Blog

Posted on

Weekly Waffle – 21st July 2019

The temperatures rise and spirits rise to match it…

Busy times carried me away to distant shores but I observed the antics from afar.  Precious family time drew me away from compiling these words sooner than I would have liked…

Two weeks have passed since I last added to our story and a lot has happened…

Training has continued…

A BCRL fixture defies the norm (being on a Friday night) and huge numbers flock to a local show ground with another commanding performance from all and coupled with high levels of participation resulted in another second place finish overall for the club!  Awesome!

Saturday came round and inevitable ensued.  parkrun.  Not to be undone by waking up with post race fatigue many headed out of the door for 9am to get their regular dose.  

The sun set and rose again with plenty of energy to radiate.  Under clear skies a bunch headed to the capital to cover various distances on a multi-loop course tracking up and down the banks of the River Taff.  Ice pops and water spray on each loop provided some respite from the heat and all met their goals while some surpassed them with true Phoenix spirit.

Others went slightly further afield for a 10k race organised by one of our neighbouring clubs.  Joined by junior members they all battled the high temperatures to get the job done.

The sun set on a very hot weekend with many having stories to tell of their endeavours….

A new week dawned and a new initiative with heavy involvement from the Phoenix loomed…

Honouring the memory of a life sadly lost at the end of the marathon in London a number of years ago The Big Social Run was born in Wales and had finally arrived in Bridgend.  A plethora of leaders and runners made their way to Porthcawl for the inaugural event which proved to be a record breaking success for the whole initiative.  Warm weather added to the enjoyment of the purely social run for fun – something we all love!  A resounding success! 

Despite the high turnout on Tuesday, Wednesday saw good numbers at track and a good crowd including a couple of four legged friends, headed down the valley from our spiritual home to tackle a challenging climb to the mast on top of the valley walls.

One lone runner racked up another in his tally tackling an event with a staggered start – the chase was on!

As the weekend drew close, excitement built…  

More that just excitement for the Saturday morning obligatories, there was an impending first…  

Wedding bells were about to be rung… 

For the very first time we were about to witness two members of the club exchange vows and tie the knot in a relationship that blossomed while the Phoenix rose from the ashes!

With the groom getting parkrun out of the day first thing in the morning to run off some of the pre-ceremony nerves he also celebrated his birthday.  Other members joined in the local event in anticipation of an exciting day to come.  Cloudy skies showed promise with patches of blue poking through the gaps.  

Not to be undone, others got their 5k in at various locations around the country.

Many members descended back on Porthcawl to bear witness to the first Phoenix wedding.  We have said on many occasions that the Phoenix Spirit means so much more than just running and this was testament to that.  Two members finding love of both the sport and each other!  So wonderful that the club and friends made through it played a part in bringing two wonderful people together to make a life-long commitment. #phoenixlove  The clouds parted.  The sun came out to shine down on the remainder of the day of celebrations.

The celebrations resulted in some fuzzy heads as Sunday morning arrived but it didn’t stop leaders and members turning out in force to welcome new starters on their journey from Zero to Hero.  Record numbers at training resulted and our hearts were filled with excitement to see these intrepid souls take their first steps to discovering just what they are capable of.

At the same time one of our midst put her multi-discipline skills to good use with a significant outcome from a sizzling event!

And as we celebrate all of this we see the club grow, with the membership once again increasing to pip over 300!

Over two weeks…
Record numbers at training.
Record club numbers.
A record breaking Big Social Run.  
Significant league performances.  
parkruns.  
Races from 5k to ultra marathons…

… and a wedding!

Love is in the air, but when is it not?
It has to be said…

#lovethisclub
#loveourclub
#phoenixlove

Posted on

Weekly Waffle – 7th July 2019

The week started, as it always does, with training.  

Numbers still maintained despite a distinct increase in events week on week.  A recce of an upcoming race fixture drew many curious souls to a warm Tuesday evening session.

Midweek saw the end of a popular series down west with a huge turnout on a different seafront once again.  As we drew towards the weekend two went on a mission to complete the final race in a series in the capital.

As they did our multi-disciplined contingent started a journey, some towards a coveted fourth medal.  Miles in the sea were the order of the day and battling jellyfish all returned to terra firma victorious.

The hot sun set and rose.  Tired bodies set off early on two wheels to complete a second stage.  Supported by fellow Phoenix they all completed their quest, but before they were done the obligatories of a Saturday morning were completed in a multi-tude of locations.  The weekly equation was repeated.  Home x 2 + away = many.  At home on the seafront, an impending race resulted in closed roads and a unique opportunity to return the course to a familiar and enjoyable finish.  

Not long after this regular start one lone soldier set off on a historic journey from the English capital to battle.  Over 100 miles to the finish line, this quest was always going to be a long one…

Tired bodies from most of the days activities slept well.  While they did one carried on his journey through the night.  Others closed their eyes with a nervous disposition for a first…

Running is our passion.

It’s what brought us together and it’s the glue that keeps us together.

But, at the risk of sounding repetitive, it’s so much more than that.

Weeks come and weeks go. 

Tales of valour. 

Stories of endeavour.  

Words I use a lot – but they’re so apt.  Many of these stories are deep rooted.  They built from somewhere.  Every story was created from a seed.  All the seeds were different but they grew.  Bodies were transformed.  Minds were transformed.  Every story takes time to build.  Every story has with it tales of woe.  There’s heartache.  There’s pain.  There’s joy and optimism.  There’s often disappointment and misery – I won’t sugar coat it.  But when there is – and through sensible choices, hard work, focus and dedication these are put to bed and the mind and body get stronger – the outcome is so much sweeter!  

Imagine, if you will, a love story.  Not for another person.  For a routine.  For something that takes hold.  For something that, at first may be a chore, but it becomes a necessity.  An obsession.  Not “do I have to go out for a run” but “when can I get my next run in”.  When you’re sneaking out of the door in a morning with a bag packed with running gear in case you can squeeze a couple of miles in at lunchtime to clock up on Strava or lift your mood.  We see it happen.  We know it happens because it’s happened to us!

Then a local event comes along.  It coincides with a graduation.  Our Zero to Hero programme developed.  It became something more as we took them further.  The culmination of this played out, as it often does, on the seafront at Porthcawl…

10 kilometres.  The first race of this distance for several.  Joined by the seasoned athletes in their quest for better times they made their way to the start line.  Simultaneously, way down west, others grouped to start the final leg of their three day journey joined by others for just the one stage on foot.  5k, 10k, half and full marathons were on the cards.

The sun streamed down and made the conditions testing for all distances in all locations. 

The Phoenix was born in the flames.  Sure enough, as the sun beat down, everyone rose from the heat to meet the challenge.

With two across the border to the north tackling another event and our soloist still moving forward far to the east, almost a half of the club were out on their feet to complete their goals.

Banding together we all battled on.  The Phoenix spirit was strong and all who felt it flow through their veins showed valiant effort to reach the end.

All distances completed, short and long – all of equal merit in our eyes!

Their stories are all different, but they are intertwined.  

They run in parallel, but they converge.  

Working together or on their own they found their way home.  The mutual support never tired.  Willing each other on.  Those who couldn’t run sent strength.  Many supported.  Many volunteered.  The Phoenix spirit flowed from the heart with many giving their time to ensure safe completion of the events.

Not only that but numbers taking part broke records.  A sheer volume of members never seen before stood on a start line and made their way along the route to the end.  A record number of finish lines crossed in one day was recorded with a three figure sum that was approaching half the current membersip!

All finished triumphant, but all stories are not finished.

They will continue.

Good times are shared.

Memories are made that will last.

Bonds are being strengthened.

New dreams are forming. 

Future adventures are being planned.

Boundaries are being broken.

Lives are being changed.

What’s next?

On a weekend where I didn’t achieve much but I followed a whole host of stories I am inspired…

Tonight I will dream big… because of you all!

You should do the same!

#lovethisclub
#loveourclub

Posted on

Weekly Waffle – 30th June 2019

It’s that time again as we look back on the weeks events…

As the temperature rises we enjoy some warm weather training…

Strength training on the beach – what better way to enjoy the change in climate!

Tempo sessions encouraged everyone to push their limits.

The Planka was the destination for those who headed up the valley.

As much as we have weeks where we are inundated with events this week there was an obvious drought.  With many having tested their legs last weekend in Swansea in hot conditions a rest week was always on the cards for a few – and well earned it was.

A period over which to recharge the batteries which was welcomed in the warm weather.

It didn’t stop decent numbers heading for their local parkrun start line.  Many also took to start lines dotted around the country.  Two targeted the last running of one particular Welsh parkrun as the venue closes its doors resulting in a long journey the length of Wales to take part!

Many completing their 5k on the seafront at Porthcawl met by the entrance to the pavilion to be given their instructions for the inaugural Phoenix 5 event… 

6 teams, 5 in a team, started by finding the Welsh Wally.  Carpool Karaoke.  School sports day.  Selfie in a phone box.  Ice creams on high while chasing sheep.  Scaling the infamous Coronation Street to retrieve their duck!


A fun filled morning of entertainment culminated in returning to base camp at Tondu Rugby Club where the annual BBQ was waiting for them.  More milestone t-shirts handed out.  Big prize winners of the Phoenix 100 Club were drawn as the current running of it comes to a close.

Music, dancing and impromptu karaoke followed to round of a fun-packed day!

A special occasion indeed as many got to meet the new addition to the Clark family.  Lovely little Arthur came along to say hi to his Phoenix family and we all fell in love with the little fella!

Sunday arrived and those who could raise their heads from the pillow took on a favourite club trail run while our improvers did a recce of the Porthcawl 10k route ready for their second graduation next week at the actual event!

Training numbers restored after being affected by last weeks plethora of events culminating in a high turnout at a half marathon.

A definite focus on fun this week!  The feel good factor of the sun shining down on us much more than it has in previous weeks.  Less races but still the Phoenix continue to band together to share great times.

Spirits are high once again as we move further into the summer.

Keep it up!

#lovethisclub
#loveourclub

Posted on

Weekly Waffle – 23rd June 2019

Another week draws to a close…

A week of highs and lows…

During the week the promise of a donkey cwtch drew decent numbers up the valley.

A midweek dash around Bute Park drew a few up to the capital while others got their fix of track training.

Warm and light nights allow more adventurous routes in our spiritual base with views and climbs to take the breath away.

Over the pond members sought out fellow runners with which to share some miles… and drinks after!

As the nursery rhyme goes Jack and Jill went up a hill and so did some of our own on a tough little route for an extra event to their name.

Saturday arrived.  

parkrun.

Milestones, birthdays and club championships resulted in huge numbers in the Llynfi Valley.  The seafront still attracted it’s regular contingent.

Tourism always draws some away from home.  One in particular literally on the shores of the emerald isle was spotted by a local runner who sent back best wishes and pictures of them sharing the beach parkrun experience.  How wonderful our community is.

A lack of parkrun on an island in the Adriatic forced one to seek a similar distance event.  A tough course tested the legs but resulted in another admirable finish position!

A two day event saw one within our midst cover a significant distance helping a family member to reach a goal.  Another step in the build up to something bigger was a tough day as illness took its toll but the goal was achieved in spite of it!

The sun fell on a glorious day and rose but hidden by cloud – for which many were grateful as a bus load joined others for a half marathon by the sea that regularly attracts large numbers.  Volunteers did their bit providing official support for runners taking on the challenge at the turnaround point.  Others donned their hi-viz to ensure the safety of those bringing up the rear.  Brave souls, some with nervous faces, lined up in the warm to tackle the distance.  Some for the first time.  Despite the lack of sun it was warm.  A head wind back through the final miles provided resistance when the legs were getting tired.  All battled through and crossed the finish line with stories to tell of valour along the way.  Almost three score and ten Phoenix took on the challenge and soared high over the sea to the west.  With supporters and volunteers alike over a hundred members were involved in the days proceedings!  Phoenix family day out!

As we said farewell to the day news broke of the loss of a fellow runner at the days event.  Our running community is one bound by strong bonds.  When one has fallen we all feel the pain.  As the sun disappeared below the horizon our hearts were heavy in mourning the very sad loss of one of our own.  Our thoughts go out to those who were very close to them. 

Highs and lows.

We are privileged to be in a position where we can pursue this wonderful hobby of ours.  It brings with it feelings of amazing achievement, whatever the distance and whatever the speed.  We salute all who lace up their shoes and head out of the door.  It’s a chance to escape the world and disappear into ourselves.  Discover what our bodies can achieve and just how powerful our minds are when we push them.  “I’m not a runner” is something I have heard a lot.  I’ve seen lots, and I mean lots, of people say that and then find themselves discovering what they are capable of when they give it a go.  It makes you stronger in so many ways.  Combine that with community and a whole new magic develops.  A magic that is born from the ties that bind us as a club and within the running community at large.

Reflectively on a weekend where we are reminded of our own mortality and contrary to normal weeks I will offer some of my own thoughts.  On a personal level my life has been transformed by running.  It filters through so many aspects of it.  I have lost weight.  I feel fitter.  I feel stronger, both mentally and physically.  I have made an enormous number of amazing life-long friends.  Thankfully I have someone wonderful with me who supports all the crazy plans.  I have shared the experience not only with friends but very close family members and sharing an experience when pushing ourselves creates an incredible understanding of each others strengths cementing those bonds even stronger.  It is a passion that will stay with me for life.  I feel so privileged to be in a position to do so and that is massively down to our Phoenix family.  Thank you all for enriching my life and the lives of each other.

Risen from the ashes and flying higher than ever!

The Phoenix spirit.

#lovethisclub
#loveourclub

Posted on

June 2019 review

parkrun

This month saw our members accumulate 274 parkrun finishes across 50 parkruns and 27 different parkrun locations.

As parkrun tourism is becoming so popular, I’m now only going to mention venues that have had their first Ogmore Phoenix Runner(s) in the month or any ones outside of Wales and England. New venues this month include myself being the first Phoenix to run at Houghton Hall, Karl Johnson and James Beynon at Fire Service College and Tetbury Goods Shed whilst Karl also ran Sale Water. Further afield, Gwyneth Steddy ran her 50th parkrun at Portrush parkrun on the north coast of Northern Ireland, whilst Shawn and Julie bagged their first international parkrun tourism at Jamaica Pond parkrun in Boston, USA. We’ve now had Phoenix Runners at 5 different US parkruns.

The first weekend of the month saw another Phoenix volunteer takeover at Maesteg parkrun where our members filled most of the positions and we also had 29 runners. Maesteg parkrun was the June event for the Club Championships with best times / age grade percentages scored during the month to count. This certainly seemed to boost the numbers and there were 2 weeks where we had more runners at Maesteg than Porthcawl.

This month also saw lots of parkrun milestones with Angela Walsh running her 100th parkrun, whilst Brett Bonnell, Sharon Pritchard, Ben Davies, Lisa Jenkins, Gwyneth Steddy, Stephne Puddy and Tammie Clemett all ran their 50th parkruns. Our parkrun obsessed club now has 67 current members who have reached 50 parkruns.

A much smaller list of PB’s this month but understandable considering the amount of other events our members would have been saving themselves for. Paul Barrett managed 2 PB’s in month and has now had 8 parkrun PB’s this year all at different parkrun venues. The latest one being Llanelli where Sarah Davies got a parkrun PB on the final parkrun of the month. Our other PB’s in month were Michael Brain, Clifford Searle, Sarah Littlewood and Dai James.

As we’ve reached the half way point in the year, I thought I’d do some mid-year parkruns stats. Aled Hughes is yet to miss a parkrun this year (including the New Years Day double) so is on the maximum UK parkrun total of 28 parkruns in 2019. I’ve one behind on 27, whilst Nick Harris, Karl Johnson, David Sheard, Kris Denholm  and Gareth Davies are all on 26. Also on 26 are our two top female parkrunners, Jo Gamba and Sara Davies.

Our fastest parkrunner of the year is Adrian Pearce with 18:16 at Swansea whilst Sarah Littlewood is our fastest female with 23:29 at Maesteg.

We’ve had an incredible 202 different members run at least 1 parkrun already this year with 1,566 finishes.

5K

Lots of 5K’s this month which started with Hannah Knight and Catherine Griffiths completing the Bridgend Race for Life.

Claire Taylor set a new PB at the ‘Run Ex’ 5K in Exeter with a 30:29.

At the second race of the Aberavon series, Ryan Evans led the club back in a new PB of 18:35 followed by Luke Jones and I who were just either side of 21 minutes. Sarah Davies set a new PB of 23:40 having set her previous best on the same course. Judith Jeeves bagged the highest age grade percentage run of the evening with her 25:38 PB. Hannah Knight and Natalie Aryal also set PB’s.

The second race of the Swansea Bay series saw 13 of our members enter which is by far the largest attendance at one of those series of events. A few had run our BCRL fixture the day before as well but still set amazing times with Niki coming in a 18:29 and Aled at 19:16. Elaine Nash and Annamarie Morgan set new PB’s on the night.

Yet another second of the series – this time the SSAFA 5K which Aled was awarded an interesting result of 18:60. Tyler Howells set a PB of 26:31.

A 5K with a difference to end the month with the Jack n Jill 5K which involved a constant climb for the first half before a downhill second half. Adrian Pearce finished 4th overall whilst Aled was 6th and Nick Harris notched up yet another event. Adrian and Aled were 4-5 minutes slower than their usual 5K times going to show how tough the route was.

10K

The Maesteg Keeper of the Colliery race attracted 19 of our members this year and the 300 strong field was around 4 times as many as what took part last year in the free event which takes in 2 undulating loops. Kris Denholm was our first runner back in 46:33 closely followed by Aled. Fiona Drysdale was our first lady back followed by Judith Jeeves. Despite the hilly course, both Nicola Cornock and Paul James set PB’s.

The Infinity Running Margam 10K saw David Sheard, Judith Jeeves, Sharon Pritchard and Ffion Smith take on 2 laps of the ever changing Margam course.

Half Marathon

Just one Half Marathon this month but quite a significant one. Swansea Half Marathon saw 67 members complete the course. We also had 10 volunteers and a load of supporters on the day as well. Despite humid conditions and a headwind on the second half of the course, Paul Smith bagged himself a 1:27:29 PB and was our first runner back. Ryan Evans got himself another sub 1:30 half whilst Neil Price also achieved that and knocked a few seconds off his PB in the process. The PB list continued with Gareth Davies, Jonathan Tidball, Lisa Pinney, Emma Loyns, Jay Howells, Michael Brain, Paul Iskander, Anthony Kavanagh, Mike Nicholson, Paul Barrett, Phill Iveson, Karen Green, Dawn Wright, Steph Iveson, Rosie Salvatore, Deb Edwards, Sharon Pritchard, Nicola Veasey, Sian Jenkins, Alexis Barrett, Claudine Nicholson, Shareen Bentley and Joe Hill.

Marathon

If you had to guess who our one marathoner was this month, I think most would guess correctly that it was Chris Pratt at another Infinity Running event. Chris finished the Margam event in 4:15:17 despite signing up for the Rabbit Run just 18 hours earlier and then going out for a few drinks and a curry afterwards with a few others from the club.

Ultra

Angharad Hillman completed the 40 mile VOGUM (Vale of Glamorgan Ultra Marathon) which starts in Porthcawl and ends in Penarth (so pretty much the reverse of the popular Vale Ultra).

Steven James set the longest distance of any runner at the Infinity Running Margam event with 39.6 miles completed in 6:30:32. Kris Denholm was second with 36.3 miles completed in 6:16:37.

A week later, Steven walked the Race to the King event with his sister which involves 52.5 miles over 2 days.

Other races

The month started off with Rack Raid. A 101 mile relay event with 13 stages from somewhere north of Abergavenny to Cwmbran. It was the first year the club had participated in the event and I’m looking to do a separate blog post to detail how the day unfolded. We finished 14th out of 28 teams which was beyond most of our expectations and every one of our runners gave it their all and enjoyed the day.

Another popular event on the calendar is the Cottrell Park Relays which saw 25 of our runners across 9 different teams. The 2.4 mile course includes the notorious ‘bunker hill’ which a few set new strava segment PB’s on. In terms of individual performances, Adrian Pearce was our first runner back in 16:05 just beating Aled who recorded 16:09 and Neil Price with 16:21. Our first lady was Sarah Davies with 20:15 ahead of Denise Bradley with 21:23. In terms of team performances, Aled, Adrian and Neil finished 4th team overall whilst Fiona Drysdale won the family category alongside 2 of her sons.

Fiona was in action again a few days later in the Man vs Horse race. If you haven’t heard of this, it is what it says in the title – a race against horses. The course is over 20 miles over undulating mixed terrain and in its history, the horses have only been defeated on a handful of occasions.

The second fixture of the Bridgend County Running League (BCRL) saw our club organise the Beast of Blackmill event. The route was shortened to 3.3 miles but still included the hill that makes the ‘Beast’ in the ‘Beast of Blackmill’. We had an incredible 69 runners despite having dozens of volunteers which meant we more than likely exceed 100 members present on the night. For the second fixture running, Gareth Battle lead our runners home with Adrian Pearce just a few seconds back. We had an incredibly strong first 15 again but Bridgend brought out their big guns for this one – their top runners included a 100K World Champion, runners who’ve represented Great Britain in triathlon in their age category, and Welsh international runners. We still finished second in the fixture with a substantial gap over the rest.

Aled Hughes and Nick Harris continued totting up their events total with the Summer Series 3 miler. Nick also did 5 laps to record 16.5 miles at the latest Infinity Running Margam event.

Rabbit Run

We had a huge turnout of 44 runners at the Merthyr Mawr Rabbit Run which was included in our trail championship. The course is advertised as being 7.2 miles but most recorded it over 7.5 miles which you do sometimes get with trail races. Despite drier conditions than previous years there was still plenty of mud to contend with around the 2 mile mark, the river crossing was waist high for most, plus plenty of other varied terrain. Adrian Pearce was our first runner back followed by Steve Loveluck, Aled Hughes and our first lady, Anneliese Loveluck.

What many of us didn’t realise is that the Rabbit Run was also part of the Welsh Trail Running Championships meaning that Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were available for each 5 year age category group for Welsh Athletics affiliated runners. It was only a couple of weeks after the event we found out what an amazing medal haul our runners accumulated…

There were individual Gold medals for Anneliese Loveluck, Adrian Pearce and Denise Bradley.

Individual Silver medals for Emma Loyns and Steve Loveluck.

Individual Bronze medals for Aled Hughes and Sarah Davies,

Team Gold for Adrian Pearce, Steve Loveluck, Aled Hughes and myself (Gareth Jenkins).

Team Bronze for Luke Jones, Steven James, Simon Harrison and Gareth Richards.

Team Silver for Anneliese Loveluck, Sarah Davies, Emma Loyns and Denise Bradley.

In total, we had 12 medal winners including 7 who picked up double medals for individual and team prizes.

Mid-Year Race Stats 

It’s been the busiest 6 months in the clubs history in terms of event participation. As well as the crazy parkrun numbers, we also had runners at pretty much every 5K between Swansea and Cardiff and a couple further afield with 174 finishers over 14 different 5K events. 10K’s have been just as popular with 20 different events so far this year and 173 finishers including 62 at Cardiff Bay and 39 at Newport.

Amazingly, we’ve had more Half Marathon finishers than 10K finishers in the first half of the year with exactly 200 so far largely due to the 67 who ran Swansea plus 47 who ran Llanelli. Our members have notched up 29 different Half Marathons including events in Cyprus, Spain and America.

Marathon participation is actually slightly down on the first half of last year which included big numbers at the inaugural Newport Marathon plus a club tour to Liverpool. However, mainly due to Chris Pratt and the newly formed Infinity Running series, our members have run at 12 different marathons which is an increase on the first half of last year but with 48 finishes compared to 56 last year.

Ultra running continues to get more popular with our members each year and the first 6 months of this year have saw 29 ultra marathon finishes over 9 events. Incredibly 6 of those have been Steven James whilst Kris Denholm already has 3 to his name. Plus of course there was that 100 miler completed by Nick Harris.

Somewhere we’ve seen another huge increase in participation is the non-standard distance events. Many of which are multi-terrain, cross country, Bridgend League fixtures or part of running series.

Biggest race attendances so far in 2019….

  1. Ogmore Castle – 114
  2. Beast of Blackmill – 69
  3. Swansea Half Marathon – 67
  4. Cardiff Bay 10K – 62
  5. Vale 18.5 / 32 – 54
  6. Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K – 52
  7. Newport 10K / Marathon – 50
  8. Llanelli Half Marathon – 47
  9. Rabbit Run – 44
  10. Aberavon 5K series (race 2) – 41

In the first 6 months of 2019, our members have accumulated 2656 finishes in races and parkruns across 407 events.

Now it’s over to our Chairman for his runners of the month.

Chairman’s Runners of the Month

For June I’m taking a slightly different outlook on my runners of the month.  We often refer to ourselves as the Phoenix Family.  Our bond is strong.  Our journeys to achieve our goals we share and as we do so we bind together.  We share events too and one story from a shared experience during an event in June filtered back to me and struck a chord.  An example of Phoenix Spirit.  As we often state, running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other.  As a club we encourage mutual support.  We know from our own experiences that running events of a significant distance is tough.  It’s often the cheers from the sidelines that lift us and carry us on the finish.  Occasionally we get that support from our fellow runners.  Occasionally those runners go the extra mile and stop to help when some are in times of trouble.  This is one such story.  I received a heartwarming message shortly after the Swansea Half that recalled how one of our midst constantly shouted encouragement to others as he ran – something many do – but on reaching runners in distress he stopped to help.  Five times he stopped, sacrificing his own endeavour to help those in need.  He picked two people up off the floor to get them going again.  He walked hand in had with two to motivate them to their end goal.  He stopped to help one bent over at the side of the course to make sure they were OK.  Every single one that he helped he got them moving and put them above his own race.  He still made it to the end.  Finish lines, not finish times.  Phoenix Spirit through and through.  I am absolutely delighted and humbled when honouring Anthony Kavanagh with my Chairman’s Male Runner of the Month for June.  Well done Anthony, keep up the good work making the club proud.

The irony of my next choice won’t be missed by the person I’m choosing.  It’s been a great month of running for many and always difficult to separate everyone by achievement.  Personal Bests are commonplace throughout the year and June was no exception.  One did jump out though.  PB’s were achieved in fairly quick succession and admirable they were but it was as much for effort that I am recognising my female runner.  Always with a look of determination as she powers to the finish line of a race.  Determination that is not only impressive but infectious.  It rubs off on others.  Impressed to see that effort they also push themselves to achieve, whether that is time, distance or just getting out fo the door.  Inspiring.  It has warranted selection to team events in which the club placed very well.  Again that determined face came out and shone through in finish line photos.  What a great first year with the club and moving on from a month where her endeavours grabbed my attention I’m absolutely certain she will continue to shine.  I am delighted to award my Chairman’s Female Runner of the Month for June to Sarah Davies.  Well done Sarah!!

Posted on

Rack Raid 2019 review

This year saw the club invited to compete in a 13 stage relay covering 100 miles all within 12 hours. Each stage had it’s own start time with cut off times applied and there is a bit of overlap to ensure it’s all finished within a reasonable time. The cut off for each stage requires runners to finish within a 9 minute mile average – so a 5 mile route would have a 45 minute cut off. If runners come in after this time then they are given the cut off time (in this example 45:00), unless they are more than 10 minutes off the cut off in which case they are given the cut off time plus 10 minutes (in this example 55:00). Stages ranged from 5.1 miles to 13.1 miles.

The road to Rack Raid began as an attempt to get into Welsh Castles which requires 20 runners plus a number of reserves across the 2 day event from North Wales down to South Wales. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough runners who would meet the strict cut off times for that event to apply so turned our attentions to Rack Raid. Many of our members had already run the ‘qualifier’ route the captains had set out which involved 2 laps of the Ogmore Valley loop for a 10 mile run in total. This then ended up being used to determine places for Rack Raid instead.

The 13 runners had to made up of a 7/6 gender split with the majority of teams going for 7 male and 6 female runners which is what we went for. 

The final team was (in order of what stages they ran) – Jo Gamba, Dai James, Gareth Jenkins, Chris Truman, Neil Price, Niki Puleio, Sarah Davies, Anneliese Loveluck, Steven James, Liz Davis, Paul Smith, Sian Price and Emma Loyns.

Jo Gamba and I headed off at 530am to get to Grosmont Castle in time for Jo to do the first leg at 730am. T-shirts collected for the team and ‘official vehicle’ sticker acquired which was needed to drive to certain stages and parts of the course that weren’t open to other vehicles.

A race briefing is given at the start of each stage and numbers given out which are the same for each team throughout the day. There are just 28 teams in total and they discourage other runners / supporters from going to the start as there’s a few houses around the castle and they don’t want too much noise at 7-730am on a Sunday morning. It was odd to see such a small field of runners as Jo set off on the first stage.

That first stage was the shortest at 5.1 miles but still included 315 feet of elevation with the majority of that in the first half of the run. The entire route is on quiet country roads and for those of us seeing runners off at the start, it meant carefully driving passed them to get to the end point of that stage. It does mean there’s an opportunity to shout encouragement out of the car window as you drive past though. Quite a lot of the teams had chosen female runners for the first stage with just 1 male out of 28 teams. I passed Jo about a mile or so in and she doing well in the middle of the pack.

Arriving at the second stage I saw Steven, Niki, Dai and Chris who had car shared with Dai who was due to start the second leg. As pointed out at the start of this review, the stages overlap slightly so Dai and the rest of the runners for the second stage set off before most of the first stage runners came in. A few minutes later Jo appeared and finished in a fantastic 41:09 and well inside the cut off of 46 minutes and in 17th place overall. As I was running stage 3, we had to quickly get in the car and drive off, passing Dai who was amongst the top 5 or so runners along the way. His stage was 6.9 miles with 636 feet of elevation and very little downhill making it one of the hilliest if basing it on elevation per mile.

The third stage started at White Castle which was restricted to ‘official vehicles’ only meaning only Jo and I could drive our car to the start. This meant a quick change of plan as Steven couldn’t go and pick Dai up from the end of his stage but it was fine as Jo could take Dai to the next stage after dropping me off where we would all reconvene. Driving to the start of stage 3 we saw that Dai would have a tough half mile long hill to content with at the end but despite this he finished in an excellent time of 50:55 and 8th place overall.

I set off for stage 3 which was a 7.5 mile route to Abergavenny with 394 feet of elevation. It was a nice start as I went down the hill Dai had just had to come up before turning back onto the main road. The route then gradually climbed for agonising 4 miles albeit at a mostly gentle gradient. It also started raining but fortunately for me it wasn’t too heavy and quite refreshing. The final 2.5 miles of my stage were almost entirely downhill so I was able to make up for some lost time on the incline and ended with a sprint finish against a female runner from Les Croupiers which definitely helped me find another gear than if I’d been running in alone. Very pleased with a time of 55:07 and 11th place overall.

Meanwhile, Chris Truman had set of on stage 4. A 6.7 mile hilly route with 633 feet of elevation. Like many of the stages it involved a lot of climbing for the first half before a downhill second half. Chris finished in 46:53 equalling our best position of the day so far with 8th overall.

By this point, Jo and I had already been up for 5 hours and we were barely a third of the way through the day so we went off to Monmouth to sneak in a quick second breakfast before seeing Neil come in from stage 5. Stage 5 was an 8.1 mile route with 443 feet of elevation which Neil finished in 55:15 and 9th overall. Most of the stages started or finished near castles but Neil’s finish was just as good with it finishing on an old bridge heading into Monmouth town.

Niki was up next with the second longest stage of the day. A 12.6 route from Monmouth to Raglan taking in 801 feet of elevation and hilly throughout. He smashed it in 1:21:59. To put it in perspective, had it been half marathon distance then he’d have finished a reasonably hilly half marathon in around 1 hour 25/26 minutes. It was also the third time we’d finished 8th overall.

Whilst waiting for Niki, the rest of us arrived in Raglan where we our final group of runners joined us – Sarah, Emma and Liz. Sarah was lined up with the others about to set off just as Niki was finishing. Sarah’s route was 5.5 miles from Raglan to Usk taking in 236 feet of elevation and undulating throughout. Sarah put in a great effort finishing well inside the cut off of 51 minutes with in 45:34 and 16th position.

By this point we’d already seen Anneliese Loveluck set off on the longest stage of the event – a 13.1 mile route from Usk to Tintern Abbey which not only had the highest amount of elevation at 1200 feet of climbing, but was also one of the only stages that included some off road running as well. Anneliese had actually offered to run this stage in case you’re wondering why the captains would be so mean. She was one of only two female runners for that stage as a number of teams put out their fastest guys for the stage. Anneliese held her own though and finished in an astonishing 1:36:45 on the hilly half marathon distance course and 16th position. Her time was 21 minutes inside the cut off.

The finish at Tintern Abbey was one of the highlights although as stated earlier, most of the start / finish locations were pretty special in terms of scenery. As we waited for Anneliese to come in, Steven James headed off for Stage 9 – a 10 mile route from the abbey to Chepstow Castle taking in 945 feet of elevation making it the second hilliest in terms of climbing elevation. Again, a number of teams appeared to put their best runners out on this stage and Steven ran a great time of 1:17:14 and 20th place.

Liz Davis was next up taking on a 5.6 mile route to Caldicot Castle with around 300 feet of elevation. Liz missed the cut off by just a few seconds and was therefore awarded a time of 51 minutes and 24th place. It should be noted that 8 runners out the 28 also didn’t make the cut off on what was a deceivingly tough route. Our team spirit and camaraderie really shone through as every one of the team was proud of Liz who absolutely gave it her all and still recorded a great time.

Most of us missed Paul heading off for stage 11 as the tight timings to get from the previous stage didn’t quite work out. His route was 8.3 miles with 551 feet of elevation and was a rare one that didn’t finish at a castle or on a bridge, however, there was a pub which was packed with runners and supporters. Many of you reading this may not have met Paul yet who is relatively new to the club and is amongst our fastest runners. He smashed the route in 55:43 and recorded our joint highest finish of the day with 6th overall.

All of us made it to see him finish whilst across the road, Sian was heading off on the penultimate stage. Stage 12 was 6.6 miles with 266 feet of elevation. We’d be told Sian would get one of the best finishes of all the stages and as we arrived we could see why. The finish was at Caerleon Amphitheatre which dates back to 90 AD and was a venue for gladiatorial combat. Sian finished by running into the middle of the amphitheatre with the rest of us watching from 20-30 feet above. She did get a little confused with exactly where the finish line was and carried on running for a few more metres though. Her time was 51:37 which was well inside the cut off of 60 minutes and she was 18th overall.

The spectacular finish was also the spectacular start venue for our final runner, our club coach, Emma Loyns. Emma had been dreading her stage which although the second shortest at 5.4 miles, it included almost 500 feet of elevation climbing for much of the route and including the a section at the end that a local club use for long hill sessions. The rest of us headed off to the finishing point and caused a little bit of chaos when we accidently ended up driving up the narrow road close to finish where the runners were heading. We had to stop to let the runners go through and wait until they’d finished so frustratingly the final stage was the only one we didn’t make it to see our runner finish. Lesson learnt for next year if we are invited back. Emma smashed it in 47:30 coming in under the cut off and finishing in 20th place.

When we all eventually parked up at the finishing venue at the Castell y Bwch pub we got in the queue for some much needed food and drinks. We’d been given food vouchers at the start of the day which entitled us to curry and chips which went down a treat as we watched the presentations for the stage winners and overall team winners.

The organisers had been posting results from each stage throughout the day along with current team standings so we excitingly awaited to see our final position. Eventually we saw that we’d finished in 14th place out of 28 teams. A fantastic effort and beyond what many of us had expected in our first year. We also finished almost an hour ahead of friendly local rivals, Brackla, who have been competing in Rack Raid for many years (lets ignore that they were probably saving themselves for Welsh Castles the weekend after).

101.5 miles completed in 12 hours 36 minutes and 44 seconds.

So how would I sum it up? Well firstly I would say that elevation profiles don’t always tell the whole story as every single one of our runners found the stages harder than expected. The entire day was very well organised and I can’t imagine the planning and logistics required by Fairwater Runners Cwmbran who run the event. Amazing commitment and support by every single member of our team who were out for 12 hours or more which for a few of us included 100+ miles of driving, running one of the stages and supporting at as many stages as possible.  An absolutely fantastic day was had by all and I think if you ask any of the 13 of us that ran it, we would absolutely recommend the club does it again next year. The support and effort put in by every team member was amazing.

Rack Raid 2020 anyone?

Posted on

Weekly Waffle – 16th June 2019

A busy week ahead…

Once again, training is affected by other responsibilities.  

The impending fielding of a fixture in the local league that brings all the clubs in the Bridgend area together was the focus.  Preparations build in the final days up to the midweek event.  A huge commitment for those devoting a great deal of time to organise.  A huge commitment for those giving their time during the day and on the night to make sure things run smoothly.  A huge commitment from the captains to organise a team from those who remain.  A huge commitment from the runners to perform for the club and gain crucial points after an admiral performance in the first fixture.

Mother natures was on our side despite the forecast.  The old adage “Proper prior preparation prevents poor performance” was observed to great effect.  261 runners started and 261 runners finished.  Despite our commitments to organising and volunteering, the runners did us proud with incredible individual performances for a fantastic team score!

A very worthy hashtag for a job well done.

#proudPhoenix

Training resumes as a calmness descends.  Smaller numbers attend as The Beast of Blackmill takes a toll on legs.

This doesn’t stop some attending other races as a couple travel to the capital to complete the next event in an increasingly popular series.

The pride from an incredible week is heightened by one of our number receiving another Welsh Athletics medal through the post for an admiral performance.  Phoenix flying very high, again!

Friday night. 

Lights out.

Saturday morning. 

Wakey, wakey.  

Alarms not required as body clocks detect the impending trip to a parkrun.

Home or away?  That is the question…

Home for many.  On the seafront and up the valley we get to start lines in numbers.  Milestones were clocked up in number with celebrations all round.

Away locations attract others.  Within our borders and “across the pond”.  

All getting their 5k completed.

Clouds part and the sun pokes through to appropriately reflect the season.

Phoenix in numbers head down to the local country estate to chase Rabbits.  Bunnies and toddlers took to the stage before their parents joined others on the start line to tackle a trail event with a multitude of different terrain.  Many Phoenix flew the flag on the tough course with many fantastic performances and club cameraderie worthy of note.  Sand dune descents that led many to “release the inner 8 year old” as they “helter skeltered” to the bottom.  Mud, grass, tarmac and sand in varying quantities challenged all, culminating in a river crossing that saw some fall foul of an uneven river bed producing spectacular photos as a result!  Smiling faces from all told the story of a job well done!

As the light fades and a new day dawns a few head down the coast to the west to complete a number of distances.  Wether 10k, marathon or more, all completed their target with admirable endeavour.  Medals earned.

And while all this happens our heroes still turn up to continue their journey!

It’s been a busy one.

It’s been a tiring one.

But The Phoenix endured.

Resilience.  
Endeavour.  
Commitment.  
Grit.  
Determination.  
Pride.  
Phoenix pride.

Continue to fly!

#lovethisclub
#loveourclub

Posted on

Weekly Waffle – 9th June 2019

With the furore of last weekends preparation for our race on Wednesday night this review didn’t get completed.  Not one to forget our amazing runners if I can help it – the story will be told…

Sunday, Sunday…

The end of the week.

Again we contemplate what has been…

Midweek races battled with track session for numbers.  High numbers at both.  Local and distant 5k events drew many away.  Seafront miles produced many smiles.  Pleasant conditions led to decent times amongst the large numbers.  Away from home one didn’t want to miss out and booked in a race to complete the same distance.

Thursday saw a number head up the Bwlch for a testing session that always results in praise from those who dare to tackle the inclines!

Give me a ‘p’, give me an ‘a’, give me an ‘r’… you know where I’m going with this.  It’s Saturday morning and it wouldn’t be the same without it.  Home and away the Phoenix collected their tokens and were scanned.  Some came back with inspirational stories, not uncommon with the wide range of ages and abilities taking part.

One took on the challenge of racing equine opponents and whilst not victorious recorded impressive results on a notoriously tough course.

Goodbye Saturday, hello Sunday.

The traverse from North Wales to South Wales broken into stages drew a couple of our midst away from home to represent a local squad with admirable results.

One headed north to run, ride and row around a multi-discipline course with incredible results worthy of accolade.

Several teams headed to the golf course, working together to represent the Phoenix on a tough little course.  Bunker Hill failed to claim any victims with admirable results from all, yet again!

One cycled long distance locally coming back with the rewards for their efforts.

With high numbers on the trails and epic performances from our Zero to Hero improvers completing their full 10k, training sessions enjoyed large numbers once again!

What a week!

Everyone keeping busy with their running…

Everyone sharing experiences as we continue to turn up to events in significant numbers!
Well done guys – stick with it!

#lovethisclub
#loveourclub

Posted on

Weekly Waffle – 2nd June 2019

What a week – yet again!

Training numbers were affected this week by a huge Phoenix contingent heading down the lanes through Merthyr Mawr for a local 5k that always attracts big numbers.  Impressive times and gutsy performances were in plentiful supply on the night in this regional championship event!

A trio headed to the capital once again to record swift times over 2 miles at the next in a series of events.  Events completed on the rise!

parkrunday or as it’s alternatively known, Saturday.

A new month.  

High numbers spread all around the country.  

One of our home runs saw a takeover where members give up their runs to provide the core roles required for the event to take place while those do it week in, week out get to run.  Huge numbers headed up the Llynfi Valley to volunteer and run!  An excellent morning was had by all with a few enjoying the hospitality of Wetherspoons after for some much needed recovery! 

Still high numbers at our other home while many got their fix wherever they found themselves for the weekend.

Missing their parkrun constitutional were a brave few taking on the might of Carten.  100 miles of cycling from Cardiff to Tenby – amazing stuff!

One lone runner started early to navigate the Wales Coastal Path between Porthcawl and Penarth.  The 40 mile journey was completed in style and finish line photos with a happy smiling face tell us it was a great day out!  Inspirational stuff!

The sun set and rose on a historic day for the club…

Rack Raid.
Participation by invitation only.
Captains and Vice Captains past and present worked hard to deliver a plan for qualification.
13 members set impressive qualifying times to gain selection.
100 miles.  
13 stages.
A very early start took them east to tackle each stage in turn.
Nerves abound as each section carried cut-off times.
Mutual support within the team strengthened the determination to succeed.
Every runner put in incredible performances.
News filtered back through the wonder of social media and we all revelled in the excitement of the day.
A great day for the Phoenix with an impressive finishing position cementing our future in the event.
We asked them to fly high and they rose with valour!  

Immensely proud.

At home we had numbers heading back up the Llynfi Valley to take on the Keeper of the Colliery and despite the rain they all completed in style.

Others wore pink to show their support for Cancer Research UK on a 5k route around familiar surroundings.

We saw newbie triathletes smash their first events as they challenge themselves to new things.

What an incredible weekend yet again…

A weekend that yet again demonstrates that being a Phoenix is all about being together – sharing experiences.  If you run super quick or super long, we salute you.  If you’ve just completed your first Zero to Hero session, we salute you.  If you’ve just run 5k for the first time, we salute you.  It doesn’t even matter if you run.  To walk, run, support or volunteer, we salute you.  What we do, we do together.  

Team photos from all over the country appear with any number from one to over a hundred.  

It’s that team spirit that pulls us together.

One big team.
One big family.
Family Phoenix.
We salute you all.

#lovethisclub
#loveourclub

Posted on

May 2019 review

parkruns

This month saw our members clock up 246 parkrun finishes in 45 parkrun events. Our members visited 27 different parkruns in month including 19 in Wales with the others being Buckingham, Crosby, Dartford Heath, Isabel Trail, Longrun Meadow, Lydney, Milton Keynes and Thornbury.

There were 27 parkrun PB’s including Aled Hughes, Catherine Robinson, Jay Howells, Maria George and Sian Jenkins who all notched up 2 parkrun PB’s each in the month. Aled smashed the 19 minute barrier for the first time with a 18:46 whilst Sian Jenkins double means she now has 17 parkrun PB’s in 32 parkruns and has gone from 42:43 to 29:31 over the past 15 months.

Our other parkrun PB-ers were Abbiegayle Lumsden, Adrian Pearce, Andrew Hughes, Anthony Kavanagh, Chris Bimson, Claire Williams, Dawn Apsee, Heather Morgan, James Beynon, Judith Jeeves, Leanne Puleio, Nicola Cornock, Paul Barrett, Paul James, Sara Davies, Steph Iveson-Holmes and Wayne Randall. A couple of highlights include Adrian smashing his PB with an 18:16 making him the fastest current member in the club over 5K. Another PB for Chris Bimson means he now has 10 parkrun PB’s in just 17 parkruns so far with 9 of those PB’s being this year.

In case this has passed you by, Swansea seems to be the place to go if you are on form and looking for a PB with 8 of our members getting a PB there this month. I know a few others including our Chairman Chris Pratt who’s 5K PB has been set at Swansea parkrun.

Finally, this month saw Diana Purnell and Brett Bonell celebrate their 50th parkruns.

5K

The first day of the month saw 36 runners at the first race of the Aberavon 5K series. Ryan Evans lead the Phoenix runners back with a speedy 18:58 despite a headwind for half of the race. Jonathan Tidball, Sarah Davies, Paul Barrett, Chris Stanlake, Kaye Pedler, Alexis Barrett and Stephne Puddy all bagged themselves PB’s. A huge well done to Elaine Nash and Philippa Nash who completed their first race with the club as well.

Karl Johnson and Nige Rees ran the Cardiff Race for Victory 5K. This was the second race of the day for Karl who had run the Newport 10K that morning. Nige Rees  got a new PB of 24:39.

We had 6 runners at the Swansea Bay 5K where Niki went sub 19 and claimed the fastest 5K time of anyone in the club for this year with a 18:54. Shawn Cullen claimed a new PB to add to the growing list this year with a 25:40.

We also had 6 runners at the first of the SSAFA 5K series where Aled ran 19:03 followed by seasons bests from Chris Pratt (21:27), and David Kembery (21:50). Nick Harris notched up yet another event along with Karl Johnson and Dawn Hopkins clocked a sub 25 with a 24:52. 

The final event of the month was the Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K with 57 members completing the course. Adrian Pearce led the way in an impressive 18:37 whilst Aled Hughes and Niki Puleio were next up in 18:56 and 19:00 respectively. For the second year in a row Simon Williams got close to a first sub 20 with 20:16 whilst I was next up in my best time since the same race last year with a 20:33.  Final results are still to be confirmed so these are provisional times but it looks like there were multiple PB’s set including for Denise Bradley who picked up her second top 3 age category placing in just 4 days.

5 miles

A rare 5 mile event with the Porthkerry Multi Terrain 5 miler. It was also the latest fixture in the club trail championship which is proving very popular this year as we had 28 entrants. Adrian Pearce led us back followed by Aled and myself. Sarah Davies was our first female followed by Emma Loyns and Denise Bradley. There were multiple PB’s with so many running a 5 mile race for the first time with the club including Luke Jones, Steven James, Sarah Davies, Jo Gamba, Nige Rees, Paul Barrett, Dawn Hopkins, Sharon Pritchard, Alexis Barrett, Nicola Cornock, Stephne Puddy and Andrea Self.

We had 12 runners at the Tonmawr Hilly 5 miler where Adrian Pearce led our club members back in 33:30 and was 2nd in his age category. Steve Loveluck was 3rd in his age category whilst April’s female runner of the month, Anneliese Loveluck was 1st female overall. Denise Bradley was 2nd in her age category. Unsuprisingly given the course, the PB’s were for those either running their first 5 miler or those that had only run a similiarly tough 5 miler previously. There were PB’s for Jonathan Tidball, Sian Jenkins, Nicola Cornock and Stephne Puddy.

10K

The first weekend of the month saw the second Newport 10K with 39 runners from the club. Niki Puleio ran just 3 seconds outside his PB with a 38:11 despite having run London Marathon just a week earlier. His time is also the fastest 10K in the club this year. Neil Price chipped a few seconds off his PB to come even more agonisingly close to his first sub 40 with a 40:07. Running side by side throughout, Chris Wonka Williams had the better finish to beat me and finish as our third runner in 43:28.

Sarah Davies was our first female in a PB time of 48:48 meaning she claimed a 5K and 10K PB’s in the same week. Jo Gamba also bagged herself a PB with her first sub 50 clocking at 49:19. Our third female finisher was Emma Loyns who had only travelled back from Florida the day before.

The huge PB list included Simon Harrison, Gareth Davies, Jay Howells, Alun Job, Paul Iskander, Dawn Hopkins, Phill Iveson, Sian Thomas, Amanda Taylor, Steph Iveson, Sara Davies, Tammie Baker, Deb Edwards, Catherine Robinson, Nicola Cornock, Maria George, Cath Griffiths and Claudine Nicholson. Well done to Chris Stanlake and Alexis Barrett who also got 10K PB’s just 4 days after setting new 5K PB’s.

The Swansea Epic 10K saw 6 of our runners complete the tough off road course with Chris Richards claiming his first sub 1 hour 10K and Dawn Wright completing her first race as a Phoenix.

Niki Puleio was back in action again and ran a 38:47 with David Kembery our only other finisher in 46:24. Shawn Cullen ran the tough, off road, Brecon Beacons 10K whilst a week later, Steve Loveluck, Denise Bradley and Karl Johnson completed the Builth Wells Trail 10K.

Karl made it a weekend 10K double doing the Caerphilly 10K the day after whilst David Kembery made it three 10K races on consecutive weekends. Nige Rees ran a PB of 53:23 whilst new members Tyler Howells and Abbiegayle Lumsden came in with a PBs of 58:00 and 1:08:51 respectively. There were 11 Ogmore Phoenix Runners in total at Caerphilly.

Another couple of 10K’s to finish off the month as Dawn Hopkins ran the Vitality London 10K whilst Karl, Sharon Pritchard and Debbie Bennion completed the Treforest 10K.

Half Marathons

Julie Ransom ran the Milton Keynes Half Marathon whilst Liz Davis and Liz Sim ran the Bath Two Tunnels Half Marathon early in the month. Sally Pensom ran the Chester Half Marathon whilst Gary Loo scored a PB and first sub 2 Half Marathon at the Great Manchester Run. Sharon Pritchard ran the only local Half Marathon of the month with 4 laps of 3.3 miles at the latest Infinity Running event in Margam Park.

Finally, Shawn and Julie completed the Liverpool Half Marathon on the final weekend of the month.

Marathons

Just a week after the heroics and excitement of the London Marathon, we had 11 runners at the second running of the Newport Marathon. Wayne Hayhurst took another few minutes off his marathon best coming in at 3:20:54 – an incredible improvement considering before this year he hadn’t run under 4 hours. Steven James also notched a PB with a 3:33:38 with Ryan Evans coming in at 3:39:52 in his first marathon.

Keith Coleman just missed out on the sub 4 with a 4:03 and next up were Gregg Harris in 4:19 and Dan Clark in 4:36. Anthony Kavanagh ran a 4:44 PB whilst Emma Marshall was paced round by Chris Pratt in a PB time of 4:49 which was a huge improvement on her time from the previous year. Peter Walsh completed the course in 5:11 whilst Jamie Puddy completed his debut marathon in 5:21.

Chris Pratt was back in action for his 5th Marathon in just  10 weeks (plus the Vale Ultra thrown in for good measure) at the latest Infinity Running event in Margam park where he completed 8 laps of the 3.3 mile course to make up the marathon distance. A 4:11 finish time being his fastest of the 5 despite the usual stops for photos and a bit of chatting along the way. He’d also run 10 miles the day before with me and Jo Gamba down to Porthcawl parkrun.

There were yet more Marathon heroics at the Liverpool Marathon where Amy and Chris Roberts returned for a second year. Despite a reported challenging headwind for the final few miles, Amy got another PB and set a new club age category record with a 3:51:49 whilst Chris came in just over the 4 hour mark with a 4:05:03.

Ultra Marathons

Steven James took on the Brecon Beacons Ultra. A 32 mile race with an eye watering 6700 feet of elevation. That’s more than double the elevation of Snowdonia Marathon and over testing, tricky terrain. He completed the course in 6 hours 50 minutes before going on to run the Porthkerry 5 miler the next day.

A week later Steven was back in action, this time running the latest Infinity Running event with an aim of using it as more long run training for an upcoming Ultra of even longer distance. Steven ended up managing 12 laps of the 3.3 mile course within the allotted 7 hour cut off (finishing after 6 hours and 36 minutes) and incredible kept up a 10 minute mile pace throughout, ending up covering 39.3 miles.

It’s difficult to find the words for what one member did this month so I’m just going to put the details and then a couple of comments I put on Facebook before and after the run. Nick Harris took on the Dragon 100 mile race. Starting in Rhossili Bay in the Gower and finishing in Cardiff Bay following the Coastal Path but also throwing in Afan Forest for good measure which helped bump up the elevation to around 9000 feet.

I started another tracking post to follow his progress and wrote this just as he was starting at 6pm on Saturday evening… “Absolutely crazy to think that whilst we’re having our evening meals tonight, Nick will be running. Whilst we sleep tonight, Nick will be running. When we have breakfast, do our morning run and for the entire time our Newport Marathoners are running – Nick will still be running. Sunday lunch, afternoon and possibly even bedtime tomorrow, Nick will still be running. Incredible.”

29 hours and 28 minutes later Nick finished and I wrote this… “He’s rewritten the history books again. I’ve been fortunate enough to know Nick Harris since he first joined the club in 2013. He started out at the back. Within a year he went from back marker to our fastest runner in the club breaking several club records and winning Runners Runner in 2014 in his first full year with the club. He’s run well over 400 events for the club and took on every challenge possible. This week has pretty much summed Nick up… a fell race, a 5K, 1 miler and a 100 miler. He will take on any challenge. The mental strength to run 100 miles is just beyond what most of us could comprehend, let alone the physical side of moving forward for a 100 miles and seeing darkness fall twice. Above it all, a genuinely lovely, unassuming guy. A gentlemen. A supporter. St Nick. Our Phoenix.”

Other races

From a 100 miler to 1 milers. A day before his 100 mile race started, Nick warmed up with the Cardiff Summer Series 1 miler along with new member Joe Hill. Later in the month, Dai James clocked a speedy 5:27 mile at the Steve Jones 1 mile series in Bryn Bach along with Aled Hughes and Karl Johnson.

Aled and Nick were on a mission with events this month with them being our only runners at the Lady Windsor race and joining several others for the Whitford Point Multi Terrain race. Aled was joined by Adrian Pearce and David Sheard to take on the 3000 feet of elevation included in the Cader Idris Mountain Race whilst Leanne Parsons completed another tough off roader with the Preseli Beast Bach.

Bridgend County Running League

I had to save the best for last. The first race of the 2019 Bridgend League saw our attendance record at a single event smashed as we exceeded 100 runners for the first time with 114 members completing the course.

At the front end, I think I can safely say we had our strongest 15 scorers to date with another golden find by Neil Price who introduced his mate Gareth Battle to the club who was our first finisher, followed by Niki, Ryan Evans, Adrian Pearce, James Littlewood, Paul Smith, Aled Hughes and Neil Price. Our top 8 finishing in the top 22 positions overall and every one of them capable of a low 19 minute 5K time. The remainder of our top 15 was made up of Wayne Hayhurst (just 3 days after his amazing Newport Marathon time), Gareth Richards, Saul Harris, myself, Luke Jones, Kris Denholm and Gareth Davies. Several more came in close behind.

The course at Ogmore Castle was amended slightly from last year to start further down Golf Club Hill meaning an even longer climb to start with before a couple of miles running on the trails and fields at the top before a fast descent including some tricky rocky and sandy sections. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security though as the final half mile or so included a steep narrow incline and a very muddy and slippery finish. A massive well done to everyone who took on the course and completing it.

For the competitive amongst us, the excitement grew as we realised we’d had an incredible team performance with so many of our top end finishing in high positions and the incredible turnout meaning we would have one of, if not our best event score ever. I am very proud to announce, Ogmore Phoenix Runners won the first event of the BCRL. If you are reading this having run for us at that event, you made that happen. One of the best things about the BCRL is that every single finishers makes a difference to the scoring no matter if you are the first or final finisher so well done to every single runner.

This month saw 620 results recorded with 246 parkruns and 374 race finishes. Our members attended 36 different races in month with everything from 1 mile to 100 miles and from flat road races to a race over one of the Welsh 3 peaks. Incredible. Now it’s over to our Chairman, Chris Pratt, for his runners of the month.

Chairman’s Runners of the Month

I’ll launch straight in this month with my first accolade.  It won’t take long to work out who it’s going to…

100 miles.  Rhossili to Cardiff Bay with a little detour up around the Afan Forest thrown in for good measure.  It sounds like a car journey, that you might consider for a day trip.  For one of us it was an adventure.  Start time was 6pm Saturday evening.  He ran through sunset.  He ran through the night and as our Captain said in a Facebook post as we were all getting up out of our beds on Sunday morning, he was still running.  Changes of shoes, socks and various items of clothing were necessary during the journey.  Various members of the club turned out to support him at multiple points along the route.  The sun approaching Porthcawl wore him down to reveal an almost broken man to supporters there.  With refreshment and a subsequent drop in temperatures he pressed on and showed amazing endeavour to keep going all the way along the coast.  To put it in perspective he reached the end of Vale Ultra having completed almost 70 miles and then had to run it in reverse on incredibly tired legs.  The support crew built as he approached his goal.  With odd shoes on his feet he arrived at Cardiff Bay at 23:45 on Saturday night to rapturous applause from supporters both present and at home watching live.  An epic performance.  A story of true grit and determination.  A 100 mile PB of 29 hours and 28 minutes was in the bag!  Not only this but he also did a flurry of events during the week and even a parkrun on the Saturday morning before the 100 miler kicked off!!  Amazing stuff and such a worthy winner of the Chairman’s Male Runner of the Month accolade for May.  Mr Nick Harris.  We salute you.

There have been lots of ladies doing amazing things this month.  We’ve had PB’s left, right and centre.  We’ve had long distances covered.  Very difficult to separate all the huge achievements.

But it’s not always about big achievements.  Sometimes it’s just being able to get out there that makes a difference.  Someone who has had a year of hardship.  Long term injury had plagued and it was a struggle to get out and get the miles in.  Despite that there was a resolute person battling along behind the scenes.  Walking at club sessions and helping to bring on our walking section.  Staying connected by social media and attending social gatherings.  But quietly, in the background, she was running.  Helped by osteopathy to re-commence the journey, she took advantage of a challenge through a charity she held dear and set a target.  Nobody was in on it.  It was something she tackled quietly in the background.  The target was 50 miles.  She ended on 73.  Rekindling a love for something so long missed.  Social miles completed with friends and longer runs than had been tackled in a long while.  At the same time completing a leadership course to give even more back to the club joining the ranks of wonderful leaders we have within our midst.  A story that warms the heart and an accolade to a determined soul.  Riding out such long periods of injury is tough.  This brings to mind times when we need to rally to support those within our midst who are struggling.  A huge hats off to my Chairman’s Female Runner of the Month for May, Jayne Bissmire, for her determined focus in the face of adversity and her fight to get back into the running groove.  Well done Jayne.