On Tuesday evening (2nd July), nine Buzzards made the short trip across to Milton Keynes for the MK 10k. The race forms part of the East Midlands Grand Prix series and is not to be confused with various other 10k races held across MK throughout the year! The runners were greeted by slightly cooler but muggy conditions, and a tricky headwind along the final stretch.

 

There was a strong purple and yellow presence towards the front of the race. First home was Andy Inchley, whose modest performance by his standards the previous Friday in the John O’Callaghan 5m was probably due to all the sleepless nights, constant moaning, crying, feeding, etc (and that’s just looking after Amy!). However an impromptu power nap before the race worked wonders as he stormed round the course to finish in 35:49 in 14th place.

 

Half a minute and seven places behind Andy was Pete Mackrell (36:15, 21st), closely followed by Jordan Clay (36:32, 30th) who was the first U20 finisher in the race. Whilst Pete and Jordan started steadily and worked their way through the field, Billy Mead (37:48, 46th) took the opposite approach and found himself with the leaders in the first km before eventually slipping back. Surely he can go much quicker with better pacing? The team of Andy, Pete, Jordan and Billy took 3rd place in the team competition and it’s great to see the juniors contributing to the club and keeping the older boys on their toes.

 

Behind the front four were Chris Norman (38:35), Charlie Mead (41:02), Chris Williams (42:53), Fred Watt (48:57) and Aaron Carr (55:17).

 

The race completed the East Midlands Grand Prix series which started over two months ago with the Silverstone 10k. Runners need to complete at least five of the eight races to score in the overall series standings and only Chris W and Aaron managed this. Notably, both of them took a reasonable chunk off their 10k times between Silverstone and MK, which demonstrates how useful regular racing can be for improving fitness and speed.

 

In typical LBAC style, the productive evening was rounded off when the athletes were joined by three non-running Inchleys for beer and burgers at the pub!