Eynsham 10k - 24 November
The Maylarch Eynsham 10k is the final race in Bourton Roadrunners’ “6 from 10” club competition. It also provides a final opportunity for the club’s runners to move up the age-related competition rankings and, being a flat 2 lap course, has the potential to provide personal best times. The race attracts an extremely competitive field, since it is a Oxfordshire County Championships and Grand Prix event.
Mike Smith was first home for Bourton (35:41), followed by Darren Long (37:41), Ian Shoemark (39:05) and Lucy Walmsley (39:23).
Ewen Smith was testing out his hamstring injury, and having discovered that all was well, hooked up with Andy Peaston and paced him to his first sub-40 minute finish (39:40 and 39:48 respectively).
Steph Lane finished in 40:12, Tony Goodwill in 41:17 and Niamh Shoemark realised her PB dream of a sub-42 minute 10k, with a chip time of 41:49:9. John Gibson ran 44:12 and Ali Lane was 1st FV55 with 44:43.
Next was Brian Hulcup (45:50), Liz Hulcup (46:43) and Chris Dry (46:45). David Hanson managed to stay ahead of Susan Hunt, with both recording chip times of 46:41. Catherine Wheeler’s 47:05 was an excellent result for her first 10k race, followed in by David Pyne (48:57), Graham Lane (49:45), David Turnbull (50:01), Shirley Creed (51:28), Lynn Hudson (54:00) and Gary Holton 1:00:01.
Saxon Shore Double Marathon - 30 November & 1 December
A new event for Steve Edwards and what better way to celebrate his 51st birthday than by running a back to back marathon!
This course involves four out and back loops along the coast line from North Deal. Although fairly flat, nearly half the route is run on shingle making it quite challenging in parts. Day-1 proved to be even more challenging though as Steve had to contend with a strong headwind on the out section meaning 13 miles of extra hard effort for not a lot of reward. In the end he was glad to finish in 3:20:38 for 3rd place and hoping that day 2 would be a little calmer!
Steve arrived at the start line on day 2 and was relieved to find the wind had dropped almost completely, in fact it was quite a nice day; a bit cold but clear blue sky and some sunshine made running conditions much more appealing. This resulted in a much better run as Steve finished in 3:13:13 for 2nd place on the day and 2nd place for the event as a whole. It turns out th2 day-2 marathon was also his 500th under 3 hours 28 minutes.
Highlights
Mike Smith the Bourton runners home at Eynsham 10k in 35:41, with 5 others running sub-40 minutes.
Niahm Shoemark PB’d in style, going under the 42-minute-mark for the first time.
Ali Lane did herself proud, claiming the FV55 1st-place, in 44:43.
Steve Edwards notched-up another two sub-3:30 marathons at the new Saxon Shore double-marathon, finishing 2nd over the two days, in 3:20:38 and 3:13:13 respectively.
Other reports may be found on our recent race reports page.