Posted on by Gareth Jenkins

OPR at Aberfields parkrun – 3 year anniversary

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.

There have been 18 cancellations in the first 3 years resulting in 140 events so far. This year also saw Aberfields host their second New Years Day event. The last year of Aberfields has seen three different courses with August – November 2025 being the original course, November to May on the alternative (double out and back) course, and now the new revised course since May.

189 different runners with OPR as their club have run 2,278 times at Aberfields. With have been 8,112 finishes at Aberfields in total which means we’ve made up over a quarter of all finishers.

Most runs at Aberfields parkrun

  1. Aled Hughes 108
  2. Gareth Jenkins 94 (5th overall highest)
  3. Jo Jenkins 69 (8th overall and 2nd highest female runner after non-member Lynne Cabble)
  4. Chris Stanlake 59 (10th overall)
  5. Laura Worrall 46 (5th female overall)
  6. Jonathan Matthews 46
  7. Gareth Davies 46
  8. Dai Kembery 40
  9. Liz Davis 39 (6th female overall)
  10. Keiron Burridge 39

Aled became the first person in or out of our club to have run 100 Aberfields parkrun which also meant he is one of what I imagine is very few parkrunners in the world to have run 100 times at three locations (Porthcawl, Maesteg, Aberfields). Whilst Chris Stanlake has run 59 times, he’s actually been at more Aberfields than all of us with his volunteering added. OPR have 25 members in the top 40 most regular runners at Aberfields.

Fastest times at Aberfields (Men – current members)

  1. Paul Teesdale 18:15
  2. Rhys Hopkins 18:20
  3. John Burridge 18:40
  4. Aled Hughes 18:53
  5. Nicky Bennett 19:00
  6. Jamie Verran 19:06
  7. Daniel Richards 19:08
  8. Kieron Burridge 19:38
  9. Jonathan Matthews 19:40
  10. Rhodri Thomas 19:46

Of that list, Rhys Hopkins and John Burridge have run their fastest times at Aberfields within the last year. Second claim member (and regular with us at BCRL) James Griffiths recently just missed out on the course record with a 16:20 whilst his brother Rory who has represented us at West Glam XC has a time of 17:24.

Fastest times at Aberfields (Women – current members)

  1. Chloe Richards 21:44
  2. Angharad Croot 22:56
  3. Rebecca Mason 23:05
  4. Georgia Jones 23:38
  5. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 23:39
  6. Jade Bazylkiewicz 23:48
  7. Sarah Davies 23:59
  8. Marina Konstantinova 24:34
  9. Willow Hughes 24:57
  10. Jo Jenkins 25:10

The ladies are showing the boys how it’s done with Chloe, Angharad, Rebecca, Georgia, Jade and Jo all getting their fastest times at Aberfields within the last year.

First finishers at Aberfields

  1. Aled Hughes 10 (joint top overall with second claim member Rory Griffiths)
  2. John Burridge 9
  3. Jonathan Matthew 3
  4. Paul Teesdale 3
  5. Jamie Verran 2
  6. Rhodri Thomas 2
  7. Nicky Bennett 2
  8. Kieron Burridge 2
  9. Luke Davis 2
  10. Dylan Panting 2
  11. Gareth Jenkins 1

Unlike other parkruns, Aberfields don’t really have a regular first finisher with 75 different runners picking up the number one token so far. Second claim member James Griffiths has also been first finisher on 4 occasions therefore including Rory as well, we’ve had 48 first finishers associated with OPR in the 140 events to date.

First female finishes at Aberfields

  1. Angharad Croot 8 (first overall including non members)
  2. Chloe Richards 3 (joint third overall)
  3. Sarah Davies 3 (joint third overall)
  4. Jo Jenkins 2
  5. Fiona Drysdale 2
  6. Marina Konstantinova 2
  7. Rebecca Mason 2
  8. Deb Edwards / Arwen Rees / Willow Hughes / Georgia Jones / Jade B 1

There have been 106 different first female finishers in total so it’s more or less someone new every week. Only 19 ladies had more than one first female finish of which 7 are OPR members.

Volunteering at Aberfields

  1. Chris Stanlake 145
  2. Jay Howells 143
  3. Gareth Jones 111
  4. Gareth Jenkins 77
  5. Julie Ransom 48
  6. Shawn Cullen 46
  7. Catherine Robinson 46
  8. Liam O’Sullivan 36
  9. Aled Hughes 20
  10. Gareth Davies 16

Aberfields has had a huge effect on how regular many of our members volunteer. The 10 listed above total 688 volunteer credits between them, but there’s also a further 30+ current members who’ve volunteered at least once at Aberfields as well.

If you’re wondering how Jay and Chris could be on more volunteer credits than the 140 events to date – parkrun now allow volunteer credits for parkruns that are cancelled at short notice. For example, they may have done volunteer coordinating that week so had already fulfilled his role before the event then being cancelled due to weather or other reasons.

Chris, Jay, Gareth Jones and Liam are all part of the run director rotation which again shows the huge involvement of OPR members at Aberfields.

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.