Author: Gareth Jenkins

parkrun

April saw 272 parkrun finishes across 79 parkruns. There was plenty of international tourism with the Atkin family visiting Quinns Rock and Carine Glades parkruns in Australia, Sara Johns visited Taupo and Whangarei parkruns in New Zealand, five Phoenix members at Hasenheide parkrun ahead of the Berlin Half Marathon whilst Satera James visited the nearby Mauerweg parkrun. Johnson’s Tours visited Chipping Norton School parkrun whilst there were also many London parkruns ahead of the Marathon.

On the speedy side, Angelo Nico Doria was first finisher at both Maesteg on the same day Angharad Croot was first female finisher. John Burridge picked up another first finisher token at Aberfields whilst Katie Plimmer was also first female at Maesteg during the month. Our parkrun times ranged from 18 minutes to 61 minutes.

Alison Allen nicely timed her 250th parkrun to coincide with her birthday with a plenty of Phoenix members joining her to celebrate at Maesteg parkrun. There were no other official parkrun milestones although there was another birthday celebration with the biggest turnout of OPR members at Maesteg so far this year for Jayne Bissmire’s birthday celebrations.

Races

April saw the return of the popular Severn Bridge 5 milers with a glorious evening for their sunset run. Alison Allen was our first runner back and along with Jo Jenkins, Jayne Bissmire and Jade B, they picked up first place in the ladies team competition! I was our only male runner at the event whilst for the ladies we also had Alice Jenkins, Rosie Plimmer and Abby O’Brien at the event. Further afield, Dave and Bev Sheard ran the Lincoln 10K. Aled Jenkins became our second fastest ever member at 10K with a 32;41 at Gorseinon 10K which I don’t think is known for being a PB course. Dawn Wright also ran at that event.

There were several Half Marathons with Phoenix finishers during the month with Sharon and Debbie taking on the Westbirt Half Marathon. We had a couple of international half marathons with 6 runners taking on the Berlin Half Marathon. Claire DB was our first runner in 1:47 followed by Peter Robinson who I believe becomes our first member to have already completed the Super Halves. Another Super Halves regular, Martin Beard was next up, followed by Sarah Davies, Lee DB and Dawn Hopkins. Our other international half was in Dubrovnik (Croatia) where Kaye Pedler, Paul Barrett, Melinda Thomas, Alexis Barrett and Sian Jenkins completed the course in hot conditions.

James Marsh and Heather Morgan completed the Brighton Marathon whilst Melanie Thomas and Danny Ridley completed the CANNUM 40 mile Ultra Marathon.

In other distances we saw the latest edition of the Vale Coastal races with 5 members taking on the 10 mile distance – well done to Sharon, Debbie, Natasha Pask, Claire Miles and Laura Worrall – and two taking on the 18.5 miler with Rhodri Thomas and James Littlewood completing that distance. I believe it’s the first year since it started in 2015 that we didn’t have anyone in the Ultra which I personally would still highly recommend if you fancy your first attempt beyond a marathon. We also had 9 runners at the Samtampa Memoria run in Porthcawl.

The trail championship fixture for April took our members to Pentyrch for their annual ‘Hill Race’. Myself and Nick Harris actually did this event 11 years ago in 2014 but whilst I only returned once (2015) until giving another go this year, Nick was on his 7th outing. We were joined by David Sheard who has previously completed the course in 2018 and also Katie Plimmer and James Littlewood who were newbies to the event. It’s a classified fell race which basically means its very steep in places, has lots of elevation and doesn’t always follow well trodden paths. There’s one section where unless you’re in the top 1% of mountain runners, you have to walk for a significant amount of time as it’s that steep and even walking it is really hard work! Both Katie and myself ranged from mile splits of 7 minute miles to 13 minute miles on our Strava uploads. I feel like I’m not selling this but it is actually a great event – nice community feel and only £10 to enter. The distance had been cut from 7 miles to just under 6 miles due to some storm damage in a forestry section from earlier in the year which hadn’t been cleared. I don’t think any of us were complaining about the cut in distance on what was probably the hottest evening so far this year. James Littlewood was our first runner back followed by Katie, myself, Dave and Nick.

Big Moose

20 OPR members were part of 6,069 people to sign up for the Big Moose Fun Run in Bute Park with distances ranging from 5K to 50K. Ria Ross, Sian Jenkins, Nic Miles and Claire Miles ran the 5K. We had 8 runners in the 10K lead home by Liam O’Sullivan and finishing with Laura Worrall. In the Half Marathon, Tom Mahoney managed to weave his way through the crowds to run 1:36 whilst Bethan Moor ran an impressive 1:43 in her first Half Marathon with the club. Half Marathon regular Peter Robinson was up next whilst Marina Konstantinova ran her fastest Half Marathon time of 1:54. Alison Allen completed our 5 Half Marathoners. Chris Pratt completed the Marathon, however, as it’s a ‘fun run’ and not officially measured then unfortunately it doesn’t count towards his 100 marathon quest but it does count towards something far more important – an OPR milestone t-shirt as we still count it! This has only occurred to me whilst writing this but me and Jo became the only married couple currently in the club to run an ultra on the same day as we both completed the 50K distance. Kudos to Jo who fell only 8 miles into it, cutting both legs, her hand and even her face but got back up and carried on – she also did an extra lap afterward to complete 55K and beat her previous longest distance of the Vale Ultra which she did back in 2023.

Newport races

On the same day as the Big Moose we also had 28 runners at Newport where they had races over 10K, HM and Marathon distances. The 10K was by far the most popular choice for our members with 19 of the 28 running that distance with some top performances throughout the field and no less than 10 PB’s. Well done to Paul Teesdale (34:51), Thomas Daly (37:56), Jonathan Matthews (40:29), Angharad Croot (44:32), Hattie James (46:35), Lee DB (50:19), Ashley Howells (51:59), John Batchelor (52:55), Rosie Plimmer (1:13:12) and Alice Jenkins (1:16:54). Awesome performances all round but special shout outs to Lee DB who smashed his PB by several minutes, Ashley Howells who beat a 10K time that had stood for 7 years and well done to Rosie Plimmer who might be the one to stop her sister Katie winning most improved female for a third year in a row! We had 5 runners in the Half Marathon with new member Hugh Prescott leading the way coming in just under 2 hours and Vickie Blake our final finisher who was a guide runner at the event. Of the 4 members who ran the marathon, Gareth Richards ran 3:06:25 for a new club age category record and a Good for Age qualifying time for London. A few days later they made the time required even faster at sub 3:07 for a 50-55 year old male. Considering Gareth is our fastest over 50 by some distance (and one of our fastest taking into account members of all ages), that does seem like an insane qualifying ask. With limited GFA places, we’ll have to wait and see if his time will be fast enough if he chooses to apply. Robert Green ran an impressive 3:34. As previously alluded to – Katie Plimmer is already staking a claim for a third most improved female with a 10K PB already under her belt this season and she added a huge marathon PB to that with a 3:49:40. Of current members, only Claire DB has run quicker which was also in Newport, back in 2018. Josh Parry completed our marathon runners on the day.

London and Manchester Marathons

Arguably the biggest day of marathon running in the UK with over 80,000 runners across the two events saw a dozen of our members split equally across the two events. Starting with London where despite a significantly hampered build up due to injury, Niki Puleio somehow managed to pull out a 2:55 clocking to add to his growing list of sub 3 marathon times. Scott Gray was agonisingly close for a second time in less than 6 months to getting a sub 3 but just faded towards the end finishing in a time of 3:01:37. Incredible how much emphasis we put on sub xxx times as clearly 3:01 is unbelievably quick and to be celebrated. Neil Ridley ran 3:43 whilst our only PB at London was for first time marathoner Hattie James who ran a 4:02 to join the top 10 list of fastest female marathoners in the club. Our marathon maestro Carl Walsh collected his 5th World Major medal with a 5:01 in a year that’s included limited running so far due to ongoing knee issues. Our final runner was Karl Johnson in 6:24 who raised an incredible amount for charity as part of his efforts.

Over to Manchester where incredibly, despite warm conditions on the day, we had a clean sweep of PB’s for our 6 runners. Connor and Dylan Panting followed up on impressive marathon times a few months back in Valencia to set new PB’s of 3:08 and 3:12 respectively – going on their half way splits, it looks like there might be more to come in better conditions as well. Matt Edwards ran 3:30 exactly. Jonathan Matthews continues to show why he was awarded Best Newcomer at Presentation Night as he continues to get better and better with a marathon debut of 3:40 to add to PB’s at 10K and Half Marathon already this year. Long standing member Sian Price ran an incredible 3:51 to beat her previous best of 3:55 set in London 2019. Sian joins Claire DB as the only current female members of the club to have run two sub 4 hour marathons. Our final runner and PB achiever was Deb Edwards in 4:54 in an incredibly successful day for our Phoenix runners in Manchester.

Coming up

May begins with the first BCRL fixture and another following just 3 weeks later. Teams are being confirmed for Rack Raid and Welsh Castles. Plus our first social event is now in the calendar thanks to the new social committee team. Exciting times ahead!

parkruns

January saw 300 parkrun finishes across 56 parkruns. Aberfields hosted their first New Years Day parkrun which at the time of writing remains by far the wettest parkrun of the year so far. The theme appeared to be ‘Farms’ for Johnsons Tours with a group of 5 OPR members at Jersey Farm and then 11 at Frogmary Farm during the month. Chris Roberts visited the relatively new Battersea parkrun which has had over 1,000 runners almost every week since it started with 1,100 on the day he visited. This was still less than the 1,569 finishers at Bushy when Melanie and Gareth Thomas visited earlier in the month. A couple of Aberfields cancellations in the month resulted in bumper attendances at Porthcawl with 41 and 38 OPR members crossing the line on the weeks that Aberfields were off – the second of which was Liz Davis’ 250th parkrun which she had originally intended celebrating at Aberfields having been part of the team that started the parkrun. A crowd of Phoenix runners took over a corner of the Waterfront after the parkrun for cake alongside their breakfast! On the speedy side, Jules Esmond was first female finisher at Cycle Route 43 parkrun, Paul Teesdale was first finisher overall at Maesteg whilst Angelo Nico Doria was first finisher at both Porthcawl and Prospect parkruns. His time of 16:54 at Porthcawl was the fastest time of any OPR member in January and is still the fastest time as at the end of March.

February saw 279 parkrun finishes across 65 parkruns. Aled and I became the first OPR members to run Aberfields on 50 occasions whilst later in the month I became the only second member of the club to reach the 500 club with Luke Davis celebrating his 50th parkrun on the same day. We were joined by 21 others including Jonathan Matthews who was first finisher overall whilst Angharad Croot was first female finisher. We had more female first finishers in month with Claire DB at Lydney and Bethan Moor at Maesteg. Johnsons Tours headed to Valentines parkrun with 16 OPR members in attendance. There was a triple celebration at Porthcawl with Freya Allen running her 100th parkrun whilst Marina Konstantinova and Jules Esmond ran their 50th parkruns which prompted another big Porthcawl attendance with 38 OPR members running there that day.

March saw 5 parkrun opportunities with a huge 379 finishes across 95 parkruns. The number of finishers is our second highest month ever whilst 95 parkruns is easily a record and goes to show the incredible lengths our members go to in order to get certain letters, or parkrun whilst away for the weekend or simply to tick off another parkrun venue. March appeared to be the month for international tourism with Dylan Panting visiting Hasenheide parkrun in Germany, Mel and Gareth Thomas visiting Zuiderpark in the Netherlands a week before Jo and I visited the nearby Kralinse Bos parkrun. Much further afield we had Vickie Blake at Quinns Rocks in Australia and Sara Johns at Orakei Bay in New Zealand. Johnsons Tours had some quite extreme trips in month with an early Saturday morning flight for 5 of our members to Edinburgh for Oriam parkrun and a 10+ hour round bus trip to Great Yarmouth parkrun. They also continued their ‘farm’ tourism with Greendale Farm Shop parkrun at the end of the month. Our attendance at Maesteg has dwindled considerably over the past few months, however, a birthday celebration for Jayne Bissmire did attract a crowd of 20 OPR finishers there on the final weekend of the month. A rare month without a first finisher overall, however, Claire DB was first female at Y Promenad and Angharad Croot was first female at Aberfields. Chris Stanlake also celebrated his 250th volunteer credit during the month.

Races

10K

The biggest 10K so far this year has been the Margam 10K where we had 6 runners for what was the March fixture for the Trail Championships. Dylan Panting picked up maximum points for the men despite the race being part of a longer run. He ran with Katie Plimmer who ran a PB of 44:44 despite the undulating course whilst her sister Rosie also picked up a PB at the event. Elsewhere, we had 5 runners at the hilly Pontypool 10K, 3 at Llanelli 10K whilst Kris Denholm ran the 10K distance at Rhayader Round the Lakes.

Half Marathons

The Half Marathon distance always tends to be popular with runners targeting PB’s early in the year or as part of marathon training for Spring marathons. In the first 3 months of this year we’ve had 42 finishes across 9 Half Marathons in 4 different countries! Our international HM’s have included Helen Griffiths and Denise Bradley at Lisbon Half whilst Jo and I ran at Amstelveen Half Marathon (near Amsterdam) where Jo beat her PB which had stood for 6 and a half years with a 1:54:14.

Our biggest half of the month was actually just across the border in Bath where we had 14 runners including a sub 90 minute PB for Harvey Puleio of 1:28:59 after being joined by his dad, Niki. Harriet James clocked one of the fastest female half marathon times in the clubs history with a 1:41:56. Angharad Croot, Hattie, Claire DB and Katie Plimmer all have PB’s within 2 minutes of each other. Presentation night winner, Kaye Pedler also bagged herself a PB at Bath. At Llanelli Half Marathon we had 13 runners who were led back by Paul Teesdale in 1:18:30. Kieron Burridge and Jonathan Matthews joined a growing list of OPR members to join the sub 90 minute Half Marathon club which only had a couple of members in the early years of the club. Kieron ran 1:28:36 whilst Jonathan Matthews ran 1:29:58. Samantha Morgan also bagged herself a PB at Llanelli.

At Newport Half, Paul Teesdale ran a PB of 1:16:56 just 2 weeks after his 1:18 at Llanelli. Toby Kearns ran a 1:25:01 PB. Angharad Croot shot into second in the current female members rankings with a 1:40:39 PB and Jakub Gzik who was a Zero to Hero graduate just a year ago ran a sub 2 hour time for the first time with a 1:59:16. Liam O’Sullivan and Sharon Pritchard also ran at Newport.

Elsewhere, Angelo Nico Doria ran a mind blowing 1:11:33 PB at Reading Half Marathon which places him as our second fastest half marathoner. Our other half marathons in the month included the hilly, multi-terrain Ras Dewi Sant where Katie Plimmer and Chris Richards completed the course, Chris R also ran Liverpool HM, whilst Chris Pratt completed a Half Marathon distance at the inaugural South Wales Phoenix Running event.

Marathons

Chris Pratt joined his Asics Frontrunners to run Seville Marathon in a time of 4:44:14. Jake Tasker was first finisher at Ras Dewi Sant Marathon with a time of 2;53:52 where I doubt they’ve seen too many sub 3 hour finish times. Danny Ridley and Carl Walsh continued their around the World marathon adventures finishing the Tokyo Marathon which is part of the World Marathon Majors. At the end of March, Leanne Parsons and I both completed the marathon distance in the multi looped Phoenix event that I mentioned Chris Pratt did the Half. Jo Jenkins and Simon Melksham both ran 6 laps which was around 20 miles in total.

Other Races

The year kicked off with the Kenfig New Years Day race which was also the final event of the Festive Four. Robert Green was our first runner back and bagged himself top spot in the standing in the Season’s Best category. Freya Allen was our first lady with Jules Esmond next up which contributed to them finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively in the ladies Season’s Best category. All three smashed it over the festive period. In total there were 9 OPR members for the New Years Day race.

The first race of this years Trail Championship saw 12 OPR members travel to Chepstow Race course on a bitterly cold midweek night. Early on, Jake was leading with another runner close by when they ended up going the wrong way and getting back to the finish with the clock only on 16 minutes. I mean, Jake is fast, but 5 miles in 16 minutes is even beyond his capabilities! That resulted in a very unexpected maximum points haul for me and much confusion when myself and Katie Plimmer who finished shortly after couldn’t find Jake anywhere as he’d decided to start again and do the course anyway. Katie was second female overall whilst her, Sarah Davies and new member Katarzyna Krzeminkska also picked up a team prize. In the second fixture of the Trial Championship, David Sheard took on the 8 mile option of the Mayhill Mayhem race whilst Jake Tasker, Katie Plimmer and Danny Ridley ran the 16 miler.

We’ve had mixed success in the XC fixtures this year with an impressive 19 at Margam, 15 at Kenfig but only 10 at Pembrey and 6 at the final fixture in Tairgwaith. Jake won both the Margam and Kenfig fixtures. Well done to Peter Robinson, Jules Esmond and Nick Harris who ran all four West Glam fixtures whilst Gareth Battle, Kevin Raymond, Natasha Pask and Fiona Drysdale all ran three out of four.

Back in January, Gareth Richards, Jonathan Matthews, Keith Coleman and Kris Denholm ran the Lliswerry 8, and we had 10 runners at the mud-fest that is Riverbank Rollick. In March, Gareth and Mel Thomas along with Simon Melksham and Leanne Parsons ran the 30K Rhayader Round the Lakes. Alison Allen, Gareth Thomas and Jayne Bissmire ran the rearranged CF64 race in March after it was cancelled due to weather warnings back in January.

Presentation Night

The first Saturday of March saw the Presentation Night with a record number of awards to celebrate members achievements in 2024. We gathered at the Richard Price Centre after last holding a Presentation Night there 6 years earlier. With this being his final Presentation Night as Chair, Chris provided an outstanding presentation with hundreds of photos, videos (including the customary Marathon Eryri video) and presenting of the awards alongside Alexis. Unfortunately Jake and Katie who won 7 trophies between them had already booked Ras Dewi Sant and a stay in West Wales before the Presentation Night date was announced but I think everyone there was delighted to see them deservedly rack up a whole host of awards. However, it wasn’t just the Jake and Katie show with Coach Kev winning 3 awards for his epic Dragons Back adventure. Claire Dunbar-Bowen and myself were the only other members to pick up more than one award with 23 different members picking up a prize on the night and dozens more receiving votes for Runners Runner or being recognised for their efforts in the Trail Championship and Team Challenge. The list of winners was as follows…

Runners Runner Winner: Katie Plimmer

Runners Runner 2nd Place: Kevin Raymond

Runners Runner Joint 3rd Place: John Batchelor / Laura Worrall

Club Runner: Katie Plimmer

Best Senior Female: Katie Plimmer

Best Senior Male: Jake Tasker

Best Veteran Male: John Burridge

Best Veteran Female: Claire Dunbar Bowen

Best Super-Veteran Male: Gareth Richards

Best Super-Veteran Female: Denise Bradley  

Most Improved Male: Ceri Jones

Most Improved Female: Katie Plimmer  

Best Newcomer Male: John Matthews

Best Newcomer Female: Marina Konstantinova                                    

Trail Championship Winner Male: Jake Tasker

2nd Place: Gareth Jenkins

3rd Place: David Sheard

Trail Championship Winner Female: Katie Plimmer

2nd Place: Claire Dunbar Bowen

3rd Place: Sarah Davies

Best Marathon Male: Nico Doria

Best Marathon Female: Kaye Pedler

Best Ultra Male: Kevin Raymond

Best Ultra Female: Leanne Parsons  

Zero to Hero: Rosie Plimmer    

Team Championship Winners: Gareth Jenkins / Tammie Baker  

Spirit of the Phoenix: Dawn Hopkins

Chairmans Award: Jo Pratt        

Outstanding Achievement: Kevin Raymond

AGM

The end of March saw the latest AGM and a significant amount of changes in the elected roles. Most notably, Chris Pratt stepping down as Chair after almost 8 years with Greg Allen taking over the honour of leading our club. I also stepped down as male captain after being part of the captaincy team for 8+ years with fellow founding member of the club, Aled Hughes taking over the role. Peter Harrop stepped down as Complaints Officer, Ian Lewis as Treasurer, and Jo Pratt as Social Secretary – all of whom had also been in those roles for around 8 years. As Greg pointed out in his first speech as the incoming Chair, it was great to see some newer, younger members taking on roles on committee as well with Ben Batchelor and Jonathan Matthews joining the general committee. There’s actually too many changes to mention here but it’s an exciting time for the club.

RED January… and beyond

Dozens of members took on the challenge of RED January which originally started as a ‘Run Every Day’ challenge many years ago but has since evolved into ‘Realistic Exercise Daily’ or similar variations. A huge thanks again to Natasha Pask who first set up the team for 2025 and encouraged people to join and then to Freya Allen who encouraged us all to post photo’s and Strava screenshots of our activities to do daily photo collages. Activities ranged from dance classes, gym classes, swimming, cycling, walking and of course running. On the running side of things, I believe Freya Allen, Alison Allen, Karen Green, Rob Green, David Sheard, Jo Jenkins and myself all ran every day during the month (apologies if I missed anyone). I carried on to 52 days before having a rest day and celebrated the 50th day by running 50K from Bridgend to Margam Park and then back via the coast (Kenfig, Porthcawl, Merthyr Mawr). At the time of writing, Jo and David are still going with their run streak and are about to hit 100 days in a row. What I don’t think many of the club are aware of though is that we actually have a member on a 2,600+ day running streak – Karen Green has somehow managed to run every day for over 7 years! Natasha’s initial post has a lot to answer for in the Jenkins household – neither me or Jo had intending running every day in January but that’s escalated to Jo running every day this year so far and I decided that if I was going to run every day in January then I would take on the 496K challenge which had been on my radar for a few years. This involves running at least 1K on the 1st of the month, 2K on the 2nd of the month… and so on to running 31K on the 31st! It was one of the hardest challenges I’ve ever taken on and of course, I decided to make it even harder by running at least a Half Marathon for the final 15 days of the month when I actually only needed to for the last 11. The final 7 days totalled 120 miles!

Welsh Castles and Rack Raid

In early March we had confirmation we had been selected as one of the teams this year. In the hope we would get in, members were given several months to run a qualifying time which the deadline at the end of March if they were interested in representing the club at Welsh Castles. As I write this, teams are being finalised for both Welsh Castles and Rack Raid where we will hopefully see 30+ different members get the opportunity to represent the club.

Bridgend County Running League

Entries are now open for this seasons BCRL with the same 7 fixtures around the same dates as last year to keep some consistency. It would be great to see 100+ sign ups which we have managed on several occasions in the past few years. Every runner counts for this one.

What a start to the year and lots of exciting times to come.

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

1. Jamie Verran – 54 – every UK parkrun day
2. Nick Harris – 53
3. Dawn Hopkins – 52 – new female club record
4. Kris Denholm – 52
5. Melanie Thomas – 50
6. Sarah Davies – 49
7. Dai Kembery – 47
8. Aled Hughes – 47
9. Linda Harris – 47
10. 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

1. Darija Keenor – 31
2. Dawn Hopkins – 29
3. Karl Johnson – 25
4. Melanie Thomas – 23
5. Vickie Blake – 23
6. Sarah Davies – 22
7. Nick Harris – 22
8. Gareth Thomas – 22
9. Saul Harris – 22
10. Kaye Pedler- 21

Most parkrun tourisms overall as at the end of 2024

1. Karl Johnson – 157
2. Dawn Hopkins – 150
3. Chris Roberts – 141
4. Julie Ransom – 127
5. Shawn Cullen – 117
6. Gareth Jenkins – 109
7. Sarah Davies – 107
8. Kris Denholm – 97
9. Melanie Thomas – 86
10. 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

1. Chris Stanlake 83 – new club record
2. Greg Allen 61
3. Alison Allen 58
4. Karl Johnson 58
5. Jay Howells 50
6. Gareth Jenkins 42
7. Rhiannon Whiteley 36
8. Angela Parry 35
9. Toni Howells 35
10. Debbie Bennion / Sharon Pritchard 30

Members with 100 or more parkrun volunteer credits

1. Alison Allen 343
2. Greg Allen 320
3. Karl Johnson 279
4. Chis Stanlake 226
5. Rhiannon Whiteley 177
6. Angela Parry 166
7. Mia Allen 154
8. Rhiain Casseldine-Forman 135
9. Freya Allen 124
10. Sharon Pritchard 124
11. Gareth Jenkins 110
12. Jay Howells 105
13. Liam O’Sullivan 100
14. 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)

1. Jacob Tasker – 14:53 (PB and new club record)
2. Angelo Doria – 16:10 (PB)
3. Daniel Richards – 16:40 (PB)
4. Paul Teesdale – 17:11 (PB)
5. Niki Puleio – 17:19 (PB)
6. Nicky Bennett – 17:58
7. Jamie Verran – 18:21 (PB)
8. Aled Hughes – 18:24
9. Gareth Richards – 18:24
10. 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)

1. Katie Plimmer – 20:52 (PB)
2. Bethan Moor – 20:55
3. Willow Hughes – 21:05 (PB)
4. Carys Cronin – 22:29
5. Sian Price – 22:37
6. Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 22:43
7. Sarah Davies – 22:54 (PB)
8. Gemma Richards – 23:13 (PB)
9. Angharad Croot – 23:35 (PB)
10. 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

1. Jacob Tasker – 30:57 (PB and new club record)
2. Daniel Richards – 34:16 (PB)
3. Angelo Doria – 34:26 (PB)
4. Nicky Bennett – 34:53
5. Niki Puleio – 36:07 (PB)
6. Paul Teesdale – 37:01 (PB)
7. John Burridge – 37:39 (PB)
8. Kieron Burridge – 38:26 (PB)
9. Aled Hughes – 38:26
10. 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

1. Gemma Richards – 46:08 (PB)
2. Katie Plimmer – 46:37 (PB)
3. Carys Cronin – 48:33
4. Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 48:46
5. Angharad Croot – 48:46
6. Willow Hughes – 49:31
7. Sarah Davies – 49:41
8. Arwen Rees – 50:28 (PB)
9. Mia Allen – 53:36
10. 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

1. Jacob Tasker – 1:08:11 (PB and new club record)
2. Aled Jenkins – 1:11:59 (PB)
3. Angelo Doria – 1:14:40 (PB)
4. Paul Teesdale – 1:20:43 (PB)
5. John Burridge – 1:23:08 (PB)
6. Aled Hughes – 1:24:04 (PB)
7. Connor Panting – 1:24:37 (PB)
8. Scott Gray – 1:25:38 (PB)
9. Gareth Richards – 1:26:08
10. 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

1. Willow Hughes – 1:38:31 (PB)
2. Katie Plimmer – 1:42:15 (PB)
3. Carys Bissmire – 1:45:11 (PB)
4. Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 1:51:30
5. Arwen Rees – 1:54:13 (PB)
6. Marina Konstantinova – 1:57:27 (PB)
7. Carol Bartle – 1:57:48
8. Alison Allen – 2:00:43
9. Freya Allen – 2:00:58
10. 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

1. Aled Jenkins – 2:30:40 (PB and new club record)
2. Angelo Nico Doria – 2:46:40 (PB) – also ran 2:56:59
3. Niki Puleio – 2:56:26 – also ran 3:00:38
4. Scott Gray – 3:01:15 (PB)
5. Aled Hughes – 3:03:18 – also ran 3:07 and 3:24
6. Paul Smith – 3:08:02
7. Gareth Richards – 3:10:30 (PB and age category club record) – also ran 3:11 and 3:24
8. Connor Panting – 3:12:43 (PB)
9. Wayne Hayhurst – 3:14:19 (PB)
10. Dai James – 3:15:58

Top 10 fastest Female

1. Claire Dunbar-Bowen – 4:09:48
2. Katie Plimmer – 4:24:27
3. Emma Loyns – 4:28:24
4. Sarah Davies – 4:35:29
5. Rya Davies – 4:48:58
6. Kaye Pedler – 4:48:58
7. Nicola Veasey – 4:48:58
8. Marina Konstantinova – 4:49:00
9. Fiona Drysdale – 4:59:19
10. 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)

1. Gareth Jenkins 94
2. Dawn Hopkins 84
3. Nick Harris 82
4. Sarah Davies 76
5. Jamie Verran 75
6. Debbie Bennion 73
7. Kris Denholm 72
8. Chris Pratt 70
9. Linda Harris 70
10. 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)

1. Gareth Jenkins 48
2. Ria Ross 40
3. Caryn Hicks 39
4. Dawn Hopkins 32
5. Jo Jenkins 31
6. Mark Worrall 31
7. Debbie Bennion 30
8. Nick Harris 29
9. Laura Worrall 29
10. Katie Plimmer 29

Overall most events

1. Gareth Jenkins 881
2. Nick Harris 827
3. Chris Pratt 643
4. Aled Hughes 639
5. Dai Kembo 553
6. Dawn Hopkins 515
7. David Sheard 514
8. Kris Denholm 495
9. Jo Jenkins 448
10. 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)

1. Gareth Jenkins 388
2. Nick Harris 325
3. Aled Hughes 250
4. Chris Pratt 242
5. Dawn Hopkins 242
6. Denise Bradley 207
7. Mark Worrall 192
8. Sharon Pritchard 191
9. Debbie Bennion 189
10. 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.

parkrun

The first weekend of the month saw 60 members across 15 different parkruns. We had the top 3 at Aberfields with Jonathan Matthew getting a first finisher token for the second time but this time was with a sub 20 PB. John Burridge was second with Aled third. We didn’t have any runners at Maesteg which was likely due to the BCRL presentation being in the Hi-Tide after Porthcawl parkrun and therefore making it difficult to attend a different parkrun and still get there in time. Claire Dunbar-Bowen ran her 100th parkrun after several weeks of being on 99 but wanted to leave it until after her run at the Chicago Marathon.

The second weekend saw 47 members across 17 different parkruns which has to be our highest ratio of different parkruns to overall parkrunners. Overall numbers were affected by various distance Mo Run races in Cardiff as well as Gwent XC also in Cardiff later that afternoon. Aled was second at Aberfields, Niki Puleio ran our fastest time of the day with a 18:32 at Greenock parkrun in Scotland.

The third weekend saw 66 members across 16 different parkruns. After several years of waiting for that first finisher token, Rhodri claimed it for the second time this year when he crossed the line first at Maesteg. However, the fastest time of the day went to Aled Hughes with an impressive 18:24 at Porthcawl which amazingly was only fast enough for 9th overall. Jonathan Matthews set another PB with a 19:31 at the same parkrun. John Burridge was 2nd overall at Aberfields. We also had members running at both Y Promenad parkruns (Aberhonddu and Abermaw).

The fourth weekend saw one of our lowest attendances of the year with just 33 members across 6 parkruns. This was largely due to Storm Bert which caused multiple cancellations including Maesteg. Aberfields was visited by Danny Norman from the With Me Now parkrun podcast. Danny has been involved in parkrun since the early days of Bushy Park Time Trial as it was originally known. He has done the second most parkruns in the world – Aberfields was his 875th, has visited almost 500 different parkruns, and has volunteered over 500 times with a combination of run/volunteer roles on a Saturday but mostly through being a former Run (Event?) Director at a junior parkrun and continues to regularly help out at various junior events. Jonathan Matthews was 2nd at Aberfields and only denied another first finisher token by someone who came along with Danny. Jay Howells celebrated his 100th volunteer whilst Heather Morgan ran her 50th parkrun.

The final weekend saw 50 members across 15 parkruns. Ceri Jones continued his impressive year of running with a 20:44 PB at Porthcawl. Paul Teesdale was first finisher at Aberfields ahead of Jonathan Matthews who was celebrating his 50th parkrun. Further afield we had Jay Howells at Telford, Gareth Davies at Valentines and Karl Johnson at Fleetwood Promenade.

Races

We had 8 runners take on the 10K and 7 take on the Half Marathon distance at the Cardiff Mo Run events. Paul Teesdale was 3rd overall in the Half Marathon in a PB time of 1:20:43 whilst there were also PB’s for Ceri Jones and Evie Clemett who clocked her first Half Marathon. In the 10K, Angharad Croot was our first member across the line in 48:46 which puts her amongst our top 10 fastest current female members for the distance.

November saw two Severn Bridge 5 milers with 17 members running in each. I set the fastest time across the two races with a 35:33 in the second race just ahead of an amazing run by Katie Plimmer who smashed her 5 mile PB by almost 10 minutes and finished 3rd female overall claiming a box of Lindt chocolates. Despite predominantly being a fun event where people dress up with glow sticks and lights, the rarely run distance along with a reasonably fast course meant there were a huge amount of PB’s including Rosie Plimmer, Laura Worrall, Alice Jenkins, Linda Harris, Peter Evans, Gareth Thomas, Shelley Evans, Angharad Rees, Debbie Griffin, Lisa Ryan and Abby O’Brien.

There were a number of 10K’s in the month with the biggest being the Richard Burton 10K which is always a popular one with our club. In fact, our 51 finishers was our largest attendance in the 11 years we’ve had members at the event. Excluding BCRL, it was our 3rd biggest race attendance this year behind Porthcawl 10K and Cardiff Half. Paul Teesdale was our first runner across the line just ahead of John Burridge. Aled Hughes and Connor Panting made it 4 runners under 40 minutes on a course not really known for PB potential. However, there were PB’s for who else but Jonathan Matthews, Marina Konstantinova and Ben Williams whilst several others had course bests.

Other 10K’s in the month included the Wear Wally charity race put on by our friends at Paul Popham Running Club where I was the only non-Paul Popham runner and ended up finishing first!? Alison and Gregg Allen along with Nige Rees ran the Benidorm 10K which surely needs to be a future club trip with a Half Marathon option as well. I found last minute flights and all-inclusive accommodation for 4 nights for under £200. The race fees are very reasonable as well. James Marsh did the Silverstone 10K (which also has a Half Marathon option), whilst Ria Ross and Caryn Hicks did the Bristol and Bath Railway 10K.

At the Machen Trail Half Marathon, Jake Tasker finished first overall – over 14 minutes ahead of second place! Katie Plimmer was 7th female overall over the very muddy and hilly course. Claire Dunbar-Bowen was 8th veteran female with the race only having either open or vet as their categories.

Cross Country

The second fixture of the Gwent League was at Llandaff Fields for an event that attracts some of the top XC runners in the world as it’s a Gold Label World Athletics event as well as being part of the British Athletics series. In the men’s race, we even had someone who had finished 6th in the 1,500m final just 3 months ago in the Paris Olympics and has recently broken Jacob Ingebrigtsen under 20’s record at that distance. We had 5 in the women’s race with Bethan Moor leading the team home with Jules Esmond up next just as they did in the first fixture in Pembrey. Fiona Drysdale who holds the overall club record for most cross country events completed was next up followed by Claire Miles and Ria Ross who were taking part in their first Gwent XC fixture. In the men’s race, it was two Gareth’s with Gareth Battle and myself completing the race. Ben Williams also started his first Gwent XC event but had to pull out with a niggle after the first lap. Angelo ‘Nico’ Doria ran in the U20’s race.

BCRL Presentation

A dozen or so OPR members headed to the Hi Tide after Porthcawl parkrun for the BCRL presentation. We had 8 prize winners with Arwen Rees and Jake Tasker taking top spot in their age categories. Freya Allen, Bethan Moor, Claire DB, Denise Bradley and Niki Puleio were all second in their categories. Katie Plimmer was third in the extremely competitive senior women’s category which also happens to be one of the biggest participated categories. We finished runners up in the club competition.

parkruns

The first few days of the month saw 54 members across 12 parkruns. Slightly lower than normal but understandable given Cardiff Half the next day. The reason I’ve said the first few days rather than the first weekend is because there was an additional parkrun day in Germany which Nick Harris, Linda Harris and Darija Keenor took advantage. Darija then stayed in Germany for a few days to do Havelkanal parkrun. Closer to home, Carys Bissmire was 3rd female at Maesteg whilst there weren’t too many fast times with most not wanting to push it too hard before Cardiff Half.

Week 2 saw numbers back up to 66 members across 16 parkruns. Tourism included Rhodri at Bushy parkrun, Gwyneth Steddy at Shepton Mallet, Chris Roberts at Barking, and Jonathan Matthews at Leazes. We had the top 4 at Aberfields with Paul Teesdale followed by Aled Hughes, Luke Davis and Gareth Richards.

Week 3 saw numbers up to 69 at a massive 19 different venues. Connor Panting was second overall at Aberfields with Fiona Drysdale becoming the latest female member to claim the first female spot. Jamie Verran was third at Y Promenad whilst Sarah Davies was second female at Melksham. New member Angharad Croot put herself straight in amongst our fastest 10 females in club at 5K this year with a 23:35 at Porthcawl. Paul and Alexis Barrett, Kaye Pedler, Melinda Thomas and Sian Jenkins were at Zielony Jar parkrun where Kaye ran her 100th parkrun and Melinda completed her parkrun alphabet.

Week 4 saw 58 runners at 12 different parkruns despite a few missing due to Marathon Eryri. Dai Kembo was our only runner at Maesteg parkrun with most of the regulars choosing Aberfields or Porthcawl that weekend. Aled Hughes was first finisher at Aberfields with Kieron Burridge second. Sarah Davies was first female at Aberfields.

Races

Cardiff Half Marathon

The big race of the month was the Cardiff Half Marathon with 57 members completing the course with several completing their first Half Marathon. Our club marathon record holder, Aled Jenkins, was first Phoenix across the line in 1:11:59 followed a couple of minutes later by Angelo ‘Nico’ Doria who just missed out on a PB. There were then a plethora of PB’s between 1:21 and 1:25 with Paul Teesdale, John Burridge, Aled Hughes, Connor Panting and Scott Gray all setting their own best half marathon times. Toby and Willow might be giving Jake and Katie a run for their money as fastest club couple with both getting PB’s of 1:28 and 1:38 respectively. Willow’s 1:38 is the fastest time by a female club member since Sian Price ran 1:34 at the same race two years previous. There were plenty more PB’s throughout the field with James Marsh, Marina Konstantinova, Rhys Bradley, Dan Foreman, John Batchelor, Tammie Baker, Lee Dunbar-Bowen, Gavin George, Laura Worrall and Leanne Khan.

Marathon season

On the same day as Cardiff Half, Niki Puleio was representing Wales in the Chester Marathon. Despite a tough lead up with injuries and niggles and suggesting there was very little chance he would be starting, let alone finishing the marathon, Niki ended up running an outstanding 2:56.

Continuing with the marathons, we had three runners at the Chicago World Marathon Major event. Danny Ridley ran 3:47 whilst Claire Dunbar-Bowen managed a very respectable 4:09 after numerous setbacks in the weeks and months leading up to the event. Carl Walsh ran 4:37 and is on his way to yet another marathon goal if he runs all the marathon majors.

The biggest marathon of the month was Marathon Eryri (Snowdonia) although with 17 starters and 15 finishers, it was actually our lowest turnout since the first big club outing to Snowdon in 2015. Unfortunately both Gareth Thomas and Leanne Parsons had to pull out during the race. Gareth Richards was our first finisher in his 6th Snowdonia Marathon with a 3:24. Aled Jenkins ran 3:30 despite his charity efforts which I’ll come onto later. Robert Green ran 4:18 in his first marathon for the club. Katie Plimmer ran a PB of 4:24 knocking 19 minutes off her time from the previous year and narrowly beating the previous best course time by a female club member. Marina Konstantinova followed up her marathon in Riga earlier his year with another marathon PB of 4:49. Jo and I ran together with Jo getting a 35 minute course best on her 4th Marathon Eryri finish. Leanne Khan and Vickie Blake ran together with Leanne completing her first marathon in just over 8 hours. A huge thanks again to Jo Pratt and Emily Harris who manned Phoenix Corner which stood in place on the final corner for over 10 hours.

Cross Country

October saw XC season commence again. We started with the Gwent League in Pembrey Country Park where Bethan Moor, Jules Esmond, Alison Allen, Jo Jenkins and Tammie Baker completed the 7.15k course in the ladies event whilst Gareth Battle, Chris Pratt and myself completed the 9.15k course for the men’s race. We also had Angelo Nico Doria in the male under 20 race which qualified him for the inter-regionals to represent the South Wales region for the second year in a row.

The first fixture of the West Glamorgan league saw the return of a fixture that hasn’t been on the schedule for a few years with the Aberavon beach race. Despite it being the same weekend as Marathon Eryri, we did have 15 runners with Gareth Battle leading the Phoenix team home followed by the in form Jonathan Matthews. Bethan Moor was our first lady followed by Claire Dunbar-Bowen and cross country regular Jules Esmond.

Fundraising

I wouldn’t normally mention fundraising, however, there were some significant challenges during October by a few of our members which I think are noteworthy.

Claire Dunbar-Bowen raised funds for Cancer Research Wales and Alzheimer’s Society as part of her Chicago Marathon efforts.

Aled Jenkins cycled from Llanharan to Llanberis (184 miles) the day before Marathon Eryri, then ran the marathon on the Saturday, then cycled back on the Sunday to raise funds for Velindre Cancer Centre.

I ran 408.8 miles during October, averaging a Half Marathon per day for 31 days to raise money for Cardiff and Vale Health Charity whilst raising awareness of Mental Health issues on each of the 31 days with updates and signposting via social media.

parkruns

The first Saturday of the month saw 54 runners across 12 parkruns. Whilst we didn’t have any first finishers, we had a lot of top 5 finishes with second for myself and 3rd for Niki at Maesteg with Sarah D second lady. Kieron, Aled and John B finished within 1 second of each other in 2nd to 4th at Aberfields with Claire DB third lady. Tammie and I (or Team G&T) set the bar high in the first weekend of this months team challenge with our Hawaiian fancy dress efforts. Chris Pratt and Melanie Thomas opted for Merthyr parkrun before heading to the Roman Run which I’ll come onto in the race section.

The second Saturday was all about the tourism with Johnsons Tours heading to London with 11 of our members running Bushy whilst Karl and Vickie went to the nearby Kingston parkrun. Karl became the first member of the club to run at 150 different parkrun venues. Although there’s no tshirt milestones for tourism, the next ‘5K challenge’ app total after 100 is 250 which is crazy achievement but one which I think 3 or 4 of our members will eventually achieve in a few years time. There was more fancy dress at Maesteg. Chris Stanlake notched up his 200th volunteer stint. OK the speedy side of things, Bethan Moor recorded the fastest parkrun time by any of our female members this year with a 20:55 at Cardiff.

Week 3 saw 61 parkrunners at 14 different venues. Paul Teesdale and Alison Allen were first male and female finishers at Maesteg whilst Marina Konstantinova was second female at Aberfields. John Burridge set a new club record for longest time to reach 50 parkruns as he ran his 50th parkrun almost 11 and a half years after his first – both being at Porthcawl. We had 3 members at Marecchia parkrun in Italy ahead of the 70.3 and full Ironman in that region with Martin Beard finishing 3rd overall in that parkrun and our Cowell Club duo of Sarah Davies and Dawn Hopkins notching up yet another tourism. Dai Kembery became only the third member to run 100+ parkruns at two different venues with his 100th at Maesteg.

The final weekend of the month saw 66 members at 12 different venues. There was an incredible 19:35 PB from Jonathan Matthews at Cardiff parkrun – Jonathan’s PB was over three minutes slower than this at the start of the year. Luke Davis was third at Maesteg whilst Denise Bradley was second female. Aled Hughes was first finisher at Aberfields with Sarah Davies second female. Tourism included Chris Pratt at Parke parkrun and Darija Keenor at Woolacombe Dunes.

BCRL

The final fixture of the 2024 BCRL took us to Merthyr Mawr Lane for the 5K out and back road race. Jake was first overall in a BCRL record time of 15:02. Apparently Jake didn’t realise he was so close to going sub 15 for what would have been only the second time so potentially could have done it again had he not been chatting to the guy on the lead bike – bonkers. Relatively new member Dan Richards was our second runner and 4th overall. Paul Teesdale was our third runner across the line and 7th overall which is a very similar situation to last year where Nico had come out of nowhere to join the club and achieve incredible finish times and positions in the second half of the BCRL season. Katie Plimmer ran a PB of 20:52 and was our first lady with Bethan Moor just a few seconds back in 20:56 having been our first lady in every other fixture this year. The girls had plenty of support with 6 other club members finishing with 20:45 and 20:55. Willow Hughes was our third female in 21:30. There were fantastic performances for our top 10 male and female scorers and a great turnout of 97 runners. Despite this, Bridgend made it a clean sweep of BCRL team wins this season with our club having to settle for a still impressive runners up spot this year. Worth remembering that we would often have been 4th or 5th in the first couple of BCRL seasons so have come a long way to consistently be challenging every year and two team titles under our belts. It was another incredible BCRL season for the club with a record number of runners completing all 7 events and a 165 different members running at least one of the seven events which accounts for around 75% of our membership.

Races

Our Thursday night training home of Ogmore Life Centre was the familiar starting point for the annual Beat the Black Dog 12K in support of Papyrus (a suicide prevention charity). Jay and Tyler Howells helped friend of the club Andy Caress with the event which saw 7 of our members take on the hilly course. The event is a cani-cross event so the majority of the 70 finishers were running with dogs, however, I was very pleased to discover I ended up finishing as the first non cani-cross runner and in 10th overall. Our other runners were Peter Robinson, James Marsh, Mark Worrall, Liam O’Sullivan, Paul Harris and Jay Howells.

We had 7 runners at the Roman Run. A 15 mile race with a lot of elevation following a route from Brecon to Merthyr. Jake Tasker ended up 3rd which almost certainly would have been 1st had he not took a wrong turn and ended up adding another significant incline and a couple of miles to his run! Dylan Panting was next up with Katie Plimmer only a few minutes further back as she continues her impressive form. Chris Pratt, Melanie Thomas, Julie Ransom and Shawn Cullen completed our Roman Run finishers with many using it as training for (Snowdonia) Marathon Eryri.

We had 15 runners at Swansea 10K where Nicky Bennett was our first runner back in 37:24. It was a great day for father and son duo John and Keiron Burridge with both getting PBs. There were also several other PBs for Jonathan Matthews, Liam Jones, John Batchelor and Ria Ross.

We had 7 runners at the Pumsaint Trail races which are probably one of the best value races around. Rya Cowan-Davies, Kaye Pedler, Melinda Thomas and Sian Jenkins took on the hilly 10K distance whilst Jason Griffiths, Ceri Jones and Alun Job took on the Half Marathon distance.

We had 40 runners at the CDF 10K making it one of our biggest participated events outside or BCRL and parkrun this year. Dan Richards was our first runner back in a breathtaking 34:16 with Nico just 10 seconds later. When the club started, a sub 45 time was impressive for front runners, then a few started sneaking under 40 minutes and now we have several sub 35 runners. We had finishers from 34 minutes to 90 minutes showing that our club caters for all abilities and every single one should be celebrated – after all, they all completed the same distance on the same course on the same day. We had 18 runners at the Llantwit Major 10K where Jake Tasker won by well over 3 minutes! Katie Plimmer was our first female, 5th female overall and first in her age category.

Other races in month included Caryn Hicks and Ria Ross running the inaugural Blaenavon Heritage 5 miler. Heather Morgan ran the biggest mass participation race in the UK – the Great North Run. Denise Bradley headed to Denmark to complete the Copenhagen Half Marathon in 2:06. Danny Ridley and Carl Walsh were in Ultra action again with the 31 mile RIDUM. Kris Denholm took on the Lake Vyrnwy Half Marathon. Sharon and Debbie ran the Oldbury 10 miler with that resulting in Debbie having completed the trilogy of races that the event organisers put on each year.

We also saw Coach Kev take on the Dragons Back. I’ve included his own summary of the event below

“My Dragons Back, all inclusive 6 day running holiday in numbers

Day 1…. 15hrs:37m

Day 2…..16hrs:28m

Day 3……5hrs:56m

Day 4……5hrs:26m

Day 5 …..6hrs:57m

Day 6……5hrs:52m

Total       56hrs:26m over 146miles give or take

Elevation 43,596ft

Data from my Garmin for days 1,2,4,5 &

Day 3 my watch & phone had run out of battery as someone had picked up my charging pack by mistake. So info from official results.

Days 3,4,5 & 6 were hatchling course, where I did the later part, we were checked out of camp at 8:30 but didn’t start running until 10:30am so there is a 2hr difference in my time & DB time.

All done on less than 12 hrs sleep for the week, gallons of coffee, kilos of chips & not forgetting the pint on the last day at the checkpoint”.

parkrun

This 5 Saturday month saw huge numbers with 333 parkrun finishes by our members. International tourism included Karl visiting an Irish parkrun, Willow and Toby visiting Milano Nord parkrun in Italy, and regular tourists Sarah, Dawn and Melanie visiting a parkrun in Dublin. The Dublin parkrun was also Sarah’s 100th different parkrun venue making her only the 7th member to complete that milestone.

Other tourism in month included a group of our Maesteg regulars heading to Severn Bridge parkrun, a Runs podcast meet up at Bryn Bach parkrun, whilst Johnsons Tours headed to Riverside Walk and Aston Hall parkruns.

On the speedy side of things, Niki Puleio notched up a couple of first finishes at Maesteg. It was a good parkrun month for Jake Tasker with a course record 16:19 at Trelai parkrun, a 16:21 first finish on a long awaited return to Maesteg, and unbelievably not a course record, but a 15:24 first finish at Eden Project parkrun. There was some bad news for Jake though as his Aberfields parkrun which has stood from event 1 was broken on the first anniversary event.

The first year anniversary of Aberfields parkrun saw 32 members in attendance. Trelai was also a popular parkrun for our members in August with it being the venue for the club trail championship. Whilst the club team competition offered up points for volunteering at parkrun which certainly boosted volunteer credits for club members at both local 5k parkruns and at Bridgend juniors.

BCRL

The penultimate fixture of the 2024 BCRL season took us to Ogmore Castle for the Heol y Mynydd race. We had an amazing 90 runners for this one with Jake once again crossing the finish line in first place. In the team competition we finished 3rd out of the 6 six clubs with Bridgend bagging their 6th win out of 6 and Porthcawl just pipping us to runners up on the night. After 6 events we were still in second overall.

Races

The final of the three Aberavon Run4All 5K series saw 26 members take on the course. Connor Panting was our first member across the line with Rya Cowan-Davies our first female finisher. Laura Worrall continued her great form with another 5K PB having also got parkrun and other summer series 5K PB this year.

13 members ran at the 5K on the Bay in Swansea hosted by Tri Harder Triathlon Club. Paul Teesdale continues to smash PBs with almost every run since starting with the club as a 20 minute 5ker just a couple of months ago and ran an outstanding 17:11 to put himself well amongst the top 10 fastest in the club over that distance. Tom Mahoney was next up in an impressive sub 19. Sarah Davies was our first female coming in just under 24 minutes whilst there was another 5K PB for Laura Worrall.

Nick Harris took on the CPR (Cardiff Penath Challenge) for the 3rd (fourth?) time. This involves running 5 events in just 30 hours around the Pontcanna / Bute Park / Llandaff Fields area over August Bank Holiday. The distance of the 5 events adds up to 26.2 mile with the final results being your total time for all 5 events added together. I’ve done it a couple of times and it’s a great challenge. You can definitely pick out those that do it year after year who’ve mastered the tactics and don’t go all out on the first couple of events and have something in reserve for day 2.

The Bank Holiday weekend also saw the Beast of Bryn races with 5 of our ladies taking on the 6 miler whilst 5 of our men took on the 10 mile route.

Other races in August included Kris Denholm running the Leominster 10K, Denise Bradley at the Crickhowell 10K and Lee and Claire DB at Frome Half Marathon. Car Walsh added another ultra to his list with the Beast of Llangattock 32 mile Ultra.

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 12 year anniversary I thought we’d have a look at the incredible stats that we have accumulated over that time.

36,404 results have been recorded from 602 different members (past and present) from 5,049 events. In total the club has been represented at 1,211 different events.

Longest Standing Members (based on first event if joining date not known)

• Gareth Jenkins / Aled Hughes / Helen Griffiths / John Burridge – August 2012
• Nick Harris – May 2013
• Steven Clatworthy – Oct 2013
• Dai Kembery / Denise Bradley – Mar 2013
• Richard Lowcock James – May 2014
• Kevin Raymond – June 2014
• Fiona Evans – Sept 2014
• Chris Pratt – Oct 2014
• Liz Davis – Nov 2014
• Alica Thomas / Chris Roberts – Jan 2015
• Dawn Hopkins / Jayne Kembery – April 2015

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.

You may be wondering who Steven Clatworthy is – amazingly despite not attending any club sessions or running specifically for OPR in the last 9-10 years, he continues to renew his membership every year to support a local club.

It’s interesting how many of those listed play significant roles in the club with 3 of the 4 captaincy group, our Chair, two members who have been instrumental in running our juniors section since it’s inception to current day, and several committee members included. We do always welcome anyone to apply for the positions or volunteer in any capacity whether you are a new member or been with us for 10+ years.

Most Events Records

Total events top 10 (races and parkruns combined)

1. Gareth Jenkins 848
2. Nick Harris 797
3. Chris Pratt 620
4. Aled Hughes 616
5. David Kembery 524
6. David Sheard 497
7. Dawn Hopkins 484
8. Kris Denholm 470
9. Jo Jenkins 421
10. Chris Roberts 420

Since last years post, Chris Pratt has overtaken Aled into 3rd place after the two had swapped places last year. Dawn has overtaken Kris Denholm into 7th overall and is our highest placed female member. Jo Jenkins has recently overtaken Chris Roberts into 9th overall and is the only member of the top 10 to have been a member for less than 8 years.

Total events top 10 (races only)

1. Gareth Jenkins 372
2. Nick Harris 316
3. Aled Hughes 245
4. Chris Pratt 233
5. Dawn Hopkins 230
6. Denise Bradley 200
7. Sharon Pritchard 181
8. Mark Worrall 180
9. Debbie Bennion 178
10. David Sheard 166

After Dawn, Denise, Sharon and Debbie our next top females for number of races are Jo Jenkins (162) and Fiona Drysdale (151)

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. Dawn Hopkins 95 in 2022
7. Aled Hughes 94 in 2022
8. Gareth Jenkins 93 in 2016
9. Aled Hughes 90 in 2023
10. Dawn Hopkins 89 in 2019 / Sarah Davies 89 in 2022

I am currently leading the way so far this year and could be on course to have a fourth entry in this top 10 when it’s refreshed next year. Just missing out on this list are Jo Jenkins, Sharon Pritchard and Debbie Bennion who did 88, 86 and 85 events respectively in 2019.

Longest race distances run

The 100 mile club (in date order)

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 (first member to run two 100 milers)
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 (first female member to run 100)
7. Gareth Jenkins 100 miles – Centaur 100 – June 2022
8. Gareth Richards 100 miles – Dragon 100 – July 2022
9. Gareth Jenkins 100 miles – Dragon 100 – July 2023
10. Gareth Richards 100 miles – Dragon 100 – July 2023
11. Emma Loyns 100 miles – Dragon 100 – July 2023
12. Angharad Hinam 100 miles – Dragon 100 – July 2023
13. Gareth Richards 100 miles – Pembrokeshire Coastal Ultra – May 2024 (first to run three)

Next top 10 longest

1. Gareth Jenkins – 88 miles – 24 hour charity event – Feb 2023
2. Gareth Jenkins – 80 miles – Conquer 24 – June 2022
3. Gareth Jenkins – 77 miles – Escape from Meriden – Nov 2022
4. Wayne Hayhurst – 62 miles – London to Brighton 100K – Apr 2017
5. Fiona Evans – 62 miles – Race to the Stones 100K – Aug 2021
6. Denise Bradley – 62 miles – Race to the Stones 100K – Aug 2021
7. Simon Poole – 62 miles – Race to the Stones 100K – Aug 2023
8. Melanie Thomas – 62 miles – Race to the Stones 100K – Aug 2023 (over 2 days)
9. Rhiain Casseldine-Forman – 62 miles – Race to the Stones 100K – Aug 2023 (over 2 days)
10. Anneliese Loveluck – 60 miles – Dare Valley 12 hour – Sept 2019

The 50(ish) mile club

1. Gareth Jenkins – 53 miles – Loop-a-thon – Sept 2023
2. Steven James – 52 miles – Race to the King – June 2019
3. Carl Walsh – 52 miles – Race to the King – June 2021
4. Denise Bradley – 52 miles – Race to the Tower – June 2022
5. Simon Harrison – 52 miles – Race to the Tower – July 2018
6. Steven James – 52 miles – Race to the Tower – July 2018
7. Emma Loyns – 50 miles – EDDUM – Aug 2022
8. Gareth Jenkins – 50 miles – Loop-a-thon – Aug 2022
9. Denise Bradley – 50 miles – 24 hour charity event – Feb 2023
10. Dragon 50 – Gareth Jenkins, Dai James, Leanne Parsons
11. Gower 50 – Gareth Richards (4 times), Kris Denholm (3 times), Nick Harris (3 times), Neil Jones, Tim Phillips, Aled Hughes, Brian Cotton, Liz Sim, Simon Harrison, Mark Worrall

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 whilst I also did two other 50+ milers as part of virtual challenges.

Most number of Ultra’s (50 miles+) completed (official events only)

1. Gareth Jenkins 8 (11 including virtual)
2. Gareth Richards 7
3. Nick Harris 5
4. Steven James 4 (5 including virtual)
5. Kris Denholm 3 (4 including virtual)
6. Denise Bradley 3

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

• Carl Walsh 22 (much higher with those done before joining the club)
• Kris Denholm / Gareth Richards 21
• Emma Loyns 15 (couple more since leaving the club)
• Steven James 13 (much higher since leaving the club including 200+ milers)
• Nick Harris 12
• Gareth Jenkins 12
• Liz Sim 9 (much higher with those done whilst not a member)
• Wayne Hayhurst 8
• Jamie Vanstone / Simon Harrison / Chris Pratt 7

93 members have run a ultra with the club but interestingly only 42 of those are current members. That still means that around 20% of our current total membership have run an ultra. 18 of those have run more than 1 ultra.

Most number of Marathons completed (official events only)

1. Chris Pratt 40
2. Carl Walsh 30 (over 100 marathons or ultras including those before joining us)
3. Nick Harris 19
4. Gareth Richards 18
5. Emma Loyns 18
6. Kris Denholm 17
7. Wayne Hayhurst 17
8. Niki Puleio 15
9. Liz Sim 15
10. David Kembery 13

89 current members have run a marathon with the club meaning around 34% 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 73
2. Chris Pratt 34
3. Nick Harris 31
4. Dawn Hopkins 30
5. Denise Bradley 29
6. Wayne Hayhurst 29
7. Mark Worrall 27
8. David Kembery 26
9. Sharon Pritchard 26
10. Liz Davis / Debbie Bennion 25

Interestingly these figures haven’t changed massively since last year which maybe indicates a preference for longer or shorter events for some of our most regular race entrants. 152 current members (around two-thirds of our total membership) have run a Half Marathon with the club. 131 of those have run more than one, and incredibly 49 members have run 10 Half Marathons or more with the club.

Most number of 10Ks completed (official events only)

1. Sharon Pritchard 57
2. Debbie Bennion 55
3. Dawn Hopkins 54
4. Gareth Jenkins 53
5. Aled Hughes 37
6. Nick Harris 37
7. Mark Worrall 36
8. Niki Puleio 32
9. Denise Bradley 30
10. Shawn Cullen / Helen Griffiths 29

174 current members have completed a 10K with the club which is around 75% of our membership.

Number of event finishes by distance

1. 5K / parkrun – 23,581
2. Other distances – 5,632
3. 10K – 3,073
4. Half Marathon – 2,315
5. Marathon – 731
6. 5 mile – 489
7. Ultra – 308
8. 10 mile – 267

Biggest events by number of members finishing

1. Cardiff Half Marathon 2019 – 116 finishers
2. Ogmore Castle BCRL 2019 – 114
3. Merthyr Mawr BCRL 2023 – 102
4. Sandy Bowl BCRL 2024 – 101
5. Kenfig Sands BCRL 2022 – 98
6. Pencoed BCRL 2024 – 97
7. Porthcawl 10K 2019 – 97
8. Sandy Bowl 2023 – 95
9. Planka BCRL 2022 – 93
10. Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K BCRL race 2017 – 92
11. Cardiff Half Marathon 2016 – 92
12. Llanilid Loop BRCL race 2019 – 92
13. Ogmore Castle BCRL race 2022 – 92
14. Cardiff Half Marathon 2018 – 91
15. Cardiff Half Marathon 2017 – 90
16. Ogmore Castle BCRL race 2024 – 90
17. Pencoed BCRL 2022 – 90
18. Sandy Bowl BCRL 2022 – 90
19. Pencoed BCRL 2023 – 89
20. Tuska Beach / Rest Bay BCRL 2024 – 87

In total there have been 63 races where we’ve had 50 or more members finishing. 36 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.

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 – 18*
2. SSAFA 5K (Cardiff) series – 18
3. Swansea Bay (Paul Popham) 5K series – 14
4. Cardiff Half Marathon (including World Half) – 11*
5. Llanelli Half Marathon – 10*
6. Merthyr Mawr Pudding Run – 10*
7. Swansea 10K – 10*
8. Cardiff / CDF 10K – 9*
9. Caerphilly 10K – 9*
10. London Marathon – 9*

*club has been represented in every one of these events since we formed or the series stared. Aberavon / R4A series could arguably be 26 as we’ve also done all 8 Santa 5K’s there as well.

Club records

Male

• 5K / parkrun: Jacob Tasker – SSAFA 5K – July 2024 – 14:53
• 10K: Jacob Tasker – Magor 10K – July 2024 – 30:57
• Half Marathon: Jacob Tasker – Swansea Half Marathon – June 2024 – 01:08:11
• Marathon: Aled Jenkins – London Marathon – April 2024 – 02:30:40

Female

• 5K / parkrun: Emma Morris – Swansea Bay parkrun – Sept 2021 – 19:52
• 10K: Anneliese Loveluck – Magor 10K – July 2018 – 41:26
• Half Marathon: Anneliese Loveluck – Merthyr Half Marathon – Mar 2019 – 01:32:33
• Marathon: Anneliese Loveluck – Great Welsh Marathon – Apr 2019 – 03:13:56

Current Female members

• 5K / parkrun: Sian Price – Porthcawl parkrun – Nov 2016 – 21:14
• 10K: Sian Price – Porthcawl 10K – July 2022 – 42:38
• Half Marathon: Sian Price – Cardiff Half Marathon – Oct 2022 – 01:34:34
• Marathon: Claire Dunbar-Bowen – London Marathon – Apr 2023 – 03:46:07

Age Category Records (total number of age category club records)

1. Niki Puleio – 8
2. Denise Bradley – 7
3. Gareth Richards – 7
4. Sian Price – 7
5. Neil Jones – 7
6. Kevin Raymond – 6
7. Anneliese Loveluck – 5

Age category records are split into 5 year increments for 5K, 5 miles, 10K, 10 miles, Half Marathon and Marathon. Niki and Denise actually hold records in 3 different age categories. Denise definitely has the opportunity to increase her numbers and would be almost guaranteed the 5 mile, 10K, 10 mile and Marathon in her current age category which could out her on over 10 age category records.

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 (first member to win it twice)
8. 2020 – Kris Denholm
9. 2021 – Jacob Tasker
10. 2022 – Laura Worrall
11. 2023 – Jacob Tasker

Most main awards won

This includes Runners Runner, Best in age category, Club Championship winners, Most Improved, Best Newcomer, Zero to Hero, Chairman’s Award, 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. Jake Tasker 11 (2021, 2022, 2023)
2. Denise Bradley 10 (2014, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2023)
3. Gareth Richards 8 (2017, 2020, 2022, 2023)
4. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 8 (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023)
5. Niki Puleio 7 (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022)
6. Emma Loyns 6 (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023)
7. Neil Jones 6 (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
8. Keith Coleman 5 (2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023)
9. Nick Harris 5 (2013, 2014, 2015, 2019)
10. Gareth Jenkins, Aled Hughes, Sarah Davies 4

96 different members have received awards over the 11 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 504
2. Maesteg 277
3. Pontypridd 158
4. Swansea Bay 144
5. Cardiff 119
6. Grangemoor 99
7. Gnoll 90
8. Barry Island 89
9. Newport 75
10. Llanelli Coast / Sandy Water 74

There have been 508 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 2013. 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 428 Porthcawl parkruns that have gone ahead. At Maesteg we have 100% record with at least 1 member at every one of their 277 parkruns so far – there have been a few occasions in the past year that there was only one finisher.

Total number of parkruns Top 10 – ranked by number done with club then numbers in brackets are total parkruns run including those before joining the club

1. Nick Harris 483 (483)
2. Gareth Jenkins 478 (478)
3. Chris Pratt 388 (459)
4. David Kembery 383 (383)
5. Aled Hughes 373 (373)
6. Chris Roberts 348 (376)
7. David Sheard 332 (421)
8. Kris Denholm 331 (409)
9. Jo Jenkins 260 (295)
10. Dawn Hopkins 255 (255)

Nick overtook me to take top spot at the start of this year and is on course to become the first member to reach the 500 club around Christmas this year! I already know of a few I’ll miss so am looking at around Feb/Mar 2025 for mine. Liz Davis, Alison Allen, Niki Puleio and Gareth Davies are the next to reach 250 but all at least 6-9 months away.

When looking at overall numbers including those done before joining club then we also have Peter Harrop (286), Richard Lowcock James (266), Claire Goldsworthy (263), Karl Johnson (257), Saul Harris (254) and Bev Sheard (251).

parkrun milestone clubs

• 250 club – 16 current members (5 have joined this year)
• 100 club (100-249 parkruns) – 53 current members
• 50 club (50-99 parkruns) – 39 current members
• 25 club (25-49 parkruns) – 26 current members

134 members have 25 or more parkruns which is around 60% of our current membership.

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

1. Alison Allen 322
2. Greg Allen 298
3. Karl Johnson 257
4. Chris Stanlake 194
5. Rhiannon Whitely 161
6. Mia Allen 152
7. Angela Parry 149
8. Freya Allen 119
9. Sharon Pritchard 114
10. Richard Lowcock James 105

This information isn’t as easy to find so apologies to anyone I’ve missed who would make this list. The numbers will also include volunteer stints done before joining the club. The Allen family dominate the list and could hit 1,000 volunteer credit between them by the time this list is refreshed next year. I suspect we might see a couple of Aberfields regulars pop up on this list next year. Also have to mention some former members – Maria Lalic has 357 volunteer credits, Emma Marshall 318 and Stephne Puddy 315 with many of those whilst a member of the club.

Top 10 parkrun tourists (number of different venues)

1. Karl Johnson 148
2. Dawn Hopkins 140
3. Chris Roberts 136
4. Julie Ransom 125
5. Shawn Cullen 115
6. Gareth Jenkins 108
7. Sarah Davies 100
8. Kris Denholm 92
9. Jo Jenkins 80
10. Chris Stanlake 78

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 were in joint top spot for over 4 years and became the first to reach 100 different parkruns. Over the past couple of years, the top spot has been occupied by Chris Roberts and Dawn Hopkins at different points but it’s Karl who is now quite a few clear.

Recently Sarah Davies joined the ‘Cowell’ club by running 100 different parkrun venues becoming the 7th member to do so. 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. Jamie Verran holds multiple club tourism records including an entire calendar year of doing a different parkrun every week (including a couple of extras overseas and Christmas Day / New Years Day).

Most new parkrun venues visited in a calendar year

1. Jamie Verran 55 in 2023
2. Karl Johnson 35 in 2019
3. Dawn Hopkins 30 in 2019
4. Dawn Hopkins 27 in 2022
5. Shawn and Julie 26 in 2019
6. Karl Johnson 25 in 2017
7. Sarah Davies 25 in 2022
8. Toni Howells 25 in 2022
9. Sarah Davies 24 in 2019
10. Paul Barrett / Melanie Thomas 24 in 2023
11. Shawn and Julie 24 in 2018

Jamie’s 2023 total included 32 different Welsh parkruns which is also a club record.

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 in becoming alphabeteers with Paul completing it in just 68 parkruns overall.

Dawn has since become the first in the club to do the parkrun alphabet TWICE and is well on her way to a third. Whilst a few thousand have done it once, only a couple of hundred of the nine million registered parkrunners have done it three times.

We have around a dozen members who 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 4 separate years
3. Nick Harris – on 3 seperate years
4. Kris Denholm – on 2 seperate years
5. Jamie Verran – on 1 occasion
6. Brett Bonell – on 1 occasion
7. David Kembery – on 1 occasion

Surprisingly despite being on more than 350 parkruns each, Chris Pratt, David Sheard, Chris Roberts don’t make the list, although all have been just one or two off on a couple of occasions. Aled Hughes, Nick Harris, Jamie Verran, Brett Bonell and Kris Denholm are the only members to have run every parkrun occasion available in the UK in a single year (52 Saturdays plus New Years Day and Christmas Day).

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

1. Chris Roberts – completed in 202 parkruns (started before joining club)
2. Aled Hughes – completed in 203 parkruns
3. Richard Lowcock James – completed in 210 parkruns (started before joining club)
4. David Sheard – completed in 214 parkruns (started before joining club)
5. Jo Jenkins – completed in 216 parkrun (started before joining club)
6. Nick Harris – completed in 222 parkruns
7. David Kembery – completed in 256 parkruns
8. Chris Pratt – completed in 258 parkruns
9. Peter Harrop – completed in 260 parkruns
10. Gareth Jenkins – completed in 286 parkruns

Interestingly none of our recent members who have reached 250 parkruns (Claire Goldsworthy, Dawn Hopkins, Saul Harris, Karl Johnson, Bev Sheard) have achieved Stopwatch Bingo yet. However, Kris Denholm has by far the most parkruns without completing this challenge and is on 409 parkruns and still has 1 more to tick off (number 9).

Some other random parkrun stats

Earliest parkrunner – 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 9 million registered worldwide.

Fastest to reach 25 parkruns – Jamie Verran – 24 weeks

Fastest to reach 50 parkruns – Jamie Verran – 47 weeks from 1st to 50th

Fastest to reach 100 parkruns – Jamie Verran – 94 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

Longest to reach 250 parkruns – Jo Jenkins – 754 weeks from 1st to 250th

Most different first finishes – Jake Tasker / Jamie Verran – 9

Most International Tourisms – Chris Roberts – 13 – Chris ran 11 parkruns in Australia whilst there over on two separate occasions over Christmas / New Year and has also run parkruns in Denmark and Poland.

Number of different parkruns visited by all members past and present – 425

Number of different parkrun countries visited by all members past and present – 15 (UK, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Canada, France, USA, Norway, Australia, Russia, Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden)

Longest parkrun streak – Jamie Verran – 129 parkruns

Most runs at Aberfields parkrun – Gareth Jenkins 34

Most runs at Maesteg parkrun – Niki Puleio 136

Most runs at Porthcawl parkrun – Nick Harris and Chris Pratt 335 (David Sheard 334!)

Most parkruns only at one venue (before touring) – Claire Goldsworthy – 245 parkruns at Porthcawl

Other stats

Longest standing chair – Chris Pratt (over 7 years)

Longest standing coach – Aled Hughes

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

Longest standing captain – Gareth Jenkins (over 7 years)

Most club records set – Jacob Tasker – 27 (Bettered the 5K record 8 times, 5 miles once, 10K record 4 times, 10 miles twice, HM three times, Marathon once)

Number of current members to have run 100 events (parkruns plus races for the club) – 84

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

Number of people to have recorded a result with the club – 602

And finally….

Number of hours spend collecting these stats over the past 12 years: I don’t want to even think about it but it’s something I enjoy and will continue to do. A huge thanks to Pippa Clark who searches for all the results and without her this level of detail would not be possible. Hopefully if you’ve got this far then you’ve enjoyed reading the stats. There’ll be the usual end of year review which tends to include some of these overall numbers as well. I’ll do a refresh of all the numbers for the 13 year anniversary – until then, happy running.

19th August 2023 – it finally happened – a parkrun in the valley the club was formed. Not only that, a parkrun that starts and finishes where the club did it’s first ever training session almost to the day 11 years earlier. It’s also where our first Couch to 5K sessions took place which included a couple of graduates who are still members to this day.

The less said about the weather for that first parkrun, the better, and it has become a running theme that when Jay is the Run Director that the weather is often bad. Despite the weather, 180 turned up to the inaugural which is still by far the biggest attendance overall. That figure included 52 OPR members running with a further 16 making up the majority of the volunteer team. Jake set a course record of 16:28.

Week 2 saw what is still the second biggest attendance with 128 finishers including 23 OPR members running and 17 OPR volunteers making up a even bigger percentage of the volunteers than the first week. After a few weeks of the hardcore tourists visiting to tick off the latest new event, numbers settled at an average of around 55-65 per week. The average after the first year (which is inflated slightly due to a couple of big weeks) is 67 runners. Occasionally the numbers have been lower when the weather hasn’t been good whilst there’s also been some higher numbers for a couple of special events. One of which was Aberfields being used as the graduation parkrun for our latest Zero to Hero group. We beat our own OPR record attendance at Aberfields with 53 runners on that occasion as well as a record 31 volunteers.

There have been 5 cancellations in the first year resulting in 47 events so far. In those 47 events, 159 different runners with OPR as their club have run 891 times at Aberfields. With 3,148 finishes at Aberfields in total, that means we’ve made up over a quarter of all finishers.

Most runs at Aberfields parkrun

1. Gareth Jenkins 33
2. Aled Hughes 31
3. Jo Jenkins 25
4. Sally Pensom 24
5. Jonathan Matthews 21
6. Adam Pohl 20
7. Nick Harris 20
8. Laura Worrall 19
9. Mark Worrall 18
10. Chris Stanlake / Karen Dando 17

Laura Worrall ran the first 11 Aberfields parkruns and was our early leader for most parkruns there before other commitments ended that run. Nick Harris then took over the baton running at Aberfields 16 times in the first 19 events before going back to regular parkrun tourism. Over a longer period, Jo and I have climbed the ranks with it now being our home parkrun and default if we’re not away. That’s despite having run 370 times at Porthcawl between us before Aberfields started and being around the same distance / travel-time from both events. It’s probably not that surprising that Aled is high on the list given I think he may hold the title for OPR member living closest to a parkrun with the start just 0.5 miles from his front door and the course passing within 500 feet of it.

Worth noting that outside of the club, there are a couple of runners who’ve run Aberfields more times with Andrew Williams and Steve John both on 37 occasions whilst the most (I can find) by a female runner is Lynne Cabble with 32.

Fastest times at Aberfields (Men)

1. Jake Tasker 16:28 – course record (also 16:37 and 16:38 as second and third fastest)
2. Angelo Nico Doria 18:02
3. Aled Hughes 18:53
4. Nicky Bennett 19:00
5. Jamie Verran 19:27
6. John Burridge 19:43
7. Rhodri Thomas 19:46
8. Toby Kearns 19:53
9. Wayne Hayhurst 19:57
10. Daniel Jenkins 20:19

The fastest time apart from Jake is 16:47 from Oliver Williams.

Fastest times at Aberfields (Women)

1. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 23:39
2. Sarah Davies 23:59
3. Katie Plimmer 25:15
4. Marina Konstantinova 25:23
5. Alison Allen 25:39
6. Fiona Drysdale 25:55
7. Arwen Rees 26:19
8. Jo Jenkins 26:23
9. Carol Bartle 26:38
10. Jules Esmond 26:52

The female course record at Aberfields overall is 20:05 by Sally Pugsley from Porthcawl.

First finishers at Aberfields

1. Aled Hughes 6
2. Jake Tasker 3
3. John Burridge 3
4. Jonathan Matthews / Jamie Verran / Dylan Panting / Rhodri Thomas / Adam Kearns 1

Unlike other parkruns, Aberfields don’t really have a regular first finisher with 31 different runners picking up the number one token in the first year. I’m sure Aled would easily be on double figures if he wanted to though.

First female finishes at Aberfields

1. Sarah Davies 2
2. Jo Jenkins / Deborah Edwards / Alison Allen / Arwen Rees 1

Despite being our fastest female at Aberfields and having the club record for most different parkrun female first finishers, Claire Dunbar-Bowen always seems to turn up when other fast ladies are in attendance and has been second female three times, third female once and fourth female once in her 5 runs there.

Volunteering at Aberfields

1. Jay Howells 47
2. Chris Stanlake 41
3. Toni Howells 40
4. Gareth Jenkins 31
5. Judith Howells 30
6. Liz Davis 23
7. Catherine Robinson 16
8. Rhiannon Whiteley 16
9. Claudine Nicholson-Lewis 15
10. Julie Ransom 15
11. Shawn Cullen 15
12. John Burridge 10

Aberfields has had a huge effect on how regular many of members volunteer. The 12 listed above total 291 volunteer credits between them, but there’s also a further 20 current members who’ve volunteered at least once in the first year as well.

Jay has volunteered in some capacity at all 47 events so far. Even when he’s not there on the actual day, he’s normally coordinating the volunteers during the week or still involved during the lead up to the next event as part of his Event Director role. Chris Stanlake is one of the Run Directors and has volunteered in multiple roles including getting a few run counts in as tail walker or park walker. Toni has notched up 40 volunteer credits in various roles. My 31 are all from roles that have meant volunteering and running – First Timers Welcome (3), Pre Event Course Check (1) and Pacing (27). Judith makes it three of the Howells family in the top 5 and is often on barcode scanning or marshalling. Liz Davis and Claudine Nicholson-Lewis have also been regular Run Directors in the first year.

If you haven’t been to Aberfields parkrun yet, then go along sometime soon. It’s one of the most friendliest, welcoming parkruns around and you’ll be sure to see a Phoenix or two running and on the volunteer team as well.

parkruns

This month saw 267 parkrun finishes across 66 parkruns with 46 different locations. International tourism included Satera James at Main Beach, Australia, Kris Denholm at Amager Standpark in Denmark and Dawn Hopkins at Salento in Italy. Johnson’s Tours visited Mount Edgcumbe, Somerdale Pavillion and Killerton parkruns.

Forest of Dean parkrun was this months Trail Championship venue with 11 members visiting over 3 different Saturdays. Porthcawl was the venue for this months Team competition which resulted in some bigger numbers including 29 members there on the final weekend.

Dawn Hopkins became the 14th member to reach 250 parkruns and was joined by 35 other members at Porthcawl for the celebration. A week later, Saul Harris became the 15th member going under the radar with a last minute appearance at Aberfields.

At the speedy end Rhodri Thomas picked up his first ever first position token at Aberfields and doubled up with his first sub 20 at that venue. New member Paul Teesdale was first finisher at Maesteg whilst we had a number of female first finishers during the month with Bethan Moor at both Cosmeston and Maesteg, Carys was also female first finisher at Maesteg whilst Arwen Rees was

Races

The summer 5K continued with 26 members at the second Aberavon Run4All event. Very windy conditions meant that times suffered slightly although huge kudos to John Batchelor who still got a PB. Jo and I both got our best 5K times for well over a year (two years in Jo’s case) at the Newport Pagnell Carnival 5K in Milton Keynes where Jo ran 24:37 and I ran 21:05.

The final Swansea Bay (Paul Popham) 5K of the series took place with 25 members in attendance. Gareth Richards ran 19:00 as our first finisher whilst Claire DB was our first female in 23:41. Laura Worrall ran a PB. OPR were also announced as the club with the biggest participation across the series although we are still waiting on what the ‘prize’ for that was.

At the final SSAFA race of the series, Jake Tasker won against some high calibre competition with an unbelievable club record of 14:53 knocking 8 seconds off his previous club record / personal best. Angelo ‘Nico’ Doria ran an incredible 16:10 whilst Toby Kearns ran just under 19 minutes. Next up was Willow Hughes and Katie Plimmer in PB times of 21:05 and 21:15 whilst I was hanging onto their coattails just one second back. David Sheard made his first SSAFA appearance of this series with a 25:25.

Just a few days later, Jake smashed his own 10K club record / personal best with 30:57 at Magor 10K in another race victory. There were also amazing times from Niki Puleio (36:35), a sub 40 finish for John Burridge, and great times for Gareth Richards, Jason Griffiths and Keith Coleman as our 50+ runners ran times that most people half their age would be pleased with.

We had an amazing turnout of 67 runners for the Porthcawl 10K with brilliant performances throughout the field. Nicky Bennett was our first runner back in 34:53. Niki Puleio continued his good form, following up a recent 5K PB with a 10K PB of 36:07. Scott Gray also bagged himself a PB of 38:38. New member Paul Teesdale is quickly catching up with his older brother Mark’s times with a 40:54. Teri Leigh Roche, Caryn Hicks, Kate Teasdale and Laura all also bagged themselves PB’s.

A random free evening resulted in me going to the Rose Inn 4 miler where I finished towards the back in a time of 31:05. The last time I ran there was part of a team relay event in 2016 where I ended up running for two different teams due to someone dropping out last minute.

There was drama at the Dragon Ultra with our only 100 mile entrant this year, Gareth Richards, having to pull out at Mumbles due an ongoing ankle issue that occurred in his previous 100 miler just 7 weeks earlier. In the 50 mile event, Dai James was going strong for the first 10 miles or so in and in the top 3/5 before a knee issue meant having to take it easier for the remainder of the event. Well done to Leanne Parsons who completed her first 50 miler having previously completed the Brecon to Cardiff 44 miler last year. We also had Carl Walsh completing the newly introduced 30 miler.

The latest fixture of the BCRL saw our very own fixture at the World Famous Planka as Aled likes to refer to it. We had 96 runners (including our two tail runners) which is a record number for us at our own event and our 8th highest attendance at any fixture in our almost 12 year history.

A huge thank you to the race committee and more than 30 members who volunteered in some capacity on the evening.

In the team standings it was another win for Bridgend with OPR in second but we pushed them hard in both the men and women’s top 10 and our huge attendance helped our scoring further with every finisher making a difference.