Headline stats
parkruns – 3,434 finishes over 664 events
5K races – 547 finishes over 26 events
10K races – 326 finishes over 33 events
Half Marathon races – 168 finishes over 25 events
Marathon races – 75 finishes over 19 events
Ultra races – 22 finishes over 16 events
Other races – 831 finishes over 62 events
Total – 5,403 finishes over 845 events
parkrun
2024 saw 3,434 parkrun finishes (up 69 on last year) across 664 events (down 69 on last year). Our members visited 261 different parkruns (up 51 on last year) around the world including Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, USA, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and Poland.
2024 saw our parkrun tourism obsession grow with more members than ever running whilst on trips away or seeking out certain letters or numbers for the parkrun alphabet or other different parkrun challenges. Karl Johnson offered tourism trips that varied from North Wales to England to overnight stopovers and overseas parkruns. Dawn Hopkins and Sarah Davies both achieved their second parkrun alphabet whilst Sarah also became the 7th member to run at 100 different parkrun venues.
Of course, it’s not all about tourism and we continued to have big numbers at our home parkruns of Porthcawl, Maesteg and Aberfields. Aberfields was the venue for this years Zero to Hero graduation which was one of the biggest club turnouts of the year whilst there was also a significant turnout at Aberfields for Nick Harris 500th parkrun at the end of the year.
Number of parkruns completed in 2024
- Jamie Verran – 54 – every UK parkrun day
- Nick Harris – 53
- Dawn Hopkins – 52 – new female club record
- Kris Denholm – 52
- Melanie Thomas – 50
- Sarah Davies – 49
- Dai Kembery – 47
- Aled Hughes – 47
- Linda Harris – 47
- Gareth Jenkins – 46
Dawn and Melanie became the first female members of the club to achieve ‘Gold Obsessive’ status by running 50 or more parkruns in a calendar year. Sarah would also have achieved this had it not been for the red weather warning for Storm Darragh. Jamie Verran continues his unbelievable run of not missing a UK parkrun day since his first back in April 2022 and is now on an unbroken streak of 149. Others who ran 40+ parkruns which gets them a ‘silver obsessive badge’ on the parkrun challenges but didn’t make the top 10 include Chris Pratt, Toby Kearns, Debbie Bennion, Sally Pensom, Saul Harris and Claire Goldsworthy. Jo Jenkins still leads the way for most parkruns overall by a female member and was the first to reach 300 parkruns.
This year we’ve seen plenty of milestones…
- 500 – Nick Harris
- 250 – Claire Goldsworthy
- 250 – Bev Sheard
- 250 – Dawn Hopkins
- 250 – Karl Johnson
- 250 – Saul Harris
- 100- Jamie Verran
- 100 – Gareth Davies
- 100 – Alexis Barrett
- 100 – Dawn Wright
- 100 – Darija Keenor
- 100 – Karen Dando
- 100 – Wayne Hayhurst
- 100 – Gwyneth Steddy
- 100 – Emyr Bissmire
- 100 – Jayne Bissmire
- 100 – Lucy Howells
- 100 – Kaye Pedler
- 100 – Claire Dunbar-Bowen
- 50 – Ceri Jones
- 50 – Lee Dunbar-Bowen
- 50 – Vickie Blake
- 50 – Gareth Thomas
- 50 – Jason Griffiths
- 50 – Helen Griffiths
- 50 – Kate Atkin
- 50 – Deb Griffin
- 50 – John Burridge
- 50 – Mike Nicholson Lewis
- 50 – Jake Tasker
- 50 – James Marsh
- 50 – Heather Morgan
- 50 – Jonathan Matthews
- 50 – Paul Harris
- 50 – Carl Walsh
Another huge year for milestones with our biggest yet with Nick Harris becoming the first member of the club to reach 500 on 21st December. Next year will see two more join him (myself and Chris Pratt). We had a record number of 250 milestones in a calendar year with 5 including Claire Goldsworthy who ran 249 of them at Porthcawl and only broke the 100% record at one venue a couple of weeks before her 250 milestone.
parkrun tourism
Sarah Davies became the 7th member to achieve ‘Cowell Club’ status by running at her 100th different parkrun venue. A record year for tourism saw 11 number of members add 20 or more different parkrun venues to their count. Last year that number was just 5 members.
Number of new parkrun venues visited in 2024
- Darija Keenor – 31
- Dawn Hopkins – 29
- Karl Johnson – 25
- Melanie Thomas – 23
- Vickie Blake – 23
- Sarah Davies – 22
- Nick Harris – 22
- Gareth Thomas – 22
- Saul Harris – 22
- Kaye Pedler- 21
Most parkrun tourisms overall as at the end of 2024
- Karl Johnson – 157
- Dawn Hopkins – 150
- Chris Roberts – 141
- Julie Ransom – 127
- Shawn Cullen – 117
- Gareth Jenkins – 109
- Sarah Davies – 107
- Kris Denholm – 97
- Melanie Thomas – 86
- Jo Jenkins – 81
During 2024, Dawn moved into second place ahead of Chris Roberts who had a quieter year for new venues. Sarah Davies climbed a couple of places whilst Melanie Thomas features in the top 10 for the first time. We now have 29 members that have run 50 or more different parkrun venues and 54 that have run more than 20 different venues.
Top 10 parkrun times
Jacob Tasker has the fastest 3 times of the year with 15:24, 15:49, 16:15, 16:19, 16:21, 16:37, 16:38 – Jacob only ran 8 parkuns this year, finishing first overall in 7 of them. Those 7 first finishes includes 6 different venues including beating his own fastest time of anyone in the club at Maesteg. We had 25 first finishers in 2024 including Nicky Bennett, Nico, Paul Teesdale, Jamie Verran, Niki Puleio, Aled Hughes, Rhodri Thomas and Jonathan Matthews.
For the ladies, Bethan Moor clocked the fastest parkrun time of the year with 20:55 with Katie Plimmer running a parkrun PB of 21:27 in the final parkrun of the year. Our ladies picked up 23 first female finishers between them with Carys Bissmire (6), Bethan Moor (5), Sarah Davies (2), Alison Allen (2), Arwen Rees (2) plus one each for Claire Dunbar-Bowen, Dawn Hopkins, Deborah Edwards, Fiona Drysdale, Freya Allen and Marina Konstantinova.
Volunteering
Top 10 parkrun volunteer credits in 2024
- Chris Stanlake 83 – new club record
- Greg Allen 61
- Alison Allen 58
- Karl Johnson 58
- Jay Howells 50
- Gareth Jenkins 42
- Rhiannon Whiteley 36
- Angela Parry 35
- Toni Howells 35
- Debbie Bennion / Sharon Pritchard 30
Members with 100 or more parkrun volunteer credits
- Alison Allen 343
- Greg Allen 320
- Karl Johnson 279
- Chis Stanlake 226
- Rhiannon Whiteley 177
- Angela Parry 166
- Mia Allen 154
- Rhiain Casseldine-Forman 135
- Freya Allen 124
- Sharon Pritchard 124
- Gareth Jenkins 110
- Jay Howells 105
- Liam O’Sullivan 100
- Debbie Bennion 100
Chris Stanlakes 83 volunteer credits in a single calendar year is a new club record, beating the 68 that Stephne Puddy set in 2023. Of the top 10 volunteers for 2024, 9 out of 10 did more volunteering than in 2023 with Angela Parry only doing a couple less than her 2023 total, but still a hefty contribution of 35. Aberfields parkruns volunteer roster is regularly filled with OPR members and has been a significant change in how many of our members are now regular parkrun volunteers. The Team Challenge also encouraged volunteering this year. Other regular volunteers this year have been Claire Goldsworthy, Dai Kembery, Jamie Verran, Judith Howells, Liam O’Sullivan, Nick Harris and Chris Pratt who have all volunteered on over 20 occasions. Dai Kembery is just a couple away from being our next member to reach 100 volunteer credits. A huge thank you to all the volunteers.
5K races
OPR members ran in 26 different 5K events this year with a record 527 finishes and 42 PB’s. Our biggest 5K (and biggest overall event of the year) was Merthyr Mawr 5K where we had 98 finishers.
Late spring and summer saw the usual plethora of 5K events with 3 SSAFA events, 3 Aberavon events, 3 Swansea Bay events plus the super speedy Race for Victory event in Whitchurch with many PB’s throughout the club.
Top 10 fastest men (measured 5K races only excluding parkrun)
- Jacob Tasker – 14:53 (PB and new club record)
- Angelo Doria – 16:10 (PB)
- Daniel Richards – 16:40 (PB)
- Paul Teesdale – 17:11 (PB)
- Niki Puleio – 17:19 (PB)
- Nicky Bennett – 17:58
- Jamie Verran – 18:21 (PB)
- Aled Hughes – 18:24
- Gareth Richards – 18:24
- John Burridge 18:39
In total, we had record 26 men run a 5K or parkrun under 20 minutes this year with a record 16 of them being sub 19.
Top 10 fastest women (measured 5K races only – excluding parkrun)
- Katie Plimmer – 20:52 (PB)
- Bethan Moor – 20:55
- Willow Hughes – 21:05 (PB)
- Carys Cronin – 22:29
- Sian Price – 22:37
- Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 22:43
- Sarah Davies – 22:54 (PB)
- Gemma Richards – 23:13 (PB)
- Angharad Croot – 23:35 (PB)
- Marina Konstantinova – 24:21 (PB)
In 2023, our fastest female time was 21:57 and 10th fastest female ran 25:30 showing remarkable improvement across our quickest ladies.
10K
OPR members ran in 33 different 10K events this year with 326 finishes and 59 PB’s. All figures are higher than 2023. For the second year in a row Debbie Bennion was our most prolific 10K-er with 7 events. Our biggest attended 10K events of the year was Porthcawl 10K with 67 members completing the course.
Top 10 fastest males
- Jacob Tasker – 30:57 (PB and new club record)
- Daniel Richards – 34:16 (PB)
- Angelo Doria – 34:26 (PB)
- Nicky Bennett – 34:53
- Niki Puleio – 36:07 (PB)
- Paul Teesdale – 37:01 (PB)
- John Burridge – 37:39 (PB)
- Kieron Burridge – 38:26 (PB)
- Aled Hughes – 38:26
- Scott Gray – 38:38 (PB)
Thomas Daly, Gareth Richards, Toby Kearns, Connor Panting and Dylan Panting all also ran sub 40 making it the most members under 40 minutes in a single calendar year in the history of the club.
Top 10 fastest female
- Gemma Richards – 46:08 (PB)
- Katie Plimmer – 46:37 (PB)
- Carys Cronin – 48:33
- Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 48:46
- Angharad Croot – 48:46
- Willow Hughes – 49:31
- Sarah Davies – 49:41
- Arwen Rees – 50:28 (PB)
- Mia Allen – 53:36
- Alison Allen – 54:02
In 2023, our fastest female time was 47:11 and 10th fastest female ran 56:46 showing remarkable improvement across our quickest ladies.
Half Marathon
OPR members ran in 25 different Half Marathon events this year with 168 finishes and 24 PB’s. Our biggest attended Half Marathon was of course Cardiff with 82 members completing the course.
Top 10 Fastest Male
- Jacob Tasker – 1:08:11 (PB and new club record)
- Aled Jenkins – 1:11:59 (PB)
- Angelo Doria – 1:14:40 (PB)
- Paul Teesdale – 1:20:43 (PB)
- John Burridge – 1:23:08 (PB)
- Aled Hughes – 1:24:04 (PB)
- Connor Panting – 1:24:37 (PB)
- Scott Gray – 1:25:38 (PB)
- Gareth Richards – 1:26:08
- Toby Kearns – 1:28:23 (PB)
With Tom Mahoney also going sub 90 minutes, we had a record number of members running under 1 hour 30 minutes.
Top 10 fastest female
- Willow Hughes – 1:38:31 (PB)
- Katie Plimmer – 1:42:15 (PB)
- Carys Bissmire – 1:45:11 (PB)
- Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 1:51:30
- Arwen Rees – 1:54:13 (PB)
- Marina Konstantinova – 1:57:27 (PB)
- Carol Bartle – 1:57:48
- Alison Allen – 2:00:43
- Freya Allen – 2:00:58
- Deb Edwards – 2:02:46
Marathon
OPR members ran in 19 different marathons this year with 75 finishes and 24 PB’s. There’s a dedicated section to Carl Walsh’s adventures later in the blog. Some other highlights this year include Aled Jenkins running a club record 2:30:40 at London Marathon, Niki Puleio being selected to run for Wales at the Chester Marathon and a sub 3 hour debut marathon for Nico. On the female side, Marina Konstantinova ran the Riga Marathon and then beat that time at Eryri, Katie Plimmer ran a female club record course time at Eryri, whilst Shelley Evans completed the Tenby Marathon as the final event of the Long Course Weekend.
Aside from those already mentioned, there were PB’s for Gareth Richards at the Great Welsh Marathon, Martin Beard and Jo Rowling at London, whilst Kaye Pedler, Nicola Veasey and Rya Davies got PB times at Newport.
Our biggest marathon of the year was Marathon Eryri (Snowdon) with 15 runners where Gareth Richards was our first runner with a 3:24. Aled Jenkins ran 3:30 after cycling from home to the race the day before. Jo Jenkins knocked over 35 minutes off her previous best time on the course with this being her 4th Marathon Eryri. Leanne Khan ran her debut marathon at Snowdonia.
A close second for biggest marathon of the year was Valencia where we had 14 runners. Scott Gray ran an outstanding 3:01:15 whilst there were PB’s for Connor Panting, Wayne Hayhurst, Dylan Panting, John Burridge, Tom Mahoney and Josh Parry. Gareth Richards ran sub 4 hours less than a month after being hospitalised due a fall resulting in broken ribs, a broken wrist and a glued head!
Aside from London, we also had Danny Ridley, Claire Dunbar-Bowen and Carl Walsh at Chicago which is another of the Marathon Majors. Aled Hughes also headed to America completing the LA Marathon. The quirkiest marathon of the year has to go to the Green Mile Prison Marathon that Chris Pratt completed which included less than a mile loop on repeat around a former prison including hundreds of steps.
Top 10 fastest Male
- Aled Jenkins – 2:30:40 (PB and new club record)
- Angelo Nico Doria – 2:46:40 (PB) – also ran 2:56:59
- Niki Puleio – 2:56:26 – also ran 3:00:38
- Scott Gray – 3:01:15 (PB)
- Aled Hughes – 3:03:18 – also ran 3:07 and 3:24
- Paul Smith – 3:08:02
- Gareth Richards – 3:10:30 (PB and age category club record) – also ran 3:11 and 3:24
- Connor Panting – 3:12:43 (PB)
- Wayne Hayhurst – 3:14:19 (PB)
- Dai James – 3:15:58
Top 10 fastest Female
- Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 4:09:48
- Katie Plimmer – 4:24:27
- Emma Loyns – 4:28:24
- Sarah Davies – 4:35:29
- Rya Davies – 4:48:58
- Kaye Pedler – 4:48:58
- Nicola Veasey – 4:48:58
- Marina Konstantinova – 4:49:00
- Fiona Drysdale – 4:59:19
- Jo Jenkins – 5:05:39
Ultras / Challenges / Crazy Feats of Endurance
From 26.2 miles to 100 miles – although there were less total marathon and ultra finishes this year, there were still some exceptional feats of endurance this year with many taking on multiple long distance challenges.
I have to start with Carl Walsh who ran 4 marathons and 9 ultra marathons this year to add to his 100+ marathon/ultra events. Carl set himself more challenges this year starting off with completing his quest to run a marathon on all 7 continents. Only 1,034 people had achieved this at the time Carl completed that challenge. The final continent involved flying to the most southernly city in the world in Argentina and then getting ship to the Antarctica Circle to run the marathon with some penguin and whale spotting along the way. Next up was a marathon on Everest with fellow club member Danny Ridley. This involved 12 days of hiking and acclimatising to the altitude with them reaching over 18,000 feet at one point before even running the marathon itself. During 2024, Carl ran his 50th ultra and is now up to 115 marathons or ultras overall.
In August 2024, Kevin Raymond took on one of the toughest multi-day running events in the world with the Dragons Back race. 236 miles from north Wales to south Wales over mountainous off road terrain with 54,000 feet of elevation (not far off climbing Everest from sea level… twice!) over the course of 6 days. Kevin battled his way through 50k of the most challenging mountains and terrain that Wales has to offer on Day 1 and then another 59k on Day 2 but was unfortunately timed out. However, this wasn’t the end and Kevin was able to continue on the ‘Hatchling’ event which involves still running at least part of every days course for the remainder of the race. Over the 6 days, Kevin completed around 146 miles with over 43,000 feet of elevation and a total time of 56 hours and 26 minutes.
It was a mixed year for Gareth Richards who was aiming to become the first member to complete a 100 mile ultra in under 24 hours with the Dragon 100 being the target. He took on the Pembrokeshire 100 for the first time but injured his ankle within the first 12 miles. Incredibly he still finished the race which included 17,000 feet of elevation in 26 hours and was 6th overall. Unfortunately, despite best efforts and starting the Dragon 100 just 7 weeks after the Pembrokeshire 100, Gareth had to pull out after around a marathon distance due to ongoing ankle issue.
We had a couple of debut ultra finishers this year with Ashley Howells completing his first ultra at the St Illtyds 50K Ultra and Alexis Barrett at the HOWUM 30 miler. Leanne Parsons ran her furthest ultra and the furthest of any of our female members this year with the Dragon 50 miler. Dai James continued his ultra journey with the VOGUM where he was 4th overall on the 40 mile course from Porthcawl to Cardiff, completed the Dragon 50 on largely the same course but starting from Kenfig, plus completed the RIDUM 31 mile ultra.
In October 2024, I set myself a challenge of running 500 kilometers (310 miles) during the month in memory of colleague who passed away a few weeks earlier. I set myself the challenge to raise awareness of mental health issues as well raise funds for a charity he had supported. What started out as a plan to have at least 5 or 6 rest days and hopefully hit the target on the final day escalated into me running every day during October and ending up finishing on 658 kilometers (408.8 miles) which works out at an average of a Half Marathon every day for the 31 days. My shortest day was 10K (6.2 miles) whilst my longest was Marathon Eryri towards the end of the month at 42K (26.2 miles).
Longest distances achieved in ultra’s in 2024
1. Kevin Raymond – 146 miles over 6 days – Dragons Back
2. Gareth Richards – 100 miles – Pembrokeshire 100
3-4. Dai James / Leanne Parsons – 50 miles – Dragon 50
5. Carl Walsh – 48 miles – Brecon to Cardiff Extreme version
6. Dai James – 40 miles – VOGUM
7. Carl Walsh – 32 miles – Beast of Llangattock
8-9. Carl Walsh / Emma Loyns – 32 miles – Vale Ultra
10. Everyone else – Alexis Barrett / Paul Barrett / Danny Ridley / Ashley Howells – 30-31 miles – various ultras
Race and overall totals
Total number of events in 2024 (parkruns plus races)
- Gareth Jenkins 94
- Dawn Hopkins 84
- Nick Harris 82
- Sarah Davies 76
- Jamie Verran 75
- Debbie Bennion 73
- Kris Denholm 72
- Chris Pratt 70
- Linda Harris 70
- Jo Jenkins 69
It’s the 5th time I’ve topped the list but the first time since 2018. After topping the standings in 2023, After topping the standing last year, Aled Hughes wasn’t in the top 20 this year due to other commitments. 26 members did 50 events or more during 2024 which is a slight drop on 2023 when we had 30.
Most Races (not including parkruns)
- Gareth Jenkins 48
- Ria Ross 40
- Caryn Hicks 39
- Dawn Hopkins 32
- Jo Jenkins 31
- Mark Worrall 31
- Debbie Bennion 30
- Nick Harris 29
- Laura Worrall 29
- Katie Plimmer 29
Overall most events
- Gareth Jenkins 881
- Nick Harris 827
- Chris Pratt 643
- Aled Hughes 639
- Dai Kembo 553
- Dawn Hopkins 515
- David Sheard 514
- Kris Denholm 495
- Jo Jenkins 448
- Chris Roberts 435
A quiet year for Aled race-wise meant that Chris Pratt returned to 3rd in the standings after Aled took that spot from him during 2023. Dawn Hopkins overtook David Sheard into 6th spot whilst Jo Jenkins overtook Chris Roberts into 9th place. Jo is actually the most recent member to join out of the top 10 having been in the club 8 years compared to 9-12 years for the rest. Our top 10 have run 5,950 events between them. We also have 86 members that have run at least 100 events with the club.
Overall most races (not including parkruns)
- Gareth Jenkins 388
- Nick Harris 325
- Aled Hughes 250
- Chris Pratt 242
- Dawn Hopkins 242
- Denise Bradley 207
- Mark Worrall 192
- Sharon Pritchard 191
- Debbie Bennion 189
- Jo Jenkins 175
Cross Country
The club continues to participate in both the West Glamorgan League and the Gwent League with separate male and female teams contesting. At the end of the 23-24 West Glam season, our men’s team maintained their place in the top division with a 5th place finish whilst our ladies were 4th in division 2. Due to the postponement of the Pembrey fixture of the West Glam league, there’s only been one fixture so far in the 24/25 season where we had a decent turnout at Aberavon Beach despite it being the same weekend as Marathon Eryri.
Numbers have remained low in the Gwent League with the early afternoon Saturday start times maybe not quite fitting into peoples schedules. Gareth Battle and I were the only runners at Margam earlier this year whilst a last minute appearance from Chris Pratt avoided it being the same two again in Pembrey. We were joined by Ben Williams for the Llandaff fixture but unfortunately he had to pull out during the race leaving the two Gareth’s as the only male OPR members on the results. Our women have faired much better in participation with 5 runners at both Pembrey and Llandaff so far this season.
As a result of some great performances in Pembrey (and a couple of last minutes spots needing filling) then we had 5 OPR members representing South Wales at the Inter-Regional Welsh Championships. Bethan Moor and Jo Jenkins ran in the ladies race whilst I ran in the men’s event. Angelo Doria also received a call up for the Under 20’s men’s team whilst Arwen Rees ran in the Under 20’s women’s race.
Jules Esmond did the most cross country league events notching up 5 events this year whilst I also did 5 cross country events made up of 3 Gwent, 1 West Glam plus the Inter-Regionals.
Bridgend County Running League (BCRL)
150 different members ran at least one BCRL event (down from 153 in 2023). We had 634 finishes (up from 592 in 2023) across the 7 events averaging 90 per fixture (up from 85 in 2023). 28 members ran every fixture (up from 19 in 2023) with a few more only missing one because they volunteered at our own event.
In the men’s scoring we regularly had about 20 men capable of running sub 20 in contention for those top 10 scoring places and with a few new faces this year including Paul Teesdale, Keiron Burridge and Daniel Richards regularly in our top 10. The ladies had tough competition from Bridgend and Porthcawl who had really strong women’s teams, but our ladies held their own and produced some incredibly determined performances throughout the season to keep us in contention. Bethan Moor was our first female in the first 6 events whilst Katie Plimmer was our first female in the final event. Our highest female position overall was 6th which bizarrely our ladies finished in on 5 of the 7 races – Bethan was 6th female overall on four occasions and then Katie was 6th female overall in the final event. Our regulars for the past couple of years, Willow Hughes, Carys Cronin, Claire Dunbar-Bowen, Sarah Davies were joined by the ever improving Arwen Rees and new names to BCRL with us, Gemma Richards and Marina Konstantinova as consistently in our top 10 female places in the events they ran. Then we had a huge number battling it out for the final few top 10 places each time with the likes of Jo Jenkins, Fiona Drysdale, Denise Bradley, Jules Esmond, Alison Allen, Freya Allen and Melanie Thomas. Apart from Kenfig where we ‘only’ had 66 members running, our attendances were brilliant ranging from 88 at Rest Bay to a high of 101 at Sandy Bowl for the other events.
In terms of the Team results, Bridgend were out in force this year after having to play runners up to us in the past two years having dominated in the pre-COVID years. Bridgend won every fixture with our club 2nd in 6 events and 3rd in 1 event. We finished 2nd overall and ran Bridgend close in a few fixtures.
Our record of having the overall individual winner for 14 BCRL fixtures in a row came to an end at the start of the season at Sandy Bowl although Jake did win the remaining 6 fixtures so the streak is well under way again.
At the end of season presentation, our members walked away with a haul of age category trophies. Arwen Rees and Jake Tasker won their age categories, Freya Allen, Bethan Moor, Claire DB, Denise Bradley and Niki Puleio finishing second in their age categories, and Katie Plimmer finishing third in hers.
Another incredible season. Every single person made a difference whether our first finisher or our final finisher. A huge thank you to everyone who ran, volunteered, organised and supported.
Club Trail Championship
This year saw the return of the club trail championship with a mixture of local parkruns, XC fixtures and a variety of races across South Wales and beyond. Some great competition throughout the series with the top 3 male and female places still being decided right up to the final month and could have potentially changed as late as the 28th December. I won’t spoil the surprise and put the final standings as these will be presented at the presentation night on the 1st March.
Club Training in 2024
The club continues to offer a variety of training sessions which continue to grow in numbers. On Monday’s we have our junior sessions which have continued to be a great success with the expansion of age groups and multiple members involved in the sessions. Tuesdays have continued with a mixture of effort and mile sessions. Wednesdays are now regularly combined sessions with what was Flyers and regular club training coming together often for effort sessions. We also have track once a month where many of the sessions have come together. Thursdays have continued back at our original home in the Ogmore Valley where several themed / celebratory runs have taken place this year. Then there’s been trail Sundays which are regularly providing something different. We’ve had a number of new Lirfs this year alongside our long standing cohort who keep us motivated and active throughout the year.
At the start of the year we had our latest Zero to Hero group. It was great to see so many Lirfs and other club members coming along to support these sessions. For the first time we had the graduation at Aberfields parkrun rather than Porthcawl which a huge turnout of Z2H graduates and longer standing members who made up most of the volunteering roles including lots of pacers on the day.
Other club activities in 2024
Presentation night saw a record breaking night for Jake Tasker as he took away 5 awards including the top prize of being voted Runners Runner. Jake became only the second member to win Runners Runner for a second time with the other being Nick Harris. The top 3 for the Runners Runner vote was rounded out by Jamie Verran after his incredible parkrun tourism records the previous year and former Runners Runner, Tammie Baker after another brilliant year of running. Despite the trophy haul for Jake, there were 29 different winners on the night with Ria Ross and Claire DB the only others to take away more than one award.
After being incredibly disappointed not have been accepted for this years Welsh Castles Relay, we were given a chance to participate at the eleventh hour. Massive kudos to Dawn Hopkins, Dai Kembo, Nicky Bennett and Niki Puleio who managed to sort out the tricky logistics of travel, accommodation and payments whilst I spent a couple of days trying to convince 20 people to commit to running a huge event at short notice. Somehow it all worked out. It was also brilliant to have 5 ladies in the team this year including Bethan starting us off on the first leg and Jo Jenkins finishing the event on stage 20. An incredible weekend of running with all 20 runners finishing within the cut off times and doing the club and themselves proud. It was just the one team for Rack Raid this year but it was again a fantastic performance by our runners. Well done to Bethan Moor, Sian Price, Sarah Davies, Jamie Verran and Niki Puleio who ran both Rack Raid and Welsh Castles just one week apart.
In October we saw the return of the Snowdonia Marathon weekend with over 20 OPR members and supporters travelling up to the event. Phoenix corner was back with plenty of reinforcements after taking off in the wind a couple of years ago! A huge thanks to Jo Pratt for organising the weekend and to her and Emily Harris for their hours spent setting up and manning Phoenix corner again. Also a special mention for Alun Wylde and family who were set up with their extensive sweet treats station at the Half Way point.
This year saw the introduction of the Team Competition. Liz Davis and Fiona Evans came up with the idea which saw members put their names forward to be involved and then get randomly assigned a team mate for the year. The idea was that the team mates would encourage and support each other to attend training sessions, BCRL events, XC, parkruns and volunteer as set out in the monthly challenges that Liz and Fiona posted. There was even fancy dress involved for one parkrun. It almost certainly had an effect on the number of different people and amount that members volunteered this year as well as bringing members together who otherwise may not have had much contact with each other. I think the verdict is that it has been a resounding success and will hopefully see even more involved in 2025 if Liz and Fiona choose to run it again.
Our X (Twitter), Instagram and Facebook pages continue to keep members up to date whilst this year we’ve seen the introduction of Spond for training, races and other information to be shared. I’ve continued the monthly blog posts during the year with a few more to be published soon. Pippa and I have posted almost 5,000 individual results throughout the year with the master excel file I keep now having over 38,000 results.
A huge well done to every member who has participated in training, races, volunteered or simply encouraged others this year.