Month: August 2022

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10 years of our club – the stats report

On Monday 20th August 2012, around a dozen of us met in the Berwyn Centre in Nantymoel to discuss setting up a club in the Ogmore Valley and our club was formed.

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary I thought we’d have a look at the incredible stats that we have accumulated over that time.

26,067 results have been recorded from 550 different members (past and present) from 3.817 events. In total the club has been represented at 986 different events.

Longest Standing Members

Aled Hughes, John Burridge Helen Griffiths and I attended that first meeting and are the only four ‘founding members’ who are still currently members of the club.

Other long standing members who have all been heavily involved in the club since the early days include Nick Harris, Denise Bradley, Liz Davis, David Kembery, Richard Lowcock James, Kevin Raymond, Fiona Evans and Chris Pratt who all joined within the first 2 years.

Most Events Records

Total events top 10 (races and parkruns combined)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 674
  2. Nick Harris 621
  3. Chris Pratt 484
  4. Aled Hughes 458
  5. David Kembery 405
  6. David Sheard 368
  7. Kris Denholm 335
  8. Chris Roberts 332
  9. Dawn Hopkins 329
  10. Denise Bradley 297

After Dawn and Denise, our top females for number of events are Jo Jenkins who is 11th overall with 285, Liz Davis in 14th overall with 265 and Bev Sheard in 16th overall with 248.

Total events top 10 (races only)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 293
  2. Nick Harris 247
  3. Aled Hughes 183
  4. Chris Pratt 183
  5. Dawn Hopkins 166
  6. Denise Bradley 150
  7. Mark Worrall 123
  8. Niki Puleio 123
  9. David Kembery 122
  10. David Sheard 121

After Dawn and Denise, our next top females for number of races are Sharon Pritchard (118), Debbie Bennion (113), Jo Jenkins (110) and Fiona Drysdale (106). If races before joining the club were included the I would be on 308 and Chris Pratt would be close to 220, however, Carl Walsh would probably beat that with his races for his previous club.

Most events in a single year (parkruns plus races)

  1. Nick Harris 125 in 2019 – also set the record for most races that year with 73
  2. Aled Hughes 116 in 2019 – became the first member to run all 55 available parkruns
  3. Christie Coleman 108 in 2016
  4. Gareth Jenkins 101 in 2015
  5. Gareth Jenkins 100 in 2019
  6. Gareth Jenkins 93 in 2016
  7. Dawn Hopkins 89 in 2019
  8. Jo Jenkins 88 in 2019
  9. Sharon Pritchard 86 in 2019
  10. Debbie Bennion 85 in 2019

Dawn Hopkins and Aled Hughes are battling it out for top spot this year and likely to feature in the top 10 when these stats are refreshed next year.

Longest race distances run

  1. Nick Harris 100 miles – Pembrokeshire Coastal Ultra – May 2017
  2. Jamie Vanstone 100 miles – Pembrokeshire Coastal Ultra – May 2017
  3. Nick Harris 100 miles – Dragon 100 – May 2019
  4. Steven James 100 miles – London to Battle 1066 Ultra – July 2019
  5. Steven James 100 miles – Dragon 100 – September 2019
  6. Elizabeth Sim 100 miles – Dragon 100 – September 2019
  7. Gareth Jenkins 100 miles – Centaur 100 – June 2022
  8. Gareth Richards 100 miles – Dragon 100 – July 2022
  9. Gareth Jenkins 80 miles – Conquer24 – June 2021
  10. Wayne Hayhurst 62 miles – London to Brighton 100K – May 2017

Incredibly not making the list we have a further 69 finishes ranging from 40 miles to 52 miles as well as Denise Bradley and Fiona Evans who ran 100K (62.2 miles) split over 2 days. Including the Vale Ultra and all other Ultra distance finishes, the number of Ultra finishes is 173 from 64 different past and present members. If virtual events were counted then Steven James would make the list again with 84 miles for the Last Runner Standing event with Kris Denholm and myself completing 72 miles.

Most number of Ultra’s completed (official events only)

  1. Kris Denholm 20
  2. Gareth Richards 16
  3. Steven James 13
  4. Nick Harris 11
  5. Emma Loyns 9
  6. Wayne Hayhurst 8
  7. Jamie Vanstone / Simon Harrions / Chris Pratt / Elizabeth Sim / Gareth Jenkins 7

43 current members have run an Ultra with 20 of those doing more than 1.

Most number of Marathons completed (official events only)

  1. Chris Pratt 36
  2. Nick Harris 16
  3. Kris Denholm 15
  4. Gareth Richards 14
  5. David Kembery 13
  6. Wayne Hayhurst 13
  7. Niki Puleio 10
  8. Carl Walsh 10
  9. Emma Loyns 9
  10. Fiona Evans 9
  11. Aled Hughes 8

86 current members have run a marathon with the club meaning around 30% of our current total membership have run a marathon. 67 of those have run more than 1 marathon.

Most number of Half Marathons completed (official events only)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 66
  2. Nick Harris 30
  3. Chris Pratt 30
  4. Mark Worrall 25
  5. Denise Bradley 25
  6. David Kembery 24
  7. Dawn Hopkins 23
  8. Karl Johnson 22
  9. Liz Davis 22
  10. Wayne Hayhurst 21

165 current members (around two-thirds of our total membership) have run a Half Marathon with the club. 141 of those have run more than one, and incredibly 54 members have run 10 Half Marathons or more with the club.

Most number of 10Ks completed (official events only)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 48
  2. Dawn Hopkins 46
  3. Sharon Pritchard 41
  4. Debbie Bennion 39
  5. Nick Harris 33
  6. Aled Hughes 31
  7. Emma Morris 31
  8. Denise Bradley 29
  9. Shawn Cullen 28
  10. Helen Griffiths 26

187 current members have completed a 10K with the club which is around 72% of our membership.

Number of event finishes by distance

  1. 5K / parkrun – 16,160
  2. Other distances – 4,587
  3. 10K – 2,499
  4. Half Marathon – 1,959
  5. Marathon – 529
  6. 5 mile – 372
  7. Ultra – 223
  8. 10 mile – 222

Biggest events by number of members finishing

  1. Cardiff Half Marathon 2019 – 116 finishers
  2. Ogmore Castle BCRL 2019 – 114
  3. Kenfig Sands BCRL 2022 – 98
  4. Porthcawl 10K 2019 – 97
  5. Planka BCRL 2022 – 93
  6. Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K BCRL race 2017 – 92
  7. Cardiff Half Marathon 2016 – 92
  8. Llanilid Loop BRCL race 2019 – 92
  9. Ogmore Castle BCRL race 2022 – 92
  10. Cardiff Half Marathon 2018 – 91
  11. Cardiff Half Marathon 2017 – 90
  12. Pencoed BCRL 2022 – 90
  13. Sandy Bowl BCRL 2022 – 90
  14. Ogmore Castle BCRL race 2018 – 86
  15. Newbridge Fields BCRL race 2019 – 85

In total there have been 44 races where we’ve had 50 or more members finishing. 27 of those are BCRL races with Cardiff Half also making a frequent appearance. Our biggest Marathon attendance was at Snowdonia in 2019 when we had 45 finishers. I believe we have very close to that number again this year.

We’ve also had 65 finishers at Porthcawl parkrun on 2 occasions – way back on Christmas Eve 2016, and then again in September 2019 which coincided with a Zero to Hero graduation. On the latter date, we also had a record 85 members finishing a parkrun on the same morning and more than 100 members attending a parkrun when including those that volunteered or supported.

Most popular races by number of times club has been represented (excluding parkruns)

  1. Aberavon / Run4All 5K series – 12*
  2. SSAFA 5K (Cardiff) series – 12
  3. Cardiff Half Marathon (including World Half) – 9*
  4. Cardiff 10K – 8*
  5. Llanelli Half Marathon – 8*
  6. Merthyr Mawr Pudding Run – 8*
  7. Swansea Bay 5K series – 8
  8. Swansea 10K – 8*
  9. Caerphilly 10K – 7*
  10. London Marathon – 7*

*club has been represented in every one of these events since we formed or the series stared. Aberavon / R4A series could arguably be 18 as we’ve also done all 6 Santa 5K’s there as well.

Club record progression

Male records

5K / parkrun

First 5K / parkrun result: Ross Jones – Cardiff parkrun – September 2012 – 26:31.

First sub 20: John Burridge – Porthcawl pakrun – May 2013 – 19:59

First sub 19: Neil Jones – Pontypridd parkrun – October 2015 – 18:58

First sub 18: Neil Jones – Cardiff parkrun – May 2016 – 17:41

First sub 17: Neil Jones – Pontypridd parkrun – December 2017 – 16:55

Current club record: Jacob Tasker – SSAFA 5K – June 2022 – 15:27

10K

First 10K result: Gareth Jenkins – Cardiff 10K – September 2012 – 48:25

First sub 45: Gareth Jenkins – Cardiff 10K – September 2013 – 44:17

First sub 40: Neil Jones – Caerphilly 10K – June 2015 – 39:31

Current club record: Jacob Tasker – Cardiff Bay 10K – September 2021 – 33:07

Half Marathon

First Half Marathon result: Matthew Jones – Great North Run – September 2012 – 1:48:26

First sub 1:40: Matthew Jones – Cardiff Half Marathon – October 2012 – 1:39:05

First sub 1:30: John Burridge – Cardiff Half Marathon – October 2013 – 1:29:31

First sub 1:20: Neil Jones – Swansea Half Marathon – June 2016 – 1:18:51

Current Club Record – Neil Jones – Cardiff Half Marathon – October 2018 – 1:18:33

Fastest current member: Jacob Tasker – Swansea Half Marathon – October 2021 – 1:11:14

Marathon

First Marathon result: Phil Lewis – Budapest Marathon – October 2012 – 4:14:49

First sub 4 hour: Chris Mogg – London Marathon – April 2013 – 3:59:04

First sub 3:30: Aled Hughes – Manchester Marathon – April 2015 – 3:28:27

First sub 3:20: Kevin Raymond – Great Welsh Marathon – April 2015 – 3:18:46

First sub 3 hour: Neil Jones – Great Welsh Marathon – April 2016 – 2:57:43

Club Record: Neil Jones – Newport Marathon – April 2019 – 2:43:07

Fastest current member: Steve Holloway – Manchester Marathon – April 2022 – 2:53:38

Female records

5K / parkrun

First 5K / parkrun result: Elinor Marsh – Cardiff parkrun – March 2013 – 32:52

First sub 24: Helen Davies – Porthcawl pakrun – April 2013 – 23:16

First sub 22: Sian Price – Porthcawl parkrun – November 2016 – 21:14

First sub 21: Anneliese Loveluck – Porthcawl parkrun – October 2018 – 20:41

Current club record*: Emma Morris – Swansea parkrun – September 2021 – 19:52

10K

First sub 50: Helen Davies – Cardiff 10K – September 2013 – 48:31

First sub 48: Heather Garratt – Swansea 10K – September 2015 – 47:51

First sub 47: Josie Bishop – Cardiff Bay 10K – April 2017 – 46:29

Club Record: Anneliese Loveluck – Magor 10K – July 2018 – 41:26

Fastest current member: Emma Morris – Swansea 10K – September 2021 – 42:19

Half Marathon

First Half Marathon result: Helen Davies – Cardiff Half Marathon – October 2012 – 1:48:40

First sub 1:45: Julie Webster – Llanelli Half Marathon – March 2016 – 1:44:43

First sub 1:42: Sian Price – Cardiff Half Marathon – October 2017 – 1:41:44

Current Club Record – Anneliese Loveluck – Merthyr Half Marathon – March 2019 – 1:32:33

Fastest current member: Emma Morris – Tewksbury Half Marathon 2022 – 1:38:02

Marathon

First Marathon result: Fiona Evans – London Marathon – April 2014 – 4:23:02

First sub 4:15: Lorna Domachowski – Manchester Marathon – April 2015 – 4:12:06

First sub 4 hours: Julie Webster – Manchester Marathon – April 2016 – 3:48:55

Club Record: Anneliese Loveluck – Great Welsh Marathon – April 2019 – 3:13:56

Fastest time from a current member: Claire Dunbar-Bowen – Newport 2018 – 3:46:32

Presentation Nights

Runners Runner Winners Roll of Honour

  1. 2013 – Gareth Jenkins
  2. 2014 – Nick Harris
  3. 2015 – Chris Pratt
  4. 2016 – Christie Coleman
  5. 2017 – Niki Puleio
  6. 2018 – Tammie Baker
  7. 2019 – Nick Harris
  8. 2020 – Kris Denholm
  9. 2021 – Jacob Tasker

Most main awards won

This includes Runners Runner, Best in age category, Club Championship winners, Most Improved, Best Newcomer, Zero to Hero, Spirit of the Phoenix and Outstanding Achievement. The number represents the number of times they have won in total and in brackets are the years they won one or more prizes.

  1. Denise Bradley 9 (2014, 2016, 2019, 2021)
  2. Neil Jones 6 (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
  3. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 5 (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020)
  4. Niki Puleio 5 (2017, 2019, 2021)
  5. Gareth Richards 5 (2017, 2020)
  6. Nick Harris 5 (2013, 2014, 2015, 2019)
  7. Emma Loyns 4 (2018, 2019)
  8. Jacob Tasker 4 (2021)
  9. Adrian Pearce / Aled Hughes / Anneliese Loveluck / Chris Pratt / Christie Coleman / Gareth Jenkins / Juliet Amner / Kevin Raymond – all received 3

71 different members have received awards over the 9 presentation nights.

parkrun specific stats

Like it, loathe it, or just indifferent to it, parkrun is a huge part of our club with over 50% of all results recorded to date being parkrun finishes. We also have a significant amount of parkrun tourists so I thought I’d share some of the crazy stats and challenges below.

Most popular parkruns (number of parkrundays with at least one club finisher)

  1. Porthcawl 400
  2. Maesteg 130
  3. Pontypridd 108
  4. Cardiff 91
  5. Swansea Bay 87
  6. Barry Island 63
  7. Newport 57
  8. Gnoll 55
  9. Grangemoor 53
  10. Llanelli Coast 50

There have been 404 events at Porthcawl meaning there have only been 4 parkruns at Porthcawl with no members of the club finishing – all of these were in 2013 and the last time we had no recorded results at Porthcawl was 12th October 2012. Niki Puleio, Chris Pratt and David Sheard were all in attendance that day but weren’t members at that point. I’ll take the blame as I was our only member who was parkrunning that day but went to Pontypridd. Nevertheless, it does mean we’ve been represented at the last 376 Porthcawl parkruns that have gone ahead. At Maesteg we have 100% record with at least 1 member at every one of their 176 parkruns so far – Tom Mahoney saved that record recently when he was the only finisher from the club although we did have a few others volunteering.

Total number of parkruns Top 10 (12) – numbers in brackets are total parkruns run including those before joining the club

  1. Gareth Jenkins 380 (380)
  2. Nick Harris 374 (374)
  3. Chris Pratt 301 (370)
  4. David Kembery 283 (283)
  5. Aled Hughes 275 (275)
  6. Chris Roberts 266 (291)
  7. David Sheard 247 (336)
  8. Kris Denholm 230 (308)
  9. Bev Sheard 184 (184)
  10. Peter Harrop 174 (237)
  11. Jo Jenkins 173 (210) & Liz Davis 173 (173)

Top 10 volunteers (number of different days volunteering – includes volunteering at both the 5K and junior parkruns)

  1. Stephne Puddy 184
  2. Karl Johnson 136
  3. Rhiannon Whitely 104
  4. Richard Lowcock James 88
  5. Angela Parry 80
  6. Sharon Pritchard 61
  7. Chris Roberts 60
  8. Kris Denholm 60
  9. Chris Stanlake 59
  10. Peter Harrop 57

This information isn’t as easy to find so apologies to anyone I’ve missed who would make this list. Also have to mention some former members – Maria Lalic has now done almost 300 different days of volunteering, Emma Marshall who is on 205, Michael Brain who is on over 100 as well as Dave H Evans with a significant proportion of each of these being whilst a member of the club.

Top 10 parkrun tourists (number of different venues)

  1. Karl Johnson 107
  2. Shawn Cullen and Julie Ransom 104
  3. Chris Roberts 104
  4. Dawn Hopkins 98
  5. Gareth Jenkins 89
  6. Kris Denholm 78
  7. Chris Stanlake 75
  8. Sarah Davies 69
  9. Aled Hughes 63
  10. Jo Jenkins 60

I was the early leader for parkrun tourism and was the first to complete 20 different parkruns back in 2015 and led the way until mid 2017 when Shawn and Julie took over and have remained in joint top spot for over 4 years and became the first to reach 100 different parkruns. Karl Johnson has since took the lead with Chris Roberts also joining the ‘Cowell’ club of running 100 different parkrun venues. Chris Pratt was also one of our early regular tourists and set himself a challenge of running all the Welsh parkruns in 2015 when I believe there were around 15 or 16. Shawn and Julie have by far the highest ‘tourist percentage’ in the club having run 104 different venues in just 137 parkruns overall. Sarah Davies isn’t far behind with 69 different venues in 101 parkruns.

Most new parkrun venues visited in a calendar year

  1. Karl Johnson 35 in 2019
  2. Dawn Hopkins 30 in 2019
  3. Shawn and Julie 26 in 2019
  4. Karl Johnson 25 in 2017
  5. Sarah Davies 24 in 2019
  6. Shawn and Julie 24 in 2018
  7. Chris Stanlake / Alexis Barrett / Chris Roberts 23 – all in 2019
  8. Paul Barrett 22 in 2019
  9. Shawn and Julie 21 in 2017 and Karl 21 in 2018
  10. Shawn and Julie 20 in 2016

Dawn Hopkins, Melanie Thomas, Sarah Davies, Alexis Barrett and Paul Barrett are all on their way into this top 10 with between 16-21 new venues each this year.

parkrun Alphabeteers (members who have run a parkrun starting with every letter of the alphabet)

Dawn Hopkins was the first to achieve this followed by Sarah Davies. Alexis and Paul Barrett recently joined them in becoming alphabeteers with Paul completing it in just 68 parkruns overall.

Dawn is now on course to complete it for the second time!

Aled Hughes, Shawn Cullen, Julie Ransom, Chris Stanlake, Gareth Jenkins and Karl Johnson are all just a few letters away from completing the challenge.

‘Gold Obsessive’ parkrunners (members who have run 50 or more parkruns in a calendar year)

  1. Gareth Jenkins – on 4 separate years
  2. Aled Hughes – on 3 separate years – also the only person to have done all 55 possible in a calendar year
  3. Nick Harris – on 1 occasion

Surprisingly despite being on more than 300 parkruns each, Chris Pratt, David Sheard and Kris Denholm don’t make the list, although all have been just one or two off on a couple of occasions.

Stopwatch Bingo (collecting finishing times ending in all possible numbers from 00 to 59 seconds)

  1. Chris Roberts – completed in 202 parkruns
  2. Aled Hughes – completed in 203 parkruns
  3. Richard Lowcock James – completed in 210 parkruns
  4. David Sheard – completed in 214 parkruns
  5. Nick Harris – completed in 222 parkruns
  6. David Kembery – completed in 256 parkruns
  7. Chris Pratt – completed in 258 parkruns
  8. Gareth Jenkins – completed in 286 parkruns

Kris Denholm has the most parkruns without completing this challenge and is on 308 parkruns and still has 1 more to tick off (number 9). Jo Jenkins has 1 more to get after 210 parkruns. Karl Johnson could threaten top spot as he is on 188 parkruns with just 2 to tick off. Peter Harrop has one number left (44) after 237 parkruns.

Some other random parkrun stats

Earliest parkrunner (former member) – Ann Davies – 23rd February 2008 at Cardiff parkrun – Ann was in the first 13,000 to sign up for parkrun and there are now over 7 million registered worldwide.

Earliest parkrunner (current member) – Jo Jenkins – 14th February 2009 at Cardiff parkrun – Jo was in the first 27,000 in the world to sign up for parkrun

Fastest to reach 100 parkruns – Nick Harris – 107 weeks from 1st to 100th

Fastest to reach 250 parkruns – Nick Harris – 274 weeks from 1st to 250th

Longest to reach 100 parkruns – Ann Davies – 564 weeks from 1st to 100th

Most International Tourisms – Chris Roberts – 7 – Chris ran 5 parkruns in Australia whilst there over Christmas / New Year and has also run parkruns in Denmark and Poland.

Number of different parkruns visited by all members past and present – 386

Number of different parkrun countries visited by all members past and present – 11 (UK, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Canada, France, USA, Austrialia, Russia, Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand)

Longest parkrun streak – Aled Hughes – 74 parkruns which included not missing the additional ones on Christmas Day and New Years Day. I managed 61 Saturdays in a row before Aled took the record.

Number of current members to have reached 50 parkruns – 81

Number of current members to have reached 100 parkruns – 42

Number of current members to have reached 250 parkruns – 9

Most runs at Maesteg parkrun – Aled Hughes 85

Most runs at Porthcawl parkrun – Nick Harris 311

Most parkruns only at one venue (no touring) – Claire Goldsworthy – all 181 parkruns at Porthcawl

Other stats

Longest standing coach – Aled Hughes

Longest standing committee member – Liz Davis (secretary / general committee)

Longest standing captain – Gareth Jenkins

Most age category records – Kevin Raymond

Most club records – Anneliese Loveluck

Number of members to have run 100 events (parkruns plus races for the club) – 63

Highest number of events without doing a parkrun – Simon Harrison – 74

Number of people to have recorded a result with the club – 550

And finally….

Number of hours spend collecting these stats over the past 10 years: I don’t want to even think about it but it’s something I enjoy and will continue to do. Hopefully if you’ve got this far then you’ve enjoyed reading the stats. I’ll do a refresh of all the numbers for the 11 year anniversary – until then, happy running.