A potent performance at the Overton 5 saw Bournemouth AC get off to a sensational start in their first ever Hampshire Road Race League fixture and had the club been included in the results, they would have topped both the men’s A and B team standings. Unfortunately the new teams hadn’t yet been added into the equation on the Hampshire Road Race League website but it was promised they would be inserted after the next fixture, which was the Solent Half Marathon.

With the race being held the weekend before the London Marathon though and on the same date as the Hoburne 5, it proved tricky for Bournemouth AC to get even a team of four together for the event. Stu Nicholas had signed up for it though, as had Adrian Townsend and new member Patrick Kingston. That left just one more man needed for a scoring A-string team.

It turned out the completion of the team came about from an unlikely source, as Graeme Miller stepped up and laced up his racing shoes for the first time in a very long time. In fact, it was February 2020 when he last took part in a competitive race so over two-and-a-half years. Since then he’d been dogged by injury problems that had kept him out of action and consistently disrupted his training patterns.

It had been such a frustrating time that he hadn’t even renewed his membership but after managing to put together a few decent training runs, he agreed to re-join and sign up for the Solent Half.

Stu Nicholas had tasted success in the Solent before, winning the Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon on a couple of occasions and enjoying an illustrious history of impressive performances in the event.

It had been a busy couple of weeks for Stu but he’d demonstrated some fine form in the Chippenham Half Marathon the previous weekend, recording a new PB of 1:13:58. He was representing Dorset in that one as it was a South-West Inter Counties competition and he’d come in as 2nd placed man for the county.

He’d also been in action at the Aldershot Road Relays the previous day where he ran the anchor leg of a six stage race, completing the 6km course in a time of 20:25. On that same day he’d also finished 2nd at Bournemouth parkrun in a time of 16:59.

None of that seemed to tire him out though he started off with a rip-roaring 5:33 first mile and then a 5:36 second mile. There weren’t many other runners in the field who could live with that sort of pace.

His next six miles were all around 5:40 sort of pace, or slightly quicker for a few of them and he’d built up a healthy advantage over his nearest challenger. It was now just a case of maintaining it for the last four miles or so.

He did that very well, staying comfortably under 6 minutes per mile even though a lot of it was slightly uphill. Cruising in the for the win, Stu registered an incredibly impressive time of 1:15:10.

Martin Stockley of Southampton AC was the next man to arrive at the finish but he was almost a minute behind Stu, getting to the line in 1:16:04. Rick Weston of Guernsey AC sealed 3rd place in 1:16:17.

David Coak was Southampton’s second scorer in the board, taking 4th position in 1:16:51. Then Winchester & District had a couple of runners reaching the finish, with David Gaskell coming in 5th in 1:17:13 and George Bellfield taking 6th in 1:17:22.

Josh Chivers of Lordshill Road Runners came in 7th place, registering a time of 1:18:55, ahead of Kit Lau who was Southampton’s third man in, getting round in 1:19:19.

Nick Wood arrived next to give Winchester & District their third finisher, clocking a time of 1:19:32 and it was turning into a straight shootout between Southampton and Winchester for the men’s Hampshire Road Race League race win.

Incredibly, Winchester & District had the first six female finishers, with Tamsin Anderson coming in first, and 19th overall in 1:21:41. She was followed by teammate Alex Lane who got round in 1:22:35, which put her in 21st place. Then it was Victoria Gill arriving next, recording a time of 1:23:02 which put her in 22nd place.

Sarah Gurney completed the scoring team of four for Winchester & District and gave them an emphatic win for the fixture, crossing the line in 1:24:54 which put her in 27th place.

Karla Borland was 5th female, getting the ball rolling for the Winchester & District B-Team, managing a time of 1:25:10 which put her in 29th place. Then it was Ellie Swire who was 6th woman over the line in a time of 1:27:29 which put her in 37th place overall.

Nicholas Davies was the fourth man on the scoreboard for the Winchester & District men, completing their A-Team when he reached the finish in 1:25:36, which put him 30th overall.

Graeme Miller was pretty nervous going into the race. In his head, he thought he’d be lucky if he could come in under 90 minutes. Usually he’s very good at pacing himself and producing even splits but he felt sure he’d fade in the last few miles as his mileage had been so low. Thus, he was hoping to bank a bit of time before the inevitable slow down happened.

Completing the first mile in 6:33 and the second mile in 6:30, it was a strong start from Graeme and he then followed that up by completing the next six miles at around 6:45 pace and his splits were remarkably consistent up till then.

It was on the ninth mile that he started to suffer a bit but the course did get tougher towards the end as well which wouldn’t have helped. He was down to 7 minutes for the mile nine and 7:06 for mile 10 before producing a 7:16 and a 7:10 for his 11th and 12th miles.

His legs were hurting over those latter miles and he’d had to have a stern word with them, demanding that they got him to the finish. They responded and got Graeme through to the end, recording a finishing time of 1:29:05, which put him in 43rd place overall and 4th in the Male 50-54 category.

With an average pace of 6:49, it was a very good run from Graeme, all things considered, and he was happy to have got the time he wanted. Of course, it was a long way off his best but he knows he’d got a fair way to go before he hits the kind of levels he had been used to previously.

You kind of take the fitness for granted when its there and perhaps don’t really appreciate it so much. But when you lose it, it’s very hard to get it back and that is a journey that Graeme is now hopefully embarking upon. This was certainly a big step in the right direction anyway. He loved getting the BAC vest on again and racing and above all, he was pleased to get through it with his injury playing up.

Adrian Townsend only found out about the Solent Half Marathon from the email that Bournemouth AC team captain Rich Nelson had sent out to try and round up some troops for the race. He didn’t have a great start to the race due to some toilet trouble and was feeling pretty grim for the first eight miles.

For the first seven of those miles he was going at around 7:05 to 7:10 minutes per mile. Then on the eighth mile he was down to a 7:29 before upping it again to 7:04 on the ninth mile.

The course was slightly tougher after that but Adrian pushed on well, going at around 7:25 pace for the next three miles, then managing to get back to something close to his earlier pace for the last mile or so.

That culminated in a 1:34:44 finish for Adrian and that put him in 70th place out of 287 runners and he was 5th in the Male 55-59 category. Adrian felt it was a really good race and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t actually done it before.

Going at a very similar sort of pace to Adrian, Patrick Kingston got the ball rolling with a 7:21 first mile before settling into a pace of around 7:10 for the next seven miles.

The inclines started to come into play after that and he registered a 7:25 for his ninth mile before a 7:17 for mile 10. That left just three miles to go and Patrick held firm with a 7:23 for his 11th mile and a strong 7:16 for his 12th mile.

The 13th mile was his fastest one of the whole race, showing that he’d paced his run pretty well. That led to a finishing time of 1:34:57, which put Patrick in 72nd place overall and 9th in the Male 45-49 category.

It was a decent debut outing for Patrick and he thoroughly enjoyed the run and appreciated the excellent views of the Solent in the splendid sunshine. He’s hoping he’ll be available for the Gosport Half Marathon as well, which is another Hampshire Road Race League fixture.

So that was it for Bournemouth AC. They had had a team of four male finishers and that was enough to score points for the fixture. Since they’re a new team, Bournemouth AC got put into the third division of the Hampshire Road Race League, along with the other new teams Hamwic Harriers and Hatch Warren Runners. The division also includes New Forest Runners, Portsmouth Joggers and Isle of Wight Road Runners, along with several other established clubs.

The performances from the four representatives in the Solent Half Marathon were enough to put Bournemouth AC first in their division. That meant of course that after their win at the Overton 5, it was two out of two for BAC and they’d got off to a dream start in their Hampshire Road Race League campaign.

Portsmouth Joggers were 2nd and New Forest Runners were 3rd in the Solent Half Marathon but they were a long way behind the yellow and blues with what they produced.

Winchester & District recorded the lowest score in the Solent Half Marathon which put them into the lead in Division 1 after they finished 3rd at Overton. Lordshill were second best team at the Solent Half Marathon which put them up to 3rd in the top division behind City of Salisbury. Even though they had three men finishing really high up, Southampton AC didn’t have a fourth so they ended up finishing 9th out of the 10 teams in Division 1.

Andover were bossing the second division with two wins out of two thus far. In the Ladies A Team league Winchester & District were on fire, with two emphatic wins out of two. Lordshill were 3rd best team at the Solent Half Marathon and 2nd at Overton which put them 2nd in the top division thus far.

The next fixture in the Hampshire Road Race League is Hayling 10 on 6th November and that is followed by the Gosport Half on 20th November. Then it’s the Victory 5 on 4th December. If Bournemouth can get a team of at least four men out for those fixtures, they’ll most likely strengthen their position further at the top of the standings in Division 3.