Ryan Pegoraro and a friend from his former club Verwood Runners were taking on the Solent Half Marathon
After swooping in for the remarkable victory at the Overton 5 in the first race of the Hampshire Road League season, there was always the potential the Bournemouth AC men could crash land at the Solent Half Marathon. When it panned out that Ryan Pegoraro was the only club member to have signed up for it, that was the inevitable consequence.
The clamour to get in for the Round the Lakes 10k the previous weekend deflected attention away from the Solent Half and Round the Lakes almost became like a club championship race. The Solent Half Marathon sadly just didn’t garner much interest from within the BAC camp. That was despite fielding a team in it for the previous two seasons.
In fact, Stu Nicholas won the race in 2022 and came 3rd in last year’s encounter, with the Bournemouth AC men topping the standings in their division on both occasions. It was disappointing not to be doing that again this year but nine out of the twelve league races counting toward the overall score, there was still scope to push for the league title.
Ryan met up with some of his former teammates before the big showdown
As the sole Bournemouth AC representative, it wasn’t imperative that Ryan does well from a team perspective but from a personal perspective, he had a goal in mind that he wanted to achieve. At his best, Ryan has done a 1:13 half marathon but that was back in January 2023. That was set in the Farnborough Winter Half Marathon and in this year’s race he ran 1:17:39, so still good but not quite at the level he was previously.
Like he did last year, Ryan is heading out to Málaga in December, where he did the half marathon. This time will be different though as he’ll be running his first ever marathon.
Having been in Uganda over the summer, he wasn’t able to train over July and August and it wasn’t until September that he’d started training regularly again. The Solent Half Marathon would provide an opportunity for him to gauge his fitness quite early in the training block. Hence, he was planning to go at around his intended marathon pace.
Running a 17:50 at Southsea parkrun the weekend before would have given him confidence that he was back in reasonable shape and that it would be very possible to meet his objective.
The Solent Half Marathon gets going
The route for the Solent Half Marathon is over one massive loop that goes through the New Forest, past Exbury and along the Solent shore through Lepe. There aren’t really any big hills but there are a few undulations along the way. It’s quite a tough course though as most of the first couple of miles are on an upward trajectory. Then it’s a slight downhill trajectory up to mile seven. Then its a slight incline for most of the remaining six miles.
The lead group extend away from the rest of the field
To begin with it was Max Costley and Matt Risden of Southampton AC and Dave Hunt of Ryde Harriers who broke away and led the race. Ryan was in a group a bit further back, going through the first mile in 6:07. He then followed that up with a 6:15 for his second mile which did contain a small down and up section.
After that it was a chance to get into his stride for the next few miles, which he did, posting a 6:12 to reach 5k in 19:11. He then followed that up with a 6:16 and a 6:18 before a 6:24 took him up to 10k. Going through 10k in 38:51, he then posted a 6:20 for his seventh mile and then a 6:25 for his eighth.
Max Costley was leading the way and his teammate Matt Risden was up there as well
Now heading on the upward trajectory. he was keeping his pace consistent with each split, going through the next two miles in 6:24 and 6:27, he’d made it to 10 miles in just over 1 hour 3 minutes. He then posted a 6:33 for his 11th mile before cranking the pace up well for the last two and a bit miles.
Ryan sitting at the back of a group in the early stages
Registering a 6:14 for his twelfth mile, he then went on to clock a 6:13 for his final full mile, leaving him with just a final tenth of a mile to go. He raced through that at 6:03 pace before reaching the finish line in exactly 1 hour and 23 minutes. That was enough to see him take 15th position. His average pace for the run was 6:19 per mile so that was about what he would need for a 2:45 marathon. Therefore, he’d achieved his target.
Max Costley on his way to victory
It was Max Costley who got the win in the end recording a very quick time of 1:13:12. That gave him a 31 second margin of victory of Dave Hunt who was 2nd in 1:13:43. Brandon Cuell of Fareham Running Club took 3rd in the end in 1:16:20 with Matt Risden taking 4th in 1:16:55.
Brandon Cuell on his way to a third place finish
The next person to reach the finish line after Ryan was Bethany Howarth of Isle of Wight Road Runners and that meant she’d taken the 1st female spot in 1:23:27. Tamsin Anderson of Winchester Running Club was 2nd female in 1:24:13 at the age of 45 and Valeria Sesto of Lymington was 3rd lady in a time of 1:29:05. She’s now 51 years of age but is clearly still running well.
Matt Risden finished fourth in the end
Taking advantage of Bournemouth AC’s failure to field a team, Lordshill Road Runners picked up the win in the Men’s First Division for the Solent Half Marathon and that lifted them top of the table. They had James Clarke finishing 5th in 1:17:56, Patrick Connors taking 13th in 1:22:19, Daniel Campion in 17th with a time of 1:23:30 and Dean Jones 21st in 1:24:18.
Denmead Striders were 2nd and Fareham Running Club came 3rd. Five clubs had got teams out in both fixtures so far so they all went above BAC in the standings. Liss were the surprise winners in the Second Division at the Solent Half, with Winchester Running Club only managing 2nd on this occasion. Hardley Runners topped the standings in the Third Division ahead of New Forest Runners, just as they had at the Overton 5.
In the Women’s League, Fareham Running Club repeated the win they secured at the Overton 5, with Farnham Runners taking 2nd and Lordshill in 3rd. It was two out of two for Winchester Running Club in the Second Division as well, with Portsmouth Joggers taking 2nd and New Forest Runners 3rd. Itchen Spitfires won the fixture in the Third Division with Hardley Runners the only other club to get a full team out.
It was job done for Ryan confirming he was right where he wanted to be
In the Men’s B League it was Denmead Striders who picked up the win with Fareham the only other club to have a scoring team. The Women’s B League top division saw the same result and in both B Leagues, it is Fareham who top the standings after the first two events.
Going forwards, Ryan has the Gosport Half Marathon and the Hampshire Cross Country League fixture at Kings Park pencilled in as well as the rest of his training block before the marathon. The Gosport Half Marathon will be the fourth fixture of the Hampshire Road Race League, taking place after the New Forest 10 which was the next one.
Bournemouth AC were hoping to get back on track in that one and they had Abdinassier Mohamoud and Joe Arundel, who finished 1st and 2nd at the Round the Lakes 10k, along with Stu Nicholas, Mike Akers, Jason Christian and captain Rich Nelson. Victoria Chapman was also there, making her debut for the yellow and blues.
With a team that strong out, it seemed almost inevitable that Bournemouth AC would pick up the win in the Men’s First Division and if they could do that, it would put them right back on course for the title win they crave.