Six BAC athletes completed the North Dorset Marathon on Sunday 1st May with every one of them achieving their individual targets. As three of the runners had completed the London Marathon just two weeks previously, this was a superb performance and is a reflection of the good squad training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Ian Habgood , retained his title won in 2010 with an impressive solo run, finishing in a time of 2 hrs 36 mins 37 secs to smash the course record which he set last year and with a winning margin of just under 10 minutes! He was followed in by Richard Nelson who put his disappointing London run firmly behind him with a solid 28th place and a PB of 3 hrs 15 mins 36 secs. Next home was Mike Cowham in another PB, finishing in 68th place with 3 hrs 29 mins 54 secs showing excellent pace judgement to break the 3 ½ hour barrier.

Our first lady home was Helen Ambrosen in 76th place overall. Running her first marathon in BAC colours, she was 1st Over 50 lady in the time of 3 hrs 34 mins 25 secs. Our final man home was super vet Ian Graham who followed his excellent run in London with a well timed run of 3 hrs 42 mins 28 secs to claim 5th place Over 60. Cherry Sheffrin completed her first marathon, and after running with Ian for much of the race, comfortably broke the 4 hour barrier with an excellent 3 hrs 51 mins 26 secs.

The only disappointing note for the day was the fact that we were unable to complete a Mens Team in a Dorset Road Race LeagueRace for the first time since 2006. It was always going to be a tough ask with so many of our runners having competed at London just 14 days previously. We also failed to complete a Ladies Team. Ironically, it was due to the late unavailability of two of our runners who had not competed in London. Nevertheless, the Club should give special thanks to Ian Habgood, Richard Nelson and Ian Graham for making a huge effort to compete for the good of the team.

The race was also the Dorset Championships and Ian Habgood, therefore, secured the gold medal and Helen Ambrosen won double silver being second lady and second lady vet!