It’s been an event that Bournemouth AC runners have revelled in in previous years. The Bournemouth Bay Run usually provides a good foil for those running a spring marathon to have a last blast and perhaps add some miles on at the beginning or the end. Last year Rob McTaggart did the double, winning the 10k and then continuing his run with some filler miles before lining up for the Half Marathon and winning that as well. The year before that Tag won the Half Marathon and Szymon Chojnacki made it a BAC one-two. Elliott Robertson won the 10k that year as well and Esmee Hurst-Atkins was first female in the 5k. In this year’s edition, Tag wasn’t going to be winning any of the races since he was at the SEAA Road Relays helping the Bournemouth AC team qualify for the Nationals. That meant someone else would have the chance to scoop the silverware and the adulation. The club had several runners taking part in the Half Marathon race including James Phillips, Laura Rothwell, Bryn Smith, Grzegorz Kazaniecki and Ricky Brennan. Former Bournemouth AC man Pawel Surowiec was back in town as well and he was doing the half, accompanied by his friend and ex teammate Alex Goulding.

In the 10k race, Barry Dolman was leading the charge from a BAC perspective, with Louise Price, Emily and Jason Coltman also featuring. The 5k race was a chance for some of the younger members to take centre stage. Steven Kiff, Aiden Blagden and Matilde Blagden did just that.

In the Half Marathon race, James Phillips ran well to finish in 2nd place, recording a time of 1:15:31 which put him just under a minute behind the winner. That was Stuart Holloway of City of Salisbury who clocked a time of 1:14:33.

Luke De Benedictis was 3rd in 1:17:17 with Rob Arkell of Poole Runners sealing 4th in 1:18:04.

Although he didn’t have one of his better runs, Bryn Smith still took 9th place in 1:19:14. He hadn’t been doing a lot of running as most of his time was taken up by studying so it was always going to be difficult to build the fitness level required for a half marathon. Considering that, it was a decent effort from Bryn.

Doing it as a training run for the London Marathon, Grzegorz Kazaniecki finished 33rd in 1:25:30, just behind another Bournemouth AC member in Thomas Farwell. He clocked a time of 1:25:12. Grzeg was 7th in the M40 category.

Former Bournemouth AC member Helen O’Neile completed the course in 1:26:47 which put her 37th overall and she was 4th female. Leah Saunders who finished 18th in 1:21:59 was 1st female. Tracy Thomas of Worthing & District was 2nd lady in 1:23:27. Natalie Lawrence of Egdon Heath Harriers was 3rd female in 1:25:54.

Ricky Brennan got round in 1:33:40 which put him in 80th overall and 24th in the M40 category. Poole Runners star Lauren Baker-Little was 5th female in 1:32:56. Laura Rothwell arrived to take the 6th placed female spot in 1:34:31. That put her in 87th place overall.

Another Bournemouth AC member, Bradley Pickup, finished 90th overall in 1:34:37. He was going pretty well up till the 10th mile but he started to struggle after that and lost pace over the remainder of the race. It was still a pretty decent effort from Bradley though and was over five minutes quicker than he managed in the same race last year.

The next recognisable face from the Bournemouth AC camp was Aidan Marlin who came 94th in 1:33:51. Aidan comes to the BAC training sessions and has a very fast turn of pace. He may lack the endurance required for a half marathon though at the current moment in time.

Hoping to go closer to 1:30, Pawel Surowiec was going quite well up till the eighth mile but the wheels came off after that he ended up about a minute slower for most of his remaining splits. That left him with a finishing time of 1:38:01 which he was  quite disappointed with. At least it showed him where he was at with his fitness though and gave him a base to build from. Pawel was 120th overall and 39th M40. Former BAC lady Heather Khoshnevis topped the standings in the F55 bracket , crossing the line in 1:38:06. That put her 10th out of the women in the race and 126th overall. There were 1,076 runners who successfully completed the half marathon race.

After a 22km warm up, Barry Dolman was ready to rumble in the 10k race even though he’d already ran for ages beforehand, he managed to get down to six minute mile pace once the race started. He kept that going until hitting the zig-zag on the third mile. That led to a 6:19 and then a 6:12 mile before he headed down the Mariner on the fifth mile, clocking a 5:51 before getting through the remaining mile at 6:11 pace.

That gave him a finishing time of 37:49 and saw him take 7th place and 1st M50 spot. It also bought his total mileage to 20 for the session was really good. It was a strong run from Barry and will no doubt serve him well come marathon day when he lines up at London.

Poole AC man Jamie Grose claimed victory, racing to a time of 34:55 which was just enough to see off the challenge of Twemlow Track Club man Chris Wood. He took 2nd in 35:12, with Robert Keenan taking 3rd in 36:10. Lawrence Wickham finished 4th in 37:05 and Emily Hilliar of Poole AC came 5th in 37:32 and that made her 1st female.

Daniella Bailey of Taunton AC was next female and she came 12th in 39:20. Ruby Orchard of Cornwall AC was 3rd lady and 15th overall in 40:30. Leon Louis who sometimes comes to training at BAC finished 21st in 42:13.

Usually Jason Coltman runs with his daughter Emily but she hurt had her foot during a previous steeple chase race and as a result, she had to slow down. Jason carried on though to complete the course in 46:31 which put him in 68th place and he was 15th M50.

Refusing to pull out even though she was in pain, Emily soldiered on to finish in 50:29 which put her in 129th place overall she was 24th female. That may not have been the best decision though as since the race, her injury hasn’t really healed and she ended up having to have a scan to see if it’s a stress fracture.

David Crowther was also representing Bournemouth AC and he finished 91st in a time of 47:53. That put him 26th in the M40 category.

It proved to be tougher than expected for Louise Price. She got boxed in at the start which held her up and then there was the tough headwind to contend with on the way back. She tackled it as best she could though, completing the course in 56:23 which put her in 316th place overall. That made her 91st female and 8th in the F55 category. There were 156 finishers in the 10k race.

Steven Kiff completed the 5k race in 20:08 which elevated him to the lofty heights of 12th position. Aiden Blagden managed 21:39 which put him 22nd and Matilde Blagden was 2nd placed female and 28th overall in 22:45.

Because the 5k race started a few hours later, Jamie Grose was still able to compete in the 5k even though he’d already won the 10k. And he only went and won the 5k as well sealing a dream double! A 17:04 was enough to fend off competition from Ross Wilkes who was runner up in 17:11.

Sarah Price came 3rd in 18:46 and she was 1st female as well of course. Theo Cobley took 4th in 18:21 and after racing the Eastleigh 10k in the morning, Trev Elkins came back to Bournemouth and ran the Bay Run 5k a few hours later and finished 5th in 18:47. He was also first M40 and that was after recording a PB of 36:02 at Eastleigh. A total of 554 runners completed the 5k race.

It was great to have some Bournemouth AC members out their representing in a local race despite the event clashing with other important fixtures on the day. It’s certainly a viable one for the yellow and blues to showcase the talent they have in their ranks and prove that they are still the top dogs on the local running scene. Plus there’s nothing like a nice run along the seafront to get the juices flowing.