Our #MedalMonday monthly round-up for June finished up hot, hot, hot – not just the weather, but our Serpentine performances as well. First to the Maverick Peaks Ultra in the Peak District, where one of the loveliest aspects of our club showed itself with support on our chats going out in real time as Serpies following the livetracker rooted for Simon Morris, doing his first 100k, and who finished up 3rd in 11:09. ‘Super happy with that. Thank you so much for the support. Helped me through a dark patch,‘ he reported afterwards.

Brilliant result for Georgina Thorborn, back in action in Serpie colours after taking a year off to travel. She placed first in her age group in her first race, the Brighton Ten, on 8 June, and 16th overall. Lizzie Wilkinson also won her age group and Kevan Wilkinson was 2nd – check out the pic of him ‘trying to hang on’ as Lizzie sets her usual blistering pace – and Jeff Prestige 5th in theirs.

In the St Albans half, Chris Notton ran 1:29:02 and Andy Bain 1:45:30. ‘Great support on the course and very enjoyable as long as you don’t blow up early on the hills,’ says Chris.

Michael Morris ran his second Comrades, the 88k marathon in South Africa, in 8:19:44 while closer to home, Ellie Travers and Matthew Hearne did the Suffolk Back Yard Ultra, tapping out after 8 yards in 6:42 and 9 yards in 7:24 respectively. Matthew explains, ‘For those that don’t know the race format, a yard is a 4.167-mile loop. The race carries on until only one person is able to complete the circuit within the hour.’ Matthew adds: ‘The race format was devised by Lazarus Lake, so that pretty much tells you all you need to know,’ he adds. Hence, anyone else except last person standing officially gets a DNF…

Bolton was perhaps one part of the country that hadn’t quite got the message that summer had started and four Serpies took on the Ironman 70:3 in traditional British Ironman conditions – rain and wind so cold it felt warmer in the water in Pennington Flash than outside it on the bike. Ruth Gledhill won her age-group, Milica Lekovic was 2nd and Nicola Kaye 3rd in theirs. Hakim Djoumi also competed. There will be a good number of Serpies at the World Champs in Marbella in November! 

The Serpentine 5k Club Champs were run as part of the fiercely-competitive and super-fast Sri Chinmoy series at Battersea Park. Thanks to @picsbyrcm for some great action photos. Congrats to Jonathan Poole, Nicholas Brown and Victor Lio, and Natasha Sheel, Marta Bagnati and Sophie Flanagan.

The five Summer League races got under way in June. These are super fun and they have amazing picnics afterwards – we will be doing the nosh for the one later this month. At the first won, the 2024 awards were given, with age-group wins for Lizzie Wilkinson and Avril Riddell, and age-group podiums also for Mohammed Ismail, Kemuel Solomon, Gary Hymns, Sophie Cappleman and Michael Morris. 

While some of us might be focused on shorter races with plentiful food, some splashing around, sunbathing opportunities and summer fun with our club friends, others have more serious achievements to clock up. Notable among these is Anne Bennett – who has also qualified for the Ironman 70.3 Worlds – but in between racing and training for the earlier qualifier, managed to fit in the infamous Monster Tri. This is held every two years, beginning with a 5k swim in Loch Ness, then a 1000k 5-day cycle from there to Slough/Windsor and a 50k run to Twickenham to finish off. Serpies supported her en route – both present IRL and remotely. We’ve all had times when we struggle to convince our watches we are doing our best. After this monster effort, Anne posted a pic of her own training status – productive, with high load focus and superior VO2 Max. ‘Finally… guess this is what it takes,’ she sighed. 

Avril Riddell won W70 at the Cliveden Classic 10k trail, which she ran with her daughter. Ronald Cenejust was over in Normandy for a 15k trail run. 

Roger Reid went to Chicago for the Hyrox World Championships, stepping up to pro division with the heavier weights after winning his age group in Glasgow and London. He finished ion 1:18:38 and placed 7th out of 45 in his category.

Chris Notton (39:20) and Simon Caney (44:03) were at St Albans for the Summer Solstice 10k. 

At the Ealing Eagles Track Mile Festival on 21 June, Jonathan Poole won overall in 4:32, Toby Crooks came in at 5:12 and Chris Notton at 5:22. Meanwhile, Nicola Kaye was running the Midnight Sun 10k in Tromso in 47:16. The next day, Philip Whitehouse did the Dunstable Downs Trail Half in 1:55:27. Marcus Bueno took a V45 200m podium finish (bronze) at Spain T&F national champs in Alicante. 

Ten Serpies competed in the Skogsmaraton off-road races in Oslo, where Natasha Steel was 2nd lady overall in the marathon in 3:14, Jane Fanning 1st FV50 on the marathon in 3:55 and Mike Briggs 1st V50 in the 65k ultra in 6:59. Back in London, Will Green set a new club record for V50 10k, winning at Battersea in 32:30.

Lynne Maughan completed the West Highland Way race, 95 miles from Milngavie to Fort William. ‘No medal but a goblet for all finishers,’ she reports. 

The temperature still rising, six Serpies raced on a warm and windy evening at the Finsbury Park 5000s. Chris Notton’s highlight was the pizza, he insists, after finishing his first 5000. The summer league at Perivale was well supported and Frank Womelsdorf did the Round Sheffield 19.5k trail run, split into 11 timed stages, in 1:44. James Gillanders won the North Devon half and Avril Riddell and Catkin Shelley won their categories in the North Downs Run. 

Full results can be found here on our website, and watch out tomorrow for the latest results from the weekend just gone in a new #MedalMonday post.