Category: Race Report

2017 UK Inter-Counties XC Championships

By Rob Elmore

The last cross country race of the season (unless you’re young enough to be at the English schools or good enough to represent Great Britain at the World Cross Country Championships in Uganda!), were the British Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships which took place at Prestwold Hall, just outside Loughborough, this weekend.

For those not familiar with this event, the Inter-Counties is a chance for the top runners in each county to compete against each other. Selection is based on your positioning at regional county championships and/or your cross country performances during the season. Ideally 9 runners are selected for each county, however, due to injuries/illness this isn’t always possible. read more

Record Breaking Girls in the MK Festival 5k

MK Festival of Running – 5k

by Amy Killick

When I first arrived at the event it was chucking down with rain and was very chilly. I was frozen but still ran in shorts and my club vest. Whilst waiting in the car the rain began to stop and we then began to journey over to the starting area. As I was one of the first racers there I found a spot at the front of the line and began to warm up.

As we set off I was quite near the front and in sight was the lead cyclist. The first kilometre of the race was all downhill and was very fast as I ran it in 3:51. It stayed downhill for the second kilometre as well but began to incline at the fourth kilometre making it a lot slower. I eventually warmed up about a kilometre and a half into the race which made me a lot happier. At the end I did a sprint finish as everyone was cheering me on to beat the man in front of me. As I crossed the line my time was 21:25 which was a new PB that has beaten my mother’s and father’s official times (not parkrun times). Also I was the second lady through the line. I was shortly followed by Zara and Daisy who both ran under 25 minutes. read more

More from the MK Festival of Running

MK Festival of Running – Half Marathon

by Coralie Anderson

So, the morning had arrived of the MK Festival of Running Half Marathon.  I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this race.  Having run it twice before I don’t really recollect enjoying the course on either occasion!  However, the last time I ran it three years ago, I got my PB so that was an incentive enough to tackle the course once again.

The day was certainly not a day to even consider a PB given the weather conditions, it was a horrible cold, wet and windy morning.  As I sat in the kitchen eating my marmite on toast (minus the crusts) and drinking a cuppa I was trying to remind myself why I was doing it when I could have had a Sunday lie in!  My sister had travelled up from south London specially to support me so with that in mind we bundled into the car and headed off to MK. read more

The Sea Lion Who Avoided the Water

As the MK Festival of Running approached I kept checking the weather in the week prior and each time I looked it had got worse and worse. This was not a good omen, combined with the gift of a chest infection from my husband it is safe to say I was not looking forward to this race one bit.

As I drove to MK it was pouring with rain and I was utterly miserable, my cough meant I was barking like a sea lion from Whipsnade. It was so bad that my mother had kindly renamed me ‘Samantha the Sea lion’.

My only ambition was to finish and to be honest I was gutted, I wanted to see something for all the marathon training I’d been doing. As we got to the snow dome I was convinced that I was wearing all the wrong kit. I get very hot when I run, but seeing Amy Inchley wearing a jacket, headband and ¾ length tights, I was terrified that I would just freeze. I had a black bin bag fashioned into a dress for the start line just to keep the edge off. read more

The Big Elimination!

Going into the sixth of the seven Stag Trophy races on 1st March, there were still a very large number of people who could technically get into the podium positions. Coming out the other side of the March race, we were down to six!

Recent Wednesday night runs have not been very well attended and for some reason the same applied in this month’s Stag. Having had 35 running back in October we were down to just 15 yesterday. This did include most of the leading contenders but was a little disappointing nonetheless. With the light evening of April fast approaching, hopefully the numbers will return for the final race of the season. read more

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