This is the week that was... The Beer Mile & So Much More!
The traditional Beer Mile event kicked off the weekend on Friday evening at the track of dreams AKA Astral park. The sun shone gloriously and the LFR masses were there to support the 17 runners who took to the start line, with only 2 ladies in the mix! Mike Garner was first away after beer no.1, with Matthew Ladds never too far away. Jack Heaver was soon regretting his BBQ an hour before, though to give him credit, he did manage to keep everything down. We learnt that although Will Langdon can run incredibly fast and drink pretty well, however, he most definitely cannot do the two combined! Dawn Kennedy kept her 1st lady home title staying nicely steady throughout the mile. It’s fair to say that both present and past Chairman’s Andy Heale and Steve Ellerton weren’t too hot at combining the two! Kudos to Jenny Hogan who kept going to the bitter end! The winner... Matthew Ladds stormed home in a time of 7 minutes and 42 seconds which included the drinking time! Mike Garner took 2nd and Matthew Ma came in 3rd. Until next year, team, you’ve got plenty of time to practise!
Saturday started off with VC Dougie leading a long run around The Buzzard with Sagar, Nic and Gavin. Half the group were still recovering from the previous night’s exercise at Astral Park! The Linslade Parks Run continued on with some new recruits joining Dave and Christine for their first time. With some hope and a bit of luck, we can all dig out our barcodes and return to the real thing from this weekend! Click HERE to find out where the parkruns are running near us.
We headed into Sunday with the mercury hitting 30 degrees. We had two teams in the LBAC organised Round Milton Keynes Relay. LFR Team Go Nearly Nuts consisting of Sam Heady, Tom and Steve Ellerton, Matthew Ma and Dan Green came a brilliant 3rd place and just a few seconds off 2nd place. A great achievement. Team LFR All Stars consisting of Elle Laird, Matt Gilbert, Andy Heale, Will Langdon and myself who also put in a strong performance.
Finding events further afield was Andy Griggs who put in another strong 10k performance at the Chester 10k. With 3,000 participants, it’s great to see racing and numbers continue to increase. Well done Andy, where is the next race?
A little closer to home, Jen Garner, James Basil and Mike Garner took part in the self navigated Fairlands Valley Challenge Half. It looked very picturesque (once you got out of Stevenage). Again, a huge well done completing the 13 mile course in the heat. I’m sure you 3 had a lot of fun. But where was Will Burchell?
The award for the furthest run away from HQ this week goes to Alex Nixon who seemed to be putting in some effort in Majorca. Well done Alex.
With the warm weather encouraging some of you to take on different forms of exercise over the weekend, it was good to see plenty of LFR’s take a dip in the open water lake at Box End. I hope to be reporting on successful triathlons over the weekend of 31st July and 1st August. On two wheels, Kevin Hare joined Michelle Evans-Riches and Deborah Macpherson on a pleasant ride out to Tring, and heading toward the hills of the Kimpton for a 50 miler were The Captain, JK and Peter Jones.
Next week sees the return of the CONTI-24 and the epic Lakeland 100 and I look forward to updating you on how our members get on. In the meantime, continue to enjoy the summer sun, enjoy your holidays if you are getting away and hope to see some of you on the streets or trails next week.