As people turned up to Keysoe in the northern reaches of Bedfordshire, one of the first thing they would have noticed was that is was significantly drier conditions than in 2014. Secondly, the LBAC tent was twice the size that it has been in recent fixtures and it was a good thing it was, with over 60 members of the club turning out to race in the purple and gold.

First to set off around the course were the U11 girls with Hattie Grimshaw, Charlotte Keane and Julia Bell all finishing within 11 seconds of each other to start the season strongly in 8th place. The team of four U11 boys were led home by Daniel May and are also sitting nicely in 10th place.

Izzi Bidlake-Hull spent much of last season representing the club on her own in the U17 women category, but this year has been joined by Megan Westrope. Both ran excellently and hopefully they can spur eachother on in the fixtures to come.

Sam Nicholas yet again was the sole LBAC runner in the U17 men race, but had a very strong race and finished in an excellent 21^st place.

There was a strong senior women’s team with with eight competing. Gail and Amy battled it out at the front whilst Lynn Boddy and Katie Haylock pushed each other round to finish well. Coralie Anderson competed in her first ever CCCL race in 98th position and Nikki Elvin, who is making her running comeback, chased home Kate Johnson and Fiona helping the team into 10th position and the veteran ladies to 3rd.

Twenty-four senior men turned out to race Keysoe meaning that over half the team wouldn’t score, but would take some all important points from other clubs.

Perhaps still weary from his record breaking Berlin marathon run, or holding back a little for his race the next day, Pete Mackrell led the way until the final lap, when Ian Grimshaw powered past him and finished in a fantastic 26th position to add to Dominic Grimshaw’s superb 18th position in a strong U13 boys team earlier in the day.

Pete was hot on Ian’s heels with Andy, Tom I, Chris N, Billy, Adam, Tim, Charlie and James completing the scoring, closing in 88 (in Div 1), our second lowest ever. The previous best was 85 and that was with about 80 fewer runners in the race. Further down the field Sam pipped Warren on the line whilst Stuart Read, making his CCCL debut, and Gareth Bird battled to the line. All in all the 24 finishers helped the senior men into 3rd place and the veteran men lie in 4th.

Full results are available here.

As a club, we have kicked off this season’s CCCL in the same exceptional way that we finished last year as LBAC finished the day in 6th place, but close behind Vale of Aylesbury. Well done everybody who ran or cheered today, that’s one down and 4 to go. Bring on the next fixture!

The next race is on Saturday 7 November and we are hosting the fixture at Teardrop Lakes in Milton Keynes so please put it in your diaries and let’s show the rest of the league why LBAC is one of the best clubs to belong to.