Taking to canicross racing like a duck to water, Graeme Miller and his trusty steed Chester already had a win in the Maverick Hampshire 17km race under their harness, along with a closely fought 2nd place in the Spring Larmer Dog-Friendly 10 Miler. In their third consecutive week of racing they were lining up for a 10k Canicross race at the New Forest Off-Road Half Marathon event at Hinton Admiral.

They were joined there by Simon Hearn, who was coming into it off the back of a magnificent PB of 1:26:13 in the Surrey Half, knocking a minute off his previous best. Simon was tacking the 15k course and was joined at the event by his son Seb who seems to have taken some his dad’s running genes and was competing the in the 10k.

The route presented the competitors with the chance to sample unspoilt woodland that is never normally open to the public. That made it a real treat for the dogs as well as the runners.

The New Forest was voted the best National Park in Europe and ranked 10th in the world, ahead of the Grand Canyon, so there are few better locations out there for a trail race.

The course for the various races was fairly flat but it was very muddy in places which made it more challenging. The canicross runners were held back for a few minutes after each race of that distance had started. That meant that from a quarter of a mile in, Graeme was overtaking other runners.

As he usually does when racing with Chester, Graeme bolted out of the blocks quite quickly, recording a 5:56 for his opening mile. That was followed up by a 6:22 for the second mile and 6:27 for the third mile.

They were going extremely well at the half way stage and working their way up the field, progressively passing all the regular runners. By the time he hit the fourth mile, Graeme already overtaken the leader of the 10k race.

Getting through the fourth mile in 6:06, it was then onto the fifth mile which contained a slight incline. Graeme still managed to complete that in 6:15, leaving him with just a mile and a bit to go.

Getting the sixth mile done in 6:45, he now had just over a kilometre to go to get to the finish line, as the route was slightly further than 10k. Keeping the pace up well at 6:26 minutes per mile for that final section, Graeme and Chester made it to the finish line in a tremendous time of 41:58.

They had not only beaten all the other canicross racers but also all the regular 10k runners as well. Over a minute-and-a-half went by before the John Rawlins arrived to take 2nd place.

The race director congratulated Graeme and told him to hang around as he’d won a prize. Then another race organiser went up to John Rawlins and told him he was first, pointing at Graeme and saying he doesn’t count as he had assistance from his dog.

After working so hard to get into the lead Graeme was quite perturbed by this, as were some of the other canicross runners. They’d paid for a 10k canicross race only to be held back at the start and having to overtake all the 21k and 10k runners. Then to be told they didn’t count in the race and wouldn’t get a prize seemed very unfair.

The guy who won the regular 10k race was given a £100 pair of headphones and to shut him up, Graeme was given a £10 box of energy gels. He wasn’t in it for the prize but he felt that if it was advertised as a canicross race, why should he be penalised?

Graeme and Chester finished 2 minutes 46 seconds ahead of their nearest canicross rival. That was Ian Scott who got round in 44:44 and he was followed by Mike Hirst who recorded a time of 47:07. The next man and dog were over 10 minutes back. Graeme’s average pace for the run was 6:19 minutes per mile.

The next three canicross places went to women, with Katy Barber the only other athlete to finish inside the hour. She registered a time of 59:15, with Joanne Hobbs taking 6th in 1:02:44 and Rebecca Vidow finishing 7th in 1:05:15.

Simon Hearn’s son Seb was the 2nd regular 10k runner over the line, completing the course in 45:34. And like father like son, Simon sealed the runner up spot in the 15k race, getting round in 1:07:19. That put him exactly two minutes behind Matt Ward who picked up the race win in 1:05:19. Andy Duffin took 3rd place in a time of 1:08:04.

Jo Haley of Totton RC was first female, finishing in 1:10:22 which put her in 7th place overall. Rachel Vrettos was the next female in in 1:13:46 which put her in 11th place. Then it was Rosanna Burton who crossed the line in 1:16:37, taking 14th in the overall standings.

In the 21k race it was Jack Kenny who came out on top, recording a time of 1:28:54, giving him an advantage of almost five-and-a-half minutes over his nearest rival.

Out of the 15k Canicross runners, women occupied the first five places. Ellie Monks took top spot a time of 1:00:12 which put her over 15-and-a-half minutes ahead of her nearest rival.

The following weekend Graeme and Chester were back in action again, taking part in the NATB Night Race which was at Swinley Forest in Bracknell. The NATB stands for ‘New Approach to British’ Dog Sports and is bascially a club for people who like to participate in events with their canine companions.

It was Graeme’s first night race with a head torch and it felt strange to be giving all his trust over to his dog. Aside from the light from his torch, he was in total darkness, but Chester ran amazingly well and is super focused on catching whoever is ahead.

The race was a contested over a 5k distance and Graeme and Chester blasted their way round in a phenomenal time of 17:09, giving them an average pace of 5:33 minutes per mile.

This weekend Graeme is in Pembrey Country Park, which is the other side of Swansea at a three day event where he will be competing to win points for his country, Scotland.

Next on the hit list for Simon would be the Reading Half Marathon where, after the success of his Surrey Half run, he had every reason to be flying high on confidence. He was going to go for another PB there, this time looking for a 1:25 time. Watch this space to find out whether he did it.