After five barren years in the wilderness, with no summer feast of racing to get the juices flowing, the Poole Festival of Running was back – and it was back with a bang! Albeit in a rather different guise though as for this year, it was a relay race where teams comprising of four people would battle it out, each tackling a re-hashed 5k route round Poole Park.

There were prizes for various age categories, as well as for All Male, All Female and Mixed teams, meaning everyone had something to play for. As is often the case with relay races, it opened out the possibility for some inventive and in some cases, humorous team names as well.

The inclusion of a 14 to 17 category should have been a prelude to the involvement of quite a few juniors as well, although it didn’t really seem to pan out that way. There was a Bournemouth AC “All Male 14 to 17” team though which featured four of the club’s up and coming talents in Oliver Canavan, Will Moss, Jack Webb and Isaac May.

Oliver Canavan is one of the most exciting prospects Bournemouth AC has produced for quite some time. He first caught the eye in the Bournemouth AC Mile of Miles Relays last summer when he blasted round his four laps of the track in 4:52.

Winning all three Wessex Cross Country League fixtures for his age group last year, he also won the South West Schools 1500m and this summer went on to win the Dorset County Championship 1500m. The day before the Poole Festival of Running Relays, he recorded a tremendous new PB of 4:13.9 at the Dorset County Schools Championships, proving he was in tip-top form.

Isaac May also recorded a PB of 4:28.9 in that same race showing that he also possesses some serious speed. He’d also produced a 17:32 at Poole parkrun as well.

With a 1500m PB of 4:45.80, Jack Webb possesses and 800m best of 2:10.1. Will Moss has a 1500m best of 4:47 and at the time of the Poole Festival of Running, had an 800m PB of 2:14.2. His best parkrun time to date was 18:32.

There were also some Bournemouth AC golden oldies in action as well, including an All Male 40+ team consisting of Rich Brawn, Adrian James, Szymon Chojnacki and Trev Elkins. They were hoping to contend for a prize in that category. They’d all produced parkrun times of quicker than 17:20 so had the pedigree to put together a good showing if they each performed well.

Rob Spencer and Barry Dolman were also in a team, with Barry exhibiting some decent form of late including a PB of just under 2 hours 54 minutes at the London Marathon. He’d also recently finished 1st M50 at the Netley 10k for the second year running, recording an improved time of 37:19 on this occasion.

As for Rob Spencer, he’d won the Lytchett 10k in February in a very impressive time of 55:08. Then he went on to nail a new half marathon PB of exactly 1 hour 9 minutes at Bath during the build up to the London Marathon. He’d already finished first in seven parkruns so far this year, with his best time out of those being a 16:31 at Moors Valley.

Rob and Barry were joined by Stacey Dickinson of Wimborne AC and Kevin Willsher of Lordshill. Going into it off the back of a recent first female win in the Collingwood 10k in which she also finished 3rd overall, Tamzin Petersen was in a Mixed team of two males and two females.

There was a strong looking “All Male mixed ages” team from Poole AC consisting of Tommy Corbin, Dom Willmore, Rob Doubleday and Luke Terry. They were surely contenders to win it outright. A Poole Runners team consisting of Lewis Clarke, Rob Arkell, Joe Godden and Luke McKenzie looked like they might be able to give the Poole AC men a run for their money.

The first leg runners made their way onto the start line and the Poole Festival of Running Relays got going. The course was from the fountain over to the cricket pitch, one lap of the cricket pitch then over to the lake for two anti-clockwise laps of the lake. It felt somewhat strange to be running the opposite way to usual round the lake.

Trev Elkins took the first leg for the Fast-ish Forty Odds, with Barry Dolman assuming the duty for the Gustavo Four Legs team. Isaac May was first to go for the BAC U16s but it was Lewis Clarke who put the Poole Runners team into an early lead. He got round in 16:52, with Luke Terry getting Allen’s RUN-D.M.C team into 2nd place with his time of 17:16.

There was another team of juniors from Poole Runners which had two boys and two girls in it. Buddy Mitchell got them off to a good start, putting them in 3rd place with a time of 17:23.

Running well to complete first first leg in 17:48, Isaac May had the BAC boys in 5th place, just behind the Parkrun Pals who had Tony Roberts on the first leg. Barry Dolman had a decent run to get round in 18:06 which put his team into 7th.

Going through 5k in 17:32, Barry would have actually secured a new PB for the distance. The course came up slightly long though at 3.2 miles so that skewed the times slightly and made them look not quite as good as they were. Barry’s splits were remarkably consistent though, all around 5:40 pace and it was a strong performance from him.

Trev Elkins was next over the line, clocking a time of 18:12, which wasn’t quite as fast as he was hoping for. He’d been struck down by flu in the week leading up to it though so hadn’t been able to do any of the tune up sessions he might otherwise have done. Taking the extra distance into consideration though, it was still a decent run from Trev.

The second leg runners were waiting in a pen for their teammates to arrive and go over the line so they could set off. Luke McKenzie picked up the virtual baton for the Poole Runners Men’s team and Dom Willmore was unleashed for the Poole AC men.

Rich Brawn took over from Trev and set off quite fast, soon overtaking Stacey Dickinson from Barry’s team. He then set about in pursuit of Will Moss who was on duty for the BAC U16s and the other two teams he could see that were ahead of him.

It wasn’t long before Rich had got his team up to 3rd. He wasn’t quite able to sustain the pace he was going at though for the first mile. The stony, gravelly section when you first get over to lake was quite tricky to run on and that hampered his progress a bit.

As he was coming round the lake for the second time, Poole AC over 50 John Bassinder snuck up and overtook him. He’d made a good amount of ground up on Rich and produced a time of 17:35 to get The Stiff Livers team up to 3rd. Rich got over the line in 17:54, which he was quite disappointed with but he had actually gone through 5k in 17:30 which wasn’t too bad.

Dom Willmore had just about managed to get the Poole AC team into the lead, eating up 24 second deficit he had on the Poole Runners team. Dom clocked the fastest time yet of 16:34, with Luke McKenzie getting round in exactly 17.

Producing a 5k split of 18:51, Will Moss got through his leg in 19:13 which was a pretty decent time given that he’d been mostly focusing on the 800m for the last couple of months.

Picking up the reigns for the third leg for the Fast-ish Forty Odds, it was Adrian James. There was one disconcerting moment when Adrian was on his run where, as he came round the lake for the first time, instead of going past the finish line, he went over it and over the chip matt.

There was actually a segregated path next to the finish line that runners were supposed to take on their first lap. That got Rich worried that they might get disqualified but they spoke to one of the organisers afterwards and he said it would be okay.

Aside from that, Adrian had a good run, completing his full leg in 18:03 and getting his team up to 3rd again. Kevin Willsher had played a blinder for Barry’s team though and had got them back into contention with Rich’s team. He blasted round in 17:07 to make up a lot of ground on Adrian.

The Fast-ish Forty Odds had Szymon Chojnacki on the anchor leg but Gustavo Four Legs had Rob Spencer. With a 16:59 third leg, Rob Doubleday had opened up a sizeable gap on Joe Godden and it looked like the Poole AC men were going to get the better of Poole Runners. Rob produced a time of 16:59, with Joe registering a 17:41.

Jack Webb had a good run for the BAC U16s, getting round in 18:16 and he’d got them up to 5th position before Oliver Canavan assumed the anchor leg.

In the battle for third place, although he ran really well to clock a time of 17:18, Szymon couldn’t hold off Rob Spencer as he tore up the course in 16:46. That was enough to see Gustavo Four Legs finish with a cumulative time of 1:11:03, which put them 26 seconds ahead of Trev and Rich’s team.

The Fast-ish Forty Odds had taken 4th place in 1:11:29. They were the quickest of the All Male 40+ teams though so had achieved what they set out to. Their main rivals for that were a Poole Runners team consisting of Steve Claxton, David Penwarden, John Towner and Neil Sexton. They clocked a total combined time of 1:17:02 which put them in 9th place.

Motoring round in 16:44, Oliver Canavan gave another glimpse of his incredible ability. That was enough to secure a superb 5th place for the BAC U16s with a cumulative time of 1:12:02 and they were well happy with that. They got a trophy as well for winning the All Male 14 to 17 category, so all-in-all a great day for the youngsters.

Producing the fastest run out of any runner from any team, Tommy Corbin rounded off the win for Allen’s RUN-D.M.C team in a blistering time of 16:21. That put their total combined finishing time at 1:07:11.

Managing the 2nd fastest time of any athlete, Rob Arkell put in a great shift for the Poole Runners team to get round in 16:31. The put their total combined time at 1:08:06.

With super M50 Dave Hicks running a good anchor leg in 17:06, The Stiff Livers were the best of the rest, taking 6th place in 1:14:11. They were a mixed 40+ team of two men and two women, with Hayley Martin and Christina Squire accompanying Dave and John Bassinder.

Completing her leg in 23:22, Tamzin helped the R Safari team to finish in 30th place. They recorded a total combined time of 1:33:30. That put them 4th in the Mixed gender, mixed ages category.

The first All Female team were the Poole Stunners, which consisted of Gemma Bragg, Jo Westhead, Clare Wood and Lauren Baker-Little. They finished 15th in 1:23:53.

It was great to see some of the Bournemouth AC juniors coming together to compete in an event of this kind and it was nice to have a race where both youngsters and seniors could take part and show what they can do in a team orientated environment. It probably wasn’t an easy one to organise but Poole Runners did a fantastic job and, aside from Adrian crossing the finish line twice, all appeared to go smoothly.

It has been rumoured that the Poole Festival of Running will defer to the previous format of a 5k, a 10k and a Half Marathon next summer, which would be fantastic. If it doesn’t though, then another Relays competition would certainly be a good fallback.