Saturday saw the infamous running of the Southern Counties Cross-Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields in Hampstead Heath. It is infamous for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is the longest championship cross-country on the calendar, with women covering five miles and the men nearly nine! Secondly, it is usually the muddiest race of the year!

This year however, whilst the route and distance were unchanged the underfoot conditions were the best seen by your correspondent (although there are rumours that it was similar in a recent year not attended!). It was very confusing not to have to wade through ankle deep mud for an hour, up and down the hills of Highgate. Please do not misunderstand. This was not a dry course, and for the uninitiated Southern Champs runner it was hard going, but most know what it can be like! read more

Having been entered in the Luton Marathon in December, Warren Rose was very disappointed to hear that it had been cancelled two days before the race, due to the freezing conditions we were experiencing in this part of the world at that time. Having put in the months of training towards his target of ducking under 3.30 he decided to enter the Gloucester marathon instead and keep his traing going for a few more weeks.

The Gloucester marathon also risks the potential horrible conditions of January weather and like Luton is a three lap course but takes in flat rural Gloucestershire, rather than the delights of North Luton. read more

On Sunday Gail Duckworth made a trip up to Shropshire to compete in the Telford 10K. Gail, who was ranked as the number one F55 5000m runner in the world in 2010 with a time of 19.22, was aiming to duck under the 40 minute mark over the longer distance.

At the Standalone 10K in October she was just outside the 40 minute mark and so targetted Telford to beat the time. She completed the course in a fantastic 39.34 to finish as the 10th lady and beat the world's best 10K track time from last year. Not a bad start to the year! read more

The January fixture of the Chiltern League saw LBAC's best club performance in many many years. the major contributing factor was the fantastic number of senior men who ran on a very windy day at the top of a hill in Luton, however, there were great performances in many races.

For once we'll start with the boys, as the U13's had their best result of the season despite only having a team of three. Lloyd Milliken in 20^th was backed up brilliantly by Jamie Stancombe finishing 25^th in his first race of the season, while the ever present Patrick Clay also gained his best finish of the year in 39^th to help the team to 6^th, out of 14 teams in division one. read more

The club AGM is to held at 9pm on Wednesday 2nd February at Leighton Town Football Club. Food will be laid on for everyone and the bar will be open. ALL MEMBERS are invited and encouraged to come along and contribute. Any apologies need to go to Nick Clay (nickjclay@aol.com) please.