Sandy 10 – 2012

As the sun shone down on Leighton Buzzard today, it really felt like spring had arrived as eleven merry club members made their way over to Sandy for the first of the 2012 club and county road race championships. However, as we headed east and crossed the M1 a mist descended and the 13 degrees of LB turned into 4 as we reached the far side of the county. This somewhat reduced our enthusiasm for shorts and vests, but most chose to brave the conditions anyway!

The course at Sandy is effectively a spoon shape with 3.5 miles out, followed by a 3 mile loop and the same 3.5 miles back in. This means the hill that you curse on after just a mile becomes a good friend at 8.5 if you have anything left to give. With a little bit of good pacing it can be an extremely fast course and ideal for negative splits (running the second half faster than the first). The race is on rural roads on the Cambridgeshire border and attracts the maximum 500 entries in recent years, with 476 finishing on this occasion. read more

British Masters Indoors

This was the 29th meeting of the Championships with over 600 entrants over the 2 days.

 

Being part of my World Indoor build up I ran the 1500 on Saturday winning Gold in a time 5 seconds quicker than last year and faster than I’ve run for several years indoors or out so was delighted with 5 mins 13.24. However I did pay for it in the 3000 on Sunday as my legs really felt like they had run a marathon!

 

Having taken 3 seconds of my British Record last weekend in the Southern Counties Championships I knew it would be tough. I started off well on target but with very tired legs could not find anything extra, although I did manage to better my time it was only by a whisker. Still every little helps as they say! My British W55 Indoor Record now stands at 11 mins 01.3. read more

Stag Brings PB’s Galore

On what was a perfect night for running this Wednesday we had to feel very sorry for Kirk Swann and Laurie Parr. They both ran very well and gained new personal best times for the Stag course, but neither were anywhere near the top ten, as eight other people also gained PB's.

The winner on the night for the second time in two months was Helen Crossland, whose 25.22 was 1.40 quicker than her previous best. She was followed home by Charlie Mead and Joe McGarry who have both finished the cross-country season strongly and clearly had a battle all the way around this penultimate Stag of the season, with Charlie just sneaking under 16 minutes. read more

Beginners Sessions

Later this year the club intends to host some beginner runner sessions. The idea behind these is to provide an environment whereby new or lapsed runners can feel more comfortable away from the pressure of meeting up with the Wednesday regulars. To host these sessions we are looking for people to lead them, which is where you may be able to help. Ideally we are looking for several dedicated leaders who are able to commit to a fixed time every week for an initial period of around 8 weeks. The time and day of the week for the sessions will be chosen by those wanting to lead them. If successful we will look to hold more sessions later in the year. read more

Indoor Efforts

While most people were out enjoying running in the glorious March weather last weekend our president was sweating it out on the track at the Southern Vets meeting in preparation for next weeks national championships.

Gail was a little bit disappointed with her first race of the day, as she clocked 2.44 for the 800m but this is a little short for her and there weren't many in the race either. Just two hours later she was back on the track for the 3000m in which she ran just under 11:02. Now whether you know anything about track running or not, the fact is this beat Gail's own national record over the distance by a clear three seconds. In Gail's words; "Happy with that!" read more

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