And the winners are…

Sam Plumb and Phil Brennan, the youngest and oldest competitors in the virtual Mayor's Magic Mile with a scarcely believable 66 years separating them. Coincidentally their times were just 66 seconds apart. You couldn't make it up. Never mind Operation Restart and the Premier League, most of us know that the big sporting story of the last week has been the culmination of the virtual Shakespeare Summer Solstice races, with 124 competing in the 4 mile race, 117 in the Mayor's Magic Mile and 63 in the 5 mile TT. Fabulous numbers. A massive vote of thanks is due to both Sarah and Matt for organising these races. It can't have been easy and must have been extremely time consuming. Thanks are also due to David Smyth for his regular updates. I offered him an internship on The Newsletter but he turned me down and finally, thanks are also due to Ryan for his charts. How does he do those ? David's final report is printed below together with a link to the final results of all 3 races. We also see what Emily and Alex Adams have been up to, training wise, during lockdown. Also, a pandemic was never going to stop our international marathon runner Kate Sergent from adding another medal to her collection. I've been digging through the archives again and have come up with a few articles on the lengthy gestation period of our track, plus a few " Pen Pictures " from back in the day of Tony Jackson, Lesley Kirk and Sarah Odell. Part of the fun in trawling through the archives is occasionally finding something to embarrass long standing members. There's an item on Paul Hawkins picking up a UK award 16 years ago, in recognition of "his dedication to establishing the club as a prominent athletic club in the Midlands." Somethings never change Finally there's an article on Ryan James, the club's first ever AAA champion. Best Wishes David Jones Bev Brigden's Magic Mile Josh Newman's 4 mile run and Cara Reynolds' 5 Mile TT And the Winners Are. Summer Solstice Shakespeare Races Report - David Smyth. Well this is the moment you have all been waiting for! It's Summer Solstice Race Results time - YAY!!🎉🏆🥇🥈🥉 A great stat calculated by Sarah Bland was that we completed a total distance of 928 miles in these events, which is further than the distance between Lands End and John O'Groats! So a huge well done to everyone that took part! However, we need to start with the podium positions for each event. The Shakespeare 4m race 124 entrants Once again the virtual race has appealed to the wider club with a significant increase on the numbers who usually take part in the 'normal' Shakespeare race! Lady's 1st - Georgie Campbell 22:38 2nd - Kate Wright 25:04 3rd - Vicky Sharpe 26:33 Men's 1st - Joshua Newman 22:06 2nd - Matt Burdus-Cook 22:18 3rd - Richard Liggatt 22:20 Well done to the above on some…