Author: Andy

And it’s “Go, go, go!”

By Kas Gardner

I was a bit nervous going into the Silverstone Half Marathon as this was the first, and probably only, real test of how my marathon training for the Boston Marathon was going. I suffered a bit from overtraining syndrome earlier on in the week which had meant I really backed off the training this week in order to be fit to go for it at Silverstone. I would love to have gone sub-1:45 for the first time but I honestly didn’t know if I could do it.

The race magazine had said that you should be parked up in the car park by 10:30 am, and I’d heard reports that it was a nightmare to get into Silverstone. My friend Karen and I decided to volunteer at Milton Keynes junior parkrun and then leave straight from there. But because we travelled to Silverstone via Buckingham and the Stowe road we were in the car park less than half an hour after we left Milton Keynes – while others were queuing from the Towcester direction we just breezed straight in. read more

Biggleswade Sportshall Trophy

By Fiona Towell

I’m afraid we won’t be bringing it home this year, But ONLY because we didn’t have enough to defend it. NOT because the 9 athletes who turned up didn’t give it their all …

And they did! They sprinted, jumped, threw and ran paarlaufs until they collapsed in a heap at the end when the Grand Prix finished everyone off. And they made almost as much noise as last year.

Katie proved that being the only Under 11 Girl doesn’t stop you from racing relays and gave the boys a run for their Freddos. Our other Under 11 Boys were joined by Ampthill’s sole contestant, Jakob, who was a keen paarlauf participant. Sid had some time to make up however and showed tremendous strength of character as he fought hard from behind to gain some ground. Huge well done boys for making Jakob feel part of the team; and on that note I’d like to mention that two of the officials commented on the ‘lovely bunch of polite kids I’d brought along from Leighton Buzzard’. I was very proud of you all. Dan threw a good shot I was told and Fin PB I believe jumped extremely well. Both put 110% into the short distance races and Aaron made up about 10 metres in one particular Under 11 all out against Biggleswade in the finale. Ash made his Sportshall debut and jumped and ran in everything we threw at him (most Sportshalls won’t leave you quite as exhausted Ash but it was a good introduction). read more

Five Still Standing

The penultimate Stag of the season, as it always does, saw lots of people eliminated from the championship in terms of being potential winners. Prior to the March race there were 16 club members who technically had a chance. Now, with just April’s race to go there are only five who have the possibility of winning. This is actually more than normal, due to the much higher attendance this year and so will undoubtedly make for a competitive final race.

On the night, the first finisher was Mark Adkins who finished nearly 30 seconds ahead of brother-in-law Stuart Read who was at the front of a group of five that came in in five seconds with Tom Inchley, Sam Dear, Lisa Bowyer and Dominic Grimshaw making up the rest and all scoring points in the 20’s. read more

A Little Club History

The club has been in the Chiltern League since the 1980’s. In that time we have had some fantastic runners and excellent performances. We have spent much of that time in division two, with occasional (usually one season) forays into division one. In the early years we had a small but strong junior section, but low numbers in senior ranks with very few women indeed.

After a significant slump in the mid 00’s when we finished mid-table in division two, the last time we got promoted was the 2009/10 season. In our first season back in division one we had the grand ambition of trying to avoid relegation by keeping out of the bottom two of the fourteen teams and we were delighted to end up in our highest ever position of 9th. The club managed to repeat this in the two following years and then dropped down one place in 2013/14 when St Alban’s joined the league. read more

From Watford to London

By Elliot Hind I’ve entered the ballot for the London marathon for the past few years and been unsuccessful; it is something I’ve really wanted for longer than I can remember.

I’ve only run one marathon (Brighton 2014 in 3.28) and had made it my 2015 goal to qualify for London on a ‘Good For Age’ time of under 3.05.  I entered the MK Marathon and the Kent Roadrunner marathon and was feeling confident that with training I could get under that time.  Unfortunately, disaster struck in December 2014 as a tackle on the football pitch destroyed my ankle ligaments and put an end to my marathon dream; I was crushed.  I was at a real low for a long time and in all honesty I wasn’t nice to be around. read more

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