Nick Genever’s travels to weird and wonderful locations and races this week had him on the south coast as he took on the Doddle West.

Welwyn Hatfield Times: Garden City Runners' Sean Bowen in action at the Great South Run.Garden City Runners' Sean Bowen in action at the Great South Run. (Image: Archant)

The race is a self-navigation trail marathon from Charmouth to Dorchester.

For 13 miles the route followed the South West Coastal Path and traversed a 1km section near Chesil Beach on shingle.

The route then turned inland, finishing in Prince Charles’ model town of Poundbury.

And Garden City Runners’ off-road marathon superstar finished the 26.2 mile course, complete with over 1,000 metres of climbing, in five hours 29 minutes.

Welwyn Hatfield Times: Garden City Runners' Sean Bowen (purple vest) in action at the Great South Run.Garden City Runners' Sean Bowen (purple vest) in action at the Great South Run. (Image: Archant)

Five GCRs also travelled south for the Great South Run in Southsea with Sean Bowen the first of them to finish in 1:04:21.

For GCRs’ men’s captain it was a run laced with many memories as he grew up in the town.

He said: “Much of the route around Portsmouth and Southsea is familiar to me from childhood, but it’s taken me until now to race there.

“And I was highly honoured to have my sister supporting at halfway and at the finish. As a hardcore Southampton fan, she had avoided setting foot in Pompey for many years.”

Other GCR times were Nick Atkinson (1:34:52), Karen Atkinson (1:47:42), Kath Evans (1:47:17) and Jane Molloy (2:01:56).