On Sunday 16 March, 12 male Buzzards made the short trek to Stantonbury Track in Milton Keynes to represent the club at the Southern 12 Stage Road Relays. The warm and sunny conditions this year were in stark contrast to the snow that caused last year's event to be postponed. 

The relays take place each spring and are an opportunity for clubs to compete against each other directly. They are the key races on the calendar for big athletics clubs who take them very seriously.

 

Relay teams in this event are expected to be of a "certain standard" and the fact that a small club like LBAC was able to field a competitive men's teams for the first time in several years, is testament to the consistency of the runners we have and their willingness to race in big events. To give an example of the "certain standard" this event attracts, the record for the 5km leg is held by Mo Farah, and one of the fastest legs this year was run by GB Olympic marathoner Scott Overall. 

 

The format of the day is simple, with six runners running a 'long' leg of 7.9kms (just short of 5 miles) and six runners tackling a shorter leg of just over 5kms. Runners alternate between long legs and short legs. Each runner starts on the track, completes a route comprising mainly of redways, then returns to the track to hand over to the next runner. The combined times of all runners in the club are used calculate the final standings. The first 25 clubs to finish, qualify for the National Road Relays which are held later in the year. 

 

The race kicked off at a ferocious pace at midday, with Glen Turner racing the first 'long' leg in a time of 26:17, which put LBAC in 28th position. To give an idea of the quality of runners in this year's event, Glen's time was the 94th fastest 'long' leg of the day, with the fastest time almost four minutes faster in 22:35 – an average of 4:30 minute mile pace! 

 

Glen handed over the baton to Paul Douglas for the first 'short' leg, with Paul clocking a respectable18:56. Pete Mackrell was next out onto the MK redways for his long leg, continuing his fine form to post 26:42. Adam Haylock was the fourth runner out, stopping the clock at 18:15. 

Adam handed over to Andy Inchley who was the fifth LBAC runner and the first Inchley out of the hutch, coming home in 29:12. Tom Inchley ran 18:35 for his short leg, before Ian Grimshaw ran 28:30. Tim Inchley then recorded 18:33, Billy Mead 28:43, Stuart Blofeld 19:21 and Chris Norman 28:45. James Bell stormed around his leg in 18:48, bringing LBAC home in a time of 4:40:37. 

 

This meant LBAC finished in 30th position out of 48 clubs – a fantastic effort. 

 

A big thanks must go to Pete Mackrell for assembling the squad and overseeing the logistics on the day, and to those who came out to support us. It should also be pointed out that several of our runners chose to race despite having done long marathon training runs the previous day, which makes our overall standing even more impressive. 

 

It would be fantastic if we could make this event a regular fixture on the LBAC racing calendar. It is a great chance to pit ourselves against the bigger, traditional athletics clubs, and is something for many of our runners to aspire to. It is also worth pointing out that the ladies six stage relays also take place at the same time and a strong LBAC team would have beaten six or seven of the teams that take part, so maybe next year ladies?

The final standings for LBAC are as follows:

	Leighton Buzzard	4:40:37
1	126	Glen Turner	26:17	28	0:26:17
2	226	Paul Douglas	18:56	38	0:45:13
3	326	Peter Mackrell	26:42	31	1:11:55
4	426	Adam Haylock	18:15	33	1:30:10
5	526	Andrew Inchley	29:12	34	1:59:22
6	626	Thomas Inchley	18:35	33	2:17:57
7	726	Ian Grimshaw	28:30	33	2:46:27
8	826	Timothy Inchley	18:33	32	3:05:00
9	926	William Mead	28:43	33	3:33:43
10	1026	Stuart Blofeld	19:21	31	3:53:04
11	1126	Chris Norman	28:45	32	4:21:49
12	1226	James Bell	18:48	31	4:40:37