Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club

In recent months, Gail Duckworth has led the world for the 3000m at the F55 age group as far as times are concerned. Lats year she took two silver medals at the European outdoor championships in Hungary and has won numerous cross-country titles. With her reputation now going before her, she went off to Ghent in Belgium last week for the European Masters Indoor championships as the firm favourite.

Gail's race was on Wednesday afternoon, which was the first day of the five day event for all the leading athletes from Europe aged over 35. Gail is running just about as well now as she ever has and arrived in Belgium full of confidence that she could take her first international track title. However, as the time got nearer the pressure of being favourite gradually built and she arrived at the venue with a lot of nerves. However, she kept herself calm and as she stepped on the track she knew she was ready to go. read more

There were nine personal best times in the March Stag Trophy race, which was the penultimate one of the season. First home was Jane Sauer with a huge PB by over a minute to take the 25 points. There were five of the U16 members of the club who ran once again, and all five of them achieved a new PB, with Jake Irvine just pipping Joe McGarry for second place on the night.

Prior to the race, there were three people who could take the title, with Steve Orlando the strong favourite with 112 points in the bag. Ian Grimshaw was one of the challengers, but needed to win the race to stay in contention, so despite another PB after a hard race with Andy Inchley, his 7^th place has left him fighting for the minor medals. However, another big PB by Dan Webb saw him splitting the junior members and coming home 4^th on the night for 22 points. This result just about keeps him battling with Steve for the top prize. read more

Over the weekend of 11^th/12^th/13^th March two Hobbs embarked on their second in what seems to becoming a bi-annual challenge. Over the Easter weekend in 2009, Bernie and Joby Hobbs (accompanied by Joby’s friend Chris) ran the length of the Kennet and Avon Canal from Bristol to Reading. Why? Well Joby had decided that it was about time he saw more of the canal after years of training along the same stretch of canal between Bradford-on-Avon and Bath. Bernie agreed and the rest became history… 89 miles completed in 4 days. read more

By Jane Sauer

First thing on Sunday 13^th March it was cold, damp and overcast, but not raining (yet)!  As I forced down my cereal I felt physically sick, as I was so nervous about running my first ever 20 mile race.  Fred had decided not to run, as he'd unfortunately not been too well during the week, which made me the only LBAC member running the Finchley 20.  As I started to look for excuses as to why I might not be able to go after all, I had to have a little word with myself to remind me that this was actually just another training run (and a very important one to show me how close to, or far from my target of running a four hour marathon in four weeks time I really was).  Training runs had so far convinced me that I was a long way off target and my estimated time to complete this race was 3 hours 10 (or possibly even 15) minutes, although I really wanted to do it in 3 hours. read more

The athletes of LBAC spread themselves around the country this weekend in their search for races for a variety of reasons.

First up on Friday was the start of Joby Hobbs crazy attempt to run the full length of the 89 mile long Ridgeway in 3 days! We shall get a report of his efforts once his body and brain have started working properly again!

On a more sensible note, Gail Duckworth went to Birmingham on saturday for the British Masters national Cross-country at Perry Park. Now those of us that finished our cross-country season wading through the mud of Wing and Alton Towers would not recognise such an event as Gail didn't even wear spikes! This was a nice treat for her as she ran around three 2K laps with all of the other veteran women and the V65 men. read more