Andy Inchley, Chairman of LBAC gave a review of the year at the AGM on Wednesday 6 February. We’ve added a rough transcript for you to enjoy. Please note that this is not a complete record of all LBAC’s achievements in 2018 as there were so many!

Cross Country

We punch way above our weight by regularly finishing mid-table in the CCCL and this is something I need to remember. Every year I have frustrations that I know we can win prizes if we can get close to our best team out at each fixture, and we have proved this recently, but as soon as we lose a few runners we don’t quite have the strength to challenge.

What we should be hugely proud of is that we often get somewhere in the region of half our senior membership (and probably 80% of the regulars) out doing these events and people rarely choose not to run. It is usually another important commitment that stops them.

After four rounds this year we are 7^th with a chance of 6^th if can beat Dacorum on the day.

• The vet men have an outside chance of 3^rd, but need to all run very well and hope those above aren’t at full strength.
• The senior women are likely to finish 6^th, which may not sound spectacular, but would be the best ever finish by an LBAC ladies team, beating the 7^th place from the 14/15 season.

Track & Field

Last summer’s athletics saw so many positives for the club it is easy to miss things out so apologies if I have. Number one, is that for the first time in many years we had a team in the EAL finals in September in the shape of the U15 & U17 girls. In an age group where most sports and clubs around the country have few or no competitors, we seem to be bucking the trend. We don’t have hundreds, but we’re only a small club and they all seem to be sticking with it, which is obviously fantastic for us.

Secondly, and only just. We have started filling senior men’s teams. We have throwers, and a few distance runners and they have started to fill the gaps in the other events so that we are now regularly picking up points across the board. We have club members who specifically joined the club to do T&F, which hasn’t happened since the early 80’s.

We’ve had a number of club records broken and again they are starting to go in a greater variation of events – although the Steeplechase, High Hurdles and Pole Vault are still up for grabs if you really fancy getting on the list!!

• Nick Stonehouse – Transplant Games
• New Facilities (£30K Grant)

Road Races (Overview)

The club road championships have been somewhat up and down this year in terms of attendance with the lowest being the half marathon in St Albans, where only five ran and the highest being the parkrun in Aylesbury which attracted 28 runners from the club. Senior women’s participation in the road champs was particularly low, but this is obviously something we will work on in the coming year.

• Half (St Albans) – 5 (4 & 1)
• 10 Mile (Rugby) – 12 (10 & 2)
• 10K (Bedford) – 15 (13 & 2)
• 5 Mile (MK) – 16 (9 & 7)
• Parkrun (Aylesbury) – 28 (20 & 8)

Overall, road race attendance seems to be very focused. We seem to have a small selection of local races that attract good support, but don’t spread ourselves very wide, with the exception of the marathon. In general I’d rather have it that way around so I don’t see it as a problem, just remember that there are many fabulous races out there, so if you have the time, give it some thought.

In marathon running we seem to go all over the world and one particular day in October saw three women’s club records go on the same day, including an outstanding new senior record from Jo. The other big moment in marathon’s this year saw Pete regain his record from Elliot as he charged around Berlin in 2:31!

Off-road Series

Last year’s off-road series was hit badly by the weather early on with a number of events cancelled and never really hit the heights of the first year. However, we have made a few adjustments this year and really hope to engage most of the membership in them. If you haven’t given the series much thought before then please have a look at the list. Nobody will do all of them (there are 20 events) but it starts next week with the Hardwick X-Stream near Aylesbury.

Coaches

We have had a fantastic increase in people getting coaching qualifications this year. The amount of time and effort that goes into a level two/Club Coach course should not be underestimated and yet Fiona, James, David and Warren all completed theirs this year, which is hugely beneficial to the club and reduces the strain from being entirely on one person.

Additionally, we have Amy Farnfield and Mike Furness doing the CiRF course which is very similar, but specifically for none T&F athletes.

We also have 4 further people who are assistant club coaches and couple of others who have done a LiRF course. All these qualifications give the club a much stronger base, it has benefits to the quality and variation of the sessions we run and ensures that we are covered from an insurance perspective.

Leighton 10

In my view the Leighton 10 this year was the best ever. The reasons being that despite the foul weather we still had record attendance and still had rave reviews from all the runners.

You should all know that we have taken the decision to move the race away from Vandyke this year due to all the development work and are heading up to Ascott House on the edge of Wing. This will mean a course that is probably safer, significantly easier to marshal and hopefully just as well liked by the runners.

Thankfully we now have a large committee of people getting involved in the organisation of the race and this will hopefully reduce the burden on Chris who has been doing much of it himself.

As ever, we will need full support from the entire club membership on the 22^nd September.

Training Sessions

• Increased number of Sunday runs being organised
• Mondays & Wednesdays are consistent but not big numbers
• Track training has been okay, but not really supported by seniors