After being robbed of victory by a marshal misdirection in the first race of the Purbeck Trail Series, Stu Nicholas was aiming to set the record straight at the Lighthouse Loop 5k.

The good thing for Stu was that it’s best four of six that count towards the final standings so there was still plenty of opportunity to get the results he needed to come out on top. Ideally though, he needed a win at the Lighthouse Loop.

In last year’s Lighthouse Loop Jacek Cieluszecki showed up, since the race is staged on a Wednesday evening and he took the win in a time of 18:05. That’s considerably quicker than most other athletes could hope to do on a course like that.

Stu finished 2nd though in 18:55 so it was still a good result from his perspective and helped him go on to win the series with two wins and three 2nd places.

After picking up a rare prize for an M80 category win at the Coombe Keynes 10k, Geoff Newton was hoping to record another good result at the Lighthouse Loop which aid him in his quest for Purbeck Trail Series gold.

For the series though, there’s only an M70 category which leaves him competing against athletes nine years younger than him potentially. In last year’s Purbeck Trail Series he was still in with a chance of winning it going into the final race. Hamish Murray registered his third race of the series at the Studland Stampede though which knocked Geoff off the top.

Just before the Lighthouse Loop, Geoff competed in the Harting 10 Trail Race which he completed in 1 hour 35 minutes and 22 seconds which put him 94th out of 191 finishers. That put him 5th in the M70 bracket.

Southampton AC man Max Costley picked up the win in that race, clocking a time of 58:11 which was five minutes faster than his nearest rival Joe Sykes of Liss Runners.

The course for the Lighthouse Loop starts from Swansea Lifeboat Station at Peveril Point, heading along the Swanage coastline to Anvil Point Lighthouse and then back to the lifeboat station.

Putting in a big session the night before at Bournemouth AC club training, Stu Nicholas went into the Lighthouse Loop feeling a bit leggy. With 500ft of elevation to work your way up over the course of the 5k route, it’s a very demanding race to negotiate.

There’s a 170ft elevation gain in the first mile, making for a somewhat testing start. Stu got through that in 6:16 despite the fatigue in his legs. He then went on to clock a 6:25 for his second mile before producing a 5:45 for his final mile which was on more of a downhill trajectory.

That culminated in a finishing time of 18:53.6 for Stu and that was enough to seal the race win for him. No one else managed to get round in under 19 minutes, showing just how tough the course actually is.

Daniel Thomas of Bridport Runners took 2nd place in 19:11.7, with Liam Openshaw of Poole AC getting 3rd in 19:16.5. Samuel Kaplan of TriPurbeck was 4th in 19:24 and, after cashing in on Stu’s misfortune to take the win at the Coombe Keynes 10k, Alessandro Zanconato took 5th place in 19:49.

Isaebel Zanconato was first female in 20:48.9 which put her 12th overall. She was 3rd in the Coombe Keynes 10k after BAC’s very own Isabel Cherrett, who set the course record, and Helen O’Neile, who used to run for BAC.

Nicola Archer was 2nd lady at the Lighthouse Loop in 21:54.9 which put her 19th overall and Jenny Marshall of Purbeck Runners was third female in 22:30.3.

Completing the course in a time of 30:21, Geoff Newton came 113th out of 218 participants. He’s just slightly off what he did last year and was a minute behind Neil Luckett of Westbourne who is one of his main rivals in the M70 bracket.

Neil finished 105th in 29:22.7 but Hamish Murray was well up the field and would most likely have been first M70 with his time of 24:01.3 which out him 42nd. He finished just behind Poole Runners lady Jenny Walker-Leach who was about 6th female.

As with most the races that he does, Stu’s wife Anna was competing as well and she finished 83rd in 27:35.5. That would have put her in the top 20 women, so a decent run from Anna.

A famous face from Bournemouth AC heritage, Caroline Rowley was running as well and she came 108th in the overall standings in a time of 29:48.6.

With an average pace for the run of 6:08 minutes per mile, it was a really impressive performance from Stu. After the race he was awarded the Swanage Lifeboat ‘Lighthouse Trophy’ which is a rather large piece of slate. By all accounts, it’s not an easy one to take home and place on the mantlepiece.

The next race of the series was the always brutal and perhaps, in some ways the signature race of the Purbeck Trail Series, The Beast. 12 miles of hills, mud and rugged terrain.

After a nasty fall about half way through last year’s race, Stu Nicholas managed to claw his way back up to 2nd in the end and he was ready to do it all again in the 2025 edition, or hopefully not the falling over part. Geoff Newton was also present , of course, and they were joined i the race by Patrick Kingston and Kate Bowers. It was set to be another fun, yet fearsome race.