It was another sweltering day for the eighth round of the Dorset Road Race League at the Stur Half Marathon, with a hilly course and temperatures making this one of the toughest tests of the season.

After finally getting their first league win of the campaign at the Purbeck 10k, the Bournemouth AC men had been unable to repeat the feat at the Blackmore Vale Half Marathon, finishing fourth despite Josh Cole taking an impressive individual victory. The result did at least keep the men in third place in the Men’s First Division, with plenty still to play for.

The women were enjoying considerably more success. Katie Gunn finished second female at Blackmore Vale, Kitty Cook was fourth and Helen Beddoe 18th as Bournemouth AC claimed another team victory. It was their fourth win of the season and put them in an excellent position in the Ladies Second Division.

There was plenty of strength in the Bournemouth AC line-up for Stur Half, with Stu Nicholas, Ben Collins, Jack Davis, Barry Dolman and Jack Barwick making up a strong men’s team.

For the ladies, Katie Gunn and Kitty Cook were back again, this time joined by Lara Hudson, who was making her Dorset Road Race League debut.

Stu Nicholas leads the men home

Stu Nicholas arrived at Stur in excellent form after taking second place in the Beat the Boat 10k at Windsor and Eton.

That came after a particularly busy spell earlier in the season when Stu had raced twice over one weekend — or three times if parkrun is included — finishing ninth at the Purbeck 10k on the Friday evening before taking fourth place at the Coombe Keynes 10k.

It has already been quite a year for Stu, with a parkrun PB, a 10k PB, victory in the Norfolk Marathon and a second-place finish in the North Dorset Marathon all added to his collection of results.

He made a suitably aggressive start at Stur Half, going through the first mile in 5:35. The next four miles came in 5:48, 5:42, 5:45 and 5:48 respectively, putting him in an excellent position as the race began to settle down.

He continued to run strongly through the middle section of the race, recording 5:57 for mile six, 6:02 for seven and 5:56 for eight before posting 6:10 for mile nine and 5:55 for mile ten.

The final three miles were always going to be a different proposition. With the Stur Half’s notoriously tough closing section including a long, steep climb in the final couple of miles, the heat and accumulated fatigue began to take their toll.

Stu posted 6:17 for mile 11, 6:26 for mile 12 and 6:16 for mile 13 before crossing the line in 1:18:08.

That was enough for an excellent ninth place overall.

Ben Collins was next home for Bournemouth AC, putting in a very strong performance despite the conditions.

Currently training for the Abingdon Marathon, Ben had entered Stur as a kind of warm-up and fitness check to see where he was at. He had already run well to finish seventh at the Purbeck 10k and had also set PBs in both the 2000m and 3000m steeplechase during the summer.

He maintained a remarkably consistent pace for the first ten miles, staying between 5:50 and six minutes per mile before showing plenty of resilience over the difficult closing stages.

His final three miles came in 6:13, 6:21 and 6:19, giving him a finishing time of 1:18:41.

That was exactly six minutes per mile on average and saw him finish tenth overall.

Jack Davis was another Bournemouth athlete enjoying a superb season and he produced one of the most consistent performances of the day.

With more than 500 feet of elevation on the course, maintaining a steady pace was always going to be difficult, but Jack churned out splits around the six-minute-mile mark for almost the entire race.

Better still, he appeared to be getting stronger relative to the opposition as the race went on. His final three miles were 6:07, 6:11 and 6:01, an excellent way to finish such a demanding half marathon.

He crossed the line in 1:19:09 for 12th place and a brilliant PB that he wasn’t really expecting.

Jack’s season has already included 10k and half marathon PBs, as well as his quickest-ever 5k at the Bournemouth AC Tuesday night track event. His standout performance may well have been his superb sub-2:50 at the Cork City Marathon, but this was another impressive addition to an outstanding year.

Dolman delivers again

Barry Dolman continued his excellent season by recording 1:22:58 and finishing 21st overall.

That made him Bournemouth AC’s fourth scorer and gave him an average pace of 6:21 per mile, a tremendous effort given the heat and the Stur Half course’s relentless elevation.

Barry has already enjoyed a remarkable year. He ran a superb sub-36-minute 10k at the British Masters 10k Championships in Chichester to take an M55 bronze medal, before producing an incredible 2:48:26 PB at the Barcelona Marathon.

The Bournemouth AC scoring team was completed by Jack Barwick, who crossed the line in 1:25:17 for 28th place.

Jack had already demonstrated at Blackmore Vale that he is well equipped to deal with a hot, hilly half marathon, running a superb 1:26 when many athletes were floundering in the conditions.

His regular exposure to the hills around the Lytchett loop probably helps, with plenty of climbing on his doorstep providing a rather effective form of strength training.

The Bournemouth AC men therefore finished second in the league race.

They were level on points with Twemlow Track Club, whose Sam and Luke Jackson finished fourth and fifth scorers respectively. Jack’s 28th-place finish put him ahead of Luke, which was enough to give Bournemouth AC second place and Twemlow third.

Poole AC took a fifth victory of the season, with Lester James of Team Bath winning the individual race for the second consecutive year in a superb 1:11:23. That result gave Poole AC an unassailable lead in the Men’s First Division, with Twemlow Track Club the only team still mathematically capable of matching their points total — and they would need to win all four remaining races to do so.

Katie battles to third

Katie Gunn hadn’t quite been at her best this season, but there had still been plenty of highlights. She finished second female at the inaugural SOBO 5, second at both the Lytchett 10 and Blackmore Vale Half Marathon, and third female at the Purbeck 10k.

Stur was always going to be a particularly demanding test.

Katie battled her way through the heat to finish third female and 60th overall in 1:33:16.

This was just before Katie got married and became Katie Bentley.

That put her just behind Victoria Pye of Egdon Heath Harriers, who also ran 1:33:16, while Abigail Jones of Poole Runners took a clear victory in 1:29:20, finishing 42nd overall.

Despite not quite having the season she would have hoped for, Katie’s consistency has kept her right at the sharp end of the league individual standings.

Another big step forward for Kitty

Kitty Cook was next home for Bournemouth AC in 1:37:35, taking tenth female and 77th overall.

Kitty has arguably been the fastest-improving Bournemouth AC athlete this season. A parkrun PB, five-mile PB and 10k PB have all come her way, while she also recorded her fastest-ever 5k at the club’s Tuesday night track event.

Her improvement has extended beyond individual times too. Kitty has been battling it out with Helen O’Neile for the women’s overall prize in the Upton Summer Series, with the six-race competition providing another opportunity to test her rapidly developing fitness.

It has been an impressive upturn in form, particularly considering how much less experienced Kitty was when she first joined Bournemouth AC.

There has been plenty of improvement in her household too, with partner Tom Casson also enjoying an excellent season. Tom has recorded parkrun, five-mile and 10k PBs and ran exactly 17:00 for his fastest-ever 5k at the Bournemouth AC track event.

Tom also lined up at Stur Half and, as is often the case, he wasn’t hanging around at the start.

He opened with 6:25, followed by 6:35 and 6:53, but the combination of the heat and the increasingly difficult course meant that such an aggressive opening came at a cost.

The second half was considerably slower, although the second half of the Stur Half is also considerably harder. Tom ended up crossing the line in 1:35:07.

While he couldn’t maintain his early pace, it was still a positive result, coming three-and-a-half minutes quicker than his Blackmore Vale time.

Sanjai Sharma was also out for Bournemouth AC and, with the heat making conditions particularly difficult for him, it was never going to be an ideal day.

Nevertheless, he battled through to record a respectable 1:42:30, finishing 97th overall and fifth in the MV60 category.

It was another solid performance from Sanjai, who continues to turn out some very respectable times despite now competing in the V65 age group. His 3:28 at the London Marathon back in April is testament to the level he is still capable of producing.

Lara makes league debut

For Lara Hudson, Stur was her first appearance in the Dorset Road Race League.

Lara had made her Bournemouth AC debut at the SOBO 5, finishing ninth female in 35:57. She had actually entered the Stur Half before joining Bournemouth AC, so the timing worked out rather nicely for her first league outing in club colours.

This was a very different proposition from the SOBO 5, though.

The heat was intense, the course was hilly and the final few miles were particularly demanding. Lara dug deep to get to the finish in 1:45:42, placing her 21st female.

That was a superb effort in the conditions — and even better, it represented a three-minute PB.

Her result also proved crucial for the team.

With Katie, Kitty and Lara all safely home, Bournemouth AC took first place in the Ladies Second Division for another valuable haul of league points.

Bournemouth AC take control

The Stur result was particularly significant for the Bournemouth AC women.

It was another first-place finish in the Ladies Second Division and lifted the team to the top of the standings.

With four races still remaining, Bournemouth AC now need just two solid results from the final four rounds to secure promotion back to the top flight.

Behind them at Stur, Dorchester RIOT finished second and Verwood Runners third.

In the Ladies First Division, Littledown Harriers claimed their first victory of the season, ahead of Egdon Heath Harriers and Poole Runners. Egdon remain at the top of the table, with Poole Runners just ahead of Littledown in second.

Lytchett Manor Striders continued their march towards promotion from the Ladies Third Division, winning despite none of the clubs managing to field a full scoring team. Bournemouth Joggers were second.

Captain Rich multitasks in the 5k

While the main Bournemouth AC teams were battling their way around the half marathon course, club captain Rich Nelson was keeping himself busy in the accompanying 5k race.

Rich managed to multitask impressively, taking on the roles of team manager, photographer and chief supporter, while also finding time to run the race himself.

He completed the 5k in 26:39, finishing 28th out of 67 runners and taking third place in the MV50 category. Not a bad effort considering he had doing several other jobs at the same time!

The 5k was won by Brandon King in 19:54, with Joseph Page just seven seconds behind in 20:01 and Theo Hough taking third in 20:43.

Olivia Chapman was fourth overall and first female in 21:01, while Harriet Scott of Wells City Harriers was second female in 21:49.

So, while Rich may not have been wearing the Bournemouth AC vest for the main event, he certainly wasn’t short of involvement — keeping tabs on the team, capturing the action from behind the camera and cheering everyone home as well as squeezing in his own race.

Round the Lakes next

The next Dorset Road Race League fixture is the Round the Lakes 10k.

That race is traditionally a favourite among the Bournemouth AC runners, and with the men’s team still fighting near the top of the Men’s First Division and the women now in pole position for promotion, there should be plenty of blue and white on the start line.

With four races remaining, the Bournemouth AC league campaigns are very much alive — and there is now plenty to look forward to.