On Saturday night at a dinner at her golf club, my wife found herself talking to someone who runs with Dorking and Mole Valley AC. On learning I’m with the Puffers he told Won Kyong that it was a pity that I wasn’t there as he could have teased me about running with an ‘Oldies Club.’ My comment to Won Kyong on being told this was ‘Let’s see the results tomorrow.’ We now have them, and for the record, on the day we were third overall, very, very close behind DMV. I’m looking forward to the next golf club dinner and will make a point of attending. (Not that I’m competitive or anything like that!). We had a magnificent turnout at Wisley. According to the official results, there were 21 runners and 2 walkers/joggers for the Puffers, which I make to be the biggest turnout for us at a MABAC in my nine years as a Puffer. There were some great individual performances too, but this was our home event, which meant it fell to us to organise and marshal, and quite simply without the marshals it would not have happened. So I make no apology by starting by thanking all those who made it happen on the day. Chris Nash has been indefatigable ‘behind the scenes,’ helping with course planning and recce’ing. The day before, Roger Clark, Will Archer-Burton and Rob Lewis all helped set out the course, then Chris Nash was one of the first on the ground on Sunday morning to help with the all important car park marshalling. In this he was helped once again by Wade Pollard and between them they had all the cars neatly parked and ensured there were no collisions as runners rushed off afterwards. Out on the course, Edgar and Julie Northey are no longer regulars at the bridge since their move to Havant. But they still got up at dawn to drive up to marshal, with Julie for good measure once again supplying some of her famous biscuits for after-run nourishment.

A modest turnout of Puffers at Nonsuch this morning but we were represented in all categories! Compared to previous years Nonsuch had a very dry course with lots of cracks in the mud to contend with. Craig came in as the first puffer followed closely by Alfie. Our First lady home was Vicki, followed by David in touching distance behind her. Both were just ahead of Esme being the 5 puffer home. Katy was closing the gap having run her first lap with Thomas (9 years old). A massive thanks to Will AB for doing one lap despite an injury and parking in the wrong car park to transport PP’s table and banner!

Some of the Puffers were out in force this morning, finalising the route plan for 16th November! 

After the midweek runs of the summer,  today marked both the equinox and the return of MABACs to the customary Sunday morning. George has already posted many great photos of the day (See our Gallery)

Those of you as old as me may remember the best selling Meat Loaf album from the late 1970s, Bat Out of Hell. The lyrics featured the behaviour of bats on 'hot August nights.' I suspect midges - and maybe even Wombles - feature far more prominently on hot August nights on Wimbledon Common than bats ever do, but Tuesday night was warm, rather than hot, and with a strong breeze, the remnant or sideshow of Storm Floris, keeping the midges away, over 360 runners and joggers assembled by the windmill for the annual Wimbledon MABAC. Wimbledon has always been a popular MABAC but the turnout surpassed even Windmiler expectations, and the 330 who were at Denbies in June, making it possibly the biggest ever MABAC turnout, certainly the biggest in my time in the Puffers. Don't believe the doom-mongers who say MABAC as a concept is finished! 

Well a number of the Puffers ran the Surrey Slog on Sunday 20th July in what can be described as a challenging rainy and hilly event. We had 2 newbies to the course and 3 that had completed the course in previous years! The course is challenging but rewarding, hilly and undulating cross-country route mainly on tracks around Holmbury Hill. The route crosses itself at some points on the course. The route was well marked and very well marshalled. There were 6 drinks points along the route and at the finish. More reports to follow

I make no apologies for leading once again with the ladies, as we had a full complement of them for the first time since Farley Heath last November, and they were our star performers on the night, outscoring the men despite being fewer in number. First home was Aimee Billington, in her first MABAC since Reigate last year and making a very welcome return as the 11th lady overall. For good measure, Aimee brought not one, not two, but three friends to add to the Puffers complement - more below. But just five seconds behind her was Paula Holmes, the timings suggesting it was something of a tussle between the two - maybe a sprint finish by Aimee made the difference? Family groups are something of a Puffers feature and on Tuesday Team Holmes was out in force, our next lady finisher being Esme Holmes, flying the flag for the younger generation.  A lady runner in another club, who shall remain nameless, complained after Farley Heath about Esme running with earphones. So, this time Esme ran without earphones and admitted afterwards that she had enjoyed the quiet and the view. It certainly doesn't seem to have affected her performance! (The same nameless lady has complained this time that 'the lady in front of me ...was running on a slight diagonal in front of me which made it very difficult to overtake...' I kid you not). Not far behind Esme was a newcomer, Clare Fineberg, one of Aimee's aforementioned friends. Their respective timings suggest that Esme and Clare are finely balanced in performance terms. I'm sure we could look forward to some interesting tussles between them if they were to come regularly, it would certainly be great to see them. Our fifth lady finisher was Barbara Roussouw (ChatBAR), in a timing very close to last year's, suggesting great consistency in her performances - something I envy  as I see my own timings get progressively slower! But there is more to come. For the first time since I started these reports, we had a sixth lady runner, in this case Amy Henley, another of Aimee's friends, so also making her first appearance for us. Before the start Amy was hesitating whether to try the full 5 miles or opt for just one lap. To her credit she went for the full course. Well done Amy, the next MABAC is less of a challenge, so we hope to see you there!

Preliminary results are just in. I'll try to get a proper report out later but for now suffice to say we had a small Puffers team but they turned in some very creditable performances.  And a big shout out to our ladies who this time comfortably outscored not just the men but Wimbledon and Reigate ladies too.