Fostering fond memories of their All Male 40+ trophy win at least year’s event, the Fastish Forty Odds, or the Flagging Forty Odds as they were known as this time round, were back to defend their crown at the Poole Festival of Running Relays. The team was headed up by former Bournemouth AC man Trev Elkins originally and included Rich Brawn, Adrian James and Szymon Chojnacki.

Since the event was on the same day as Father’s Day this year, Trev was unable to make it, electing to spend the day with his young son instead. That left the team needing an additional vet to step into the quartet.

There were a few candidates they considered from the Bournemouth AC rankings but in the end they decided to ask Jason Christian. He’d been running pretty well of late and had recently clocked a parkrun PB of 18:30 on the Poole Park course.

Jason duly agreed to join the group and they set about organising and preparing for the event. They weren’t the only Bournemouth AC runners present at the event though. Adam Corbin and James Hulbert were also part of team and they had been recruited by Lawrence Wickham to join his side which also included Wimborne AC man Louis Verdi.

They were looking to contend for the overall win but had a useful looking Poole AC outfit to try to overcome. They had Dom Willmore who had finished second two days prior at the Purbeck 10k and Brian Underwood who had finished 8th in that same race. Adam Colbert and Luke Terry were also part of their formidable line-up.

Rob McTaggart and Nikki were there as well and they’d partnered up with Jamie Grose and his wife and his wife Lizzy to form a Mixed team of 2 Males and 2 Females. They were treating it as a bit of fun rather than a trophy win bid but with Tag and Jamie, it was in their competitive nature to run fast in any race they do.

Adrian James took up the first leg for the Flagging Forty Odds and Nikki McTaggart was on duty for the Cherry Poppers. Lawrence Wickham opened proceedings for the team with James and Adam in and Luke Terry started for the Poole AC team.

The course started at the fountain in Poole Park and went over to the cricket pavilion for a lap around the cycle track. It then headed to the lake and it was two clockwise laps of the lake.

It was Luke and Lawrence who were battling it out at the front on the first leg but it was Luke who was first to reach the handover point in a time of 17:17. The course was slightly longer than 5k so everyone’s times would have been slightly slower than they would at parkrun. Lawrence got round in 17:26 and handed the virtual baton over to Louis Verdi who set about in pursuit of Adam Colbert who had taken over for the Poole AC men.

Adrian was battling it out for third place with Lee Dempster who was competing for an All Male team of mixed ages. Adrian played it well tactically, sitting in behind Lee before make a break for it when they got right near the end. That gave the Flagging Forty Odds a couple of seconds advantage over Lee’s Chafing the Ladies team when Rich Brawn took over for the second leg. Adrian‘s time was a very solid 18:10.

Setting off quicky, Rich hurtled down toward the cricket pavilion. When he got a bit down the straight, he looked behind him and was surprised to see that there was no one there. That left him isolated.

Louis Verdi set about trying to recover the 9 second deficit between them and Poole AC team. Rich had been struggling with his running to the point where he couldn’t even keep a decent pace for the duration of a 5k. Going through the first mile in 5:42, he soon started to drop off when he got round to the lake and had to tackle the headwind. It wasn’t long before he was reduced to 6 minute mile pace.

Usually she really struggles with running in the heat but Nikki McTaggart didn’t do too badly on the first leg for the Cherry Poppers, clocking a time of 27:24 before handing over to Jamie Grose’s wife Lizzy.

Louis managed to reel Adam Colbert in and make up the 9 seconds to get the two teams back on level terms. Louis posted the fastest time yet in 17:08, with Adam Colbert getting round in 17:17. The grudge match was on and it was James Hulbert taking over on the third leg for the Wickham Wanderers.

Brian Underwood was in action for the Poole AC Fantastic Four. Rich felt like he was running through treacle and could hear that someone from behind had caught him up but he didn’t know who it was. It turned out to be a former teammate of him, Ryan Pegoraro who was running for the Flying Trail Blazers.

Ryan sat behind Rich for a bit before easing past him and heading in toward the changeover point. He’d clocked a time of 18:03 and Rich had only managed 18:39, so Ryan had eaten up quite a big margin.

Jason Christian was on the third leg for the Flagging Forty Odds with Stacey Dickinson taking over for the Flying Trail Blazers.

James Hulbert flew out of the traps, going at sub 5 minute mile pace at first. He wasn’t quite able to keep to that sort of speed but he still went through the first 5k in 5:19. Brian was even quicker though, posing a 5:15.

Suffering a bit as a result of his exuberant start, James went through the second mile in 5:36 and the third in 5:52. Brian had stayed bang on pace though, clocking a 5:15 for his second mile and then a 5:12 for his third. That put his finishing time at 16:51 and he was the first man to get in under 17 minutes. James clocked a time of 17:28 which was still a good effort, albeit with regressive splits.

Starting with a 6:10 for his first male, Jason Christian went on to register a 6:16, followed but a 6:20, putting his finishing time at 19:39. Stacey Dickinson had managed to extend the gap between the Flying Trail Blazers and the Flagging Forty Odds to 11 seconds in the battle for third place.

The Flagging Forty Odds had Szymon Chojnacki on the anchor leg though which would likely give them a boost. The Flying Trail Blazers had Kevin Willsher though on their last leg and he was certainly no slouch.

Rob McTaggart had taken over from Lizzy Grose for the Cherry Poppers and he blasted round at a quicker pace than anyone else had managed so far. Clocking a 4:59 for his first leg, he then went through the second mile in 5:16 and the third in 5:14. That put his finishing time at 16:11, which was really quick on the slightly longer course. Jamie Grose would then take over for the fourth leg.

With the gap they’d built up on third leg, it was a bit of a formality when Dom Willmore set off on the anchor leg for the Poole AC Fantastic Four. Adam Corbin was in action for the Wickham Wanderers but he was always going to have a huge task on his hands to make any inroads into the gap with Dom Willmore ahead of him.

Like James, Adam set off really quickly, registering a 5:18 for his first mile. He then went through the second mile in 5:36 before registering a 5:41 for his third mile. That put his lap time at 17:19, which was a decent run out.

Dom Willmore had nailed the second quickest time of the day though, getting round in 16:28 to see out a convincing win for the Poole AC Fantastic Four. Their final combined time was 1 hour 7 minutes and 55 seconds.

It was a valiant effort from the Wickham Wanderers and they’d claimed second place by quite a big margin, with a total combined time of 1:09:23.

Szymon set about in pursuit of Kevin Willsher in the battle for third place, clocking a 5:20 for his first mile. He then followed that up with a 5:30 and then a 5:34. That put his finishing time at 17:28.

He’d made up a bit of time on Kevin Willsher who got round in 17:35 but it wasn’t enough and the Flagging Forty Odds had to settle for fourth place in a time of 1:13:58. They were 7 seconds behind the Flying Trail Blazers in the end.

The Flagging Forty Odds had won the All Male 40+ category though which was what they came to do so from that perspective they were happy. They had took home the trophy for the second year running.

There was still some drama to come though as Jamie Grose posted the fastest lap out of anyone on the day. He went through the first mile in 4:50, the second in 5:02 and the third in 4:56 to give him an incredible finishing time of 15:30.

That put the finishing time for the Cherry Poppers at 1:26:03 which was a minute behind the first placed team in the Mixed (2 Male, 2 Female) category which was the Jurassic Gems.

Another Poole AC team which had Dawn Andrews, Simon Wildbur, Marc Ujvari and William Ujvari in it finished 5th in 1:19:58. A Lytchett Manor Striders team with Alex Thompson, Matt Bosanquet, Scott Parfitt and Nick Gavin were the 2nd placed All Male 40+ team and they were 6th overall.

The Sea Survival Squad which included Poole Runners star Lauren Baker-Little proved that they weren’t out of their depth, coming in as first Mixed team of 2 males and 2 females. Their time was 1:22:07.

The Poole Festival of Running had once again turned out to be a really fun event for all those who participated or came to watch. As it was the previous year, the event was really well organised by Poole Runners and it was easy to see why it had proved so popular, even on a weekend where other important races were taking place.