1st May – Milton Keynes Half and Full Marathon
Three of the blue wave were in action in Milton Keynes with Jo Betty running the Half Marathon whilst Kirsty Evans and Wayne Hayhurst ran the Marathon. After battling back from a 6 week lay off due to injury during February and March, Jo ran the half in an impressive 2:10:31. Kirsty smashed her PB from Bournemouth last October with a 3:57:30 becoming only the 3rd Cwm Ogwr female to go under the 4 hour mark. Wayne was with her until half way but ran into problems in the second half finishing in 4:33:24.
6th May – parkruns and Preselli Beast
45 runners across a record number of 11 different parkruns. Claire Goldsworthy ran a PB at Porthcawl whilst Brett Bonell got a PB at Swansea.
Championed by male captain Richard Lowcock James, the Preselli Beast races have had more Blue Wave entrants year on year with 7 taking on the Beast Bach 11 miler whilst David Sheard took on the Beast race which is just short of a marathon. Having experienced it last year I can confirm it’s one of the toughest but scenic off road races.
7th May – Porthkerry 5 miler, Stratford (Shakespeare) Marathon and Great Welsh Half / Full
5 members ran at Porthkerry for the off road 5 miler that starts in the same place as the Vale 18 miler. There were 5 mile PB’s for new members Simon Melksham, Nigel Rees plus a first 5 mile time for Chris Stanlake.
Neil Price ran the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford Upon Avon in an impressive 3:30:04.
At the Great Welsh HM I helped pace Mark Gabb to a 13 minute PB with a 1:42 whilst Ashley Howells got a PB of 2:09. In the Marathon, Neil Jones ran 3:01:42 whilst in his second marathon in the same week, Wayne Hayhurst ran a PB of 4:12:21.
13th May – parkruns
54 runners across 7 different parkruns including a PB for Sue Roberts at Penaltta. An incredible 9 new Zero to Hero graduates ran Porthcawl parkrun for the first time including Michelle Alexander, Maria George, Helen Perry, Natasha Jordan, Trystan Benbow, Nicola Veasey, Donna Radford and Vickie Cameron-Davies.
14th May – Cwm Ogwr 5 miler
The 5th year of the event seen record numbers again with the event selling out. This was also the first fixture of the 2017 Bridgend League. Our 26 runners were lead home by Niki Puleio followed by Davidleigh Butler and myself. In all, 23 of our 26 runners bagged themselves PB’s. Our first lady home was Josie Bishop. Over 50 members also made themselves available for marshalling and other volunteer roles in another hugely success day for the club.
20th May – parkruns
56 runners across 7 events. Another parkrun tourism PB for Sue Roberts with her first sub 30.
21st May – Worcester Half and Full Marathon, Cottrell Park Relays
Gareth Richards ran a sub 4 hour time in his first marathon with 3:58, Kris Denholm came in at 4:07 whilst it was a PB for Neil Morgan with 4:31. Four members ran the Half Marathon with David Kembery bagging a PB of 1:37.
Simon Harrison, Karl Richard Johnson, Christie Coleman and Mark Worrallran the Welsh Trail Half in Buith Wells whilst we had 8 runners at the Cottrel Park Relays.
27th May – parkruns
58 runners across 9 parkruns. Neil Jones was first finisher at Pontypridd with another sub 18 clocking. I helped pace Jo Betty to a PB of 24:35 at Porthcawl whilst Juliet Amner bagged a PB just 16 seconds further back.
31st May – Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K
The second fixture of the Bridgend League seen an incredible 92 Cwm Ogwr runners led home by Neil Jones in 17:29. There were PB’s for Gareth Richards, David Kembery, Simon Harrison, Christian Thomas, Josie Bishop (first club female), Juliet Amner, Adam Rowe, Steven Taylor, Claire Goldsworthy and Natasha Jordan.
OTHER EVENTS IN MAY
So many other events to mention. 3 runners at the Women’s Running 5K in Cardiff whilst 7 ran in the 10K event including Kirsty Evans and Victoria Hillman as pacers. Christie Coleman ran the SSAFA 5K. Graham Hillmanbagged a PB at the Liverpool Rock and Roll 5K the day before running the HM along with Victoria. The Purnells ran the Talley 5K. Lloyd West, Martin Beard and Tula Smallman completed the Swansea Triathlon.
At the start of the month 21 members ran the Aberavon 5K which included PB’s for Davidleigh Butler, Jo Betty, Louise Foster, Sara Vowles, Kimberley Thomas, Hannah Bartle and Sharon Delahunty. A special mention for Dai Power who got his first sub 30 with 29:55.
Helen Griffiths and Sian Tossell ran the Tonmawr Hilly 5 miler. At the Liverpool Spring 10K, Amy Roberts ran a new female club record time of 46:09 whilst her mum Sue Roberts ran a PB of her own. At Treforest 10K, Karl Richard Johnson and Matt Murray popped up with PB’s. Chris P ran Sunderland HM, Sarah L ran Bath Two Tunnels HM whilst Simon and Maria Lalic ran the Brecon Trail HM.
Other events included the Calder Idris Race, Whitford Point and the small matter of London to Brighton 100K Ultra which Wayne completed in 14:53.
One very busy month for one amazing club.