Posted on by Gareth Jenkins

Our Running Club – the stats – 2012-present

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

21,825 results have been recorded from 550 different members (past and present) from 3,194 events. In total the club has been represented at 915 different events.

Longest Standing Members

Aled Hughes, Helen Griffiths and I attended that first meeting and are the only three ‘founding members’ remaining in the club.

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

Most Events Records

Total events top 10 (races and parkruns combined)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 608
  2. Nick Harris 550
  3. Chris Pratt 425
  4. Aled Hughes 375
  5. David Kembery 360
  6. David Sheard 314
  7. Chris Roberts 289
  8. Kris Denholm 268
  9. Denise Bradley 248
  10. Richard Lowcock James 245

After Denise, our top females for number of events are Dawn Hopkins (241), Jo Gamba (236), Liz Davis (224) and Bev Sheard (215).

Total events top 10 (races only)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 271
  2. Nick Harris 227
  3. Chris Pratt 164
  4. Aled Hughes 147
  5. Dawn Hopkins 126
  6. Denise Bradley 122
  7. David Kembery 114
  8. Shawn Cullen 111
  9. David Sheard 106
  10. Niki Puleio 103

After Dawn and Denise, our next top female for number of races are Jo Gamba (98), Fiona Drysdale (85), Sharon Pritchard (84) and Helen Griffiths (84). If races before joining the club were included the I would be on 286 and Chris Pratt would be close to 200, however, Carl Walsh would probably beat that with his races for his previous club.

Most events in a single year (parkruns plus races)

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

Carl Walsh is way ahead of the rest for this year and will no doubt be featuring in many of these top 10’s in a few years.

Longest race distances run

  1. Steven James 106 miles – London to Battle 1066 Ultra – July 2019
  2. Nick Harris 100 miles – Pembrokeshire Coastal Ultra – May 2017
  3. Jamie Vanstone 100 miles – Pembrokeshire Coastal Ultra – May 2017
  4. Nick Harris 100 miles – Dragon 100 – May 2019
  5. Steven James 100 miles – Dragon 100 – September 2019
  6. Elizabeth Sim 100 miles – Dragon 100 – September 2019
  7. Gareth Jenkins 80 miles – Conquer24 – June 2021
  8. Wayne Hayhurst 62 miles – London to Brighton 100K – May 2017
  9. Anneliese Loveluck 60 miles – Dare Valley 12 hour – September 2019
  10. Carl Walsh 53 miles – Race to the Kings – June 2021

Incredibly not making the list we have a further 67 finishes ranging from 40 miles to 52 miles as well as Denise Bradley and Fiona Evans who ran 100K (62.2 miles) split over 2 days recently. Including the Vale Ultra and all other Ultra distance finishes, the number of Ultra finishes is 171 from 62 different past and present members. If virtual events were counted then Steven James would make the list again with 84 miles for the Last Runner Standing event with Kris Denholm and myself completing 72 miles.

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

  1. Kris Denholm 18
  2. Steven James 13
  3. Gareth Richards 10
  4. Nick Harris 10
  5. Elizabeth Sim 9
  6. Jamie Vanstone 7
  7. Simon Harrison 7
  8. Wayne Hayhurst 7
  9. Chris Pratt 6
  10. Brian Cotton / Dan Clark / Gareth Jenkins 4

32 current members have run an Ultra with 13 of those doing more than 1.

Most number of Marathons completed (official events only)

  1. Chris Pratt 34
  2. Nick Harris 15
  3. Gareth Richards 13
  4. Kris Denholm 12
  5. David Kembery 12
  6. Wayne Hayhurst 12
  7. Carl Walsh 9
  8. Fiona Evans 9
  9. Niki Puleio 8
  10. Denise Bradley / Aled Hughes / Simon Harrion / Kirsty Evans 7

86 current members have run a marathon with the club meaning around 30% of our current total membership have run a marathon. 62 of those have run more than 1 marathon.

Most number of Half Marathons completed (official events only)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 63
  2. Nick Harris 29
  3. Chris Pratt 29
  4. David Kembery 23
  5. Karl Johnson 22
  6. Liz Davis 22
  7. Mark Worrall 22
  8. Denise Bradley 20
  9. Dawn Hopkins 20
  10. Shaun Cullen 19

144 current members (around half of the total members) have run a Half Marathon with the club. 127 of those have run more than one, and incredibly 41 members have run 10 Half Marathons or more with the club.

Most number of 10Ks completed (official events only)

  1. Gareth Jenkins 46
  2. Dawn Hopkins 39
  3. Nick Harris 33
  4. Sharon Pritchard 30
  5. Aled Hughes 29
  6. Debbie Bennion 29
  7. Shawn Cullen 28
  8. Denise Bradley 25
  9. Helen Griffiths 23
  10. David Kembery 23

164 members have completed a 10K with the club. This actually appears quite low but looking at the ones that haven’t done a 10K yet, it’s mostly newer members who haven’t had the opportunity due to lack of races over the past 16 months.

Number of event finishes by distance

  1. 5K / parkrun – 13,286
  2. Other distances – 3,388
  3. 10K – 2,159
  4. Half Marathon – 1,696
  5. Marathon – 482
  6. 5 mile – 344
  7. 10 mile – 295
  8. Ultra – 171

Biggest events by number of members finishing

  1. Cardiff Half Marathon 2019 – 116 finishers
  2. Ogmore Castle BCRL race 2019 – 114
  3. Porthcawl 10K 2019 – 97
  4. Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K BCRL race 2017 – 92
  5. Cardiff Half Marathon 2016 – 92
  6. Llanilid Loop BRCL race 2019 – 92
  7. Cardiff Half Marathon 2018 – 91
  8. Cardiff Half Marathon 2017 – 90
  9. Ogmore Castle BCRL race 2018 – 86
  10. Newbridge Fields BCRL race 2019 – 85

In total there have been 37 races where we’ve had 50 or more members finishing. 21 of those are BCRL races and as per the top 10 list, Cardiff Half Marathon has had 90 or more finishers for the last 4 years in a row that it’s gone ahead. Our biggests 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 – 12*
  2. SSAFA 5K (Cardiff) series – 12
  3. Cardiff Half Marathon (including World Half) – 9*
  4. Cardiff 10K – 8*
  5. Llanelli Half Marathon – 8*
  6. Merthyr Mawr Pudding Run – 8*
  7. Swansea Bay 5K series – 8
  8. Swansea 10K – 8*
  9. Caerphilly 10K – 7*
  10. London Marathon – 7*

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

Club record progression

Male records

5K / parkrun

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

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

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

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

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

Current club record: Jacob Tasker – Pembrey 5K – July 2021 – 16:18

10K

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

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

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

First sub 35 / current club record: Jacob Tasker – Cardiff Sunset 10K – August 2021 – 34:17

Half Marathon

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

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

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

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

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

Fastest current member: Dai James – Llanelli Half Marathon – March 2020 – 1:21:36

Marathon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fastest current member: Niki Puleio – Goodwood Marathon – December 2020 – 2:55:01

Female records

5K / parkrun

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

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

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

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

Current club record*: Anneliese Loveluck – Bakewell parkrun – October 2019 – 20:34

*Sian Price has run a faster time (20:01) as part of a virtual event

10K

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

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

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

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

Fastest current member: Sian Price – Cardiff 10K – September 2017 – 44:42

Half Marathon

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

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

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

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

Fastest current member: Lisa King – Sheppardine Half Marathon – April 2021 – 1:39:39

Marathon

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

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

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

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

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

Presentation Nights

Runners Runner Winners Roll of Honour

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

Most main awards won

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

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

67 different members have recieved awards over the 8 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 353
  2. Maesteg 130
  3. Pontypridd 108
  4. Cardiff 91
  5. Swansea Bay 87
  6. Barry Island 63
  7. Newport 57
  8. Gnoll 55
  9. Grangemoor 53
  10. Llanelli Coast 50

There have been 357 events at Porthcawl meaning there have only been 4 parkruns at Porthcawl with no members of the club finishing – all of these were in 2013 and the last time we had no recorded results at Porthcawl was 12th October 2012. Niki Puleio, Chris Pratt and David Sheard were all in attendance that day but weren’t members at that point. I’ll take the blame as I was our only member who was parkrunning that day but went to Pontypridd. Nevertheless, it does mean we’ve been represented at the last 329 Porthcawl parkruns that have gone ahead. At Maesteg we have 100% record with at least 1 member at every one of their 130 parkruns so far.

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

  1. Gareth Jenkins 337 (337)
  2. Nick Harris 323 (323)
  3. Chris Pratt 261 (330)
  4. David Kembery 246 (246)
  5. Aled Hughes 228 (228)
  6. Chris Roberts 226 (251)
  7. David Sheard 208 (297)
  8. Kris Denholm 182 (259)
  9. Bev Sheard 155 (155)
  10. Karl Johnson 152 (152)

After Bev the top ladies are Liz Davis 142 (142), Jo Gamba 138 (173) and Julie Ransom 136 (136).

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

  1. Emma Marshall 140
  2. Stephne Puddy 110
  3. Karl Johnson 68
  4. Richard Lowcock James 63
  5. Chris Stanlake 56
  6. Rhiannon Whitely 54
  7. Peter Harrop 53
  8. Kris Denholm 51
  9. Chris Roberts 49
  10. Gareth Jenkins 44

This information isn’t as easy to find so apologies to anyone I’ve missed who would make this list. Also have to mention some former members – Maria Lalic has now done 242 different days of volunteering, Maesteg regular, Michael Brain is on 120, and regular Porthcawl pacer, Dave H Evans is on 96 with a significant proporation of each of these being whilst a member of the club.

Top 10 parkrun tourists (number of different venues)

  1. Shawn Cullen and Julie Ransom 100
  2. Karl Johnson 98
  3. Chris Roberts 79
  4. Gareth Jenkins 75
  5. Chris Stanlake 69
  6. Dawn Hopkins 64
  7. Kris Denholm 63
  8. Aled Hughes 53
  9. Jo Gamba 48
  10. Jayne Powney 46

I was the early leader for parkrun tourism and was the first to complete 20 different parkruns back in 2015 and led the way until mid 2017 when Shawn and Julie took over and have remained in joint top spot ever since. Chris Pratt was also one of our early regular tourists and set himself a challenge of running all the Welsh parkruns in 2015 when I believe there were around 15 or 16. Shawn and Julie have by far the highest ‘tourist percentage’ in the club having run 100 different venues in just 136 parkruns overall. Sarah Davies could challenge that as she is currently on 37 different venues in just 57 parkruns.

Most new parkrun venues visited in a calendar year

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

A special mention to Callum Denholm (son of Kris Denholm) who ran at 12 different venues in 2020 before the parkrun pause and therefore could have been on course to feature in those top few.

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

  1. Dawn Hopkins – 1 required – U – which she aims to tick off this weekend
  2. Sarah Davies / Gareth Jenkins / Karl Johnson / Shawn Cullen / Julie Ransom / Chris Stanlake – 5 required

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

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

Suprisingly a few parkrun regulars like Chris Pratt, Chris Roberts and Kris Denholm don’t make the list, although all have been just one or two off on a couple of occasions.

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

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

Kris Denholm could threaten my longest time to achieve it as he is on 259 parkruns and still has 3 more to tick off, whilst Jo Gamba and Karl Johnson could threaten top spot as they are on 173 and 168 parkruns respectively with 3 to tick off. Dai Kembery has one number left (35) after 246 parkruns.

Some other random parkrun stats

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

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

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

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

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

Name Badge Challenge – running parkruns starting with each letter of your name – Jo Gamba and Dawn Hopkins are the only ones to complete this so far.

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

Number of different parkruns visited by all members past and present – 354

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

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

Number of current members to have reached 50 parkruns – 68

Number of current members to have reached 100 parkruns – 31

Number of current members to have reached 250 parkruns – 7

Most runs at Maesteg parkrun – Aled Hughes 59

Most runs at Porthcawl parkrun – Nick Harris 279

Most parkruns only at one venue (no touring) – Claire Goldsworthy – all 148 parkruns at Porthcawl

Other stats

Longest standing coach – Aled Hughes

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

Longest standing captain – Pippa Clark

Most age category records – Kevin Raymond

Most club records – Anneliese Loveluck

Number of members to have run 100 events (parkruns plus races for the club) – 50

Highest number of events without doing a parkrun – Simon Harrison – 70

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

And finally….

Number of hours spend collecting these stats over the past 9 years: I don’t want to even think about it but it’s something I enjoy and will continue to do. Hopefully if you’ve got this far then you’ve enjoyed reading the stats. I’ll do a refresh of all the numbers for the 10 year anniversary and hopefully we’ll be able to celebrate the big milestone together next year.