After starting the season off brightly with an emphatic win at the Overton 5, Bournemouth AC found themselves dropping down to mid-table in the Hampshire Road Race League A1 after failing to get a team out for the Solent Half Marathon. That made it crucial for the yellow and blues to be present at the New Forest 10 in the third race of a twelve fixture campaign – and preferably to get another win.

With both Abdinassier Mohamoud Elhmi and Joe Arundel in their side, their chances of doing that were pretty high. Abdi had been primed and readied for the Great South Run which took place the weekend before the New Forest 10 but that race was unfortunately cancelled when the threat of a big storm hit the news.

Abdi felt that he could do the Great South Run in 49 minutes which would have put him right up there with the leaders. In the New Forest 10, he had another opportunity to showcase that astonishing speed and guile he possesses.

Coming into it off the back of a magnificent 1:06:40 time at the Great Eastern Run Half Marathon, Joe Arundel had been exhibiting some fine form of late. After winning the first race of the season at Overton, he was hoping to add another success to his individual record.

The last time Abdi and Joe raced together they’d finished first and second at the Round the Lakes 10k producing spectacular times of 31:02 and 31:42 respectively. If they were able to put on another showing like that in the New Forest 10, it was hard to see how anyone there would be able to keep up with them.

Going into it off the back of a brilliant Purbeck Trail Series win, Stu Nicholas was also in the line up for Bournemouth AC, bolstering an already formidable looking side.

Stu won two of the five Purbeck Trail Series races and finished second in the other three to ensure he came out of it with a well deserved victory. With some very tough off-road courses to tackle, Stu certainly proved his versatility in that one as well as his tremendous strength and will to win.

Just beginning to show signs that he’s coming back into some good form, Mike Akers was also in the squad for the New Forest 10. He’d not raced since the Netley 10k back in May but he’d been progressing well in training and seemingly making some strides toward getting his speed back to where he wanted it to be. The New Forest 10 would certainly be a good test of that.

Another Bournemouth AC man with the pedigree to do pretty well was Jason Christian. Like Mike, he’d also been turning out for all the Tuesday night interval sessions and training well. He produced a decent sub 40 time at the Round the Lakes 10k and delivered a very good time of just under 1 hour 27 minutes at the Sturminster Newton Half Marathon the previous month.

Both making their Bournemouth AC debuts, Victoria Chapman and Helen Beddoe were both in action and it would be interesting to see how they fared up against some of Hampshire’s finest.

Bournemouth AC Road Runners team captain Rich Nelson usually books a place in races, just in case they need to draft anyone in who misses the deadline. If the team is sorted though, he sometimes ends up running it himself and this was one of those occasions where he did just that. Rich had done the Alresford 10k and the Lordshill 10k over the summer but the New Forest 10 represented a significant step up in distance for him.

The Bournemouth AC runners were joined in the race by a familiar face as Jamie Grose of Poole AC made a surprise appearance. Jamie had won the Run Bournemouth 10k two weeks prior in an impressive PB time of 31:55 and he was in the form of his life so it would be interesting to see what he could produce over the 10 mile distance.

Other heavyweights in the line up included Solent Half Marathon winner Max Costley of Southampton AC and Stuart Holloway of City of Salisbury, who finished 4th in the Overton 5 and beat Stu Nicholas to win the Purbeck Trail Series of 2023. After finishing 3rd at the Solent Half, Brandon Cuell of Fareham was also in this mix, as was Kevin Willsher of Lordshill.

Even though it’s in the Road Race League, most of the New Forest 10 course is on trail. Only a mile of it is actually on the road, which makes it quite a tough route, even though its fairly flat.

Taking the bull by the horns, Abdi set off quickly and took an immediate lead. Joe was giving chase, followed by Jamie Grose. With a blistering opening mile of 4:44, it was clear that Abdi meant business. He then went to record a 4:55 for his second mile and a 4:47 for his third. That got him to 5k in 15:03.

He then followed that up with a 4:52 for his fourth and a 5 minute mile for his fifth. That was 23:45 for five miles. After a 4:53 split, he went on to reach 10k in 30:21. It was clear that if he could maintain that, a very fast time was on the cards.

As he showed from his Hampshire Cross Country League win at Popham Airfields, an off-road surface didn’t seem to matter to Abdi. He still somehow seemed to be just as fast. In fact, he registered the same 4:57 average pace at Popham as he did at Round the Lakes.

Going through his seventh mile in 4:55, he then went on to record a 4:59 which took him to eight eight miles in 39:21. He then went on to post a 5:03 for his ninth mile. That left him with just one mile to go. He’d been running so quickly that the guy on the lead bike was finding it tough going to stay ahead of him.

With a 4:49 paced final mile, Abdi made it to the finishing line in an astonishing time of 49:01. That was the second fastest 10 mile time in the UK so far this year and it had been done on what was essentially a trail course. The only man to have gone faster than that was Joe Wigfield or Wirral who managed 48:50 at Twickenham the weekend before.

Unsurprisingly, that was a course record for the New Forest 10 and no one seemed to quite be able to believe what they were witnessing. It really was a next level performance from what you would usually see on the local scene. His average pace for the run came out at a breath-taking 4:53.

Still the closest person to Abdi, Joe was having a brilliant run of his own. Reaching 5k in 15:51, he then went on to go through the 10k stage in 31:53. Keeping his pace really even throughout, Joe didn’t crack at all or even slow down near the end. He kept pushing all the way, making it to eight miles in 41:08.

That left him with two miles left and he went through them at about 5:03 pace, getting to the line in an incredible time of 51:14. That was a truly magnificent run from Joe and it would have been well worthy of the win in most other races, had Abdi not been there.

It was another one-two in a league race for Bournemouth AC in a repeat of what happened at Round the Lakes. Going one better than what he did at Round the Lakes, Jamie Grose finished 3rd this time, recording a terrific new PB of 53:42. That was an average pace of 5:21 which was again, super impressive on a predominantly trail course.

That meant Max Costley had to settle for 4th on this occasion and his time was 54:30. Stuart Holloway came in in 5th place and he was the first vet over the line in 55:06.

Going out hard from the outset, Stu Nicholas posted a 5:33 for his first mile, followed by a 5:37 and a 5:38. That saw him reach the 5k checkpoint in 17:31. He then delivered a 5:44, followed by a 5:51 and a 5:46 for his next three miles. Reaching 10k in 35:19, then then went through the seventh mile in 5:39 before registering a 5:46 for his eighth mile. That was 45:35 for the eight mile point.

Posting a 5:58 for his ninth mile, he then went on to clock a 5:39 for his tenth mile, finishing strongly to go over the line in 57:02. That was enough to put Stu in 6th place overall which was a terrific result for him in Hampshire Road League fixture. His average pace for the run was 5:43.

Brandon Cuell was 7th in 57:27 and Matthew Bennett of Romsey Road Runners took 8th in 57:50. Marcus Widdess of Oxford University Cross Country Club came 9th in 57:53, with Kevin Willsher taking 10th in 57:58. Littledown Harriers man Christian Rodiger finished 18th in 59:57.

Since the course was quite muddy in places, Mike Akers was having trouble staying upright but he just about managed it. He started off with a 5:50, followed by a 6:03 and then a 6:13. That saw him make it to 5k in 19:02. After that he posted a 6:08 for his fourth and fifth mile and a 6:14 for his sixth to reach 10k in 38:19.

Another 6:08, followed by a 6:11 saw Mike make it to eight miles in 49:40. There were a couple of hills to contend with in the ninth mile which put him down to 6:28 but he then finished well with a 6:16 for his tenth mile. That put his finishing time at 1:02:15, which was an excellent run given the terrain he was facing.

That was enough to put Mike in 30th place and to round off the scoring team nicely for Bournemouth AC. They had romped to victory in the A1 division and that was the best score any men’s team in the league could manage by a long way. Alton Runners finished 2nd, just shading it over Denmead Striders who were 3rd.

Lordshill Road Runners finished 4th but that was enough to keep them top of the table after the first three fixtures and they were one placing ahead of Denmead Striders, City of Salisbury and Alton Runners. The penalty of 11 points was given to Bournemouth AC for not fielding a team at the Solent Half Marathon so that left them languishing in 6th place despite winning the other two fixtures. Over the course of the season though, it’s the best nine of twelve races that count, so hopefully by the end that one won’t counted as part of Bournemouth AC’s record.

Opening with a 6:04 for his first mile, Jason Christian then settled into his rhythm with a 6:27 followed by a 6:37 for his third mile, which was on a slight incline. He’d gone through 5k in 20:08. After that he was consistently clocking just under 6:30 per mile for the next five miles. That got him to 10k in 40:17 and 8 miles in 51:52.

The ninth mile was the one with the inclines so Jason was slightly slower on that one at 6:43. He finished well though with a 6:16 to get to the line in 1:04:40 which put him in 51st place overall. Out of the 111 athletes in the V50 category, he’d come in 6th. That was a good run from Jason and he’d beaten his previous New Forest 10 time by 13 seconds.

The first female arrived shortly after Jason and that was Erin Willmers of Winchester Running Club. She clocked a time of 1:04:55 which put her in 54th place overall. That was her second win of the season as she was also first at the Overton 5.

Kat Charles of Reading Road Runners wasn’t far behind though. She went over the line in 1:05:28 which put her 56th overall and she was just three seconds ahead of Emma Jolley of City of Portsmouth who next to finish.

Going through the first 5k in 20:08, Victoria Chapman then went on hit five miles in 31:49. She was at 10k in 40:45 which was really good running. She then went on to reach eight miles in 52:49. Getting over the finish line in 1:06:33, Victoria was 4th female out of 372 and 66th overall out of 822. That would have to do down as a very impressive debut.

Reaching 5k in 27:08, Helen Beddoe reached five miles in 41:41. She then went on to get to 10k in 52:46  before carrying on to eight miles at 1:07:55. Registering a finishing time of 1:24:55, Helen had come in 92nd female and 372nd overall and she was 38th out of 100 in the women’s V35 category.

It was a third win of the season for Winchester Running Club in the Women’s A2 division as they once again proved too strong for any other club. Lordshill topped the standings in the Women’s A1 division at the New Forest 10 with Fareham Running Club taking 2nd. After winning the first two races of the season, Fareham were top of the table by quite some margin.

Going through the first 5k in 26:11, Rich Nelson went on to reach five miles in 41:40. He then clocked a 52:58 for 10k before making it to eight miles in 1:08:27. Reaching the finish in 1:25:55, he’d finished 389th overall and 68th in the Male V50 category. Considering that was the furthest distances he’d raced for a long time, that was a decent effort from Rich.

Stu’s wife Anna ran as well and she completed the course in 1:21:47 which made her 69th female and 313th overall.

It was a second win of the season in the men’s A2 division for Liss and surprisingly they were top of the table ahead of Winchester Running Club who could only manage 3rd at the New Forest 10. Hedge End were 2nd at the New Forest 10 which put them 3rd for the season so far.

New club to the league, Vectis Academy finished 1st in the men’s A3 division with Hardley Runners in 2nd but after winning the first two fixtures, Hardley topped the standings for the season so far with New Forest Runners in 2nd.

The next race of the Hampshire Road Race League season was the Gosport Half Marathon and that was on the same day as the Wimborne 10 – the penultimate fixture in the Dorset Road Race League. That meant the club had divide their resources between the two. Winning the Wimborne 10 was very important as they needed to win the last two races to secure promotion back to the First Division.

Abdi, Joe and Stu were all competing at Wimborne but the yellow and blues still had six men travelling over to Gosport with Big Ben Collins spearheading the attack. Patrick Kingston, David Pinney, Chris O’Brien, Sanjai Sharma and Matthew Nabney were also on the cast list for the Gosport Half Marathon.

 

 

Huge thanks to Ken Hewitt Photography for providing the majority of the photos. A couple of them were taken by Craig Musgrove Photography as well so thanks to him, as well as all the other action shot contributors.