The line up for this race included Steve Way, Jon Sharkey… No, you haven’t accidently clicked on one of Ian Graham’s old race reports from 2014. This happened just a few weeks ago, at the Old Harry Ultra, a 55km multi-terrain tear up round Poole Harbour.
The Old Harry Ultra was a new race, put on by Badger Trail Events, where all the profits were to be donated to Julia’s House Children’s Hospice. Participants could enter as a solo runner, a walker or as a relay team of two or four.
The route took the athletes on a journey round Europe’s largest natural harbour where they would get the chance to take in the historic quaysides along with forest trails, country park, farmland, old villages, ancient Saxon town walls, riverside paths, wild heathland and sandy dunes.
The event was named after Harry Paye, a pirate and adventurer from Poole who was born 1360. Old Harry sailed far and wide in search of treasure to bring back home.
It wasn’t your typical Badger Trail Event, since a lot of the course was on the road and there were a lot less hills than you would usually get in a Badger Trail Event. In fact, the route encompassed a maximum of 400m of elevation in total, which isn’t much for a 55km length.
The start of the race was on the Sandbanks side of the chain ferry crossing and finished up on the other side. No ferries were allowed though of course. They had to take the long way round!
Steve Way and Jon Sharkey weren’t the only famous Bournemouth AC names on the start list for the Old Harry Ultra. Stu Glenister was down for it as well.
Stu’s no stranger to the Ultra scene, last Autumn he completed the Ultra Tour of Arran, which entailed running 60 miles in the Scottish mountains over two days. It was a brutal route incorporating over 9,500ft of elevation but Stu managed it, no worries.
The original plan was that he would run it with his friend Paolo De Luca who represents Littledown Harriers. However, after the first couple of miles, they decided to go their separate ways and Stu pressed on ahead on his own.
Stu Glenister was in action at the Old Harry Ultra
The last time Steve Way had raced for Bournemouth AC was back in February, when he competed in the Blackmore Vale Half Marathon. He had a good run that day, starting steady and gradually making his way up the field to eventually finish 8th in 1 hour 18 minutes.
Jon Sharkey had made a couple of appearances for the club in league races, taking on the Puddletown Plod Half Marathon and the Round the Lakes 10k, both of which were in June. He wanted to see if he still enjoyed integrating with the team and being back on the road race scene after a long time away from it.
The charity that the proceeds were going to had supported a couple of friends of Jon’s, so it bore some significance to him and that may have influenced his decision to want to get involved.
Having not really done any specific training for the event, Steve was planning to run it with Sharkey and Twemlow Track Club man Steven Yates. They’d agreed on a pace of 8 minutes per mile, which may not sound overly fast for athletes of that calibre, but when you have to do it for 55km with little endurance training behind you, it becomes a real challenge.
In fact, Steve and Sharkey had both been doing only one long run per week in the build up to the race – and for Steve, that was pretty much all he’d been doing. Sharkey had been doing a couple of other runs per week as well but, not big mileage at all.
Stu on the other hand, had been doing quite big mileage of late, with some weeks going over 60 miles and he’d only recently returned from a holiday in the Isles of Scilly, which consisted of five days of running. Perhaps not everyone’s idea of a holiday, but for Stu, it was great fun.
The only thing that wasn’t great about the Old Harry Ultra was the weather. It just so happened to be raining on the day, which wasn’t ideal, and that continued for the first three hours of the race!
The conditions were wet but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the intrepid crusaders
The vast majority of Steve and Sharkey’s mile splits were around 7:45 pace for the first 20 miles. They dropped to around 8:30 pace on the 21st mile before picking it back up again for the next few miles. The trio were well out front in the race and it was looking like it was going to be between the three of them for the race win.
There was an incline on the 24th and 25th miles which they had to negotiate but once they were over that, it was back down to then complete marathon distance. From that point on it began to get a little tougher and they started to tip over the 8 minute mile threshold a bit more.
Steve Way seemed to be enjoying himself once the rain had stopped
He may have been soaked through but Jon Sharkey was still running well
On the 29th mile, Steve began to drift away. Even tough he hadn’t been doing so much running of late, all the cycling and the Zwift races had been keeping him pretty fit and he was able to find the endurance to push on.
It was a tremendous show of strength in the end from Steve and he completed mile 29 in 8:16, before going back up to 7:56 for mile 30 and 8:05 for mile 31. Mile 32 had some downhill in it and he sped back to 7:36 pace before coming on to Ferry Road on the 33rd mile.
Once Steve began to push on there was no stopping him
Sharkey was doing his best to maintain the pace over the latter stages
It was now just the final stretch across the sand to bring the race to a conclusion. Getting through that in around 8:30 pace, Steve had made it to the finish line and he had tasted victory for the first time in a proper race for quite some time.
His time was a mightily impressive 4 hours 34 minutes and 54 seconds. That gave him an average pace of 7:57 for the 34.47 miles.
Sharkey had done remarkable well to keep his pace consistent for so long
Stu Glenister makes his way through the forest
Sharkey arrived four-and-a-half minutes later to claim 2nd place in 4:39:25. It was an excellent run from him and he’d registered an average pace of 8:04. Steven Yates arrived shortly after in 4:40:01 to complete the top three.
The next man to hit the finish was Kevin Drayson of Westbourne RC and he completed the course in 4 hours 50 minutes and 23 seconds.
Sharkey proved that he’s still go what it takes to deliver in races
Stu was having a superb run and he was really in his element out on the trail
Making it three Bournemouth AC members in the top ten, Stu Glenister got round in 5 hours 40 minutes and 9 seconds, which secured him 10th position.
It was a fantastic run from Stu, especially as he hadn’t really tapered for it and was off the back of a 70 mile week. He really enjoyed the event and was happy with how it went from his perspective.
Stu had been putting in the mileage of late so was able to handle the distance quite well
Stu did remarkably well to get round in the time he did
Vicky Rutter was 1st female and she was the next person in after Stu, taking 11th place overall in 5:47:23. That was enough to see off Dorchester RIOT pair Eleanor Rollett and Monica Baseotto who came in 14th and 15th in 6:02:39 and 6:02:43 respectively.
That put them just ahead of Paolo De Luca who registered 16th place in a time of 6:10:44. A total of 95 runners successfully completed the course, with the longest of them taking just over 11 hours.
It was a top ten spot for Stu which was very pleasing
The race had gone extremely well from Stu’s perspective
Stu will be turning 50 in December and he’s got another 50k ultra lined up to celebrate the milestone, that being the Hurtwood 50k. The route for that one starts in Dorking and consists of an out and back trek along the Greensand Way into the Surrey Hills. It should be a real test for him and a great to celebrate a 50th birthday – if you like that kind of thing!
It was great to see Steve Way and Jon Sharkey out there leading a race again. In fact, you could almost say it was just like old times! Their success in the Old Harry Ultra, despite the lack of training and racing they had done of late, demonstrated more than ever that form is temporary, but class is permanent.
The three musketeers were way ahead of the rest of the field