Category: General

ECCA President

Today was the English Cross-Country Association’s annual open meeting. The ECCA is fairly important in the world of athletics in England  and is responsible for:

  • Organising and managing all English national cross country championships.
  • Selecting athletes to represent England in cross country competition and managing those teams.
  • Promoting and supporting the development of cross country running.

They also confirm a new president or the year. This is an honourary title given to people who have contributed hugely to the sport over a number of years.

The new president only took up running in his late 30’s after entering the 1983 London marathon a subsequently New York in the same year. Despite tennis being his main sport in those days, a house move meant that he left his long-time tennis club. The following year he joined a small local athletics club with two of his sons, and almost immediately took on the fledgling junior section which included them and he oversaw this for a number of years. read more

Happy Birthday LBAC!

Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club turns 40

A few weekend’s ago, Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club held their 40th anniversary birthday celebrations at Leighton Buzzard Rugby Club. A large majority of current members turned up to participate in a mixture of games, reminiscing about past glories and generally just having a great time seeing everybody not dressed in their running kit! (apart from a quick club photo for the archives)

JJ Jegede shares his advice and stories with the Juniors

JJ Jegede shares his advice and stories with the Juniors

British long jumper JJ Jegede joined in during the afternoon answering questions from the gaggles of excited juniors fresh from soaking their coaches with wet sponges. A magnificent cake in club colours was cut and enjoyed by club members, young and old, from those who have recently joined to those who are part of the LBAC furniture all together in one big celebration. read more

Run Britain Rankings & Power of 10

I thought I’d do a short piece about something that a few of us are a little obsessive on and some are completely oblivious to, which are the above two websites.

These two websites are linked together and act as a database for athletics performances for just about any UK based athlete.

Power of 10 was set-up around ten years ago to collate and record performances across all disciplines and act as a permanent record thereof. You can look up anyone you want from Mo Farah to your next door neighbour. read more

Swineshead 10

By Richard Inchley    Having sort of been inspired by some great running at the MK Tour last week as well as some gutsy performances hanging in there all week, I thought I should put away the marshal vest and put on a race number!   No messing about with Park Runs, 5 miles or 10Ks, let's go for a 10 miler! As I have not run that far since The Lanzarote Challenge half marathon in November 2013, it was perhaps a little adventurous. A nice sensible 11.30am start, except it was starting to get warm as we set off from the village of Swineshead in North Bedfordshire.  

The pace for me was sensible but I'm afraid the many inclines slowed me as I am far from fit. The faster runners would call it a pretty flat course as testified by a 54 minute winning time by a Serpentine runner who with lots of other Serps arrived by coach and dominated the prize giving! read more

Great North Run 2014

This was a race that I have wanted to run long before I was a runner. I remember watching this as a child, always tuning in for the television coverage and vowing to take part. This must be one of 100 races to do before you die……

 

I got a place via the charity Headway and I am grateful to them for enabling me to take past in this epic event.

 

The first challenges were booking hotels and transport, most of the hotels are booked at least a year in advance and the first hotel I booked went into administration! The train tickets were £400 return and I didn’t fancy the really long drive, so I took a chance and booked National Express coach tickets and got a return ticket for £20. read more

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