Ever since he joined Bournemouth AC it was clear to see that Adrian James had an acceleration that not too many of his fellow club members could match.

He’d race off at the beginning of parkrun and be right up there with the front runners. Then usually he’d gradually fade as the run went on and the effects of the fast start he’d made began to catch up with him.

On the Tuesday night track interval sessions he’d be noticeably fast, especially in 400m and 800m reps. It was clear that his fast twitch fibres were more suited to sprinting or very short distances than they were to endurance races.

The problem was that he loved training with the road runners group though. And he loved parkrun as well. He was addicted and would turn up at Bournemouth parkrun every single Saturday without fail.

Then he started to do Poole parkrun and managed to get his time down to 17:11 at one stage. He got pretty good at 10k as well, producing times of under 37 minutes back in 2022.

Although he enjoyed his 5ks and 10ks, there was always the sense that it wasn’t his calling. He’d often mix it up and train with the sprinters on the track on Wednesdays.

Being an M45, he was aware that there wouldn’t be too many athletes of his sort of age who would possess that kind of speed that he was blessed with and he started to develop a dream of perhaps one day competing in European Masters Championships. Or perhaps even a World Championships.

He came to the conclusion that his best event would be the 400m. It was one where he didn’t really need to hold the speed for too long. He could use his natural gift for starting fast and would only need to maintain it for one lap. That seemed doable.

Last summer he ran a 400m race at the Midland Veterans League in Worcester, finishing 5th in a time of 61.8. He then went on to finish 2nd in the B race at a Southern Athletics League match in a time of 57.3.

That was good but he wanted to sharpen up more before he took part in any of the really big masters races. It became evident that he would need to switch focus as well and start concentrating his efforts more on sprinting, than road running, where the sessions usually comprised of longer intervals.

Most athletes would have been competing in events and trying to improve that way but Adrian wanted to be ready. He wanted to be ready to set it alight when he finally stepped onto the big stage.

At the British Masters Outdoor Championships in Derby, that moment finally arrived. Adrian was ready to compete and he was ready to win.

A deafly silence overtook the Moorways Stadium as the athletes took to their blocks for the first of two M45 races. Well, all except for Adrian James that is. He wasn’t even using blocks.

Adrian is one of those types of characters who isn’t afraid to do things a little differently. He’s prepared to go against the grain and do what works for him. As far as he was concerned, a standing start worked just fine.

As soon as the gun went, Adrian was off and had very soon picked off the guy in the lane next to him. Now he was chasing the two athletes in the outside lanes. It wasn’t long before he caught them up and it was clear the he was moving much faster than anyone else in the race.

He’d taken the lead by the time they went round the top bend and it was now a case of whether he could hold that speed, with that lactate building on the finishing straight.

As he went down the finishing straight though, he began to move even further away from the rest of the field and ended up building up a huge gap. Even though he was way in front, he kept driving all the way to the line, clearly going for the quickest time he could get.

Getting over the line in an incredible time of 54.59, he’d done it. He’d won the race by quite some distance and that was a great feeling. The second placed man Tunde Adeyemo of Midland Masters AC finished in 56.53 so it was a comprehensive victory for Adrian.

There was a second M45 race on that day and the athletes in that one were a touch faster. It would have been interesting to see what Adrian could have produced had he been in that race but it didn’t matter. He’d done what he came to do which was win the race and he’d done it in emphatic style so he couldn’t have asked for more than that.

What’s next for Adrian? Parkrun on Saturday probably. On the track though, time will tell what his next move will be. His performance in this race showed though that he’d ready to compete with some of the top athletes in the country in his age group and he’s well capable of coming out on top against any of them.