Report written by Sarah Harris.
Thirteen brave ESMers took on the heat of Exbury Gardens 10K in Hampshire’s beautiful New Forest on a very sunny June Sunday. We came back a little sunburnt and fatigued but happy to have had a summer weekend of racing and team fun.
Exbury 10K is pitched as one of southern England’s most picturesque races of this distance, and it didn’t disappoint. The route took us through the pretty Exbury Gardens, through winding country roads down to Lepe beach and then back up to finish in the gardens. Despite a 9am start however, the summer heat was pretty fierce, which combined with the second half being mostly, albeit gently, uphill (as well as some time sampling Southampton’s pub scene the day before) set us up for a challenging race.
Sarah Gerrie won the women’s race with a superb run despite the tough conditions. I was next up in the women’s race for ESM, taking 5th place, followed by Shona in 19th. Gutsy runs from Lynn, Pat, Bev, Catherine and Sophie completed our fabulous women’s team.
Simon Shaw impressed by taking third place in the men’s race, followed by Colin Foster and Pete Flewitt in 6th and 9th place, respectively. Next in was Malcom hitting his target of coming in under 50 minutes and great to see him getting stronger and ever closer to form, with Martin Wilson completing the men’s team.
ESM took a decent haul of age group wins as well with Sarah Gerrie, Simon Shaw, Lynn Wilson, Colin Foster, and myself topping our respective categories.
