Beds and Bucks AA Cross Country Championship by Captain Dan

Not another Cross Country Race I hear you ask! Not more mud, hills, wind and rain! Not more cake! Well no, not this time, it was a new adventure for Leighton Fun Runners.

As a club we have never signed up to the County Athletics Association until this year.  It enables us to attend three more race as a club and not just any races, but races where there are prizes for awesome achievements! On Saturday 6th January we took a team of 12 to the Shuttleworth Collection in Old Warden for the county cross country championships.  There are races for juniors (which was pretty scary to see how fast those in the sub 17 category actually were!), races for men and races for ladies.  We set up our flag and looked more at home than we actually felt when we saw others warming up.

Bang, the men’s race started at 1pm with a paid starter using a proper tatters pistol which we were all shocked by rather than blasting off accords the field.  Nine LFR men took to the damp grass with every bit of effort they could muster. Dai, our only over 60’s representative had three laps to complete whilst the rest were required to run four times round the field. Now I’m pretty top notch with my maths but after Strava announced that we had reached two miles and we couldn’t see the end of lap one, I knew it would hurt!

After four laps and 8.6 miles we finally finished (rather than 7m) exhausted and in need of a drink! The ladies were next up at 2pm and with all other clubs just wandering off, we were stood at the finish cheering our two runners on in our usual LFR manner in the cold. By the way, the ladies 8k turned into 10k by the end of their third lap.

It was now cold but we’d had a great time and showed the rest what LFR are about. What more could we do but head to the Crown in Northill for a few beers and to warm up. A huge thank you to our support team including the injured Steve Harrison and his family.

It wasn’t until that evening that I received an email from a shocked LBAC official confirming the medal winners and here’s what it said:

Ladies vet 45 2nd place – Janice
Ladies vet 40 3rd place – Dawn
Men’s vet 60 – 2nd place – Dai
Men’s vet 50 – 2nd place – Andrew
Men’s vet team – 3rd – Dan, Andrew, Steve E, James, Kevin and Rich

Then this week I attended the county athletics committee meeting to find out what other races we may partake in and was given an envelope of bling to handout this coming Tuesday evening.

So, is it worthwhile entering such events, of course it is. Is it value for money, of course at £8. Are we going to do it again….HELL YEAH, but next time we need at least another 4 or 5 members.

Next chance for a medal is the 10k road race in Bedford on Friday 20th July. There is also a great chance for a pb at 5k with a track race on Sunday 13th May at Bedford.  Look out for the details.

GO LFR!