THE Maylarch Eynsham 10k is the final race in Bourton Roadrunners' "6 from 10" club competition.

The Maylarch Eynsham 10k

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 an 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.

The Saxon Shore Double Marathon

STEVE EDWARDS celebrated his 51st Birthday by running another back-to-back marathon. The Saxon Shore Double Marathon 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 one 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 two would be a little calmer.

Thankfully, on day two the wind had dropped almost completely. This resulted in a much better run and Steve finished in 3:13:13 for 2nd place on the day and 2nd place for the event as a whole. The marathon was also his 500th under 3hrs 28min.