By Gail Duckworth (which is why it's so modest) 

World Masters Indoor Championships

Jyvaskyla Finland April 3 – 8 2012

Having won the European title last year in the 3000m I was sure I could give a good account of myself in a World event. So, at a late date I decided to not only enter the 3000m but the 1500m as well and travel to Finland to take part.

I left home early Tuesday morning to fly from Heathrow to Helsinki. Jyvaskyla is a further 3 hours north so as you can imagine on the cold side! I didn’t have to worry about the snow – which there was a lot of – running indoors, but the first event at these Championships are the 8K cross country races and because of an unusual amount of snow they had for the time of year the course needed clearing! read more

Just fifteen minutes before the start of the Boxing Day / Easter Monday handicap race it was looking like it might be a very damp and lonely race for the seven or eight hardy souls who had turned up at Leighton Town FC for the final event in the club championship season.

However, as the 11am kick-off time approached people gradually started to emerge from the woodwork clad in wet weather gear and ready to run and by the time we crossed the road towards The Falcon we were up to a merry(ish) 16.

All the participants were absolutely raring to go around the 5.6 mile historic loop that simply goes along Stanbridge Road, over the bypass to Billington and back in on Billington Road. you could tell when Dave asked people to step up to the start line and most took a pace backwards! The route is not particularly inspiring, but dates back to the 80's before the pypass existed and now it would really mess up Dave's records if we changed it! read more

This weekend I made history as I was one of the lucky 5,000 runners, picked at random from almost 43,000 entrants, to take part in the National Lottery Olympic Park Run. The five mile run around the Olympic Park passes many of the iconic venues that will be used for the Olympic Games, including the Velodrome and Aquatics Centre, before finishing inside the Olympic Stadium.

After a week of unusually good weather and record high temperatures for March, I woke on Saturday to overcast skies and a drop in the temperature. This made for good running conditions with only the wind on the exposed parts of the course likely to be a nuisance. Having made my way to the park on public transport and queued for 45 minutes to get through security I finally got my first look at the Olympic Park. Walking down Stratford Walk, past the Aquatics Centre, I made my way inside the Olympic Stadium to soak up the atmosphere before the event started. read more