A weekend to be proud of!

A bang for Nick's buck at the Inter-Counties XC ChampionshipsFollowing his jaw-dropping cross-country season, Nick Buckle confirmed his step up in the game with his first selection for the Inter-Counties in Prestwold Hall, Loughborough. After the disappointment of the Trafford 10k being cancelled due to impossible weather conditions, Nick had some pent up energy he was keen to tap into.There are only a handful of places that can make a runner say "huh... Maybe Stanmer Park wasn't that bad?". One of them is the booby-trapped Vietnamese rain forest, one is the final 300m of Mount Everest, the other is Prestwold Hall after a wet week. However, Nick is never one to Buckle under pressure and he put on the yellow Surrey vest looking forward to a gutsy swim in the mud.With conditions as challenging as these, the real mud-runners were going to be center stage and the results were sure to be shuffled in all kinds of interesting ways. Promising Southampton youngster Mahamed Mahamed took the win ahead of Loughborough Uni's Sam Stabler and national champion Adam Hickey. Nick's 12km slog came to an end in 47:55 which earned him a neat 87th place in a stellar field.After a top 10 finish in the Surrey Champs, a 7th place in a Surrey league match, coming 56th in Brighton's Southern championships and a spot in the top 80 at the national championships on Parliament Hill, this was the perfect end to a consistently outstanding streak for Nick. Even a hardened veteran like the Buck was glad to see the last of the winter season and now turns his eyes towards the road and track, where he is sure to excel too.A claret and gold invasion at the Surrey Half-MarathonHaving decided the mud season was already behind them, a small army of Bels took to Woking to conquer the high-profile 21km of the Surrey Half-Marathon. With the weather looking suave and conditions virtually ideal, there was sure to be some rapid running on display.Leading the charge was the ever-reliable Paskar Owor who hung onto the heels of international elite marathoner Scott Overall to finish only 34s behind him in second place. That's a nice bit of pocket change for 1:09:12 of work!Next Bel across the finish line was Andrius Jaksevicius. Following weeks of rehabilitation and injury troubles, the Lithuanian import made his return to racing at the Big Half last weekend where he clocked an enviable 01:11:39. He decided that he could do better and went over 15s faster here to finish in 01:11:22. Sadly this landed him right outside of the top 10, which closed with Bellahouston's Jack Arnold about half a minute earlier. We look forward to seeing what the mental marathon man can pull off in the coming months after a promising start to his season.Paul Lowe was also flying the flag for us and squeezed himself squarely into the top 20 with a tasty 19th place. And who better to follow him across the line than Nick Bundle? Following his very recent birthday, Nick marked his entrance on the V40 scene with a silver spot on the podium in his category between Chichester's James Baker and Richard Bidgood of Winchester. Paul and Nick ran 01:13:57 and 01:14:24 respectively and can be very proud of such a show of strength this early in the season.Further down the field was Emma Howsham who came home in 01:50 to close off the claret and gold campaign.