracting upwards of 800 runners and so a merry band of twelve LBAC'ers headed over for the race in 2012.

The route is an undulating rural one lap course starting and finishing in the centre of Flitwick. Last year the weather was extremely warm for April and whilst this year there was no sun cream needed a windbreak would have been nice!

There was a fair bit of chat going on at the start as Stuart and Andy tried to persuade themselves that they could live with Pete on his current form while Chris Norman was just hoping to finish injury free and Laurie was reminding us of each individual hill on the route he does regularly as a Flitwick resident.

As with many of these races, a few got carried away at the start and after a couple of miles Andy was wondering what he was going to do about his tiring legs as he watched Pete head off into the distance! Just behind, Leighton's most enthusiastic runner was battling to hold off Chris as he ran up and down the "wicked" hills!

Meanwhile, all of our ladies were being much more sensible as they ran around the 6.2 miles with much better pace judgement. However there were some very good individual performances from different people;

Pete Mackrell smashed his PB by over two minutes to finish in 7th place in 35:57 and boost his already high confidence levels ahead of next week's London Marathon. Chris Norman was fourth man home and gained a PB in 37:50, but most importantly, remained uninjured!

Laurie Parr was running his first 10K in club colours and ran a very respectable 39:21 which is a great start to the road running season and gives him plenty to work with over the summer. Amy Inchley ran nearly a minute quicker than in 2011 as she chased after Fred.

Richard Inchley was very pleased with his time over a tough course, particularly as he held of young Patrick Neilan. Fiona probably shouldn't have been running, but managed to finish her longest run since her marathon last year and was just in front of Liz Miller.

The biggest improver on the day though was most definitely Helen Crossland who smashed her PB by six minutes and was 12 minutes quicker than 2011 to complete the course in 63:59. Helen should also be delighted to beat nearly 100 people on the day.

To add to the great over all effort, the team of Pete, Andy and Stuart won the team prize as well by a distance. Great running everyone.