Wow, that was close!

After a fantastic Stag Trophy season was all but wrapped by Joe Bidlake-Hull in February, the final race of the year meant that only Amy Farnfield had any chance of taking the trophy from his grasp. For this to happen, he had to finish outside the top eight and she had to win the final race.

A wet day and the school holidays had depleted numbers a little so we were down to nineteen participating, but the conditions were reasonable for running. As ever with the Stag it is difficult to tell early on in the race who is going to come through at the finish, but one thing was clear, that Amy was certainly going to be near the front of the field. read more

Awaiting the Handicap Results

The annual Christmas handicap once again took place on Easter Monday in drizzly conditions with lots of standing water over the 5.6 mile route.

The traditional course, that has been used since the days before the bypass was built is generally flat but with a nasty hill up through Billington around 4 miles.

The race is a “blind handicap” which effectively means that everyone is given a predicted time before the start, but no-one knows what it is so the race is run as a normal race. However, the winner is the person who beats their predicted time by the largest amount. read more

A tough one to start! – Amy F’s First Half

The Eco Half Marathon

by Amy Farnfield

Back in December 2017 upon seeing there was to be an Eco Half Marathon in Harpenden held in March 2018 I was intrigued. Harpenden being my home ground through my school years, I decided perhaps this was the challenge I needed for 2018. My running is generally fuelled by a race in my diary, if not I tend to default to the gym. I signed up but kept it quiet. Being somewhat nervous of anything ‘long distance’ which in my mind was anything over a 10k, I needed to attack this head on and I wasn’t going to let on I had this planned. I didn’t need anyone to ask me anything about my training or why I was doing it – this was for me! read more

PB-Tastic Penultimate Stag

March comes with a slight sense of relief. Although many of the club thrive on the mud and damp of the XC season, for most the third month of the year means spikes go back in the cupboard and the evenings start to get noticeably lighter. That lifting of the winter gloom seemed quite evident in March’s results.

Nineteen runners is not a huge turn-out – perhaps some were still in shock from the snow – but with nine and half of those runners getting PB’s and one being a first-timer it was certainly a challenge for those that didn’t. read more

Tokyo Marathon Thoughts

Tokyo Marathon

by Kas Gardner

The 2018 Tokyo Marathon is my fifth World Marathon Major in my quest to get World Marathon Majors Six-Star Finishers Medal. I wasn’t meant to run it this year, but peer-pressure got the better of me and I entered. And then I was the only one of our bunch of four who got in, which meant my husband, Kev, was issued an ultimatum: I’m going to Tokyo, are you coming with me or not?

Anyway, five months further on and we’re in Tokyo, and rather than write a review of the Tokyo Marathon (which is great by the way: really well organised with awesome volunteers) I thought I would regale you with my thoughts as I ran, or as best as I remember them… read more

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