A Dirty Half!

Dirt Half Challenge

by Lisa Bowyer

The day had finally arrived! With some preparation under my belt I felt slightly confident that I could get my aim of under 2 hours. This was my second half marathon and the first was in MK in May with a time of 1 hour 57 mins. So with the weather man saying expect “hellish rain” I was expecting the conditions to be tough!

Rocking a black sack, I arrived a the start to see all the LBAC lads ready right at the front on the starting line. They all looked keen and ready to race! “Join us here” they said. I didn’t as I thought I would be the slow one in the way at the front of the pack so went a bit further back (big regret!). I should of started with them and gone to the side and used the field to get my pace. I got stuck in clumps of people and it wasn’t until Tesco that I felt like I had cleared out of a pack and got a good pace going. It’s a nice canal run up to the Three Locks with plenty of support along the way. read more

No Tears But A Few Drops

Saturday started out wet and windy when our dedicated team of volunteers led by Richard arrived at the course to continue the set-up that had begun on Friday. Waterproofs had been donned by most people as the rain was not due to cease until mid-afternoon and there was a lot of work to be done to make another successful event.

Now Richard works very hard on the fixture and as we all know has added in the additional stress of the cross-challenge for the last two years, just for the extra difficulty, but he loves it really. He definitely couldn’t do it without all the help from other people both within our club and outside though. There are too many to mention everyone here, but from everyone who was able to run instead of having to man a car park or marshalling point, thank you very much to those who gave up their day to do exactly that. You may not feel appreciated as we run past scowling, but you are. read more

The Trend Continues

The November Stag Trophy race continued the recent trend of debutants winning at the first attempt and this month it was the turn of Lisa Bowyer. She was the first of 26 finishers which represents another excellent turn-out.

Lisa started training with the club around the end of the last Stag season and has improved hugely over the course of the summer. She was delighted with her 19.02 last night, as she never imagined running that fast, but as we all know the best Stag times come after a bit of experience is gained and she will undoubtedly run much faster. read more

Squeaking the Bone

By Andy Inchley

Some of you may have noticed an event in the calendar called The Squeaky Bone Relay. This is a cross-country relay that has been organised by Olney Runners since 2010 and has grown from 15 teams in the first year to over 100 in 2015.

It’s not one that we have ever done as a club, but when some friends from MKAC started to get teams together I thought I’d sign up with them and check it out on our behalf, just in case we fancied it in 2016.

It takes place in the village / hamlet of Clifton Reynes near Emberton and Olney and utilises the farmland around there by permission of a friendly farmer. We are not talking about point to point relays like Greensand or Round MK but a simple four-person team where everyone does the same 3.5 mile route which is taped and marshalled like any other cross-country, so there is no reconnoitring required, you can just rock up! read more

Bucks 10,000m Champs

By Elliot Hind

After what seemed like an eternity out injured with a nasty ankle ligament tear (forcing my football retirement) I spent the summer targeting my 5k time.  Specifically working hard on leg speed and weight loss I made real progress; going from 19.04 on the flat Aylesbury parkrun on 23 May to breaking 17 minutes four times at the end of summer (fastest 16.37 at Leicester Braunstone parkrun on 5 September).

I had a really good week at the Tour of MK finishing 4th and was feeling good.  I wanted to have one final running aim before getting married on 26 September and spotted the Bucks 10k track championships in Aylesbury on 23 September.  I changed my training slightly to do slightly longer reps and felt about as ready as I could be. read more

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