Gail Duckworth finished off her excellent indoor track season last weekend by making the trip to Lee Valley Athletics Centre in Middlesex for the British Masters Open Championships. Frustratingly, she ran exactly the same time as she did at the Southern champs six weeks ago and was just outside 11.00 for the 3000m. Nonetheless it was a good finish to the season and gives her a target for the upcoming summer track season.
The Oakley 20 was hosted by Bedford Harriers on Sunday, but Fred Watt was the only LBAC member to make the trip up to North Bedfordshire for this London Marathon preperation race. Over an undulating course around the picturesque countryside Fred ran a very respectable 2:33:26, which, whilst it was a little slower than previous years was still quick enough to earn him second place in the V60 category.
Whilst Fred was in Oakley, Joe Hurley went off to Finchley for their own 20 mile race as a test to check that he was good to go for London following a calf injury. The answer seems to be yes, as he completed the course in 2:23:43 and was the fourth V50 across the finish line. As long as the legs recover, a couple more long runs and Joe will undoubtedly make it round yet another London marathon.
It's fair to say that we have a few crazy people in our athletic club. We've had members travelling the world doing marathons, ironman races, 87 miles along the Kennet & Avon Canal and in 1995 there was even a triple Ironman, but not since then have we had anyone being quite so crazy on such a regular basis as Stuart Blofeld. Last weekend Stuart competed in the Wiggle Lightninig 12 (hours not miles!). A few words here won't really do it justice so I recommend you read his blog and remember that he does it so you don't have to! An amazing performance, but he is completely bonkers.
For the first time ever, LBAC entered a ladies team into the southern six-stage road relays at the Open University in Milton Keynes. Over the course of the last 20 years, the club has sporadically entered a men’s team into the 12-stage event held on the same day. This year, whilst the men couldn’t scrape together a team of twelve, the ladies did a fantastic job of very quickly getting a good team together, and were rewarded with a perfect day for running.
With the sun shining, Gail Duckworth lead off the team with another great performance, in which she finished the stage in 10th place despite being a V50 and battling with all age groups. Obviously, with Gail running so well, there was a lot for the other ladies to live up to, but they did it extremely well with Amelia Wallace taking on the second leg in her first run representing the club and completing the 3.4 mile loop at exactly 7.30 mile pace. Amelia then handed on to Stacey Thorne who brilliantly stepped in at the last minute after two significant injuries to other team members. Stacey had never run a race before, but didn’t let her nerves get the better of her at all as she ran faster than she has ever run before to complete the route in a time much quicker than she expected.
With the end of March fast approaching, the only remaining the final remaining cross-country for any LBAC members was the National Schools Championships that took place this year in Heaton Park, Manchester on a very wet and miserable Saturday. (Some might say that it's always wet and miserable in Manchester, but not me!)
The National Schools is often considered to be the highest level of competition for the junior age groups because it pulls in kids from all the sports who may not run on a regular basis. With that in mind, simply qualifying is a great acheivement and one that two LBAC athletes can be proud of. Over the course of this season Billy Mead and Bryan Foulger have done an excellent job of being the stalwarts of the U15 team in all of the cross-countries, but with a school year between them and the schools agegroups being split differently, Bryan qualified as a top year Junior and Billy did particularly well to get into the Inter boys team a year young.
