One of the first big off-road events of the year is the Maverick New Forest and that usually garners some interest amongst the Bournemouth AC fraternity. Last year Emily Coltman finished 2nd female in the ‘Short’ race and her dad Jason was 1st vet. They were back again for another taste of the action but were making the step up to the ‘Middle‘ distance option which was 10k.

It was only a couple of days after Emily had competed at the English Schools Cross County which was staged at Kings Park so that could have potentially impacted her performance but she was keen to get back out there anyway and give it her best.

Both Emily and Jason have been coming along to the Bournemouth AC road runners training sessions and that has certainly helped develop their speed, as it does to everyone who attends really.

Another BAC member who has been making the most of the club training sessions recently, or ever since she joined the club actually, is Laura Rothwell. She was taking part in the ‘Long‘ race which was 21km, along with her partner James Phillips who also runs for BAC and is very quick on an off-road setting like this.

Also competing in the 10k race was long time BAC servant Graeme Miller and he was running with his dog Chester who happened to be turning two years old on that very day.

After canicross wins at the Black Hill Run and The Stickler, Graeme and Chester went on to race in the NATB (New Approach to Britsh Dog Sports) at Hinton Admiral where they ran the 2.6 mile course in under 15 minutes on two consecutive days. They then proceeded to record another win in the Ower Trail Running 10k, getting round in 40:55.

The weekend after Graeme finished joint 2nd in the Maverick Oxfordshire ‘Middle’ distance race that was 11k. After that he went on to compete in the British Sleddog Sports Federation National Championships where he completed the 5k route in just under 17 minutes on Day 1 of the first round at Thetford Forest. Then on the second day the course was shortened but Graeme and Chester rocketed round at an incredible average pace of 5:15. That put them in 4th place in the DCMM50 category.

After that they won the Winter Wooly 10k in just under 39 minutes on Christmas Eve before going into round two of the BSSF National Championships which was held at Dalby Forest. In that one they ran the 2.38 mile course at an incredible 5:13 pace on the first day, before managing to eclipse that on the second day with an average pace of 5:10. It really was impressive how quick Graeme and Chester could go in these races.

The Maverick New Forest event turned out to be a very successful one from a Bournemouth AC perspective. James Phillips dominated the ‘Long‘ distance race, getting round in 1 hour 17 minutes and 16 seconds. It wasn’t even a flat course either, with the route incorporating over 650ft of elevation so that was a tremendous time from James.

No one else could get anywhere near that although Chris Harris, who has also been to some of the Bournemouth AC Tuesday night sessions finished 3rd in a time of 1:20:20. Oliver Caudwell came 2nd in exactly the same time so they must have sprinted it out at the end. Chris could have done it quicker though but he was running it with Andy Bow who finished 4th and was 1st V40 in 1:20:41.

Laura Rothwell finished 8th female in a time of 1:36:33 and that put her 53rd overall out of 379. There were 148 women in the race in total so that was a pretty good result for Laura.

Serena Carter was 1st female, getting round in a super quick time of 1:21:25 which put her 7th overall. Sarah Forbes was 2nd lady, crossing the line in 1:25:05 which put her 10th overall.

In the Medium distance race, Emily Coltman had a smashing run to finish as 1st female and 12th overall in a time of 47:14. The distance actually came out at 10.6k and the route was very hilly as well, with 360ft of elevation, so it was definitely a performance to be proud of for Emily. She’d beaten 128 other women.

Her dad Jason managed to keep up with her as well and he finished 13th overall in the same time as Emily. There were 239 in total in the ‘Middle’ distance race.

It was a close call between Emily and Vicky Dibdin who was 2nd female, with just two seconds separating them. Vicky finished in 15th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting right at the back with the other canicross runners, Graeme and Chester blasted round the ‘Middle‘ distance course at an average pace of 5:57 which was make Graeme 2nd fastest out of anyone in the race. His time was 37:36.

Matthew Wood was the overall winner of the Medium race, getting round in 35:56 which put him quite a way ahead. Alexander Buck took 3rd place in a time of 37:50.

It was great to see the Bournemouth AC runners bossing proceedings and impressing so much at the Maverick New Forest event and no doubt there will be many more occasions like that to come over the course of the year.