The picturesque Lymington Lifeboat 10k once again attracted a strong field, with Bournemouth AC‘s Jason Christian, Helen Beddoe and Julia Austin all producing encouraging performances.

Making his long-awaited return after an injury-plagued first half of the year, Jason Christian had every reason to feel pleased with his performance despite finishing a couple of minutes outside the time he recorded at the same race last year.

Jason was one of the Corbin’s Cruisers preparing for the Manchester Marathon before injury brought those plans to a premature end. In truth, he never made anywhere near the start line, with the lack of training leaving him facing a lengthy road back to fitness.

Having started one of his recent parkruns far too quickly following his comeback, Jason almost went to the opposite extreme at Lymington by lining up much too far back on the start line.

That left him with plenty of work to do as the race unfolded, but he responded impressively, carving his way through the field by overtaking an estimated 75 runners over the 10-kilometre course.

His reward was a finishing time of 41:59, good enough for 42nd overall and fourth place from 100 runners in the M50 category.

While it was around two minutes slower than the 39:51 that earned him the M50 victory at Lymington last year, the performance represented another encouraging step in his comeback after spending so much time on the sidelines.

Helen Beddoe continued her busy spell of racing by producing another strong performance just four days after tackling the opening round of the Upton Summer Series.

Fresh from achieving an excellent sub-four-hour clocking in her first officially measured marathon at the ABP Southampton Marathon, Helen negotiated the Lymington course in 44:52.

That earned her 93rd place overall from the 789 finishers, while she was also the tenth female home from a field of 410 women and fourth in the F40 category from 101 competitors.

Although the time wasn’t quite up with some of the excellent 10k performances she produced last year, it was another step in the right direction and an improvement on the mark she recorded at the Bournemouth Bay 10k back in March.

Julia Austin .completed the course in 52:03 to finish 254th overall. Julia was 59th female and placed fifth from 75 runners in the F60 category.

Also deserving plenty of credit was Bournemouth AC youngster Lillie Press.

Best known for her sprinting exploits, with the talented 15-year-old capable of running under 30 seconds for 200 metres, a 10k road race sits well outside her usual comfort zone.

Undaunted by the challenge, Lillie dug in superbly to complete the course in 1:07:21, finishing 647th overall and 29th female.

It may not have been her specialist event, but stepping up from the track to tackle 10 kilometres on the roads took plenty of courage and determination.

At the sharp end of the race, another man with Bournemouth AC connections, Rob Spencer, went one better than last year when he was narrowly edged out by teammate Adam Corbin. Securing the overall victory in 35:13, Rob covered the opening miles at around 5:30 pace before maintaining his advantage over the testing second half of the course to cross the line 32 seconds clear of Henry Lloyd Williams of Lymington Triathlon Club.

Luke O’Brien was third in 36:03, John Caddick of Aldridge Running Club finished fourth in 36:41, while former Bournemouth AC athlete Trev Elkins rounded out the top five in 37:01 and claimed the M40 honours.