Category: 10k

Off we go! – Beds AAA 10k

Beds AAA 10k – Road Club Championships

Here we are, with the first road club champs race of the 2023 season. It seems like only yesterday we finished Cross Country races and were planning out runs and races across a long, endless summer. Temperatures and rain levels have been up and down since then and we seem to have a month of rain followed by a month of drought with high stifling temperatures or a deluge of washouts, but on we run! Friday 7th July was the Beds AAA 10k which is put on by our County Athletics Association with a helping hand from our very own Richard Inchley and also doubles up at the road County Championship so we do try to support the race as much as possible. Sadly numbers did seem a little down on previous years on what is a nice and fairly fast course. Set along an old railway close to the River Great Ouse and Priory Country Park in Bedford, the course heads East before doing a loop amongst the trees before returning back the way you came in a classic “lollypop” course. The only real hill is up and over the busy A421 but funnily enough you only really notice it on the way back. It was a warm evening as the LBAC athletes gathered in the sportshall of the Athletics Stadium, with lots of talk about how a warm up was totally unnecessary in the current conditions! Fortunately the short distance from here to the start line satisfied both those that were warm enough already and those that wanted to give the legs a quick turnover. At the gun, the runners flew out of the traps disturbing a group of scurrying rabbits and headed off down the course. Sam Dear and Simon Coombes seemed to be pacing and racing each other again after the recent battle at the Marston Forest 5k a month earlier. Tim Inchley, Ruth Mitchell and Warren Rose were also having their own battle around the course, whilst James Lloyd-Knibbs was hoping to give himself a birthday present of running a sub-40 for the first time. Gary Stratford and Amy Farnfield were also pushing for their own fast times. Having gone through 8km/5miles and back over the bridge over the A421, the finish is a long straight that appears to go on forever. Looking up for that final push and it never seems to get close enough to make one! Every single one of our runners finished well however. First home was =&0=& who pushed on in the second half of the race and finished in 35:08 to finish 3rd overall and as first v50 in the County Champs. =&1=& followed not too far behind in 35:42 and 5th place with a big 40 second PB. Third in for the club was =&2=&, fresh from a Carb Loading holiday in Italy, with=&3=& following close behind to finish as first lady for the club in times of 40:26 and 40:36 respectively. Ruth was also 3rd lady overall. =&4=& finished in 40:54 as first v50. =&5=& unfortunately didn’t quite reach his target of sub-40 but will no doubt be successful soon when it’s not quite as hot! He finished in 41:20. =&6=&, who enjoys running in the heat, finished just off her own PB with a time of 44:02 and was first v35 lady in both the County Championships and on the night, whilst also claiming 2nd lady for the club too. =&7=&returned to racing with a time of 45:48. Full results can be found here. Excellent running from all in purple and gold and some great results too to kick off the road running calendar! The next club championship road race is on Saturday 5th August at Great Denham parkrun. It’s free and you can turn up on the day, but you must remember your club vest and your barcode! See you there.

In the Clutches of the Heatwave

Beds AAA 10k

10k Road Club Championship Race

The Club Championships race for 10k this year was in Bedford. With Pete Mackrell involved in the organisation and 4 other club members helping him out, the race had a very LBAC feel around it.

As the 15 competitors wearing Purple and Gold rocked up at the Bedford Athletics track to collect numbers it was all rather friendly and could well have been the Leighton 10 that we had entered. Pete Mackrell and Chris Norman were hunched over a laptop working on a spreadsheet covered in numbers and figures, Stu Blofeld was handing out the numbers and pins with a cheery smile and words of encouragement, Richard Inchley and Uncle Pete were then milling about near the start and later marshaling and Chris Dimmock was proudly offering water to all those that finished. It was hard to avoid our club members! read more

Vitality London 10000

Vitality London 10000 – our capital in all its glory and fantastic support from my fellow LBAC runners!

by Matthew Brooks

When the email was sent out to club members asking who would be interested in a place in the Vitality London 10000, I expressed an interest not really knowing what I was signing up for. Lucky for me then, that my name was one of the 6 drawn out of 9 at the Awards Dinner. I happened to be sat on the same table with Sue Johnson, a Vitality London Veteran who filled me in on what a treat I was in for.

We all have our running goals and milestones and having been informed that it was a fast course, it was time to target that PB of 41.50 and even that dream of going sub 40 minutes. read more

It’s All About The Preparation

Leighton 10k

by Jo Sharples

The Leighton Fun Runners  Leighton 10k was held on the 8th April 2018. Lasts years race saw us narrowly miss the team prize due to numbers entered. So a couple of us decided this year to try again. The online entry stated 10 for a team. Well this was our first hurdle. Could we find 10 available non injured runners? In desperation we even got Adam Haylock (returning from retirement) and Sam Dear (returning from injury) as part of the team. After a few last minute swaps, we had a solid team of 13 on the day. Including; Billy Mead, Stuart Read, Matthew Brooks, Sam Dear, Dan Webb, David Killick, Stuart Dimmock, myself, Amy Farnfield, Fiona Mcleish Ruth Mitchell, Kas Gardiner and Liz Miller. read more

The Victoria Park 10k

Victoria Park 10k

by James Cusack

I have wanted to run a sub-40 10k for a long time.

The challenge is my running style.  Those who are kind call it “mesmerising” (Matthew Brooks), those who are honest call it “wonky” (Sam Dear), and those who are my friends from Scotland call it “running like a drunk giraffe”.  Basically, I am 6 foot 4 inches tall and I have poor control of my gangly, bandy limbs!

Despite this, since running 41:13 at the Bearbrook 10k last year, I’ve been gradually improving. Manchester Marathon is on the horizon for me, so I’ve stepped up the training to about 50 miles/week, whilst trying to balance a newborn baby and work (big thank you to my wife Jenny for tolerating this nonsense).  As part of my marathon plan (and because all of sudden a sub-40 10k looked possible) I signed up to the Victoria Park 10k in London. read more

1 2 3 … 8