A busy weekend of racing saw 12 Bournemouth AC members head to Milton Keynes for the SEAA Road Relays but that meant lower numbers were present at the Eastleigh 10k and the Bournemouth Bay Runs. Adam Corbin, Paddy McCalister and Katie Gunn did all still feature at the Eastleigh 10k though.
They all had designs on a 10k PB and if there was one race that provided the perfect platform to execute that, it was Eastleigh. In fact, Adam recorded his PB at Eastleigh back in 2021 when he clocked a time of 33:49. He was hoping to get close to it at the Great Bristol Run in May last year but it didn’t quite happen. At Stubbington in January though he got very close, finishing in 33:51. A slight headwind on the final mile cost him in the end, such are the fine margins when the benchmark is so high. He really felt that at Eastleigh this time round, it could be his moment.
As for Paddy, he’d been running really well in training and he’d managed to cut his parkrun time down to 18:35 just before Christmas. He recorded a huge PB of 37:45 at Stubbington so that was his target to aim for. Again, he was confident that he could beat that at Eastleigh.
Running consistently well for quite some time now, Katie Gunn had chipped her parkrun time down to 18:07, which she managed on two separate occasions. She’d been training really well in the Bournemouth AC club sessions as well and it seemed that she could perhaps be on the cusp of something special. She managed 37:54 at Stubbington so again, she had a good recent benchmark to aim for.
Making a fast start, with a 5:18 split, Adam then followed it up with a 5:25 for his second mile. The third mile is the one that has the incline but it also has a nice downhill stretch afterwards. Adam fell of the pace a bit on that one, recording a 5:35. He then got back to a 5:28 for his fourth mile and a 5:29 for his fifth mile.
Unfortunately there was a headwind in the last mile and he wasn’t quite able to maintain the pace clocking a 5:44 for that one which cost him a sub 34. Going over the line in 34:16, Adam had finished in 34th place out of 2,433.
It was still great time and position by most peoples’ standards but Adam was disappointed that he hadn’t got closer to or even eclipsed his previous best. There aren’t many runners out there who wouldn’t be content with a 34:16 but it shows the sort of levels Adam is operating at.
Starting brightly with a 5:58 for his first mile split, Paddy then registered a 6:15 and a 6:14 for his second and third miles. He then upped the pace to 6:08 for his fourth mile before putting in a 6:13 for his fifth. Again, the last mile was the slowest for Paddy and he was reduced to a 6:26.
That led to a finishing time of 38:26 which put him in 162nd place but it wasn’t quite up there with his Stubbington performance. Paddy was massively disappointed with that result but it was still the second fastest 10k time he’d done and a year ago he would have been over the moon with that. That shows how much he’d progressed so that can only be a good thing, even if he’s not consistently at his best.
It was a different story for Katie Gunn though. She started with a 5:56 for her first mile and then a 5:58 for the second mile. For the third mile which had the hill she was down to 6:05 but after that, she was able to register aa 6:01 for all the next three hours before finishing really strongly.
It was a tremendous effort from Katie and she got over the line in a time of 37:10. That put her 122nd overall and she was 6th placed female out out of 1,031. It was a very pleasing result for Katie and showed how well she’s been progressing of late. Her average pace for the run was 5:59 and she’d gone 44 seconds quicker than she did at Stubbington.
Another Bournemouth AC member in action at the Eastleigh 10k was Jonathan Chadwick. He dipped in just under 40 minutes on chip time, recording a 39:58 which put him in 240th place overall. He was also 9th out of 106 in the VM55-59 category so that was a decent result for Jonathan.
Jack Woods of Worthing & District was victorious in 30:19, putting him 8 seconds ahead of Alexander Meill-Ingram of Radley AC who was 2nd. Aidan Lennan of Southampton was 3rd in 30:33, a couple of seconds ahead of his clubmate Peter Hart who took 4th. William Boutwood of Winchester & District was the only other man to get in in under 31 minutes. He finished in 30:53.
Hitting it hard in his marathon training, Brian Underwood of Poole AC completed the course in 33:09 which was another brilliant PB for him. He finished 17th and was 3rd over 45.
Gemma Kersey of Basildon was 1st female and she got round in 34:23 which put her in 37th place overall. Annie Mann of Winchester & District was 2nd female in 35:46 which put her 70th overall.
Lucy Elliott, also of Winchester was 3rd lady in 36:16 and she’s 58 years of age so must be achieving a high age grading.
Twemlow Track Club man Richard Swindlehurst netted himself a new PB of 35:22 which put him 56th overall and he was 2nd over 50. That was another plus for him on his journey to the Manchester Marathon.
Former BAC man Trev Elkins is a regular at Eastleigh and he notched himself a new PB of 36:02. The wind in the last couple of kilometres cost him a sub 36 but it was still a strong run from Trev and put him 82nd overall and 14th out of 223 in the VM40-44 category.
Since they didn’t quite get the results they wanted on this occasion, Adam and Paddy would have a second bite of the cherry when the Round the Lakes 10k came round a couple of weeks later. Perhaps they would be able to secure the PBs they craved at the Poole Park based event instead.