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.