Sunday 17th November saw 17 Biggleswade AC runners participate in the St Neots Half Marathon, a regular in the running calendar and the last of Biggleswade's Club Championship races. And for a number, it was their first time representing the Club in the half marathon distance. The course starts and finishes in Eynesbury and follows a figure of eight loop through the picturesque villages of Abbotsley and Waresley. It's a popular local race, well organised and which offers fantastic PB potential due to its three mile downhill finish so regularly sells out. Over the years race day has seen a variety of weather conditions, from freezing cold and frosty to unseasonably warm temperatures and brilliant sunshine - but last Sunday proved favourable with the rain holding off and the sun making a welcome appearance.
First to cross the line for BAC and third female overall was Emily Varley with a time of 1:23:21, followed shortly after by Nicholas Sinclair in 1:24:10. For Nicholas this was a huge PB, slicing half an hour off his previous time pre joining BAC. Another member to achieve a PB was Hollie Murtagh with her time of 2:03:43, this follows her performance at the Leighton 10 miler in September where Hollie came away with the Bedfordshire AAA County Championship medal for first place in her age category.
In terms of the Biggleswade AC Championship, St Neots was the last race in the set following on from Doug Anderson 5k, Leighton 10 and Standalone 10k. The Championship Male and Female trophies are determined based on the highest age graded percentage calculated using the WAVA method which considers age, gender and time achieved against the world record timings for the specified distance and respective age groupings and gender profile. This year the BAC trophies went to Paul Swinburne for his time of 1:33:55 and an age graded percentage of 72%, whilst Emily took the female trophy with her percentage of 79%. Congratulations to all!
Full results https://my.raceresult.com/300022/
(Photos by Bev Strong)
