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

Records at Stag

The Stag Trophy race of October 2016 should go down as breaking a new threshold for LBAC.

I believe 35 runners is a record attendance for our monthly race that has been going since the dawn of the club almost exactly 40 years ago. On top of that, and possibly more importantly there were more women participating than men, with 18 completing the course. Additionally we had a few juniors and a healthy collection from the beginners group so it really did bring everyone together.

With so many new people getting involved at the start of the season it is great to see but had the potential for chaos so thank you to all of those that helped to make it work alongside Dave and Pete. I gather it all worked pretty well. read more

A Gem of a 10K

Gail has done the Standalone 10K on a number of occasions and always said it was a pretty fast course, but generally as a club it hasn’t been on our radar in the past as it means venturing into darkest Hertfordshire without an easy route to get there.

However, our aim to spread the club championship races through the year meant that we thought we’d give it a go this year.

The race is based from Standalone Farm on the outskirts of Letchworth and attracted a field of 1340 runners this year including a band of 13 from LBAC. It is an undulating single loop course and with perfect autumnal weather, our squad was hopeful of some good performances, perhaps even challenging for the team prize in the men’s category. read more

The 35th Leighton 10

Another successful Leighton 10!

Sunday 18th September 2016

After months of planning and organising, Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club held the 35th Leighton 10 road race on Sunday 18th September. As in previous years, the runners were treated with near perfect conditions for a 10 mile race with almost no wind and cool and dry weather

As well as all the 241 happy, smiley runners and the clapping, cheering marshals LBAC would like to thank in particular Methi, Mama Rosa’s and Waitrose for providing local runner and team prizes, Tesco’s for the post-race bananas, Chevron for the finish cones Elevations for the PA System, Vandyke school for the use of their hall and carpark as Race HQ and Benedicts for the much-needed catering at the end of the race. read more

Fairlands Valley 3k Relays

By Annis Turner

As a newer and slower member of LBAC I often approach club races with a slight feeling of trepidation. So I nervously signed myself up to run 3km as part of our ladies’ team. The race takes place once a year at Fairlands Valley Park in Stevenage, attracting many clubs from surrounding areas. Each runner must complete a 3km leg which is a scenic lap of the park. Ladies’ teams complete 3 legs whilst the men complete 5.

On what was luckily a nice evening, 8 dedicated runners travelled to Stevenage to take part in the race (Men’s Team: Elliot, Simon, Pete, Sam and Graham. Ladies Team: Annis, Lorraine and Fiona.) I had set myself two goals for the race: to beat my 1 mile PB (currently 8 minutes) and to finish the 3km leg in under 15 minutes (slightly risky goals considering I hadn’t run in a week). After getting lost on the way back from the toilet with Lorraine, I joined the runners at the start ready to run my leg of the race (the 1st leg). Having checked out the results from previous years I knew I wouldn’t be the slowest runner there so I felt slightly less nervous! I set off thinking that realistically I wouldn’t get my mile PB, however when I looked down at my watch to check my pace I saw the magical number 7. I started to push myself, knowing that if I kept up this pace, I could complete a mile in under 8 minutes. I stared at my watch as I approached the 1-mile mark, I was clearly huffing and puffing as another runner gave me some words of encouragement, to which I replied in excitement “I JUST BEAT MY MILE PB!” My watch read 7:55 but my PB euphoria soon disappeared when I realised I still had to finish the course with 0.8 miles left. The marshals and other runners (including a big cheer from Fiona) were really encouraging and the finish was soon in sight. I check my watch and I was still under 15 minutes so I decided to finish (what felt like) a sprint just to make sure. Based on individual times I finished 88th out of 143 ladies with a time of 14:46 which I was pretty happy with! read more

1 … 27 28 29 30 31 … 138