Snow, wind and driving rain were the order of the day this weekend, but our athletes showed the weather who’s boss when Team Blizard tackled fell races, cross country, tough road races and even indoor events!

It was a weekend of character building races for our Team Blizard brigade, with perhaps the hardiest athlete of all being Barlick FR’s Matt Lalor, who won the Hoofstones fell race on Saturday, despite taking a wrong turn on the unmarked course and having to sit back until the final checkpoint!

Driving hail failed to stop the mountain running ace, who followed up his 8.2m win - which included 1200ft elevation - with a 16m run at 6.30 pace the following day!

The race involved complete self-navigation, taking competitors to the highest point around Todmorden - the Hoofstones Heights Trig Point, so Matt’s achievement needs to be lauded for his sheer grit and determination!

‘Proper’ cross country runners were also in action in the regional championships this weekend, with Doncaster fielding a number of athletes at the Blackburn event, which saw snow fall on the thousands that took part!

Nene Valley Harriers’ Yvonne Scarrott posted yet another prize-winning time at the tough Freethorpe 10m in Norfolk, with her 68:43 earning her the top V45 prize as well as bringing her in fourth lady overall! Her time was also a mere 50 seconds outside her lifetime best, meaning she is edging ever closer to buying Coach Dave Tune some well deserved PB wine!

She said: “It would have been a PB, but the Norfolk head wind and driving rain in the last mile cost me 29 seconds, and it was over distance!”

Over at the Brass Monkey 10k near Corby, newly lactate-tested athlete Lee Whitton from Eye Community Runners run a strong 42:21 on a very windy, open course, just 24 hours after a decent parkrun in Peterborough!

One of the performances of the weekend, though, came from our elite track star, Kristie Edwards, who ran one of the best races of her life, representing England in the Indoor International championships in Vienna.

Running a big SB of 24:24 and finishing third overall in the final of the 200m, she was over the moon with her performance: “I was super happy representing England for the first time as a senior and to win my race, get a new SB and finish third overall! Everything seems to be going the right way!”

It won’t be long before our Kristie is beating her all time PB of 23:98, and we will be supporting her every step of the way at Blizard!

Last but not least, also competing indoors was Sheffield’s Rob Jones, who tackled his first ever track race ‘on the boards’ at the city’s open event, clocking a very respectable 5:15 over the 7.5 laps for the 1500m.

Our Team Blizard athletes are an incredibly varied bunch, competing on every surface possible this weekend, but one thing they all have in common - they all know that #lactatetrainingpaysoff!