It was an unusually hot day at the seafront in Bournemouth when the Bay Run carnival rolled into town. That would normally be great as its nice to have a bit of warmth and sunshine when enjoying some time at the beach. When you’re running race though, it’s perhaps not quite so desirable as it might otherwise be.

Nevertheless, you have to handle whatever the unpredictable British weather throws your way and there were ten Bournemouth AC members on the start line for the Bournemouth Bay Run 10k hoping to cope okay in the conditions.

The most accomplished of them was probably Matt Brown who has a 10k PB of 32:34. That was set back in 2021 though and he hasn’t quite managed to hit those heights since then. For his last one he posted a 34:42 at the Winchester 10k which was enough to earn him a top four finish.

Also in the squad was Nathan Mearns who had been doing some of his training with the road runners group recently and had been progressing well. He did both the National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill and the CAU Inter Country Championships at Woolaton Park in Nottingham.

Also impressing on the cross country scene of late was Jacob Taylor. He also did the Inter County Championships, the Southern Championships and the South West Inter County Champs. He also ran at the English Schools Cup Final in Leeds.

 

Also training with the road runners of late, Matilde Blagden and Laras McKenna were competing in the 10k race. Matilde finished 2nd female in the 5k race at last year’s Bournemouth Bay Run and had recently recorded a parkrun PB of 21:26. That meant she had a good chance of beating her PB time of 46:48.

Laras was tackling her first ever 10k so it would be interesting to see how she fared. She ran a 20:39 in the Run Bournemouth Supernova 5k in October which showed she has the ability to go fast and she also competed in four of the Upton Summer Series races which are over a 6k distance.

Emily and Jason Coltman were in the side as well and Emily was still battling her way back to form after a stress fracture that kept her out of action for quite some time last year. In fact, she actually sustained the injury in a steeplechase race just before the Bournemouth Bay Run 10k last year but didn’t realise how badly damaged it was so proceeded to run the 10k anyway. It was due to the pain she felt during the race that she realised she needed to go for a scan.

Since Emily couldn’t really run properly, Jason ended up going it alone in the race last year and he ended up finishing in 46:31. That was a time that he went on to beat later on in the year at Round the Lakes when he clocked a 44:36.

After running the Bournemouth Bay Run 10k in 47:53 last year, David Crowther was back for another go at it. He’d gone significantly quicker in subsequent 10k races and his best time was 44:07 which he did at Lordshill in the summer.

Clocking a 49:24 in the Run Bournemouth Supersonic 10k last October, that was probably the time to beat for Helen Beddoe. She’d done a few league races for the club since then, featuring at the New Forest 10, the Boscombe 10k and the Lytchett 10.

The other Bournemouth AC members in action on the day were Rebecca Taylor and Emma Biggs. Emma was making her debut in a yellow and blue vest after recently signing up.

The course for the Bournemouth Bay Run 10k started just to the west of Bournemouth Pier and was straight down the promenade towards Southbourne for three miles before heading up the zigzag and onto the overcliff. It was a the zigzag that made an otherwise quite quick course pretty tough.

After that it was back along the overcliff before dropping down via The Mariner and heading back along the prom from Boscombe Pier to finish just before Bournemouth Pier.

Jamie Grose’s winning time from last year was 34:55 but he’d improved a fair bit throughout the course of the year so there was a good chance he’d go quicker. In fact, he’d got his 10k PB down to a mightily impressive 31:55.

He bolted out the blocks leaving the rest of the field well behind and clocked a 5:06 for his first mile split. He then went on to register a 5:20 and a 5:31 before facing the zigzag on the fourth mile. That even knocked Jamie down to a 6:05 mile split which shows how tough it was.

After that Jamie got back on pace and closed it out at 5:20 pace for his last couple of miles. Crossing the finish line in 33:53, it was another excellent win for Jamie and a minute faster than he managed last year.

The closest to him of all the other competitors was Matt Brown. He went through the first couple of miles in 5:36 and 5:37 pace and then the third in 5:42. After that it was up the zigzag which put him down to 6:08.

Matt has a tendency to be able to up the pace in the latter stages of the race though and he did just that, with a 5:30 for his fifth mile and a 5:23 for his sixth mile. That saw him reach the finish line in 35:06 which put him in a clear second place. He was over a minute and half ahead of Josh Haderthay who finished third in 36:37.

Jacob Taylor ran really well to complete the course in 38:49 which put him in eighth place overall.

Natalie Green who was training with Bournemouth AC in the Tuesday night interval sessions ran brilliantly to finish as first female and 11th overall in 39:54.

Starting off quickly with a 6:01, followed by a 6:14 and a 6:33, Nathan Mearns was going well. The zigzag took it out of him a bit though, knocking him back to a 7:47 for that split. He recovered okay though to get through the last couple of splits at 6:45 pace.

That saw him get to the line in a superb time of 41:24 which was an emphatic PB for him. That showed how well his running has been progressing of late and it certainly seems that he’d improved since joining the road runners group.

Both getting off to a fast start, Laras McKenna and Matilde Blagden both registered a first mile split of around 6:40. They then followed it up with a 7 minute mile for their second one. Laras was able to maintain a similar sort of pace for her third mile but Matilde had already started suffering and ended up close to 8 minutes for her third mile.

She’d probably gone off a little too quickly but the shock of how hot it was wasn’t helping her either. To make matters worse, she then had the zigzag to contend with on the fourth mile. That took the wind out of her sails even further and put her down to 8:52 for that mile.

It also interrupted Laras’ momentum as well and put her down to 7:53. It was now going to be about how well she could recover from that and get back on pace as she headed back along the overcliff towards Boscombe.

In fact, she recovered from it quite well and managed to get back to her previous pace, aided by the downhill stretch once she hit the Mariner. Matilde seemed to recover alright from the hill as well and went on to register a 7:14 for her fifth mile split. it was then a case of giving it everything they had for that final stretch from Boscombe Pier to Bournemouth Pier.

Finishing strongly with a 7:07 for her last full mile split, Laras raced into the finish to record a fantastic time of 44:04, which meant she’d finished as fourth female and come 44th overall. It was a terrific result for her first ever 10k race. Her average pace for run came out as 7:03.

Not quite able to maintain her pace through the closing stages, Matilde got through her last full mile split in 7:44 before completing the last quarter of a mile to get to the finish. She’d clocked a time of 47:04 which meant she’d taken ninth place in the female rankings and 74th overall.

It was a tough race for Matilde and the shock of the heat had really hit her hard. With some adjustments to her pacing strategy though, she definitely has the ability to go much quicker and she will have learnt some lessons from that. It’s not easy to pace a 10k and it’s often necessary to hold back a bit at that start verses what you might do in a 5k.

Matilde’s mum Dina has been coming along to the road runners training sessions lately as well and she also raced the 10k at the Bournemouth Bay Run event. Completing the course in 52:53, she was 39th placed lady and 204th overall.

Also finding it a real struggle, Emily Coltman wasn’t able to tap into her top gear and having to contend with the zigzag made it even harder for her to push on as she would have wanted on the way back.

Jason ran with her and they came in 79th and 80th overall with times of 47:15 and 47:16. That made Emily 11th female and put Jason ninth in the M50 category.

Getting round in a time of 48:12, David Crowther came in 115th overall and was 28th in the M40 category.

Completing the course in 49:40, Helen Beddoe finished as 18th fastest female and was 5th in the F35 category. In the overall standings, she’d come in in 123rd position.

Getting round in a time of 1 hour 2 minutes and 45 seconds, Emma Biggs was 211th female and came 549th overall.

Registering a time of 1:04:47, Rebecca Taylor was 279th lady and 81st in the F35 category. In the overall standings, she’d taken 661st place. That was out of a total of 1,122 competitors.

Once again, it was good to see the Bournemouth AC runners out in force in the 10k and particularly to see some of the younger members stepping up to the distance on flourishing on their first attempts in very testing conditions.