A storming win at the Totton 10k saw the Bournemouth AC men start the defence of their Hampshire Road Race League title in the best possible way. With three finishers in the top six, the yellow and blues were untouchable that day. It was looking like it might be a different story at the Overton 5 though as the vast majority of the team were unavailable on that day.

It clashed with several other events that were taking place on the day such as The Beast, which is part of the illustrious Purbeck Trail Series. The Great North Run and the Big Half were also on that day so the club had representation in numerous events up and down the country.

Thus, numbers for the Overton 5 were low. It was Katie Gunn‘s birthday that day but both she and Jack Barwick decided to sign up for it. Jud Kirk had signed up for it as well but these days he wouldn’t normally be expected to be one of the five scorers.

After some discussion after the Totton 10k, James Hulbert said that he’ll have a look and see if he can do it. Fortunately he could so they were on the way toward getting a team. A couple of the club’s faster runners who had previously said they would do it now couldn’t and that was one of the reasons they were thin on the ground.

Luke Martin then stepped up and agreed to do which was a massive plus as he is very quick. Wanting to get a bit of race practice before the Southern Road Relays, Julia Austin also signed up for it and Rich Nelson was prepared to take up the other place himself if he couldn’t find anyone else to draft in.

James Hulbert did the Overton 5 last year, finishing 38th in a time of 30:05. Later on in the year though, he went on to set a blistering new PB of 27:57 at the Victory 5.

The Overton 5 course is actually quite undulating in the first 3.5 miles. There are a few tough climbs to get up which slow you down quite considerably. After that though, it’s a really fast finish, with a long downhill stretch followed by a flat section at the end. It’s not the fastest of courses but you can make up a fair bit of time in that last mile and a half.

Finishing 15th at the Totton 10k, James was fourth scorer for the team that day, helping them onto victory ahead of Alton Runners and Winchester Running Club.

Katie Gunn and Jack Barwick both did the May 5 earlier in the year and Katie finished 2nd female in that race, in a time of 31:04. Jack got round in 32:07, which put him 50th.

They both made their last racing appearance for the club in the final race of the last Hampshire Road Race League season which was the Lordshill 10k. Jack had a great run in that one, recording a PB of 37:08. Katie didn’t have one of her better days but was still 9th female in a time of 40:07.

Struggling with an achilleas injury, Luke Martin had been finding it difficult to train and had missed most of the recent club interval sessions. Although he hadn’t been a member of the club for very long, he became quite a key player in the Hampshire Road Race League title win towards the end of the season.

Finishing first scorer in his club debut at the Netley 10k, he came 9th in a time of 35:05. He then went on to finish first scorer at the Alresford 10k in 35:19, which put him in 8th place. That helped Bournemouth AC mathematically sow up the league championship. Then at the Lordshill 10k he finished 16th in 34:28, which put him in 16th place and saw him come in as third scorer for the club.

The Overton 5 had always previously had the carrot of having cash prizes for the winner and even for the top three. That meant it could attract a fairly high standard field. The cash didn’t seem to be on offer this time though but former Bournemouth AC man Harry Smith was still vying for victory.

He ran 24:41 at the Victory 5 last year and now has a 10k PB of 30:09 and a 5k PB of 14:24 which puts him right up there with the very best.

City of Salisbury man Jaymee Domoney, who sometimes moonlights as a Poole AC runner, won the Overton 5 in 2022. That was the first Hampshire League road race Bournemouth AC ever did. Jaymee is the boyfriend of Bournemouth AC member Sophie Read and he was racing again in this year’s edition. He also went under 25 minutes at the Victory 5 and has a 10k PB of 29:50 and a 5k PB of 14:27.

Joshua Price of Vectis Academy, who finished second at the Totton 10k, ahead of Rob McTaggart, was also back in action. He doesn’t quite have the resumé that Harry and Jaymee can boast but he does seem to be in excellent form, judging by how well he ran at Totton.

Making a really fast start, James Hulbert went through the first mile in 5:23. It does start with a long downhill section though. After that there’s a hill which basically goes on for almost a mile. That takes up most of the second mile and can really take it out of you.

Getting through that second mile in 5:57, it was then on the third mile that James blew up and began to find it really tough going. He went through that mile in 6:19.

Registering a 6:18 for his fourth mile, he then managed to ramp the pace back up for the final mile, finishing with a 5:25. That put his finishing time at 29:26 which saw him take 29th place overall out of a field of 522.

Even though he did blow up again, he’d still managed a time that was 39 seconds quicker than what he did last year. His average pace for the run was 5:53.

Jack Barwick went through the first mile in 5:34 before registering a 5:49 for his second mile. It was a really strong start and he didn’t see as much of a drop off in the third and fourth miles, clocking a 6:05 for each of them.

Jack tends to slow down in the last mile of races though in order to compose himself before going over the finish line. It does mean that he hasn’t quite been able to achieve his full potential yet and on this occasion, he completed the final mile in 6:13, when he could have probably done it faster.

It was still a superb sub 30 minute time from Jack though, with his chip time coming in at 29:55. That put him in 37th place overall.

Hoping to be rewarded with a good run on her birthday, Katie Gunn started with a 6:10 for her first mile and then a 6:09 for her second. She found the third and fourth miles much tougher though, registering a 6:59 for her third mile and then a 6:39 for her fourth.

Closing it out with a 6:20 for her final split, Katie finished in a time of 32:02 which made her 10th female out of 205 and 74th overall. Given the elevation she’d had to face, that was a pretty decent effort from Katie.

Arriving a bit late due to the heavy traffic, Luke Martin started 45 seconds after everyone else. Due to concerns over his ankle, he decided to take it at tempo pace, starting with a 6:29 for his first mile. He then got progressively faster with each mile, clocking a 6:26 for his second mile, a 6:22 for his third and then a 6:14 for his fourth.

He then raced to a 5:41 for his final split which saw him register a chip time of 31:31. On gun time it was 32:16 though, due to his late start which would have put him in 76th place. His chip time would have put him in 63rd place though. Of course, had he been racing it all out, he would have been much higher up the leader-board.

Katie’s boyfriend Luke Bentley was racing as well and he ran most of it in around 7:30 pace. He lifted it well in the last mile though to clock a 7:02 before reaching the finish in 37:23. That put him in 209th place.

Getting round a time of 41:45, Julia Austin was 68th female and 3rd out of 24 in the FV60 category. In the overall standings, she came 299th. That performance showed that, even though she’d been off the race circuit for quite some time, Julia was still one of the quickest out there in her age bracket.

Completing the course in 39:53, Rich Nelson was 30th out of 49 in the MV50 category and 268th overall. He should have been fourth scorer for the club, although he wasn’t actually down as being from Bournemouth AC. That meant it will be Jud Kirk who comes in as fourth scorer.

He got round in a time of 40:06 which put him 11th out of 29 in the MV65 category. In the overall standings, he was 275th. That was a minute and a half off the time he produced at the May 5 earlier in the year but of course, it is a much tougher route with the hills that need to be negotiated.

At the front of the field, Harry Smith was in scintillating form and blasted up the hills like they weren’t even there. Going through the first mile in 4:47, he then registered a 4:58 for his second mile. The third mile was the only one that took him more than 5 minutes, clocking a 5:08 for that one.

He then got back to 4:57 for the fourth mile before finishing with a super quick 4:38. That put his finishing time at an astonishing 24:36 which smashed the course record previously held by another Southampton AC runner, Mahamed Mahamed. His time was 24:49 which he set in 2016.

Harry’s Southampton AC teammate Henry Haslam was 2nd in a time of 25:51 which put his average pace at 5:10. Joshua Price took 3rd in 26:04 and Greg Wright of Fleet & Crookham came 4th in 26:09.

That meant Jaymee Domoney had to settle for 5th on this occasion, getting round in a time of 26:31. Gary Marshall of Ryde Harriers was 6th in 29:36 and Andrew Winterbottom of Winchester Running Club came 7th in 27:29.

Beth Kidger of Brighton Phoenix was 9th in the overall standings and first female in a tremendous time of 27:55. She was quite a way ahead of the next woman to arrive at the finish. That was Helen Hall of Winchester Running Club who came 26th in 29:24.

Lesley Locks of Aldershot Farnham & District was third lady in 29:57 which put her in 34th place overall. Eva Johnson of Winchester Running Club was 3rd female and 40th overall in 30:28. Tamsin Anderson, also of Winchester Running Club was 5th female in 30:49 and she was 47th overall.

Winchester Running Club have topped the standings in the Men’s A1 division as they had Andrew Winterbottom who was 7th, Jamie Rendall who was 10th, Henry Edwards who was 12th and David Gaskell who was 13th.

With four women in the top 12, Winchester Running Club will have also come out on top in the Women’s A1 division. They even had four more men in the top 32 so would have easily won the Men’s B1 division as well.

It looks like new third division club Fleet & Crookham have done pretty well as well as they had four men in the top 50. It will be interesting to see where the Bournemouth AC men finished when the league tables are updated. They did well to get a team out though, as it looked at one stage like that wasn’t going to happen.

The league scores are determined by the best nine of twelve races though so you can afford three races in the season not to go too well, or even not get a team out. It’s always best to do the best you can in all of them though and that’s what Bournemouth AC will be aiming to do.

Thanks to Amanda Hepburn @amandahepburnphotography for the fantastic action shots.

The next race of the Hampshire Road Race League season is the New Forest 10 which tales place in 26th October. That was a fixture they won comfortably last year so the yellow and blues will b looking for repeat that success this time round.