Staged on a lovely scenic loop starting and finishing at the D’Urberville Centre in Wool, the D’Urberville Dash 10k features a testing mixture of road, woodland trail and field pathways.

In last year’s race it was Richard Brawn who flew the flag for Bournemouth AC, finishing in 22nd place with a time of 41:35. This year it was Rob McTaggart who was the singular BAC representative in action.

Although his primary focus is often running in the track team for the British and Southern Athletics Leagues, Tag also likes to do the odd 10k road race and has great pedigree at all distances, in particular marathons.

Back in April he defied the hot weather at the London Marathon to race round in a time of 20:30:40, beating the likes of Steve Way to take the accolade of being the first Bournemouth AC member to hit the line.

Since then he’s had mixed fortunes in road races, finishing in 92nd place in the Vitality 10,000 with a time of 32:32, 3rd in the 10k at Poole Running Festival in 33:42 and 9th in the Eastleigh 10k with a time of 32:57.

Approaching the race as part of a moderate paced 12.5 mile training run, Tag wasn’t intending to go hell-for-leather. He was just really looking to sustain a strong pace throughout the race.

After some chaotic scenes last year when more people than expected turned up and entered on the day, significant enough numbers had signed up in advance this time round to mean that entries on the day were not permitted.

The course is a tricky one, featuring some long sections along a very thin woodland path that has many twists and turns. The off-road terrain makes it tricky to get a good rhythm going but it’s a nice challenge to undertake, with the countryside setting making for an enjoyable outing for the most part.

Running at a speed that to him may have been moderate but to most others would be unattainable, Tag was out in front for the first few kilometres of the race, accompanied by Andy Leggott of Lonely Goat RC.

At around the 4 kilometre mark, Tag began to ease away and from that point on, it was just a case of cruising round for the win.

Crossing the line in a time of 36:26 it was an impressive run from Tag, given that he was in cruise control for much of it and was essentially just treating it as part of a longer training run.

Arriving almost a minute back, Andy Leggott took 2nd place in a time of 37:22, with Dave Hicks of Poole AC following in shortly after in a time of 37:30.

It wasn’t the first time a Bournemouth AC member has won the D’Uberville Dash. Karl Welch actually claimed victory back in 2014, completing a course in a time of 36:10 that day.