Continued improvement from Mark

In November 2015 Mark Adkins ran his first Stag trophy race in 20.32 and finished near the back of the field. A year on and having now completed six of the 2.5 mile handicap races, he has six PB’s to show for his efforts and is fast approaching the 18 minute mark.

Yesterday’s time of 18.15 earned him fourth place on the night but takes him into an early lead in the overall standings. Nothing much should be read into it yet as the trophy could still be taken home by someone who hasn’t even run a race yet this season. His closest challenger is Nikki Inchley, 2 points behind, who came home second last night to follow-up her fifth place from the October race. It’s Nikki’s first proper season of running for about 15 years, but is rapidly improving. read more

Gone to the Dogs

Olney Squeaky Bone Relay

by Sam Dear

Having run this last year for the first time, Andy had been hounding people from the club to enter a team this year it seemed like he was barking up the wrong tree so entered his own team joint with MKAC (Milton Buzzards). Finally, having got their act together, it was down to Dan, Jo, Laura and Sam to step up to the plate as the Leighton Buzzard Bulldogs.

The race is a 4 person team taking on a 3.5 off-road lap each near Olney, just north-east of MK. With almost 100 teams of all abilities it’s a good mix meaning that every dog can have his day here. read more

A Weird and Wonderful Half

Oxford Half 2016

by Jo Sharples

The 2016 Vitality Oxford half marathon was to be my first 13.1 this year, having raced nearly every other distance. It is also my second time at this event, but my first time running this course as they’d revised the course last year. My previous experience in 2014 had the race starting in the Kassam Stadium and also included the Iffley Road running track where Sir Roger Bannister ran his famous sub-4min mile. I had loved everything about that race, so this year’s had a lot to live up to. read more

Marathon Majors

’twas a night before Christmas 2014 when a small group of Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes runners were out celebrating the end of a fine year of running. Young Pete Mackrell had run a new marathon PB of 2:40:29 in Cologne in September and followed that up with a fine 2:42:04 in a bitterly cold and windy New York two months later….New York marathon…..one of the six marathon majors….one beer led to another, and another beer (or three) led Pete to an idea….a wild idea….’what if I could run all six marathon majors in a two year period he questioned?’ ‘Don’t be silly,’ said Gary, ‘you’ll never do that!’ read more

Loch Ness Marathon

Loch Ness Marathon

by Conn Bardi

10th February 2012 – the beginning of my diagnosis with fibromyalgia
25th September 2016 – I ran my first marathon, in Loch Ness.

My journey into running took off in February 2016. I cycled a lot up to then, but it used to leave me tired – both physically and mentally. Physically because it simply did not agree with me. Mentally, because I had to deal with traffic, cars, roundabouts. With the aggression on the roads on the increase, going for a ride became a chore. So my running jaunts in my old pair of trainers became more frequent. The jog round the block grew into a commuter-run. The commuter run turned into a longer trail round my town on my rest days. In time, distances that left me sounding like a nuisance caller, were not challenging enough. My body was growing stronger, my energy levels were rising, and – unlike cycling – I was not dodging cars. The bike was left parked and a new pair of trainers took its place. I learnt about parkruns, gait analysis, and wondered why 6.2 mile races were called 10k. read more

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