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This is the week that was…… Trail Races & Ultras
This is the week that was... Trail Races & Ultras After last week’s successful races in St Albans and at the Greensands Ultra, you guys got your race trainers on again this week and there were, as usual, some great performances. Kicking the week off were Wayne Walker and Lynda Peacock who raced the Cattle Creep 10k in Milton Keynes. This appeared to be a warm up for a bigger (and much longer) event over the weekend! On Sunday Andy Griggs donned his “GRIGGSY'' LFR top and ran the Eastbourne 10k in a very respectable 52mins41, well done Andy! Moving a little closer to home (just) were Mike Garner and James Bassil who ran the Hoppit Half trail Marathon in Basingstoke. James ran the race in 2hr03 and Eddy 2hr28. There were reports of mountain size hills on the course! I’m not sure if ‘Bleeding Nipples’ are classed as an injury but this is the second reporting in two weeks. Gents, we need to talk about compression tops or other preventative measures!!! Representing the ladies at this event was Jo Secker who took on the full marathon... I think this is Jo’s 3rd weekend in a row of over 20 mile races!!! Way to go Jo! The LFR Ultra runners were out again in force over the weekend with Tasmyn Simpkins, Wayne Walker and Lynda Peacock taking part in the MK24 Event. An event where you run a set distance or as far as you can over the 24 hour period. Tasmyn and Lynda both ran 50km or 31 miles. A huge achievement from both of you! This was Tasmyn's longest run to date. At the same event, Wayne did something quite remarkable and ran an impressive 69 miles in the 24 hour period. For those modernists amongst you, that’s 111 kilometres. I’m not sure what you eat for breakfast Wayne, but I want whatever you’re on! I hope you are all blister and injury free... More ultra runners were out a little further afield with Anne Mason, Emma Davis, Lesley Wes and Niki Casey all completing the 53 mile Ultra “Race to the King”, which takes in the glorious South Downs Way from Goodwood in Sussex down to the magnificent Winchester Cathedral. Well done guys! This sounds like an awesome event and one that might just be on others race list for next year now. Finally, in Nottinghamshire, Mark Kleanthous completed the Holme Pierrpont, half distance triathlon at an Outlaw event. That's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile cycle followed up with a Half Marathon, well done Mark!
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This is the week that was…… The St. Albans Half & an Ultra!!!
This is the week that was........ The St. Albans Half & An Ultra! As we continue to be blessed with this lovely weather, Nolan Johnson maintained his recovery programme with an easy run along Southend Pier. As the world's longest pier at 1.33 miles, I wonder if it has its own Strava segment? Hopefully we’ll be seeing you soon on club runs Nolan! With the MK Marathon weekend and Greensands relay race just two weeks away, training runs continued at a pace, with many of you out very early over the weekend to try and avoid the sapping heat. 13 seemed to be the magic number... Chris Stenner completed a 13 mile run as he finished his training plan from Coach Annis for MK Half, and VC Andy and Coach Matt also ran 13 miles as they continued to taper for the MK Marathon. Scott and Adam were again seen out on the roads and trails around Dunstable Downs, bagging another 13 miles with both now ready for MK and Adam will continue with his long term training for London in October. GSRR team members have been busy on their recce runs. On Saturday Sam Heady and Michelle Evans-Riches had a lot of fun in the sun as they ran Leg 5, and Richard checked out leg 2 again for a second time. On Sunday, Kirsty Stocks and Jo Hogg ran Leg 1 (then turned around and ran back again for a 10 mile total), whilst Ash Henley and Phil Brogan met up at Deadman’s Cross and ran Leg 6. This I believe just leaves Mike Clarke and I to recce Leg 3, which happens to be longest leg (9 miles), Woburn to Millbrook. The two teams will then be all prepared and ready to represent LFR on the day! Anne Graff ran 11 miles around Leighton Buzzard getting to try out the newly repaired bridge around the back of Astral, whilst Graham Cooper ran 11 miles taking in all the climbs of the town! Kevin Hare completed his monthly half marathon and out in the villages Tom Ellerton partnered up with Richard Heady for 14 miles, but Richard then rounded it up to 20 miles! Two of our long serving members who have moved out of the area raced at the weekend. Katy Garnham Lee finished her 52nd Marathon The Enigma Guitar Heroes in MK and Paul Little took part in the Nene Valley 20, all in his continued preparation for The Lakeland 100 in July. Sunday came and so did the St. Albans Half Marathon Will Langdon celebrating a new half marathon PB at 1hr37, huge congratulations Will! Though for his efforts he was rewarded with a bleeding nip! Ouch!! Will wasn't the only LFR there; Eddy Guinness completed the event in 2hr09 with William Harry just a minute behind at 2hr10. All 3 are running MK Half in 2 weeks time and are probably hoping for cooler weather on race day! Suki Joy was also there and finished in 2hr46; Well done Suki, you are well on your way to London now! Greensands Country 50km Trail Ultra Marathon also took place on Sunday. Alena Fielding completed her first Ultra in a brilliant 7 hours and 27 minutes. Jo Secker was also there finishing the course in a very respectable 8 hours and 14 minutes. An incredible achievement from both of you, especially in this heat!
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This is the week that was…… The Watchless 5!!!
This is the week that was........ The Watchless 5!!! Considering the weather had been so awful, it was great to see so many of you still commit to the club runs. Once again the trail runs are the popular choice, with the new favourite being the Heady Farm run, they missed the rain but splashed through waterlogged fields for 5 miles! On Gavin’s midweek run around the quarry we were fortunate to have glorious rare sunshine and on Thursday Dougie stood in for Andy Heale and took his group across the fields to Wing. On Friday we had two runs going out with Captain Emily treating her gang to a new route around Totternhoe with great views, while Vicky Green took a second group out around the quarry. On Saturday's run Michelle entertained her group to trails with emus and wallabies! Thank you to all our run leaders who give up their time every week to make these great runs possible! As we got to the weekend it would appear that some of you have managed to get away for a break, pack your running kit and find some sunshine. In the picture perfect setting of Croyde, Devon, Nicola Daley shared with us a beautiful view of her well earned post run cocktail and Alex Nixon ran 10 very hilly kilometres along the Jurassic Coast. Keeping runs closer to home Coach Matt was back on the long runs with 19 miles in cracking 2:26. Elle Laird volunteered at the local junior parkrun with a run there and back making it a 14 mile Sunday. In the villages, Tom Ellerton, Paul House and Richard Heady teamed up and completed a trail run of 14.5 miles. In Peterborough, Wayne Walker completed marathon number 79….. and proudly ran it in our LFR colours, well done Wayne! Congratulations to Lynda Peacock who completed the same marathon in Peterborough. How many is that for you Lynda?! Now the main event... The Watchless 5 Finally, after over a year we were able to host an internal event for you guys! All the prepping and planning went according to plan, the volunteers came forward, entries were received, cakes were baked, the rain stayed away and then the clock started to tick! 31 of you turned up on Sunday morning to run the new out & back 5 mile quarry route, it was said to be testing, nicely undulating, a few kissing gates to contend with and even the odd LBAC runner on the same path! Our wonderful Marshalls cheered you on, snapped photos and took some fun videos, Steve Molyneaux gave us all a cheeky flash and as far as the reports came through I believe everyone stayed upright!! In true LFR style we had a great selection of members taking part from our fabulous social runners to our equally fabulous faster runners, and everyone in between! Our team was described as a snake of red and black as they weaved their way around the course. Kevin Hare missed his start time, and had to run the race of his life to get close to 11am, and to give him credit he was super quick in an attempt to make up for lost time, the wooden spoon most definitely went to Paul Thomas who came in 6 min 38 sec too fast! That was incredibly impressive though! William Langdon estimated an optimistically fast time for the tricky route, yet went ahead and ran it even faster! A big shout out to Jenny Hogan who completed the 5 miles, saying it was the furthest she'd ran in a very long time! 3rd place came in the form of Nicki Atkinson who was only 15 seconds slow, Clare Kleanthous came is 2nd place at just 12 seconds too slow. 1st place went to one of our newest members, Tom Webster who was just 8 seconds too fast! Well done Tom! As we looked through the photos yesterday the one thing that was consistent through out all of you was your super big smiles! Everyone said how happy they were to be at a club event once again after so long, surrounded by running buddies doing what we all love. Thank you to everyone!
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