In celebration of their 40th year since formation, Totton Running Club decided to host a 10k road race featuring a two lap course with some undulation. The event caught the eye of Bournemouth AC man Chris O’Brien who usually enjoys competing over that sort of distance.

Since way back in the covid days though, Chris has struggled to get his speed back and has been plagued by a test chest which stops him realising his true potential. It’s something that he’s just had to get used to and come to terms with though but it doesn’t stop him competing and giving his all for himself and his club.

His last race was the Lordshill 10k back in July and he completed that one in 40:44. That’s probably around whereabouts he is now in terms of 10k times but he was hoping he might be able to go quicker this time at Totton.

Even during the warm up though, he could feel that his chest was tight so he prepared himself for the likelihood that he’d be just hanging on as best he could.

Going out fairly hard, he still felt he needed to be cautious about pushing it too much on the first lap. Going through the first mile in 6:21, it wasn’t long until Chris started to feel like he needed to stop. It seemed like the effort level was way too high for the pace he was going at. To his credit though, he hung in there and started to overtake a few people once he found his rhythm.

Registering a 6:39 for his second mile, he then followed it up with a 6:35 for his third split to bring him to the end of his first lap. Now he needed to do the whole thing again. In the second lap he was right on his limit, trying hard to match what he’d done in the first.

Clocking a 6:28 for his fourth mile, he then went on to post a 6:45 followed by a 6:46. Crossing the line in a chip time of 40:42, Chris had taken 21st place out of 239 participants. He was 24th best on the first lap and 20th best in the second so he improved in the second half verses how other runners were performing.

With an average pace of 6:35, it wasn’t quite the time that Chris had been hoping for but he’d sort of resigned himself to the fact that this was how racing was going to be for him from now on. It was going to be much tougher than it used to be.

He had finished 2nd in the M50 category though behind Dean Jones of Lordshill Road Runners. He came 13th in exactly 38 minutes. At 53 years of age there was no one who finished ahead of him who was older than him.

George Hood of Southampton AC covered the ground the fastest out of anyone, netting a time of 34:01. Michael Beckett of City of Salisbury came 2nd in 34:23 with Kevin Willsher of Lordshill claiming 3rd in 35:19.

Craig Berryman of Havant saw his training come into fruition with a 4th place finish. He was the only other man to get in inside 36 minutes. Former Bournemouth AC Trev Elkins has upped his game of late but still hasn’t quite found that illusive sub 36 time that he wants. A 36:11 was enough to see him come in in 5th place though with Emlyn Hughes, now of Southampton AC taking 6th in 36:24.

It was a good day for Southampton AC as they had four men in the top ten. Totton’s very own Jo Haley finished 1st female in a time of 41:04 and that put her 25th overall. Jess Gill of Winchester & District arrived 16 seconds later to come in as 2nd female and 27th overall. Antonia Mintoff was 3rd lady and 35th overall with her time of 42:33.

The good news was that if the race was a success, which it seemed to be, then there might be more editions to look forward to in the future. Perhaps it will even be scheduled in as part of the Hampshire Road Race League for the 25 to 26 season.

It wasn’t long before Chris would get another shot at a 10k race as he was one of the many club members taking part in the Round the Lakes race at Poole Park. Then after that he’d be tackling the Run to the Sea 50k Ultra Marathon for the third consecutive year.