Steyning Stinger Marathon

Set in the beautiful South Downs between Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea, this challenging marathon is a real toughie.

The name Stinger refers to to the 4 stings (hills) encountered along the way. With a huge 2714ft of elevation between them, this can only ever be a tough day at the office.

Despite its famously challenging conditions, three of our fearless club members decided to go forth and conquer the hills to earn the reward of some shiny new bling and massive kudos for just being badass.

Marathon supremo Steve Hickman decided to go back for a 19th time (he must really love it! 😄) and was this time joined by best buddy and running companion Zoe Elliot and Steve Apsey.

Those hills were clearly no match for Steve Apsey who went and ran an absolutely cracking time, taking on the ups and downs of the course and crossing the line in a super speedy time of 4:02:06. Steve took the 8th position in his age category, 46th position overall out of a field of 257 and 37th male. Amazing work Steve, well done!

Luckily the recent stormy conditions had subsided and although the air temperature was still very much on the ‘fresh’ side those awful gusty winds that have been plaguing our girl Zoe after her recent bout of Covid had somewhat settled, and although being in two minds the week before whether to even start the race, in true Zoe style she put her trail shoes on and her and Mr Hickman went out together to give it a go.

Despite a tumble on the course and luckily nothing more than a grazed hand and arm Steve H ticked off Stinger number 19 and him and Zoe crossed the finish line together.

“Steyning Stinger marathon done!” said Zoe, “A bit of hill walking for Steve Hickman and myself and Hickman took a dive……..He barely moaned at all 🤣. Loved it!”