Twelve LBAC athletes enjoyed success in the last club championship race of the year at the Bedford Half Marathon. The day was chilly and damp, but the rain stayed away to give everyone excellent running conditions over the tough undulating course.

There were two ladies who took the opportunity to compete in a big half marathon close to home. Claire Kleanthous is looking to increase her running, having spent a few years focussing on the other two aspects of triathlon and came home in 2.18. Ahead of Claire, Amy Inchley retained her half marathon title with a time of 1.55.12. Having had an up and down couple of months, she was pretty pleased with the solid time.

The mens race saw ten LBAC competitors joining the 1500 other starters in the event from Wootton Upper School and the individual competition went very much to form. Off the back of his 1.19 at Stevenage, Peter Mackrell went away at the start of the race and was never seen by another Leighton runner. His time of 1.20.23 shows that his illness that prevented him competing in the Luton marathon last week didn't take too much out of him in the long term. Following Peter home was Andy Inchley in 1.22.40 who ran his first ever negative split in any race. Nick Clay was the leading V40, just a minute behind Andy and returning to great form after a long term injury. Nick in turn, was just a minute ahead of Mark Kleanthous, who completed the LBAC scoring team in 82^nd position and gave them 3^rd place overall out of 52 teams.

Following Mark over the line, after running a marathon just seven days before, Joe Hurley was first V50 and still sneaked under the 1.30 time barrier. Joe, as third Vet, completed the scoring team and gave Leighton another 3^rd place in the team events. Behind Joe Mike Bryant ran a very similar time to last year in 1.33 before Fred Watt became the first V60 for leighton and second in the race in a fantastic time of 1.35, which gave Fred the best age related ranking out of all the club's runners. Two dodgy knees followed Fred through the finish line with a hobble. Joby Hobbs completed yet another race for the club, this time in 1.36 despite not having trained since August! Whilst in his first half marathon Chris Norman also had his knee cause serious problems, but made it round the 13.1 miles in a very respectable 1.37. The final club runner was Richard Inchley, who's time of 1.50 is good reward for five months serious training since his enforced lay-off in the srping and summer.

A link to the complete results can be found on the results page of the site