Well renowned for its sandy sections and energy sapping final third, the Studland Stampede always provides a unique challenge to attempt. For those runners going for points in the Purbeck Trail Series, it was a race they had to show up for and had to be prepared for a bit of hard graft.

Usually the final race of the series, the Studland Stampede has previously been the crucial decider. This time it’s the fifth race of six though, with the Blue Castle Run offering a final chance to improve or complete the scorecard.

After the the first four fixtures of the series, Stu Nicholas was the top Under 40 in the standings and his wife Anna Trehane was first overall female. Of course, Stu was going for the overall series win, which he’d managed to secure the previous year. To get that, he really just needed to consistently deliver performances to the level he’s capable of.

His quest hadn’t been helped by the catastrophe of Coombe Keynes where the lead marshal took him the wrong way when he was in the lead. Since then he’s won the Lighthouse Loop and the Black Hill Run 10k and finished second to Jon Pepin at The Beast.

Stu wasn’t the only Bournemouth AC man doing well in the Purbeck Trail Series. Patrick Kingston finished 9th in The Beast and 11th in the Black Hill Run 10k, alongside some huge mountain ultras he’d attempted on mainland Europe. He’d been out in the Pyrenees and the Alps, where he completed La Moins’ Hard 70km race.

He then went on to attempt one of the toughest events that can be found anywhere in the TOR130 Tot Dret, which is 135.8km with 12,000m of ascent. Patrick didn’t make it to the end but he did clock up over 90km before calling it a day.

Long standing Bournemouth AC runner Caroline Rowley had completed all four of the Purbeck Trail Series races so far and was lining up for the Studland Stampede so she could well be looking at completing a full set.

Currently sitting second in the F50 category, Caroline went into the Studland Stampede knowing that she could improve her score by finishing higher up so that was the goal really going into those final two races.

The route starts on the beach before heading the up the one big hill of the race which goes up to 1.7 miles. Stu Nicholas led the runners out across the sand and up the first bit of the hill, posting a 5:22 for his first split. He then followed that up with a 6:54 for his second split, for which most of it was uphill.

On the long descent down to the 3.6 mile point, Egdon Heath Harriers star Chris Peck started to reel Stu in. Clocking a 5:49 for his third mile and 5:59 for his fourth, Stu was still going well but the pair were now neck and neck.

On the fifth mile, Chris took the lead and started to extend away from Stu. Stu was still going at 6 minute mile pace but Chris seemed to have a little more in the tank.

On the sixth mile you hit the sand dunes which is probably the toughest section because it’s soft sand. That knocked Stu down to over 7 minute mile pace at times. It was a tough old grind but Chris was really strong on it, taking close to another 30 seconds of the Stu.

The last mile and the half were on the beach, so not an easy run in to the finish. Stu registered a 7:43 for his seventh mile and then completed the last half a mile at 6:20 pace.

That got him to the line in 48:05 which was enough to seal second place. In fact, he was close to two minutes ahead of Alessandaro Zanconato who took third place. That showed it was a really strong run from Stu and he’d improved on his winning time from last year by 42 seconds.

Chris Peck’s winning time was 46:46, so he’d managed to accrue a winning margin of 1 minute 19 seconds over Stu in the end. His average pace for the run was 6:14 and Stu’s was 6:23, which is still amazingly quick on such a difficult route.

Daniel Thomas of Bridport Runners moved up to third place in the Purbeck Trail Series standings by finishing fourth at the Studland Stampede in a time of 50:04.

Littledown Harriers man Mark Packer moved up to the top of the M50 standings for the series so far, finishing fifth at the Studland Stampede in a time of 50:16.

Getting through the first mile in 6:55, Patrick Kingston then went on to register a 7:40 for his second mile, which was the one this is mostly uphill. He then picked up the pace on the way down, with a 6:23 followed but a 6:34.

Back on flat ground, he then clocked a 6:35 for his fifth mile before hitting the sand dunes. That put him down to 7:28 for his sixth mile before he hit the beach for the last mile and a half.

Getting through the seventh mile in 7:10, he then managed 6:50 pace for that last half a mile before reaching the finish in 51:53. That put him in 10th place, just behind Rob Doubleday of Poole AC who is also in the M40 division. He was 9th in 51:34.

That moved Rob Doubleday up to second in the M40 standings for the series so far behind Pete Doughty, who swapped places with Stu Nicholas as Stu was now leading overall male. Alessandro Zanconato had now moved up to second in the overall standings for the series behind Stu.

Finishing 6th at the Studland Stampede in a time of 50:48, Adam Hodge had slipped out of the top three overall but he was now top of the Under 40 category.

Moving up to first overall female in the series so far, Isabel Zanconato finished first female and 13th overall at the Studland Stampede in a time of 52:43.

Ellie Evans was second female in 53:55 which put her 22nd overall and Jenny Lee Marshall of Purbeck Runners was third lady and 28th overall in 54:44. She moved up to third in the F40 standings for the series so far.

Finding it pretty tough going, Rich Nelson managed to find the energy to make it to the end in 1:08:10 which put him in 148th place overall in a field of 415. He was 43rd in the 40 to 49 category.

Getting round in exactly 1 hour 10 minutes, Caroline Rowley finished 176th overall and was 41st female out of 192. She was also 6th in the 50 to 59 category.

There was no change in the top three for the F50 category so Caroline was still in second place behind Tracy Brooks going into that final fixture.

Completing the course in 1:05:10, Anna Trehane was 114th overall and 17th female and 6th out of 32 in the 18 to 39 category. She’d now dropped out of the top three women overall in the series but was now top of the Under 40 category going into that last fixture. That was three and a half minutes quicker than the time she managed last year so represented great progress for Anna.

Going into the final fixture, Stu Nicholas is in a great position to retain his Purbeck Trail Series title but there was still one more chance to improve his scorecard even further by recording a win at the Blue Castle Run.

The Blue Castle Run is newly introduced to the Purbeck Trail Series and features a 7 mile trail route round the Blue Pool nature reserve.

Thanks to once again to Ken Hewitt for all the fantastic photos and to Paul Sanderson who also took some and shared them.