Alongside a raft of other races and marathons Yaxley Runner’s Dean Longman has completed the Scott Series of Ultra Marathons. Dean was one of only eight runners to complete all four races in the series.

He started the year with a run from Buckinghamshire into Central London a distance of forty five miles, Dean had a quick follow up with a February fifty (yes fifty) miler from Oxford to Henley. The series moved on to Lamport, closer to home in Northants in June for a thirty five mile race. The series finished on Saturday in the intriguingly named Studley Roger, a hilly circular run again of thirty five miles in the Yorkshire Dales a race Dean reasonably described as hilly.

Most people would be happy with that with 165 miles covered. Not Dean, he now takes on the Autumn 100 (miles) in two weeks time!

This year’s mens club championship finished with a thrilling finale at the timed mile on Wednesday 24th May. It is not often that the title comes down to the last race of the championship season. This time around Steve Joy-Good led Mike Branston by 4 points coming into the final race. The race started at a furious pace with Mike Morley, Joe Wright, Mike Branston and Rob Sleight initially leading Steve Joy-Good. Rob soon fell away leaving the aforementioned four quickies to battle it out. Steve eventually caught Joe, only to see Mike Branston overtake Mike Morley on lap 3. At that point it looked as though the championship would be going to Mike Branston but last year’s champion Mike Morley kicked strongly on the last lap to finish first by a 2 second margin and dash Mike Branston’s hopes. It was a cruel blow for Branston who ran a stunning 5 minutes 14 seconds. So congratulations to Steve Joy-Good who claims his first club championship trophy by a margin of 2 points.The ladies championship was dominated by Sharron Toms, who had claimed the title several weeks ago.

What do the names Sigrunn Ekkje, Anna-Maria Seper-Krenn, Kerry Gruson and Marie Edstrom have in common?

The answer is that they were the only runners in the world to beat Yaxley Runners Barbara Johnson in her age category at last weekend’s global Wings for Life race. The race was held at twenty-five venues across the world with the U.K race in the beautiful city of Cambridge.

Barbara was competing alongside other Yaxley ladies Emily Hawke and Kate Johnstone and she was able to run 19.33km before the chasing car driven by ex-F1 driver David Coulthard caught her.

Not only was she 5th in the world she won the UK race by some distance, around 9km in front of her nearest challenger.

Barbara is used to success in local races, but now she is a national champion and the club couldn’t be more proud.

The races that will form the 2017/18 Club Championship are as listed below.

The committee has again looked to provide a variety of distances and surfaces and to support the Frostbite with two races in the championship.

June NVH 5k (June 7th at Ferry Meadows)

July Wellingborough 5 mile

Sept Swineshead 10 mile

Oct GER

Dec Hinchingbrooke Frostbite

Jan Cambs XC

Feb Bourne Frostbite

March Oakley 20;

April Timed Mile

May Langtoft 10km.

This years London Marathon saw twelve Yaxley Runners take part in very warm conditions. There were some excellent results which included PBs for David Whitwell and Kevin Peel and fast times set by first time marathoners Jason Corden, Ruth Pollard, Leah Capon and Natasha Jacob.

Three runners had doubled up in London with Mike Morley facing the heat of the coast at Brighton (3:09) plus the heat of London’s streets in 3:11. Matt Lauch and Claire Piercy took on the trans-Atlantic double competing in Boston and London with Matt struggling with injury achieving 3:34 in Boston and 3:28 in London. Claire achieved a superb sub-4 hour double with 3:57 in the USA and an even faster run in London of 3:49.

On the same day as Boston the rival race run in the Lincolnshire town saw more success for Caroline Woods who ran a speedy 3:16:59.

Given it was a Bank Holiday cool overcast conditions were guaranteed and Yaxley Runners took to the streets, underpasses and lakes of Milton Keynes today and achieved some strong results.

Steve Joy-Good lead home the Yaxley contingent with an amazing seventeen minute PB in 3:27:44 with Rob Sleight running whilst injured finished in the football stadium in 3:48:40. Ian Vallance completed his 17th marathon of the year in 4:18:34 and will surely be receiving a bill from the local council for wear and tear on their streets given this was his 14th marathon of 2017 in MK.

Yaxley Runners put in their best ever performance at the season finale Frostbite race at Jubilee Park Sunday 12 March. Fielding a very strong team, several all time records were broken. The lowest points total ever of 543 beating the previous best set in February 1994 of 624. Three runners in the first ten for the first time ever, Simon Hearty 4th, James Mogridge 7th and Matt Lauch 10th. Caroline Woods (65th) was the first lady for the third time in her Frostbite career and remains the only Yaxley lady to achieve this feat.  There was highest ever finishes in Frostbites for Steve Joy-Good (51st) and David Whitwell (75th) to mention a couple.

The team finished a very close second on the day only 21 points behind Hunts AC but crucially move up into third place in the league table securing a trophy for the first time in their 30 year history! 

Well done to all that completed the folksworth 15 today, some great conditions for running and some great times had by lots of the field. Link to results http://www.whatsmytime.co.uk/index.php/race-results/2016-12-20-13-55-43/2016-12-20-13-56-57/folksworth-15 

Full results will be e-mailed out to runners tonight Gav

Yaxley runners capped an action packed weekend with their best finish at a Frostbite since October 2014. The senior team finished joint 3rd after unusually finishing on equal points with Nene Valley Harriers. James Mogridge finished in 2nd place for the 6th time in Frostbite races. Caroline Woods was the second lady overall to finish , coming in 85th. A number of the team had been celebrating at the club’s Christmas Party the night before but it didn’t seem to dent the performances. The rest of the team were Matt Lauch 15th, Mike Morley 28th, Mike Branston 64th, Joe Wright 70th, Hugh Burton 88th, Keith McCarthy 89th, Gina Crane 110th, Steve Joy-Good 124th, Rob Sleight 153rd, Roslyn Loutit 176th, Don Brazier 180th, Claire Piercy 189th, Ian Vallance 214th, Paul McCarthy 221st, Anna Mogridge 223rd, Simon Moyle 322nd, Sharron Toms 323rd, Barbara Johnson 326th, Jo Slade 327th, Karen Freeman 324th, Nina Wright 348th, Anna Devine 360th, Emily Hawke 391st, Kate Johnstone 401st, Jayne Stringer 414th, Jean Maggs 415th and Jack Little 416th. Those doing the party race double are shown in bold.

A big well done to our 2 winners of the Male and Female runners of the Bi-Monthly for August and September – Emily Hawke and Mike Branston.  Both have had some amazing runs over the past couple of months.

Congratulations guys, keep up the good work and training