First, a little bit of history.

LBAC has a long history of running the Greensand Ridge. Back in 1987 we set established a record for running the length of the newly established route all the way from Gamlingay. At the bottom of this report there is an extract from a newsletter at the time, with a rare mention for Mrs Inchley (Snr)! This original relay was done in pairs, with a senior club member and a junior on every leg.

This record of just over five hours was then exchanged with a couple of other clubs for a few years, but in the meantime SMOC (South Midlands Orienteering Club) had set up their own relay race between them and some other local orienteering clubs. In these pre-internet days we were unaware of the race, even when Ampthill and Flitwick Flyers became the first running club to get involved in 1991. read more

The BMAF is the British Masters Athletic Federation. They organise a number of events across the country, targeted at the more mature athlete! The cover all aspects of athletics and embrace all age-groups from 35 years and up. In the UK the traditional age to be a Vet is 40, but around the world 35 is the consistent threshold to start looking at people of your own age and the term “Masters” tends to be used rather than veteran.

Anyway. The BMAF national relays have been going on for a long time and usually take place in Sutton park in Birmingham. We have considered doing them a few times, but haven’t really pushed it. However, with this year’s unusual situation, there was no reason why we couldn’t join in with the virtual version in our own back yard. read more

Treble Relay success in 24 hours for LBAC!

Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club had success over the weekend from two different relay competitions. Firstly, a group travelled down to Wiltshire to attend the inaugural RunFestRun festival at Bowood House. Organised by Chris Evans and Vassos Alexander, the event is a festival with all things running, including inspirational and motivational talks by the likes of Jo Pavey and Fearne Cotton and races throughout the weekend from 2.5km up to a half marathon including a family fun run on the Sunday to score points for your team. Team captains included Natasha Evans, Paula Radcliffe, Colin Jackson and Steve Cram and it was great fun mixing with some athletics heroes before the musical entertainment from Razorlight and Olly Murs hit the stage. The last running event on the Saturday was a 4 person running club relay with 1.3km loops around the festival site. LBAC’s team of Stuart Read,Tom Inchley, Jo Sharples and Sam Dear took on 59 other teams from around the country and were comfortably in second place through the first three legs. However, with Steve Cram commentating from the Main Stage to the entire festival, they managed to catch and overtake the leading team with 200m to go to take the unexpected win as the golden ticker tape exploded into the air. Closer to home on the Sunday, the local Dunstable Downs Relay, organised by Dunstable Road Runners, is for teams of 3 completing a lap of trail Kensworth Quarry each. Having won the mixed team last prize year, LBAC were back to try to reclaim their title and managed to win the overall and mixed team prize with Peter Mackrell coming home in first place with Sam Dear and Jo Sharples already having run the earlier legs. The other victory on the day for LBAC was for Ruth Mitchell, Coralie Anderson and Amy Farnfield who were the fastest ladies team. Congratulations to all those involved over both days and a big thank you to the organisers for some great events!