Featuring a Marathon, a Half Marathon, a 10k and a 5k, the Garmin New Forest Marathon event provides a scenic blend of forest inclosures, open roads even an old railway line. There was Bournemouth AC involvement in three of the four races, with Stu Nicholas going in the Marathon, Rob McTaggart taking on the 10k and Solly Abu-Ghaba going in the 5k.

Recording some brilliant recent race results, Stu was top of the standings in the Purbeck Trail Series after the first three fixtures, winning the Coombe Keynes 10k, finishing 2nd to Jacek Cieluszecki in the Lighthouse Loop and coming 2nd in The Beast. He also managed a top three finish at the Round the Rock 10k and was Bournemouth AC’s highest scorer at the Stur Half finishing 6th.

The Garmin New Forest Marathon events had been a happy hunting ground for Tag over recent years. He won the Half Marathon in 2022 despite being taken the wrong way at one point by the lead bike. In the 2020 edition he won the 5k and finished 2nd in the 10k.

Solly Abu-Ghaba has done the 5k in every New Forest Marathon event since 2019. He ran 26:32 in that first one but had now progressed to exactly 24 minutes in the 2023 edition. He also competed in three of the six Upton Summer Series races as well, managing a fastest time of 5:40 for the one mile route.

It had rained a fair bit before the event began so the course was rather damp in places. It also rained a bit at the start of the Marathon race and then intermittently throughout. Stu didn’t let that stop him from producing a strong performance, delivering consistent splits despite the fairly frequent undulations.

He was going at around about 6:15 pace for the first five miles, then around 6:20 for the next three. The ninth mile contained a testing little climb which he went up and down to record a 6:33 split before heading on a slight downhill trajectory for the next three miles. That meant he was able to up the pace to around 6:10 for those miles before heading uphill the the majority of the next three miles.

He was still able to manage 6:17 pace despite the incline before hitting a much steeper slope on his 15th mile. That put him back to a 6:29 for that one before he then registered a 6:20 and a 6:15. There was another tough hill to come on the 18th and 19th miles, with Stu clocking a 6:34 and then a 6:56 for the mile that contained the steepest part.

It levelled out at the top and Stu put in a 6:23 split before embarking on his way back down the slope for the next two miles. That enabled him to pick up the pace to a 6:02 and then a 5:53 before the ground levelled out again a bit. A 6:19 for his 23rd mile was followed by a 6:12 for his 24th and then a 6:25 for his 25th.

He’d lost GPS a few times though so his Strava didn’t show the full marathon distance. Nightmare, these Garmins! His finishing time was 2:41:32 which was enough to put him in 2nd place behind serial marathon runner Adam Holland who got round in 2:32:09.

It was a superb effort from Stu and certainly one to be extremely proud of even though he was quite a way behind Adam. The next man over the line was Ben Taylor of Riverside Runners and he completed the course in 2:41:59. Keith Fairbank of Istead & Ifield Harriers claimed 4th in 2:43:34.

Johanna O’Regan of Riverside Runners was 1st female and 6th overall in 2:56:59, with Debbie Coe coming in as 2nd female in 2:59:03.

The 10k could only really be described as a procession for Tag. He won it with ease, finding that the only hard part really was dodging the very deep puddles and weaving around the slower half marathon runners.

Registering a time of 34:48, he was three minutes ahead of his nearest challenger who was Abbie Pearse of Steel City Striders. She got 1st female spot though so would have no doubt been happy with that.

There was an upset in the 5k race as Poole AC man Jamie Grose got eclipsed by Thomas Evans of Winchester & District. Thomas managed a time of 16:46 and Jamie reached the finish seven seconds later which he probably wasn’t best pleased about. They were quite a way ahead of the rest of the field though, with Declan Ruddy of Southampton AC taking 3rd in 20:15.

Solly Abu-Ghaba posted a much quicker time than in any of his previous attempts, getting round in 22:11 which put him in 12th place. That was in a field of 265, so a decent result for Solly.

There were five Southampton AC runners in the top eight with Katharina Hoppe finishing as first female in 20:24 which put her in 4th place. Her teammate Jo House was 3rd female and 7th overall in a time of 20:31, with Rae Le Fay coming in as 2nd female in 20:27.

Dave Healey of Lordshill one the Half Marathon race quite comfortably in 1:14:03 with James Ethnell taking 2nd place in 1:17:31 and George Watling 3rd in 1:17:41. Rozzie Batchelar of London City Runners was 1st female and 24th overall in a time of 1:25:47.

It was good for Tag and Stu that they’d come away with good results as they had the South of England Road Relays the following weekend so needed to be in confident mood for that one. They were both featuring as part of a very strong A-string team that had the goal of making it through to the Nationals.

That was on the Saturday and the following day Stu would be in action in the Black Hill Run 10k and that was the fourth race of five in the Purbeck Trail Series. That meant Stu would require two top level performances in one weekend but he was certainly well capable of it. The only surprise was that he didn’t throw in a parkrun as well!… Must be slacking.