parkruns
The first Saturday of the month saw 77 members either run or volunteer at a parkrun. Tourism included Alun Job at Jesmond Dene parkrun ahead of the Great North Run, and James Marsh at Medina on the Isle of Wight. One of our most prolific tourists, Melanie Thomas, celebrated her 250th parkrun at the University of Northampton with her ultra running buddy Rhiain. There was an OPR 1-2-3 at Maesteg with Paul Teesdale jogging round by his standards to be first finisher, followed by myself and Tom Mahoney. The first finisher token still eludes me after 530+ parkruns despite this now being my fourth time of picking up the 2nd placed token. We also had the first and third finishers overall at Aberfields with Luke Davis and Dylan Panting whilst Liz Davis was 3rd female. There were some super speedy performances at Aberbeeg where Gareth Richards was 2nd overall in 19:00, Jamie Verran was 3rd in 19:04 and Jason Griffiths ran a huge parkrun PB of 19:13 in 4th. Freya Allen also ran a parkrun PB of 21:22 just 4 days after her 5K PB at Merthyr Mawr Lane (more on that later) and Alison Allen ran 24:02 for her fastest parkrun time in over 7 years. John Burridge actually had the fastest time of the day with a 18:56 at Porthcawl to finish 8th out of 504 finishers.
The second Saturday of the month saw 70 OPR members either running or volunteering at a parkrun. We had 10 members at Amager Strandpark parkrun in Denmark ahead of the Copenhagen Half Marathon whilst Martin Beard chose Faelledparken. We had more international tourism with Gareth Davies at Marecchia parkrun in Italy. Closer to home, Angharad Croot was first female at Penallta parkrun and Rhodri Thomas was 3rd overall at Maesteg. A late Aberfields cancellation meant a big than usual turnout at Porthcawl whilst four members headed over Pontypridd for their parkrun fix.
Numbers increased to 80 OPR members either running or volunteering at a parkrun on the third Saturday of the month. Tourism including Dai Power at Morecambe Bay, Willow Hughes at Beeston and Andy and Liz Davis at Barnstaple. Paul Teesdale was first overall at Maesteg with Jonathan Matthews 3rd overall whilst Marina Konstantinova was first female just ahead of Jules Esmond in 2nd. John Burridge was 2nd overall at Aberfields behind former GB international runner James Thie who has visited Aberfields on a few occasions now. Angharad Croot picked up another female first finish, this time at Tremorfa where Connor Panting was 2nd overall. Plenty of milestone celebrations with Satera James running her 50th parkrun at Llyn Llech Owain whilst we had Liz Hattam (nee Sim) running her 50th parkrun at Porthcawl having been on 49 parkruns for quite a while. Debbie Bennion became the latest member to reach 250 parkruns and also celebrated her milestone at Porthcawl. Ashley Howells ran a parkrun PB at Sandy Water.
The final Saturday of the month saw 75 OPR members either running or volunteering at a parkrun. Tourism included Fiona Drysdale at Aviemore in Scotland whilst Bethan Moor was amongst over 1,000 finishers at Battersea parkrun. John Burridge was first finisher overall at Aberfields parkrun on their 99th event where they had flakes at the end. Jo Jenkins was 3rd female at the same event. Paul Harris ran a PB at Aberbeeg, We had a slightly lower turnout than usual at Porthcawl for their annual Elvis weekend where actors Ruth Jones and Steven Spiers were in attendance in a volunteering role. Niki Puleio was first finisher at Maesteg with Sarah Davies second female.
Races
The first Saturday of the month saw three members taking on the 16 mile Roman Run with Chris Pratt, Marina K and Jade B all completing the course.
We had 21 runners at the CDF 10K with Thomas Daly our first runner across the line in a PB of 36:55. Katie Plimmer knocked another 41 seconds off her PB having only that one a couple of weeks earlier with a 42:22.
On the same day as the CDF 10K we had the ‘Beat the Black Dog 12K’ event in Ogmore Valley. This was the September fixture for the club trial championships. Despite a detour early on up a very steep hill, I ended up finishing 4th overall and first non-cani-cross runner. Relatively new member Gareth Jones finished a few minutes behind in the top 10 overall with Sarah Davies our first female finisher amongst the 9 OPR members in attendance.
A week later we had 19 runners at the Swansea 10K where Emyr Bissmire ran a PB of 37:20 and Scott Gray a PB of 38:02 with John Burridge finishing in between them and just missing out on his best time. Marina K ran her first sub 50 for a PB of 49:49 whilst Lisa Davies followed up her Severn Bridge 10K PB just a few weeks previous with a 51:33. Leanne Parsons smashed her PB with a 55:33 whilst there was a second 10K PB of the year for Bev Sheard. New member Ellie Sheard also ran a PB whilst Alice Jenkins and Rosie Plimmer who also both PB’d at the Severn Bridge in August smashed their times again.
On the same day at Swansea 10K was the Llantwit Major 10K where we had 8 finishers. Jonathan Matthews was our first runner back with Fiona Drysdale our first lady.
We had 10 runners at the Copenhagen Half Marathon which is part of the ‘Super Halves’ series. Well done to Alexis and Paul Barrett, Kaye Pedler, Melanie Thomas, Shelley Evans, Sarah Davies, Dawn Hopkins, Martin Beard, Fiona Evans and Deb Edwards who all completed the race.
We had more international racing in month with Chris Pratt running 21:40 at the Vienna Night Run which must be one of the worlds biggest 5K’s as it had over 16,000 finishers!
Several members did the 11 mile Velindre Castle to Castle run which has been a popular event with our members over the years. A few members even ran the course in reverse beforehand to get some extra miles in for marathon training.
Danny Ridley and Carl Walsh ran the Berlin Marathon making it 5 marathons majors for both of them. Carl’s finish was particularly impressive given it was just 10 weeks post knee surgery. Boston will complete their ‘Six Star’ journey although there is now Sydney if they want to go for 7 and likely more joining in the next few years.
BCRL – Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K
The final fixture of the 2025 Bridgend County Running League saw 78 OPR members take on the Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K with several others volunteering at the event. James Griffiths finished 3rd overall whilst we had Paul Teesdale in 5th whilst there were PB’s for Thomas Daly and Emyr Bissmire. Our remaining top 10 men were with John Burridge, Connor Panting, Toby Kearns, Gareth Battle, Kieron Burridge and Jamie Verran.
It was another outstanding performance by our top 10 women with Katie Plimmer (PB), Willow Hughes, Freya Allen (PB), Bethan Moor, Angharad Croot, Sian Price and Gem Richards. Those 7 all finished in the top 20 women overall. Our top 10 was completed by Marina K, Sarah Davies and Lisa Davies.
In the team scoring we were 3rd on the night overall behind Bridgend and Porthcawl, however, we did hold on the 2nd place overall in the final standings. Another fantastic year with a record number of members running all 7 events as well as huge numbers for each fixture.
Zero to Hero
This month saw our Zero to Hero sessions start with myself, Sian Tossell-Lewis, Sian Jenkins and Sally Littlehales leading the sessions with help from several other club members. The first four weeks have seen over a dozen new faces turn up as they look to complete the couch to 5K program ending with the graduation at parkrun at the start of November.