The real meat on the bone of the Run Bournemouth weekender comes on day two when the Supersonic 10k takes place, followed by the Half Marathon. As usual there were a number of Bournemouth AC members in the field for the Supersonic 10k including club debutant Jon Pepin.

He came into it with a lot of pedigree, finishing 20th at the National Cross Country Championships earlier in the year. He also won The Beast in September, beating Stu Nicholas by a staggering six minutes. Judging by how good Stu is, that was an astonishing achievement from Jon.

He’s a 15 minute parkrunner and completed his leg in the Southern six stage road relays for Southampton in 19:24, which is a similar time to what Rob McTaggart did for Bournemouth AC.

It was really exciting to have Jon switching allegiance to Bournemouth AC and it would be interesting to see how he fared in his first race in yellow and blue at Run Bournemouth.

Another fairly recent signing, Nicolay Rusnachenko was also in action in the Supersonic 10k race. He also competed at the Southern Road Relays and did the Round the Lakes 10k a couple of weeks before in 38:13.

Also in action in the Supersonic 10k for Bournemouth AC was David Crowther. He ran the New Forest Marathon 10k in 45:54 and the Totton 10k in 43:33.

Another man competing for the yellow and blues in the Supersonic 10k was Manuel Stone and he’d clocked a time of 57:54 at the Round the Lakes 10k two weeks earlier.

One of the youngest competitors in the Supersonic 10k was Harry Butcher. He last competed for the club at the May 5 but this was a chance for him to register a first official 10k for his Power of 10 resumé.

Going at just over five minute mile pace, there weren’t many runners in the field capable of keeping up with Jon Pepin. There was one though who was able to contend with Jon and that was Ben Howe of Dulwich Runners.

The route for the Supersonic 10k started at Hengistbury Head and went up Southbourne Coast Road for a bit before turning round and heading back down and dropping onto the prom. After that it’s then straight along the prom to Boscombe Pier at 7k.

After an out-and-back of the pier, it’s then onward in the direction of Bournemouth Pier. Then it’s an out-and-back of Bournemouth Pier before reaching the finish.

The easterly wind on this particular weekend was perfect for the point-to-point routes from Hengistbury Head to Bournemouth Pier and it was actually quite rare to get conditions like that. Usually it’s a westerly wind which would have resulted in a headwind for virtually the whole race.

At first it was Jon Pepin dictating the pace with unattached runner Harry Hart up there with him. They were together for the first half of the race. Ben Howe was just behind with Andrew Winterbottom of Winchester Running Club.

Harry Hart began to drift off the pace after that but Ben managed to catch Jon up on the fourth mile. By the time they got to Boscombe Pier though, it was Ben who was in front and controlling the pace. Jon was still with him though and seemed to be waiting for the right moment to strike.

It was in the last mile that he made his move, finally managing to steal a march on Ben. Jon was going at 4:54 pace for the sixth mile before then upping it to 4:50 pace for the last third of a mile.

Making it to the finish line in 31:53, Jon claimed the victory in what had been a hard fought but very strong effort. Ben followed in to take second place in a still brilliant PB of 31:57.

It was a truly remarkable race and Jon’s time was a couple of seconds quicker than Jamie Grose’s winning time from last year’s Supersonic 10k. Jamie would have been up there contending for the win again this time round but he had a cold and hadn’t been able to run all week so decided to sit it out. That had worked in Jon’s favour and enabled him to improve on his third place finish from last year.

It was in fact the second time that Jon had won the Supersonic 10k at Run Bournemouth as he also tasted victory in 2023, recording a time of 32:50 that day.

Despite slowing down a fair bit in the second half, Harry Hart held on for third place going over the line in 32:56. Andrew Winterbottom suffered after his fast first two miles but still managed to take fourth place in 33:21.

Deciding to run his own race and not get caught up in all the melee, Luke McKenzie of Poole AC paced it really well, keeping pretty consistent splits throughout. He finished fifth in 34:50. Leo Riggs, also of Poole AC was 8th in 35:14 and Adam Colbert took 9th in 35:20. Laurence Wickham finished 10th in a time of 35:36.

Coming in in 24th place, Nicolay Rusnachenko went over the line in exactly 38 minutes. That bettered his time from Round the Lakes by 13 seconds.

Showing a maturity beyond his years, Harry Butcher paced it really well, going off at 6:30 pace and managed to keep to that same sort of the pace for the next few miles. Then for his last couple of splits he was able to up it to 6:26 and then 6:20 pace before completing the last third of a mile at 5:54 pace.

It was a really strong effort from Harry and put him in 55th place with a time of 40:55. Completing the course in 44:01, David Crowther had an excellent run and was a fair bit quicker than he had been in any of his more recent 10k races.

He came 103rd overall and 14th in the 40M category. It was even quicker than his Lordshill 10k time of 2024 and he had a superb run on the occasion.

The next Bournemouth AC listed athlete to reach the finish line was Emma Lewis and she registered a time of 56:34. That put her in 584th place in the overall standings and 26th in the 45F category.

Katherine West of Reading AC was first female and 12th overall in a time of 36:24. That was over three minutes quicker than her closest rival Ruby Orchard of Cornwall AC who got round in 39:47. She was 39th overall.

Charlotte Firth of Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow was third lady and 51st overall in 40:39.

Completing the course in 1 hour and 1 minute, Manuel Stone came in in 882nd place. That put him 11th in the 70M category. It was a couple of minutes slower than his Round the Lakes 10k time of two weeks prior.

It was great to see Jon Pepin flying the flag so successfully for Bournemouth AC and there will no doubt be exciting things to come from him in future races.