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Saturday 6 – parkruns

42 runners across 3 parkruns. A massive 39 at Porthcawl which is our second biggest attendance there after we had 46 at the 3rd anniversary run.  Joey Howland, Wayne Hayhurst, Graham Hillman, Victoria Hillman, Julie Webster, Nerys Jenkins and Karen Saunders ran PB’s whilst Natalie Griffiths ran a seasons best which was also a best time in 11 months. Victoria’s time was good enough to put her in the top 10 in the female 5K rankings. Julie Webster finally ran her first parkrun – for those that don’t know, she’s not exactly a beginner having done long course weekend, Ironman’s and is our female club record holder at Half Marathon and Marathon distance. Nerys knocked 52 seconds off her PB and was running her first parkrun since 2011. Karen knocked 48 seconds off her parkrun best.

It was David Kembery’s 100th parkrun but no PB attempt after running down with Melanie as part of marathon training. Chris Pratt, Gareth Richards (who also ran home), myself, Emma Loyns, Liz Davies, Fiona Evans and Steve Riddler carried out a nicely coordinated plan to all meet a different points to run the final few miles down together.

Away from Porthcawl, Julie and Shawn ran at Ashton Court parkrun in Bristol whilst David Sheard ran Pontefract parkrun which had a bumper attendance due to the 401 marathon team being there.

Sunday 7 – Gloucester Marathon and Brecon 10 miler

The inaugural Gloucester marathon was marathon number 7 in under 16 months for Antony who bagged his second marathon PB of the year with a 3:57. Jamie Vanstone was running his 3rd marathon or longer in just 6 weeks which included a 69 mile Ultra. His race didn’t quite go to plan today but still an great effort with 4:34. Wayne was running his second marathon of the year having done the Great Welsh Marathon in Llanelli and finished in a time of 4:15. Keith Coleman was running his second marathon in four weeks and beat his time from Tenby by over 10 minutes.

There were 23 of the Blue Wave at Brecon 10 miler where Niki Puleio broke his own 10 mile club record with a 1:06:34. Only 6 of the 23 had run a 10 mile race previously so it was guaranteed to be PB’s galore and there were excellent times across the board. Kirsty Evans was first Cwm Ogwr female across the line and was less than a minute off breaking the female club record which dates back to August 2013. There were age category club records for Fiona Drysdale and Denise Bradley. Special mention for Dai Power who had a stormer coming in at 1:49:48. Many were also using the event as an ideal training run for Port Talbot and Severn Bridge Half Marathons later in the month.

Saturday 13 – parkruns

45 runners across 3 parkruns which is just 1 below our record. 43 of which were at Porthcawl for Natalie Griffiths 100th parkrun which several Cwm Ogwr members wore fancy dress for to celebrate. There were PB’s for Lloyd West, Ellen Wyn Evans, Matthew Hopkins, Chris West and last months runner of the month, Pippa Clark. Elsewhere, Jamie Vanstone got a PB at Cardiff parkrun whilst Ann Davies ran at Colby.

Sunday 14 – Cottrell Park 10K

A quiet Sunday for a change with just 3 runners at this one. 61 of our runners had done part of the course in the relays back in May but clearly the thought of running ‘Bunker Hill’ as part of a longer race wasn’t too appealing. Also worth pointing out that many were doing final long runs before upcoming half marathons, marathons or ultra’s. Back to the race and Jamie Vanstone ran the course in a swift 46 minutes whilst Daniel Clark clocked just over 51 minutes which is quicker than doubling his 5K best at the time. Christie came in just under the hour mark but had done a lot of mileage in the previous few days again as part of marathon training.

Saturday 20 – parkruns and Welsh 5K Championships

A record 50 runners across 4 parkruns. Ellen Wyn Evans ran at the beautiful setting of Penrhyn Castle which Chris and I did a few weeks ago, Neil Harris ran his first parkrun in 3 months at Pontypridd, Ceri and Jackie ran at the Gnoll whilst there were a record 46 at Porthcawl. Due to a combination of wind, rain and high tide, it meant for only the second time in 177 Porthcawl parkruns that they had to use the second contingency course which means 4 and a bit laps of Salt Lake Car Park. This week was Peter’s 100th parkrun where the theme was ‘short shorts’. There were some fantastic efforts and I think the boys may out outdone the girls this week with Aled, Daniel and myself all wearing worryingly small, tight shorts (in my case, actually boxer shorts).

As for the running bit, a miscalculation meant the course was a little short which in turn meant a lot of personal bests and seasons bests although a few still would have achieved them on an accurately measured course so don’t want to take anything away. Incredibly Neil Jones equaled his club record time of 17:21 despite having run 20+ miles to Porthcawl. Graham and Wayne achieved their first sub 21 minute times whilst Daniel Clark knocked over 3 minutes off his PB from a few weeks ago. Peter came agonisingly close to beating his PB which has stood for 14 months, missing out by 2 seconds but still recording a second best time ever parkrun time. Kelly recorded her best time in over a year with a 23:59.

Diana Purnell smashed her PB by almost a minute with a 26:03 whilst Dawn Hopkins achieved a seasons best. A massive well done to our 3 new parkrunners with Kristie, Nina and Martyn. Completing the huge list of PB’s were Shawn, Jamie B, Chris S, Julie R, Matthew H, Angela and Rhiannon W.

That evening was the Welsh 5K Championships where Juliet Amner had signed up for the womens race with the exciting prospect of a medal as the age categories were split into 5 year segments like in parkrun. I didn’t intend running and only decided last minute to go down to support… only to end up signing up to run in the men’s race along with Christie. Neither Christie or I were near PB times and finished 78th and 74th respectively out of 80 runners which is unsurprising given this was the best Wales (or at least South Wales) had to offer. The winning time was 14:38 and 58 of the 80 runners in the men’s race finished sub 20. The guy who finished 2 seconds behind me who I needed a sprint finish to pip to line was in the 75+ category. I’d be happy with running 42 minutes at that age let alone 22 minutes!

An agonising wait afterwards as they went through all the age category top 3’s to find out if Juliet had got a medal… and she did! Second place and a SILVER medal in the women’s 55-59 category – amazing. Worth reiterating this was a National championship so a pretty major medal to win. She also smashed her 5K PB with a 25:09.

Sunday 21 – Port Talbot Half Marathon, Merthyr 10K, Tuska Tri and Cotswold Challenge

16 runners at the ‘inaugural’ Port Talbot Half Marathon. I say ‘inaugural’ because there has been a free half marathon run on the same course for a few years but in the opposite direction to this one, however, this was the first time it had been official with pre-entries, an officially measured course and chip timing. All at a very reasonable £15 for affiliated runners which included a medal, shirt and goodie bag. We probably would have had a lot more runners but a few had already signed up for the Severn Bridge HM a week later before entries for this one opened.

The course follows gravel paths and cycle tracks around the beautiful setting of Afan Argoed. The first 6.5 miles were a mostly gentle descent before a short sharp zig zag hill in the middle, followed by a shallow but constant incline for the second half. Nick was our first runner back in 1:38 whilst our first female back was Kirsty Evans in 1:54. As described, it wasn’t an ideal course for going for PB’s but Gareth Richards, Lloyd West and Neil Morgan were all recorded as PB’s with it being their first half with the club. Gary Piper improved on his Swansea by several minutes whilst despite the tougher course than Swansea, Denise beat her PB by 3 minutes.

Dawn Hopkins and June Parry ran the Merthyr 10K coming in at 57 minutes. Lorna and Helen Griffiths entered the Tuska Tri which due to sea conditions was changed to a Duathlon with a 5K run at the start instead of the sea swim. That actually worked out very well for them as Lorna ran her fastest time in over 2 years whilst Helen got a PB before going onto do the bike and then a 2.5K run to finish. Natalie Griffiths also did the bike leg as part of a team. Richie Pett completed the Cotswold Challenge Triathlon which was a roughly Half Ironman distance event – a great effort considering by his own admission he’d done very little training since his Ironman back in May.

Saturday 27 – parkruns, Llantwit 10K and Narbeth Nobbler

Yet another record attendance with 52 runners across 4 parkruns. The parkruns were part of ‘I am team GB’ day with many runners wearing GB / union jack / red, white and blue. Signs and t-shirts were also handed out with several of the blue wave getting involved. We now top the table at Porthcawl parkrun for most different members who’ve run there (159) and number of runs between us (3424).

Neil was first at Porthcawl and only missed out on his PB by 1 second. Gareth Richards got a PB with another sub 20. Sarah Littlewood knocked an amazing 45 seconds off her PB with a little encouragement from the clubs top pacers (me and Dai K) on the final 2K. There was an 18 second PB for Julie Griffiths and PB of the day went to Jayne Powney who knocked 1 minute 42 seconds off her pervious best for her first sub 30 parkrun finish. Well done to Rhian, Llinos and Claire on their first parkruns.

Elsewhere there were huge PBs for Dawn Hopkins and June Parry at Pontypridd parkrun. So close for Katie Wood at Raphael parkrun in Romford coming in 2 seconds short of a PB on her first parkrun tourism. Finally, Bethan Cross ran Barry before going onto do Llantwit 10K.

11 of the blue wave signed up for Llantwit 10K with 6 having done a parkrun before whilst Adam Rowe had done the Llantwit 5K event. A lovely but tough 10K course. However, it was the first race I’ve done were all the kilometre markers were out (too soon) but then they added it all in after the 9K mark which was about 1.3K from this finish which was a bit cruel. Great medal and good entry price.

As for the race itself, Nick Harris was first back in just over 45 minutes whilst new member Simon Harrison was next up. Graham Hillman and I ran the first 4 miles together before he pulled away to finish a few seconds ahead. Lloyd West and first female for the club, Nicola Symmonds was up next, followed by Victoria Hillman, Christie, Adam, Kimberley Thomas and Bethan. It was a PB for Kimberley as it was her first ever 10K race and first event overall outside of parkrun.

Kevin ran the inaugural Narbeth Nobbler Half Marathon. A tough off road half (bit longer than 13.1) with plenty of hills and technical terrain. Results not available at the time of writing but according to Strava data Kevin finished in just over 2 hours.

Sunday 28 – Severn Bridge Half Marathon

28 runners for this one which was run over a vastly different course to the previous years. Elevation profiles and comments suggested organisers had decided to make it much tougher with hills throughout rather than the old profile with was mostly downhill after the big hill in the middle.

Niki Puleio was first back in his first half marathon with the club in a blistering 1:30:35. Our first female finisher was Juliet Amner who finished in 1:58 and was 5th in her age category. First female finisher from last weeks Half Marathon, Kirsty Evans finished just a minute behind for her second sub 2 hour time in 8 days. Rob and Chris Pratt helped pace Nicola Prior to a PB – an amazing effort considering her previous PB was on the much flatter Llanelli course. Dawn Hopkins ran with Kirstie Edwards who got a PB of 2:34 whilst Rhiannon Buckley and Sian LG got their target of sub 3 hours and two shiny new PB’s.

Monday 28 – South Wales Trail Half Marathon

Organised by Run Walk Crawl who’s events include the Vale Ultra and Gower 50 miler, this was always going to be a tough event. A half marathon through Llanwonno Forest just North of Pontypridd with 2000 feet of elevation over varying terrain. Neil Jones finished second and actually beat the previous course record by 5 minutes. Jamie Vanstone finished in 7th place whilst David Sheard continued his year of off road events with another one ticked off the list.

Tuesday 29 – Parc Slip

ANOTHER RECORD ATTENDANCE. 89 Cwm Ogwr Runners registered for the event with 83 actually running it. This was the 4th fixture of the Bridgend League with the biggest combined attendance to date from the 6 clubs with over 220 runners. Neil was 4th overall but beaten by two ‘guests’ so was 2nd for league scoring purposes. The distance was 3.5 miles so you could either say we all got ‘3.5 mile PB’s’ or there weren’t any PB’s due to it not being one of the standard distances. I won’t go through all 83 results so will just say a massive well done to everyone that ran. There is one amazing stat I want to share from that race though, which is that 44 of our 83 runners only signed up to the club this year! That number increases to around 70 for members who’ve signed up in the last 18 months.

Chairman’s Male Runner of the Month – Jamie Vanstone

Runner of the month in his first full month with the club – it’s all downhill from here! Interestingly Jamie commented the other day that Christie ‘never misses an event’ however this coming from someone who this month did 3 parkruns (two of which were PB’s), the Parc Slip race, an off road 10K where he was first club finisher back in 46 minutes, a hilly off road half marathon in which he finished in 7th place, and the small matter of the Gloucester Marathon. The marathon was also his third race of 26.2 miles or over in just 6 weeks and one of those was a 69 mile Ultra. Jamie has also attended both Ogmore and Pandy Park sessions despite having to travel further than most showing great commitment to training.  Tomorrow he plans on running the 33 mile Vale Ultra course… despite not being in training for a marathon – bonkers.

Chairman’s Female Runner of the Month – Juliet Amner

Our first female ‘national medal winner’ with a second placed age category finish after her PB performance at the Welsh 5K Championships. Juliet followed that up by being our first female finisher in the Severn Bridge Half Marathon and getting a sub 2 hour finish for a 5th placed age category finish. Finally in the Parc Slip fixture, she was 1st in her age category for over 55 females.

Coming up in September

Another huge month ahead. Rose Inn Relays next Monday followed by the 5th fixture in the Bridgend League on Wednesday and 80+ members signed up for the Cardiff 10K on the Sunday. The following week will see another huge blue wave descend on Swansea for the 10K whilst the end of the month sees Cwm Ogwr compete in the first of the West Glam Cross Country League fixtures. It’s going to be another amazing month for the Blue Wave.

Saturday 16th – parkruns, Merthyr Mawr Trail Festival and Race to the Stones

Zero parkrun tourists and Porthcawl the only venue – not sure when the last time that happened. It’s not often I write about low numbers but at 23 parkrunners, it’s the lowest in a while even though that’s still more than most clubs on a good week! Gareth Richards joined the sub 20 club with a 19:57 after several close attempts in recent weeks. He becomes the 15th person to run a sub 20 5K for Cwm Ogwr. Pippa Clark also got a PB with a 44:28 which is her 3rd parkrun PB in as many attempts.

The inaugural Merthyr Mawr Trail Festival offered a 7.2 mile ‘Rabbit Run’ and an 18 mile ‘Witches Run’ around Merthyr Mawr estate including pretty much all terrain with grass, mud, gravel, tarmac, sand, farmland, crop fields and a waist deep river crossing. I was first Cwm Ogwr home in the Rabbit Run which included a ‘Riverbank Rollick style’ muddy section from mile 1 to 2.5 – the 18 milers had to do it twice! The 7.2 miler turned out to be closer to 8 but a great run with a bit of everything included. Peter Harrop, Caerwyn and Dai Power all also completed the Rabbit Run.

In the 18 miler, Neil Jones finished in a fantastic 2nd place overall. He only lost out to Andrew Tuckey who is an international runner who specialises in long distance and off road events of anything up to 100K! Neil encouraged his mate Tim Phillips to join the club and he was our next finisher followed by Chris Pratt, David Sheard, Brian Cotton, Christie Coleman and Kris Denholm who ran most of the race with no shoes on! Chris, Christie and Kris clocked up over 20 miles for the day as they also ran parkrun.

The Race to the Stones is a 100K Ultra that can be done over 1 day as a ‘non-stop’ event or split into two 50K days. Maria Lalic was back for her second attempt having had to drop out on doctors orders at 50K last year whilst Nicola Symmonds was making her Ultra distance debut, also attempting the two day option. Unfortunately the dreaded blisters struck again for Maria and again she was made to call it a day after the first 50K. Nicola and Maria actually finished within just a few minutes of each other on day one. Nicola went on the complete day 2 in a substantially faster time than day one and finished the total 100K in a little over 17 hours. Amazing achievement.

Sunday 17th – Pontypridd Loop 10K(ish)

Interestingly despite this one being a popular choice when asking for votes on club championship races, there were only 3 of us who did it making it by far the smallest club championship event this year. This was a rare local event I hadn’t done before and I signed up last minute along with Jenna Horn. Fiona Drysdale was doing the for 3rd year in a row. Apart from knowing the race was multi terrain and somewhere around 6 miles / 10K, I was entering the unknown, unable to find any elevation profiles. So it came as a bit of a surprise when Fiona told me that the first 4 miles are all uphill! This was confirmed in the race briefing and then in the race itself. Admittedly it was a steady incline and had the odd short flat recovery on the way, but still pretty tough going – especially after two events the previous day for me. I was looking forward to the descent but when it finally came it turned out to be quite technical and not quite the fast couple of miles I was hoping for. A great race – only £6 if signing up in advance or £8 on the day. You don’t really expect anything for that entry fee but there was still a Ponty Roadents buff, water and a selection of chocolate / sweets to dig into. I finished the race in 53 minutes whilst Fiona was just over the hour mark with Jenna back in 1:24.

Wednesday 20th – Kenfig 5K

New record attendance with 74 of the Blue Wave running one of the toughest 5K’s around. Hills are friends, sand is not! Particularly 2 miles of it. Neil finished 2nd overall for the second time in 5 days with Niki Puleio our next runner in. This fixture was the third in the Bridgend League and team scoring is based on the top 15 runners positions of each team being added together, then a point deducted for each additional runner over 15. The aim is to get the lowest score so everyone makes a different whether first or last runner in. So with that in mind we were delighted to find when the final results were published that we finished 1st in the team scoring!! A massive well done to all involved and particularly to a few Zero to Hero runners who were running it as their first official event. A great event organised by Cornelly Striders and dare I say it, I think they may actually have had even more cakes than we did in our events.

Saturday 23rd – parkruns

40 runners at 7 different parkruns in 3 different countries. 26 at Porthcawl where Dave Evans equalled his seasons best on his 200th parkrun with a 19:58. Dave becomes the first Cwm Ogwr member to reach that milestone of 200 parkruns. Chris Pratt and I ran at Penrhyn parkrun, Chris Stanlake was at Penrose, and most impressively Denise Bradley ran Clement Waterfront parkrun in Florida whilst out there on holiday. She’s actually our second runner there after Kelly ran her 50th parkrun there last year.

Elsewhere there were 5 runners at Swansea parkrun including Aled and Brian who were going on from there do recce the first third of the Gower 50 course. There were also 4 runners at the Gnoll parkrun including parkrun tourists Shawn Cullen and Julie Ransom.

Sunday 24th – Snowdonia Trail Half Marathon

After seeing this advertised last year, this was high on the must do race list for me in 2016. A half marathon that climbs to the top of Snowdon with 4000 feet of elevation. To put that into context, Snowdon Marathon is 2800 feet and doing the Beast run twice would only be 2500 feet. Myself and Chris started way to far back in the starting pen and as a consequence got held up a lot in the first few miles on the narrow paths up Snowdon. Chris headed off into the distance after a mile and I didn’t see him again until the end when I discovered he’d fallen on a steep descent after 3 miles and had hurt his ankle in the process but fortunately was able to continue. Mile 5-6 was incredibly steep rising 1200 feet in a mile. I reached the top of Snowdon in around 1:40 (after 6.5 miles)… my half marathon PB is 1:34 so it took me longer just to reach half ways.

The descent was down the Llanberis path which despite being one of the more well maintained paths on Snowdon, you soon discover how uneven it is when trying to run down it. I actually loved it and passed around 20 people on the descent and on review after the race, closed the gap considerably to Chris who had got to the summit a good 10 minute ahead. Reaching the bottom we were told to turn right and through a gate onto a flat section through some trees. After the fast descent I was determined to keep the pace up so after going through the gate I sprinted off knowing the toughest bit was over… however, after less than 50 meters my foot kicked what I think was a tree root sticking out of the ground and I fell flat on my face. The combination of trying to keep the pace up and force of the fall meant I literally bounced forward and it was only after the race I discovered my knee was dropping with blood and two 4 inch cuts down my right calf which must have scraped along some branches / stones as I continued forward on the ground. I got up quickly from the fall and carried on deciding that if the damage was that bad I’d soon know about it. A bit painful but no reason to stop. 3 miles to go.

As if climbing the highest mountain in Wales isn’t enough, the route then includes climbing a Slate Quarry from mile 11-12 with a zig-zag path up and lots of steps! Just to add to the torture, mile 10.5-13 skirts the edges of the playing fields where the start / finish is so you can hear the commentator and supporters at the finish but still have up to 2.5 miles to go.. including another huge climb of 600 feet (equivalent of the Beast). The finish was a welcomed sight and after 250+ events it’s not often I throw my arms in the air in celebration but completing that one felt like an achievement worth celebrating. The bloodied legs were soon pointed out when I seen Chris who had come in just 2 minutes ahead and was still in the finish funnel where his partner Jo and my wife Amanda and my 2 year old twin boys were waiting to cheer us in. A visit to the first aid tent for the first time in my running career was required. It was a popular venue with so many taking a tumble at some point in wet and therefore slipping conditions on tough terrain. The next guy in after me had actually cut both knees, elbows and had blood running down his face from hitting his head. Incredibly he seemed very calm about it all like it’s the sort of thing that happens all the time. In fact, he only came in because his wife who was a first aider herself insisted. A race not for the faint hearted. Loved it and hated it in equal measurers. A personal worst half marathon time of 2:52 but it was never about the time. A great experience. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned, we did the easy option.. there’s a marathon as well!

Saturday 30th – parkruns

42 of the Blue Wave across 6 different parkruns in 3 different countries! 36 of which were at Porthcawl were Neil Jones was first finishers overall with a time of 17:29 – just 8 seconds outside his PB and comfortably in front of the second placed runner. New member Jamie Vanstone who has run multiple marathons and an ultra finally did his first parkrun with a cracking first time of 20:38. Several members ran down to parkrun as part of training for half and full or ultra marathons. Pippa Clark made it 4 PB’s in 4 attempts with a 44:24 with Bev Sheard in support.

Fiona Drysdale ran the Inverness parkrun where her son Jamie ran an incredible 18:45. Sarah Littlewood ran at Wolverhampton and clocked a big PB with 26:00. Dai Power and Julie Ransom ran at Bryn Bach and Saul Harris ran at Southampton. Down at the Gnoll, Richard Lowcock James ran the three lap off road course and fell on the final lap. He finished despite later needing stitches in his knee. There’s certainly a lot of competition for ‘best fall’ award this year!

Sunday 31st – Tenby 10K and Magor Marsh 10K

Emma Loyns was first finisher at Tenby with an excellent time of 57 minutes considering the injuries over the past few months. Dawn Hopkins also came in under the hour mark whilst Ann Davies finished in 1:03 and Kirstie Edwards clocked 1:08.

At Magor 10K, Niki Puleio ran an incredible 40:02 despite having run down to parkrun the day before and after a few weeks off regular running whilst out in France supporting Wales in the Euro’s. Kirsty Evans ran a PB of 52:06 whilst Panda teammate (you’ll have to ask them), Bethan Cross also got a PB with 1:07:25.

Chairman’s Male Runner of the Month – Gareth Richards

Two parkrun PB’s including finally breaking the 20 minute barrier after several close calls. Gareth was also first Cwm Ogwr runner back in the Drovers 10K and put in brilliant performances in Cosmeston Relays and Kenfig 5K.

Chairman’s Female Runner of the Month – Pippa Clark

Three parkrun PB’s during July and a great effort at both the Cosmeston Relays and Kenfig Sands 5K. Amazing progress.

June 1 – Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K

Another record for Cwm Ogwr with 68 runners for the 5K out and back along Merthyr Mawr Lane. In 2013 we had 3 runners for this, 2014 was 7, and last year 12 which goes to show the phenomenal increase in membership and participation in events over the past year.

I won’t go through every result but some highlights at the front end included Neil Jones being our first runner back in 17:41, Aled smashing his PB by 31 second with a 19:28, Richie Pett also getting a huge PB and just missing sub 20 with a 20:02, new member Gareth Richards with a PB of 20:13 and Brian getting a PB of 20:35.

There were also PB’s for Richard Purnell, Antony Lewis, Keith Coleman, Neil Morgan, Claire DB, Adam, Daniel, Carole, Julie G, Clare W and Sarah L whilst Shelley (first club female) and Denise both equalled their PB’s.

The PB’s continued with Emma W, Beverley, Jo K, Gail, Andrea R, Kimberley D, Helen G, Kelly G, Jamie, Rhian N, Rhiannon W, Lynda D, Pippa and Louise! A pretty successful evening. Massive well done to Pippa and Louise on their first official 5K race as well.

The huge participation helped the club move up from 4th to 3rd place in the team scoring for the Bridgend League.

June 4 – parkruns

34 runners across 6 different parkrun venues. 17 ran at Porthcawl where the alternative course is still being used – rare to see no PB’s which maybe says something about the tougher course… or the fact everyone smashed it at Merthyr Mawr a few days previously.

There were 12 Cwm Ogwr runners at Swansea Bay parkrun which has seen some great times from those who’ve visited to date, and this time was no different. Brian obliterated his PB set just 4 days earlier by a massive 52 seconds to go sub 20 in some style with a 19:43. An amazing achievement for someone who has been running for several years and has missed a years worth of running through injury over the past couple of years. Dai K got a seasons best whilst Beverley Sheard, Kimberley D and Lynda D all picked up their second 5K PB’s of the week.

Elsewhere, I ran at the off road Bath Skyline parkrun and Dawn Hopkins ran at Hackney Marshes whilst in London on a weekend away. You know you’ve got the running bug when you start looking for your nearest parkrun / race whilst away for the weekend. Chris Pratt ran at Huddersfield where a ‘taking it easy before the marathon’ turned into an outstanding 20:08 PB on a course with multiple sharp turns. Meanwhile, the club’s multiple record holder was at it again getting a PB of 17:21 at Cardiff whilst Chris Williams bagged himself a new PB with a 19:46.

June 5 – Huddersfield Marathon, Swansea Triathlon and Bridgend Race for Life

Chris Pratt ran his 4 marathon (or longer) in 14 weeks at the hilly Huddersfield Marathon. The gruelling course included 3,600 feet of elevation (for context, Snowdonia Marathon is 2,800 feet), and temperatures rose up to 28 degrees surely making it one of the toughest UK road marathon’s you could run this year. Chris completed the course in 4:11:17 finishing an impressive 14 out of 62 runners.

Sian Tossell added Triathlete to her list of sporting achievements as she completed the inaugural Swansea Sprint Triathlon. Well done also to Rhiannon W, Rhiannon B, Louise, Tammie, Jo K, Lisa and Carla all ran the Bridgend Race For Life.

June 7 – Brecon 5 mile and Craig Y Allt Summer Fell Race

Neil Jones joined some of his Pontyclyn Road Runners training buddies at the Brecon 5 mile event. Neil was on for a PB and another club record before confusion at the finish meant he went the wrong way and lost a few seconds to finish dead on 30:00. His PB was 29:56.

I went along to the Craig y Allt Fell Race which started near and finished at the Mountain View Ranch at the top of Caerphilly Mountain. I’d already done Pentyrch Hill Race (twice) and Preseli Beach Bach which were both classified fell races but felt this was my first proper venture in the world of fell running. Only 56 runners and I got the impression most had done these sort of races before so despite my hundreds of events and years of running, I felt like a complete beginner again.

Only a 4 mile race but with plenty of steep inclines and a proper fell race experience running through knee high grass with seemingly no obvious path, unavoidable stinging nettles and brambles, climbing over or ducking under fallen tree trunks a couple of small stream crossings and various terrain throughout. Hot temperatures made it even tougher but I took a sensible approach and was happy to slow it down and follow the ones who knew what they were doing! I finished 45 out of 56 runners for probably one of my lowest finishes ever but that didn’t matter. A great friendly atmosphere and definitely has increased my interest in trying a few more fell runs – albeit I think I’m happy to stick to the shorter ones for now.

June 8 – Corntown Kicker 9K(ish)

Initially part of a three race series that was advertised, we decided to make this a club race only to concentrate efforts on making the Drovers Run a bigger event. The Ewenny / Corntown village hall had already been booked and Dai Cappell had recce’d the course and put out signage with a few members offering to volunteer on marshalling and timing.

35 members ran in warm conditions with Neil Jones over 5 minutes ahead of everyone else with a 36:32 despite his efforts in Brecon the night before. Gareth Richards was second followed by on form Brian, then me and Aled. Great efforts throughout the field and I having it under race conditions with timing, marshals etc made it a really good tempo run for most as it can be easy to back off on a normal 5-6 mile training session. The route included a couple of style’s early on and a run through a long uphill crop field. Onto quiet country roads with a few hills spread over the course. Excellently signposted and marshalled (thanks to Natasha, Bethan, Sian, Chris and Dan) with timing and results recorded by Heather and Amanda. Definitely one to be repeated.

June 10 – Cardiff Summer Series 3 miler

Christie and I turned up for this one with Christie having completed the 1 mile and 2 mile events over the past couple of months and is on course to complete the series of four. Wearing my Cwm Ogwr shirt (of course) it was great to hear so many come over and remark on the amazing growth of the Blue Wave and our numbers at events like Merthyr Mawr. Hopefully all bodes well for when we apply for Welsh Castles Relays next year. As for the race, a change to the advertised course meant it was 2 smaller laps rather than what I thought was a lap loop of the two lap CPR 10K course. Little bit disappointed as I feel like I run better on courses I’m familiar with but given it was a 3 mile race and not a 5K, it wasn’t a big deal. A mix up with my watch meant I ended up not knowing how far I’d gone and after lap one I thought the second lap must be shorter… it was longer. I honestly started thinking they’d got confused and set out the 4 mile course instead but it was correct. I clocked 20:52 whilst Christie did a 23:55 with warm conditions for the week continuing despite this being a 7:30pm start. .

June 11 – parkruns and Man vs Horse

38 runners across 4 different parkruns this week with a lot of our recent tourists returning to Porthcawl which seen a biggest attendance in a while of 31. Having got within 9 seconds of a sub 20 time the previous week, Chris Pratt went for it again despite the fact we’re still on the alternative course. His watch said 19:59 but the timers confirmed straight away that they had it as 20:00. Mixed emotions for Chris – so agonisingly close to sub 20 but at the same time, a PB on not the easiest of parkrun courses with three 180 degree turns and a bit of incline. Richard Purnell set a parkrun PB although a few seconds outside his overall 5K time set at Merthyr Mawr whilst Beverley got a Porthcawl parkrun PB which was a few seconds outside her time at Swansea the week before. Chris Stanlake set a new PB whilst Louise Bennett and Pippa Clark (accompanied by female captain Sian T) also achieved personal bests.

Away from Porthcawl it was Richie Pett’s turn to give the Swansea course a go with parkrun PB of 20:35. Martin Beard ran at Pomphrey Hill parkrun near Bristol. Interestingly I did that one back in May 2014 when they only had around 80 runners.. now they regularly have over 350 runners. Unfortunately this is partly due to the closure of Little Stoke parkrun but on a more positive note it had significantly increased prior to that showing the growth in parkrun participation. We also had 5 runners at Cardiff with Neil J setting his second fastest time of 17:31 whilst Chris W set another new PB with 19:40 and Brian and the Denholms continuing their run of parkrun tourism.

Fiona Drysdale ran the Man vs Horse race as part of a relay team who finished 3rd overall. The race consists of 22 miles of off road running with waist deep rivers and tough climbs. As the name suggests it is actually a race against horses. Man has only won twice in 36 years although apparently there have been a few close finishes.

June 12 – NO RACES!??!?!?

First Sunday in months that there’s no Cwm Ogwr members running in some event or other. However, it did mean that there was increased attendance for Richards trail session with a few completing the Beast run for the first time and of course Zero to Hero where we continue to get a steady stream of new runners working towards 5K whilst also accommodating for those doing 10K or further.

June 18 – parkruns

36 runners across a record 10 different parkrun venues! Porthcawl continued on the alternative course which is seen by many as ‘tougher’ however this didn’t stop Claire Dunbar-Bowen getting an incredible 24:02 – smashing her PB by almost a minute and a half and promoting her to one of the fastest females in the club this year (and ever). Phil Buckley, Dianna Purnell (paced by Denise), and Ann Lalic all also got significant PB’s with Ann sneaking under 30 minutes perfectly with a 29:59.

Chris Pratt, Nick, Sian T and I headed to Swansea parkrun with Chris and I having our sights set on fast times. Chris smashed sub 20 for the first time with a 19:39 making it 3 parkrun PB’s in 3 weeks at 3 different venues. I knocked 17 seconds off my PB with a 20:10 – my first 5K improvement in over a year so very pleased with that. Nick acted as a great unintentional pacer and let me pass for my moment of PB glory as we got into the final straight.

Aled, Brian and the Kembery’s went to the inaugural Cwmbran parkrun with Aled posting a new parkrun PB of 19:43 on what apparently wasn’t the best ‘PB course’. Elsewhere Richard LJ ran Grangemoor, Julie and Natalie Griffiths ran Lanhydrock (apparently one of the toughest parkruns in the UK), Fiona Drysdale ran Pontypridd, new member Angela Parry ran at Mulbarton, Caerwyn was at Killerton, Shawn and Julie were at Newbury, and Liz Davis at Boston (UK not USA).

June 19 – Caerphilly 10K

22 Cwm Ogwr members in attendance on a record breaking day. Neil Jones smashed his own club record by over 4 minutes with a 35:26 whilst new member Nicola Symmonds who came to our attention after finishing 3rd Senior Female in the Cwm Ogwr 5 miler last month, broke the female club record by 20 seconds in her first event with the Blue Wave with a 47:31.

A plethora of PB’s elsewhere as well with Aled Hughes, Brian Cotton, Richie Pett and Keith Coleman finishing in between the two record breakers. Denise Bradley was second female with her 7th PB at 10K. Mark Worrall and Emma Williams also got PB’s under the hour mark with Chris Stanlake’s PB a couple of minutes the other side. Helen Griffiths followed up her Merthyr Mawr 5K PB with a her first 10K PB in over 3 years and seems to have really hit some form whilst training for the Long Course Weekend and other challenges this year. Kirstie Edwards and Rhiannon Buckley completed the course in great PB times as well.

June – 25 – parkruns

From 10 different parkruns last week to just 2 this week – do Cwm Ogwr members all go away on the same weekends? Despite less tourism and a lot of members saving themselves for Swansea HM the next day there was still over 33 members parkrunning. At Porthcawl, Gareth Richards was first Cwm Ogwr runner across the line with a 20:12. Another runner knocking on the door of the sub 20 club. Kelly and Heather had posted on Facebook earlier in the week to offer their services as pacers with Richard G, Bev S and Sian T decided to join in on the day. Between them they helped encourage Lisa J, Nicola C, Rhiannon W and Pippa Clark to PB’s.

Meanwhile, our tourism crew were also helping each other along with Dai Kembery’s ‘gentle encouragement’ helping Shawn Cullen to knock over a minute off his PB with a 27:20. Chris Stanlake also bagged himself a PB with a 29:04 whilst Aled ran with Jayne K who clocked her fastest time in a couple of months with Julie R not far behind. Impressively Shawn and Julie have ran at 6 different parkrun venues in their 11 overall parkruns to date.

June 26 – Swansea Half Marathon

Huge turnout of 33 Cwm Ogwr members including several first timers. Again, the first member across the line was Neil Jones and again in a phenomenal time of 1:18:51 – knocking over 6 minutes off his personal best and of course club record. The first 6 runners all got PB’s which were Aled, myself, Brian, Chris P and David Kembery. Antony L and Chris R knocked a couple of minutes off their respective PB’s whilst Nicola Symmonds only missed out on a second club record in as many weeks by a minute with a 1:45:44.

A couple of amazing performances next up with Shelley clocking a 5 minute PB of 1:47:24 and Claire Dunbar Bowen getting the biggest PB of the day knocking 13 minutes off her Great Welsh HM time with a 1:48:31. In 3 months she has gone from a debut marathon of 2:11 to 1:48 – a 23 minute improvement Great PB for Rob Pritchard a few minutes behind.

An awesome debut half marathon from Kirsty Evans with a 1:54:16 – not many females in any club can claim a debut half marathon time that quick. More fabulous performances from our ladies with Melanie Thomas, Emma Williams (debut HM), Diana Purnell (first HM with club), Gail P and Katie Wood (debut HM), Bethan Cross (debut HM), Kerry Edwards, Alana Charles (debut HM) and Louise Bennett (debut HM) all claiming PB’s.

Around a dozen of our members also took the opportunity to be ‘race makers’ for the event, marshalling between mile 1-2 before moving to mile 11-12. Amazing support and many of the ones to volunteer were relatively new members of the club which is great to see. A massive thanks to all involved.

Chairman’s Runner of the Month

With the big increase in membership (I think we’re now over the 150 mark) and mass participation in events, I’m going to start having a male and female runner of the month. This month was probably the toughest to date with so many great performances particularly at Merthyr Mawr 5K, Caerphilly 10K and Swansea HM, club records smashed to pieces and lots of first timers.

Chairman’s Male Runner of the Month – Aled Hughes

To be fair, he’s probably been the running every month this year and couldn’t ignore the amazing 19:28 at Merthyr Mawr which lowered a PB that had stood for 2 and a half years. Then a 19:43 for a parkrun PB at Cwmbran, a PB by around 2 minutes at Caerphilly 10K, and then another big PB at Swansea Half Marathon last weekend. He also helped pace Jayne K at Grangemoor parkrun to her best time in a few weeks and is on course to do more races this year than the previous 3 years put together.

Chairman’s Female Runner of the Month – Claire Dunbar Bowen

As already mentioned above Claire has had an improved at an incredible rate since joining the club at the start of the year. Only as recently as this February I ran with her at a Zero to Hero session where she completed her then longest run of 5 miles but she has gone on to run 3 Half Marathons since going from 2:11 to 1:48 making her one of the fastest females in the club. This month Claire also clocked a PB at Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K and then knocked around a minute and half off that a couple of weeks later with a 24:02 at Porthcawl parkrun.

Well done both.

Coming up in July

This weekend will see the club’s third event of the year (fourth if you include the Corntown Kicker) with the Drovers Run 10K which is being used to raise money for #teamevsy . The weekend after see’s several of our members take part in the Tenby Marathon with others aiming to complete the Long Course Weekend with a Friday swim race and Saturday bike race as well. Just 3 days later a huge contingent will be heading to the Cosmeston Relays and just 3 days after that is the Merthyr Mawr Trail Festival with race options from a 100m toddler dash to an 18 mile off roader through Merthyr Mawr Estate and the sand dunes. Then there’s the third fixture of the Bridgend League with Kenfig 5K on Wednesday 20th July plus lots more besides. Looks like another busy month for the Blue Wave!

May has seen distances ranging from 2.5 to 42 miles, a record number of events and attendances, club records broken, the start of the Bridgend League and the hugely successful fourth Cwm Ogwr 5 miler.

 

Sunday 1 May – Brecon to Cardiff 42 mile Ultra

 

Back last year when a few of us signed up for the Vale Ultra, Dai Kembery opted for this one instead with Aled promising to join him. He remained the only one on the list with just a couple of weeks to go before Nick Harris and Aled signed up and a shock entry from Brian Cotton. The shock being that he signed up for a 42 miler having only run his furthest distance of 19 miles in the Vale Ultra.

 

They decided to run the course together with Jon Thiel of Bridgend Athletic. All went well until they split up at some point and Nick and Brian took a slight detour (just as they did in the Vale races!). Obviously 42 miles wasn’t enough so they wanted to add a bit on! With 3.2 miles remaining they put on t-shirts Dai had made with a photo of Army Captain David Seath who tragically collapsed that distance from the end of the London Marathon just a week previous. The tribute was picked up by Walesonline and featured in the Glamorgan Gazette along with details of how many of our other club runners ran a 3.2 mile tribute the same day or as part of a longer run. See below for link to article

 

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/config/config_topic/config_topic_news/config_topic_news_Bridgend/runners-complete-final-32-miles-11272482

 

Over a dozen supporters waited for our four hero’s at the finish line with some much needed cakes, alcohol and other goodies. Aled and Dai finished in 8:04 whilst Nick and Brian finished in 8:11 after their little detour. An exceptional effort by all and now talk has turned to the Gower 50 miler this October! Where will it end!

 

Sunday 1 May – Tonmawr Hilly 5

 

Several Cwm Ogwr runners made their way to Bryn Bettws Lodge for a 5 miler organised by Port Talbot Harriers. The course is off road with a mile long incline to start before a long downhill / undulating section before a steep half mile or so incline to finish. David Sheard was first Cwm Ogwr finisher whilst Kelly passed Fiona Drysdale on the final incline to claim first female in what was a club championship fixture to make up for the cancelled Cardiff Bay 5 miler which normally would have been that weekend.

 

Saturday 7 May – parkruns and Preseli Beast races

 

Drainage work on the lower Promenade meant that for the first time in over a year, the contingency course had to be used at Porthcawl which means doing ‘the hill’ to Rest Bay twice. Despite this Claire Dunbar Bowen, Kirsty Evans and Bethan Cross got PB’s with 19 Cwm Ogwr runners in attendance.  Elsewhere, Sarah and James Littlewood both clocked PB’s at Telford parkrun and myself, Brian, David S and Peter ran at Llyn Llech Owain on route to the Preseli Beast Bach race. Our Ponty contingent travelled to Cardiff for their parkrun fix with Lisa Jenkins also in attendance for her first parkrun as part of the club. My April Runner of the Month, Neil Jones, smashed his PB (and club record) recording his first sub 18 time by some margin with a 17:41.

 

As mentioned the four who did Llyn Llech Owain parkrun then went on to do the Preseli Beast Bach 11 miler along with Richard LJ (who had ran it the previous couple of years) and Ann Davis. We’d chosen the ‘short’ distance as there’s also a 24 miler and 33 miler which I’ll come onto later. The Beast Bach entailed 1,700 feet of elevation with mostly off road terrain including grass, mud and even a slate quarry. The final hill was un-runnable and after spreading out early on, myself, David and Brian all ended up walking up it together. Brian probably having the best excuse to walk given he’d run 44 miles just 6 days previous! I ended up being the first Cwm Ogwr runner across the line with David just half a minute or so behind and then Brian, Peter, Richard and Ann. A really tough race. A mixture of responses at the end ranging from my ‘I’d rather run Snowdon Marathon than do that again’ to Ann who ‘absolutely loved it’ and David who is considering the longer course next year. Great value at only £10 with no additional booking fees to enter. The cawl, bread roll and cheese was very welcome at the end along with a huge selection of cakes and a goody bag.

 

We waited a while for Kevin who we thought was doing the 24 mile race but didn’t see him. It was only the next day at the Zero to Hero session it came to light he’d actually got a place in the Ultrabeast race last minute… a 32 mile ultra with 6000 feet of ascent! Kevin finished in 6:14.

 

Sunday 8 May – Porthkerry 5 miler

 

Ten runners for this off road 5 miler around Porthkerry Park near Barry. Christie Coleman was first Cwm Ogwr runner across the line with Fiona Drysdale first female. Several runners were doing their first 5 miler with the club including Karen BH, Alica, Helen LJ and Sian LJ. Rhiannon Buckley suffered a back injury prior to the start but bravely continued and finished the course with Helen and Sian keeping her company along the way. Amazing team spirit.

 

Friday 13 May – Unilite Night Trail 10K

 

A rare Friday evening race attracted an incredible 38 Cwm Ogwr runners starting from the same place as the Hilly 5 but taking in a completely different course. The elevation profile was much the same though with a mile long climb to start before a two mile downhill section before flattening out. At this point I think all of us were aware we’d gone down a lot further than we climbed at the start so knew there was a hill to come and what a hill it was reducing almost all of us to walking at least part of it so agonisingly close to the end. A real sting in the trail! Neil Jones continued his amazing form finishing 2 overall and clocking the second fastest ever 10K time for a Cwm Ogwr member despite the off road course and killer hill at the end. I won’t go through the whole list of 38 but Betty Lee was first female in her fastest 10K since joining the club – it should be noted all of which are hilly off road trail 10K’s. It was a first off road trail 10K for many including Diana Purnell and Jayne Powney who picked up 10K PB’s. An really well organised event and many of our runners had an official Buff ‘buff’ for being in the first 50 to sign up plus there was a tech t-shirt, mug and sausage and chips afterwards. Almost everyone said they’d be back again next year.

 

Saturday 14 May – parkruns

 

Having enjoyed some parkrun tourism the previous week David S, Peter and Brian joined Aled, Shawn, Chris S and Julie at Pontypridd parkrun whilst Porthcawl endured the contingency course again. Brian equalled his PB with Neil Jones helping pace him. Unfortunately Neil had picked up his daughter’s barcode so the time appeared in her name probably breaking a British record for a under 10 female runner! Julie Ransom got an excellent PB of 33:07 and has already ran at 3 different parkrun venues. There was plenty of other tourism with Kirsty Evans setting a PB whilst on a hen weekend in Brighton, Richard LJ ran at Grangemoor with Fiona D and Dai P at Penallta.

 

Sunday 15 May – Cwm Ogwr 5 miler

 

Our fourth annual Cwm Ogwr 5 miler was a record breaker in several ways. A record 282 finishers (up from 162 the previous year), around 100 finishers in the 2K fun run (up from around 40-60 in previous years), plus course records in every category. Warm, sunny conditions met our huge team of volunteers with around 40 Cwm Ogwr members offering to help in various roles. Plus we still had a record 35 running the event as well. The event was won by James Thie from Cardiff AC whose name you may recognise from being the running coach on BBC TV program Alfies Angels where former Welsh Rugby International Gareth Thomas trained a group of ladies for the Cardiff Half Marathon. He smashed the course record in a blistering 26:44. Neil Jones broke another club record (which had stood for 3 years) with a phenomenal 29:56 and Niki Puleio was also inside the previous record with a 32:27. There were PB’s throughout the field with over two-thirds of our runners running their first 5 miler and many of them running our tough 5 mile loop for the first time. A special mention to Rhiannon Buckley, Sarah Rees and Louise Bennett who again showed team spirit crossing the line arm in arm.

 

An amazing and successful day which I’d like to again thank race director Kelly and everyone who helped out.

 

Thursday 19 May – Bwlch Run

 

Not an official event but a training run worth mentioning. Kelly had a bit of a shock when we received a entry to the 5 miler from someone living in Canada! The person in question was Pete Richards who grew up in the valley and had mentioned wanting to do a Bwlch Run as a tribute to his uncle Eddie whilst here. Kelly suggested we combined his run with our usual Thursday training night run and despite wet and misty conditions over 20 members turned up run either 8 miles from the Life Centre or a 4 mile route from the cattle grid to join Pete for the run. Another great example of why so many love this club.

 

Saturday 21 May – parkruns

 

A third week on the alternative course in Porthcawl meant that many of our runners decided to try a different venue with a biggest parkrun tourism Saturday to date. 16 went along to the Gnoll parkrun, Lisa Jenkins got a PB at Cardiff, Saul ran Bath Skyline parkrun, Neil Jones set another club record with a 17:31 at Pontypridd, Chris Roberts ran at Brentwood, Juliet Amner bagged a PB at Grangemoor and Ann Davies and I bumped into each other at Colby parkrun. Including the 18 that still ran Porthcawl, our total was an incredible 41 runners across 8 different parkruns.

 

Sunday 22 May – Cottrell Park Relays

 

Encouraged by our club captains and Kelly, we had over 60 runners across 16 teams making up over a third of the overall field. The event involved teams of four running 2.5 miles each in a predetermined order on an off road course which included the quite significant ‘Bunker Hill’ segment. Unlike most other relays events, mixed teams / age categories and even juniors were allowed with family teams encouraged and even fancy dress although no one took up the final option (one for next year). Some interesting team names with ‘The Old Farts Club’ consisting of Brian, Chris P, Aled and Kevin finishing 6 overall and eventually being awarded as winners of the male over 35 category after a bit of a mix up. Niki Puleio clocked the fastest split as part of the “8 legged groove machine” who finished 7 overall. Lorna clocked the fastest female split by one second over Shelley. A really fun event and definitely one to be repeated. Great effort by all and a few runners joined Shawn Cullen who was the final runner over line in the ‘Four Candles’ team.

 

Wednesday 25 May – Whitford Point Multi-Terrain Race

 

Five Cwm Ogwr members made the journey down to the Gower for this midweek multi-terrain 5.8 miler. The course includes tarmac, sand, forestry track, wooden bridges, gravel and grass for a proper multi terrain experience with a decent climb at the start and end (something a lot of the May races seem to include). Aled broke the club course record with a 42:51 with Brian just over 3 minutes behind. An in form David Sheard who seems to be entering every event lately came in at 52 minutes whilst Mark Worrall was just outside an hour with Sarah Littlewood following close behind accompanied by her husband James. Aled described it as one of his favourite races ever and I’m sure it’ll be one more members will try in future years.

 

Friday 27 May – Talley 5K and Cardiff Summer Series 2 miler

 

Richard Purnell made the trip down West for the Friday evening 5K organised by Sarn Helen Running Club. Still awaiting results but from what I’ve seen and heard it’s a great little race with beautiful scenery with BBQ afterwards and alcohol. I suspect more club members may have joined Richard had they known that last bit!

 

Christie ran the second event of the Cardiff Summer Series with a great time of 15:41 considering it was his first run back after nearly 2 weeks out injured. He’s hoping to complete the whole series which includes a 3 and 4 mile event over the next couple of months. Only £3 to enter each event and all on pancake flat courses around Bute Park on Friday evenings.

 

Saturday 28 May – parkruns

 

Another big week of parkrun tourism with 29 runners across 5 different parkruns. 17 of which were at Porthcawl were the contingency course is still in use. I got down there early and offered to pace 25 minutes and thought I’d go for a short warm up. However, after taking some random turns through Nottage I ended up in Rest Bay with only a few minutes to get back to the start line. Despite my best attempts, I missed the start and found almost 200 runners heading in my direction. I didn’t want to cheat and just turn around and join in so I headed back to the start line and had to sprint the first mile to get to roughly where I should have been had I paced it properly. Thankfully most seen the funny side but apologies to anyone who was hoping to follow the 25 minute pacer and I promise I’ll make the start next time. Anyway – on a brighter note, new member Ann Lalic got a PB as did Pat Stanley for the first time in almost a year with Christie Coleman running with her. Kris Denholm ran alongside his wife Lynda who knocked over 2 and a half minutes off her PB in a super effort.

 

Away from Porthcawl, 9 members made the trip to Barry Island parkrun with Aled leading the club members home on the double out and back course. Fiona Drysdale ran at Yeovil, Chris Roberts got a season best performance at Swansea and was only a few seconds off a long standing PB, whilst Julie Ransom knocked a huge amount off her PB at Grangemoor.

 

Sunday 29 May – Treforest 10K, Women’s Running 10K, Edinburgh Marathon and Liverpool Marathon

 

Still awaiting results of the Treforest 10K where Chris and Amy Roberts ran as well as Christie, Ann and new member Jonathan Edwards. According to Chris’s Strava data it looks like him and Amy ran around 52 minutes and a post by Jonathan suggested a 1:06 finish in his first 10K.

 

At the Cardiff Women’s Running 10K event there were 9 Cwm Ogwr runners – although with so many new members I’m still investigating whether I missed any. Kirsty Evans who only attended her first training session with the club less a month ago was 42nd overall in a time of 53:32 which is an incredible debut 10K with the club. There were also PB’s for Kimberley Davies, Bethan Cross (who started the same time as Kirsty), and longer standing members by comparison Rhian Nolan and Rhiannon Buckley both knocking a couple of minutes off their respective PB’s.

 

Antony Lewis ran the Edinburgh Marathon in a great time of 4:07:10 in warm conditions. His review of the popular marathon in keeping with reports I’ve heard elsewhere – basically that’s it’s not that great.

 

Dai Power ran his first marathon since joining the club with the Liverpool Rock and Roll Marathon. He finished in 6:07:48. A super effort on what apparently isn’t a flat course and again in warm conditions.

 

Bridgend Running League

 

This month has seen the announcement and first event of the Bridgend Running League. It came about after the successful Kenfig Sands 5K event last summer which was used as an inter-club one off competition with 20 runners from each of the clubs involved counting. Cwm Ogwr had the largest turnout and it was well represented by all clubs. Shortly after the event I suggested to contacts of each of the Bridgend County clubs (Bridgend, Brackla, Pencoed Tri, Cornelly Striders and Porthcawl) through e-mail that we could set up an inter-club league with each club hosting a fixture. Initially the responses were quite muted but eventually we got together to agree fixtures and see how it goes.

 

The first fixture was our Cwm Ogwr 5 miler which had an amazing 102 sign ups from the 6 clubs involved. The second fixture at Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K already has a record number of overall sign up’s and we could be looking at 150-200 just from the 6 Bridgend League clubs. Cwm Ogwr are currently 4th in the standings after the first event which technically should have been our weakest event given most of us were volunteering.

 

Of course there’s a competitive element to the league, but it’s also about the local clubs supporting each others events, creation of new events (of which there’ll be two this year), building relationships between club and more socialising between club members. There’s already talk of a presentation night at the end of the series.

 

Chairman’s Runner of the Month

 

Proving this ‘award’ (please note there is no award) is not just about PB’s, my runner of the month goes to David Sheard. David has had a series of great performances at the likes of the Hilly 5, Preseli Beast Bach, Unilite 10K, Cottrell Park Relays and Whitford Point entering almost every event possible. When he hasn’t been racing he’s also been helping out on Wednesdays and Sundays with some of our Zero to Hero members. Well done David.

 

Coming up in June

 

Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K will kick off the month where it looks like we could actually exceed the 61 runners we had in the Cottrell Relays. Chris Pratt will be heading off to do his 4th marathon (or further) event in the space of 14 weeks when he does the hilly Huddersfield Marathon next weekend. Later in the month we’re expecting big turnouts at the Caerphilly 10K and Swansea Half Marathon with many club members running the distances for the first time. The success of Zero to Hero continues with new people turning up almost every week and the real success is the fact they keep coming back for more.

April was the month of the marathon for Cwm Ogwr. It also seen the Porthcawl parkrun 3rd year celebrations and plenty of other races besides so lets get into it.

 

Saturday 2nd – parkruns

 

Whilst 17 Cwm Ogwr runners were running the Vale Ultra or 18 miler (see separate blog post), we still had an impressive 21 runners across 4 different parkruns. Neil ran at Pontypridd, Alana run at the Gnoll, whilst Kimberley ran Paris parkrun! The remainder were at Porthcawl with Keith Coleman, Beverley Sheard and Beth Rees getting personal bests.

 

Sunday 3rd – HBA 5/10/20 milers

 

The miler seen David Kembery running his first 5 miler in an impressive 6:59 minute mile average to clock 34:55. He was also 3rd veteran but unfortunately there were no prizes on offer. Jo Kendall, Jayne K, Nicola H and Rhiannon B all also picked up first time PB’s for the distance.

 

The 10 miler also seen a clean sweep of PB’s with Chris Thomas leading the Cwm Ogwr runners across the line followed by Nicola P, Andrea R, Gail P and Helen G.

 

Almost a clean sweep in the 20 miler with Nick Harris the only one not to pick up a PB… hang on, didn’t he run the 33 mile Vale Ultra the day before? Indeed he did! Whilst the rest of us done 3-4 mile recovery runs or in my case nothing at all, Nick ran 20 miles in a pretty speedy 2:56. Neil Jones broke the clubs 20 mile record by a huge margin with a 2:17 and was followed by Kevin, Chris W, Anthony, Nick, Christie Coleman and Mark W. Chris, Christie and Mark running their longest race distance to date.

 

Saturday 9th – parkruns and Porthcawl’s 3rd birthday celebrations

 

FIFTY ONE Cwm Ogwr runners smashed the previous parkrun participation record with 46 at Porthcawl’s 3rd anniversary parkrun. Brian, Mark, June, Sarah L, Diana, Lucy H, Emma W, Beverley S, Jayne P and Rhiannon W all celebrated with PB’s. A presentation was put on afterwards in the Pavillion which was well attended by Cwm Ogwr runners. It included stats from the past three years which nicely documented the phenomenal rise of the Blue Wave and an excellent video from Chris Pratt of footage from the first few parkruns right up to this year.

 

Sunday 10th – Manchester Marathon and Welsh Road Relays

 

Julie Webster ran a PB and London Marathon ‘Good For Age’ qualifying time with an impressive 3:48:55. It also smashed the female club record by nearly 24 minutes!

Neil J, Chris W and Brian C teamed up for the Welsh Road Relays in Bargoed on a 5.7K course whilst Kelly O, Emma L and Dawn H made up a female team in the W35+ category. Excellent performances by both teams and great feedback has been instrumental in dozens signing up for the next relay event at Cottrel Park in May.

 

Saturday 16th – parkruns

 

A rare weekend with only runners at Porthcawl with 33 in total. Another PB for Brian Cotton whilst new members Richard Purnell, Sara Bayliss, Shawn C, Beverley S, Kimberley D, Mervyn Beckwith and Julie R all joined the PB list for that morning.

 

Sunday 17th – Great Welsh Half and Full Marathon and Brighton Marathon

 

The Great Welsh Marathon seen 10 Cwm Ogwr members enter the marathon with another 3 in the Half Marathon. Antony had a free place having been one of only three people to complete the HBA Series in 2015 which is the Llanelli Half Marathon, HBA 20 miler and Great Welsh Marathon. He signed up for all three again whilst Nick, Neil J and Chris W joined him. Christie signed up for his first marathon as did Denise whilst training partners Fiona and Lorna singled this one out as their spring marathon for 2016. Then there were the late-comers – Aled signed up about a week in advance deciding that the training had been done for the Ultra anyway, plus it served as a good training run for Brecon to Cardiff being right in between the two ultras. I wanted to do the Half but left it too late and entries sold out. A spare marathon place came up and although I tried to transfer it with HBA for a half place, they would only accept the name transfer if I took the full place.. so I did. A day later another came up and Chris Pratt was in as well despite having done no taper and having run every day for 3 weeks due to the 5×50 challenge.

 

The half entrants were Sarah Littlewood, Claire Dunbar-Bowen and Mark Worrall. It was supposed to be Sarah and Claire’s first half marathon but someone (me) helped convince them to enter the Cardiff World Half 3 weeks ago as well.

 

Setting off to travel to the race, it was quite cold but by the start the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm. Luckily Chris has brought along sun cream as there was actually a chance of sunburn if it had stayed like that for the duration of the race. As it turned out it became overcast and quite chilly again by the end. Most of us started reasonably close together but it wasn’t long before the only group that remained was myself and the two Chris’s. Chris W pushed on after mile 5 whilst I was on PB pace with Chris Pratt looking for his first sub 4 hour marathon time. I’d already mentioned before we even got to mile 3 that my left thigh was painful – an injury that occurred after the Ultra but I thought had eased. It got worse and Chris P pushed on at mile 8 maintaining the early pace whilst I started to slow due to the injury. I haven’t seen any photo’s from the event but I’d imagine any of me from mile 8 to 13 were me grimacing and a bit annoyed as I felt good and was confident I could give my PB of 3:50 a good go. I decided the sensible option was to only complete one lap and claim at half marathon medal instead which thankfully the organisers were happy for me to do given the circumstances.

 

Fortunately things went a lot better for the other half marathoners with Claire DB, Mark and Sarah all getting PB’s with times ranging from 2:01 to 2:12.

 

I’d limped off for a sports massage which confirmed super tight ‘locked’ hamstrings not helped by my reluctance to stretch (must do better) but was able to then go and support our marathon runners and provide live updates via Facebook of how everyone was getting on.

 

Neil was aiming for a PB and a sub 3:05 time which would guarantee him a place in the 2017 London Marathon under Good For Age qualifying times. He ended up doing a 2:57 for a huge club record and was just outside the top 10. In previous years his time would have been good enough for as high as 6th place. The success continued with Nick Harris knocking an incredible 21 minutes off his previous best with a 3:19 and Chris Pratt knocked 26 minutes off his with a 3:41. Chris Williams ran an impressive marathon debut of 3:44 whilst Anthony L achieved his first sub 4 time with a 3:58. Now I’ve been known to regularly volunteer to pace officially at parkrun or unofficially for club members up to half marathon distance but fair play to Aled Hughes who paced Christie at marathon distance, sticking with him the whole way for an excellent 4:10 finish for Christie in his first marathon.

 

As for the girls, Lorna agonisingly missed out on her PB by just a minute but was pleased with her run. Fiona’s race didn’t go to plan but she still finished in a respectable 4:36 whilst marathon debutant Denise Bradley was ecstatic with her 4:34 finish. A great day with some fantastic results.

 

Meanwhile, Alica, Dai K and Richie P were running the Brighton Marathon amongst thousands of runners and supporters – a far cry from the few hundred runners and supporters probably only in double figures at Llanelli. However, the task ahead was still the same, 26.2 miles. Dai K knocked 12 minutes off his previous best with a 3:40, whilst Richie was just a minute behind bagging a PB himself. Alica who was running her debut marathon came home in 5:47. Awesome running by our Brighton trio.

 

Saturday 23rd – parkruns

 

37 runners across 4 different parkruns. Mervyn Beckwith who was volunteering the next day at the London Marathon ran in Basildon, soon to be member, Joey Howland ran in Tailgate a day before his London Marathon, whilst Helen LJ also used the trip to London to support Richard by running the Lloyd parkrun.

 

That left 34 at Porthcawl on a record breaking day where despite running a marathon just 6 days earlier, Nick H, Aled and Chris P all set new PB’s. In Aleds case, it was a first 5K PB in well over 2 years whilst Chris knocked an impressive 23 seconds off his previous best. Shelley also notched up a new PB with a 22:53 putting her 3rd in the all time club female 5K rankings and over a minute ahead in terms of 2016 female times. Mark Worrall knocked a massive 30 odd seconds off his time for his first sub 25 clocking whilst there were also PB’s for Liz D, Phil B, Diana, Sara, Beverley, Jayne P and Natalie Griffiths. Beverley is on an impressive run of 5 parkrun PB’s in 5 attempts.

 

Sunday 24th – London Marathon and Bryn Bach Park 6 miler

 

Kevin, Richard LJ and Natasha were representing the Blue Wave in the London Marathon whilst dozens of the blue wave were glued to their TV’s / laptop’s / phones tracking them and seeing if they could catch a glimpse on the coverage. Kevin ran a great 3:31 having qualified to run through the Good For Age qualifying and is eligible to apply for a place through that again next year. Richard who got a place through the ballot put his Snowdon marathon troubles behind him and knocked an incredible 30 minutes off his time with a 4:47. However, I hope they won’t mind me saying that performance of the day had to go to marathon debutant Natasha Kerr with a fantastic 4:51 finish. Her consistent pace throughout made her look like a marathon pro rather than a first timer. When I was reviewing the splits, I discovered she actually ran faster in the second half of the race than I managed in 2014, than Kelly managed in 2015 and caught up with Richard by 8 minutes in this years event. Seriously impressive.

Lewis Nash, Christie and Mark did the Bryn Bach 6 miler all getting excellent times that would almost certainly have converted to big PB’s in Lewis and Mark’s case had it been a 10K.

 

Saturday 30th – parkruns

 

36 runners across 4 parkruns. 32 at Porthcawl with PB’s for Chris T, Richard and Diana P and Jayne P. Away from Porthcawl, Dai Power at Plymvalley, Niki Puleio at Burnham and Neil J and Fiona D at Pontypridd. Neil smashing his own club record with a 18:06 and is confident a sub 18 could be on the horizon.

 

Other races

 

Neil, Nick, Christie and Fiona D ran the Pentyrch Hill race on the final Tuesday in April. A 7 mile mostly off road, very hilly race with Neil finishing in 20th whilst Nick beat his time from last year. Christie also ran the Cardiff Summer Series 1 miler on the final Friday of the month in 7:26.

 

Chairman’s Runner of the Month – Neil Jones

 

With club records at 5K, 20 miles and Marathon it definitely time to reward Cwm Ogwr’s fastest runner with the Runner of the Month accolade. Phenomenal times. Look forward to seeing what’s next.

 

Coming up

 

May has already seen the Brecon to Cardiff Ultra and Tonmawr Hilly 5 which I’ll include details of in the next blog. This weekend see’s a lot of off road with the Preseli Beast races and Porthkerry 5 miler.

 

We have 30 runners signed up for the inaugural Night Trail 10K. Excitement is building with record numbers expected for the Cwm Ogwr 5 miler. We have several teams for the Cottrell park relays plus entrants in the Women’s 10K and Treforest 10K later this month.

 

Exciting times ahead.

March is the month of the half marathon with Newport, Merthyr, Llanelli and Cardiff all to choose from within a hours drive and some of our runners are even doing 3 in 4 weeks. Plenty more parkruns and firsts from Zero to Hero runners, whilst Richard’s trail sessions provide an outlet for those wanting a different challenge and in most cases beautiful scenery.

 

Saturday 5 – parkruns, Gwent League XC and Invincibl Obstacle Race

 

More first time Zero to Hero runners coupled with our ever growing amount of regulars meant a bumper attendance of 34 runners at Porthcawl. Lots of PB’s as well with Emma, Claire, Melanie, Sarah L, Alana, Julie R, Rhiannon B and Rhiannon W all beating previous bests. Whilst there were first time PB’s for Beverely, Joanne and Julie D.

 

We also had two parkrun tourists with Nicola Prior running at Burnham parkrun and getting a 5K PB whilst Sian Tossell ran at Swansea Bay clocking her fastest parkrun time in over a year.

 

Fiona Drysdale ran at the Brecon fixture of the Gwent League clocking 33:37 on the 5.7K course. Cwm Ogwr have been represented in 3 of the 6 fixtures this year having only attended 1 the previous season.

 

Lyndon West and Brian Cotton ran, climbed and crawled around Margam park on the Invincibl obstacle course. Both entered the Elite wave and Lyndon finished 10th overall.

 

Sunday 6 – Newport and Merthyr Half Marathons

 

I couldn’t mention the Newport Half Marathon without noting that one of our runners (Kelly) lost her race number and therefore couldn’t run. She found it a couple of days later whilst cleaning. To be fair she did do one of the toughest runs the valley has to offer which is running over the Bwlch and back so attacking it from both sides rather than a straight up to the top and back down.

 

As for the race, Martin Beard who recently signed up for his first Ironman in Tenby later this year came in at an impressive 1:40 for a best time with the club and just 1 minute off his career PB. Christie Coleman was next in at 1:45 beating his previous best by over 3 minutes. Mark Worrall who only joined the club this year ran his first half marathon in 2:04 whilst Heather Garratt finished in 2:18 after running with colleagues and pupils from her school who were raising money for charity.

 

At Merthyr Half Marathon, June Parry clocked a PB with the club of 2:04 and was second in her age category.

 

Saturday 13 – parkruns

31 Cwm Ogwr members across 5 different parkrun venues. At Porthcawl Dave Evans ran his first sub 20 since joining the club last May with a 19:58 (his PB before joining the club is 19:45). Nick Harris also got a subs best with a 19:59 – his first sub 20 run since last October. Several other seasons bests as well. As for PB’s, Mark Worrall got his 3rd parkrun PB in 4 weeks and has also notched up a 10K and HM PB’s in that time. Claire Dunbar-Bowen equalled her PB from last week whilst Sarah Littlewood knocked 45 seconds off her time with a 28:41. It was my 250th career event but as I was returning from injury, I offered to pace 27:30 rather than celebrate by ‘going for it’. Chris Pratt volunteered to pace for the first time at 25:00. Not forgetting Maria who has now volunteered over 60 times!

 

Elsewhere, Richard LJ ran at the Gnoll whilst Chris and Amy Roberts ran at Birkenhead with seasons bests for both. Amy’s time of 24:10 being good enough to put her up to second on the female 5K rankings this year.

 

We thought that was it for the Cwm Ogwr results before Nick messaged me to say Niki had run at Swansea Bay parkrun in 18:41! Smashing his PB by 23 seconds on the flat fast course and becoming only the second Cwm Ogwr runner to go sub 19. My phone buzzed again – Chris Williams telling me Neil Jones ran at Pontypridd as well. His time – 18:39! His second fastest parkrun time ever (best is 18:33) with his overall 5K PB and club record of 18:20 being at Nos Galan.

 

Sunday 14 – Llanelli HM, Liverpool HM and Dragon 10K

 

A massive turnout at Llanelli Half Marathon with 25 runners. A record breaking morning with Neil Jones following up his blistering 5K time from the day before with a 1:25:02 to beat the club record which had stood since October 2014 by over 4 minutes. There was also a female club record with Julie Webster knocking around 3 minutes off the record that had stood for over 3 years with a 1:44:43. There were 15 PB’s in total with several minutes knocked off previous bests for  Aled, Shelley, Heather and Melanie whilst Brian beat his career personal best which had stood for several years. Dai Kembery helped pace Melanie to her huge PB whilst Denise ran with Andrea who along with Nicola was running her first half marathon.

 

Father-daughter team Chris and Amy Roberts ran the Liverpool Half Marathon the same morning running the whole way together. Amy beat her personal best by 8 seconds with a 1:48:47 which is one of the fastest times run by a Cwm Ogwr female and an age category club record.

 

At the Dragon 10K, Chris Thomas ran an impressive 46:33 despite a heavy hangover, and Nicola Haxton bagged her second PB of the weekend with a 1:07:42.

 

Random milestones / stats

 

The past couple of weeks has seen…

•Cwm Ogwr represented at their 500th event

•Members parkrun total pass 2,000

•Members events total pass 3,000

•Miles run at those events pass 15,000

•

Coming up

 

This Friday will see the club AGM. Sunday is the final West Glam XC fixture with a multi terrain course including some sand dunes in Aberavon. The club will be heavily represented at the Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships on Saturday 26th with plenty signed up to run as well as others volunteering or coming along to support. Exciting times ahead.

The second half of March seen the clubs AGM, Sport Relief miles and the long awaited Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships.

 

Starting with the AGM where we looked back on an incredible year for the club and then looked forward to see how we can continue the success. Some of the highlights included announcing a weekly trail session option on a Tuesday evening during the lighter months as well as road option for those that prefer. More Cwm Ogwr on-tour nights to increase the variety of routes during the winter months.  A new ‘social membership’ available for supporters of the club who want to be part of the clubs activities but aren’t necessarily interested in running themselves and therefore don’t need to be affiliated. Updated training schedules with routes and plans known in advance. A potential third club race. Plus members had an opportunity to apply for roles with the following decided…

 

Chairman: Gareth Jenkins

Secretary: Aled Hughes

Treasurer: David Owen

Membership Secretary: Kelly Owen

Volunteer Co-ordinator (new role): Aled Hughes

Social Secretary: Natasha Kerr

Male Captain: Richard Lowcock James

Male Vice-Captain (new role): Chris Pratt

Female Captain: Sian Tossell

Female Vice-Captain (new role): Heather Garratt

 

Saturday 19 March – parkruns and Swansea 360 Marina 5K

 

Twenty-six runners across 3 parkruns with our tourists being Fiona Drysdale at Pontypridd and Sian Tossell who was first in her age category at Barry Island before going on a recce of the Vale Ultra course. The remaining 24 were at Porthcawl where Nick Harris got his second sub 20 in as many weeks with a seasons best time of 19:51. After previously chipping away at his 5K time by a few seconds, Mark Worrall knocked a huge chunk off with a 25:20. There were also PB’s for Helen Griffiths, Helen LJ and first timer Michelle Thomas.

 

Later that morning there was a 5K in Swansea with Lewis Nash running his best time since joining the club with a 24:31 whilst Jayne Powney got a first time PB.

 

Sunday 20 March – Sport Relief runs and West Glam XC

 

Liz Davis ran the Sport Relief 3 mile event (which turned out to be 3.6 miles) with her two boys and a teddy bear in place of her husband Andy who broke his tibia the week before. The club wishes Andy who has been a great supporter of the club over the past year a speedy recovery.

 

In the 6 mile event (measured at 6.3 miles), Claire Dunbar-Bowen and Mark Worrall clocked sub 1 hour times whilst Sarah Littlewood narrowly missed out by 22 seconds. Reeny Kins and Michelle Richards recorded their longest runs to date with around 1:24 and 1:27 respectively.

 

It was also the final fixture of the West Glam XC league with Aberavon the venue for a multi-terrain course including a run along the beach and a couple of sand dunes thrown in. Sian Tossell ran her final race in yellow as she was signed up to Run for All at the start of the XC season before joining us, whilst Jackie Lewis and Natalie Griffiths ran as guests for Cwm Ogwr.

 

Saturday 26 March – parkruns and Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships

 

Due to practically half the club being involved in the Half Marathon in the afternoon, there were only 10 parkrunners that morning. However, these were spread over 5 different parkruns! Aled, Brian, Nick and Chris Pratt all opted to do parkrun as well as the World Half. At Porthcawl we had a record 7 volunteers with Maria, David S, Peter, Ann, Chris R, Dawn and I all doing non-running volunteer roles which was great to see. Jo Kendall got a PB at Porthcawl and was just 7 seconds away from breaking the 30 minute barrier. Chris Stanlake got a PB whilst visiting Leicester Victoria parkrun, whilst Shawn Cullen and Julie Ransom notched up PB’s at Southwark with Shawn going sub 30 for the first time.

 

Now back when we had 30-50 members, I normally had a pretty good idea how many people were entering races from the club. For the World Half I assumed it was maybe 25-30. It was actually 49 making it our biggest attendance at any event (46 at Cardiff 10K 2015 and 41 at Cardiff Half Marathon 2015). Amazing!

 

The forecast for the day was pretty awful but fortunately the rain held off bar a short shower just prior to the start. The race will certainly be remembered for the 5-10 minute ‘storm’ around half ways through (depending on where / when you started) when the wind suddenly picked up and drove practically horizontal rain / hail at the runners. This didn’t stop a whole host of PB’s with Nick the first Cwm Ogwr runner across the line with his first sub 90 minute finish with a 1:29:55. His brother Saul also picked up a PB as did Chris Thomas in his first half with the club.

 

Father-daughter team Chris and Amy ran together again with Amy claiming another PB just two weeks after she achieved one in Liverpool HM. One of the biggest PB’s of the day came from Shelley Smithson who ran the first 3 miles with me and Emma before heading off into the distance to claim a 1:52:10 finish to knock nearly 4 minutes off her time set at Llanelli two weeks before. Since her half marathon debut just 5 months before in Cardiff, she has reduced her time by over 15 minutes.

 

There were quite a few aiming for their first sub 2 hour finish and Betty Lee and Amy Jones achieved this with 1:56:43. I had agreed to pace Emma Loyns and she did an amazing run to finish in 1:58:55 knocking over 5 minutes off her PB in the process whilst Chris Pratt helped a non-club member friend to a 1:59:54 finish.

 

Dermot Nolan made his half marathon debut with an excellent 2:06:28. Claire Dunbar Bowen and Sarah Littlewood signed up just 3 days before after some places became available. Neither had run much more than a 5K just a couple of months ago so an incredible achievement for both to not only complete a half marathon but in very decent times of 2:11:43 for Claire and 2:15:19 for Sarah. Sian Tossell ran her first half for the blue wave whilst Jackie Lewis improved on her Cardiff Half time from October.

 

There was a huge amount of other half marathon debutants with Lucy Hancock, Nicola Haxton, Kimberley Davies, Sian LG, Karen BH, Helen LJ, Kerry Edwards, Rhiannon and Phillip Buckley picking up PB’s for their first attempt at that distance. Notice I say first attempt as I’m sure they’ll be back for more!

 

Apologies I haven’t mentioned all 49 in an attempt not to make this blog too long but well done to everyone who ran. Also a massive thanks to Kevin, Rhiannon W, Neil J, Chris W, Denise, Maria and Liz Davis who all volunteered for the event (apologies if I missed anyone), plus our team of supporters who braved the conditions to see us mad people running.

 

Chairman’s Runner of the Month – Nicola Haxton

 

A tough one this month with so many great performances but a massive well done to Nicola who picked up PB’s at 5K, 10K and HM this month.

 

Coming up in April

 

Well if March was the month of the half marathon, April is the month of the marathon (and beyond!). First up is the Vale Coastal Ultra on Saturday – keep your eyes peeled for an epicly long blog post detailing how we all ended up signing up for such an event, and my experience of run, walk, crawling the 32 miles of various terrain across several cliffs from Penarth Pier to Ogmore by Sea. This Sunday is the Llanelli 5 / 10 / 20 mile event where we potentially have runners in all 3 distances but certainly at least in the 10 / 20. April 10 will see the club compete in their first road relay events with a male and female team entered in the 35+ category. A week later, our Best Newcomer Alica Thomas takes on her first marathon in Brighton with Dai Kembery also picking up a place for it recently. The same day will see a few other Cwm Ogwr members run the Great Welsh Marathon in Llanelli with a few also signing up to the half marathon which runs alongside it. Then to finish off an incredible month there’s the small matter of the London Marathon with Kevin, Natasha and Richard LJ all getting their first taste of what is one of the premier road races the world has to offer. Exciting times ahead.

The super start to 2016 continued in a busy February with more big race attendances, the club presentation night and a brand new Cwm Ogwr event. Zero to Hero continues to inspire us all with new members joining almost every week as well as importantly, people returning for more. Several have already completed a parkrun whilst it’s been an avenue for others who were already at a 5K level to advance to 10K and Half Marathons with many having dates in their dairies for their first big events.

The clubs new event, plus the Margam Trail Half Marathon during the month meant Richard’s trail sessions were limited but around a dozen went down to Ogmore-by-Sea on the first Sunday of the month to run from the finish line of the upcoming Vale Ultra for 45 minutes doing the reverse of the route before heading back. Probably the windiest conditions any of us have run in made it a challenging run and when parts of the course go within a few feet of cliff edges, it can be a bit scary (especially if like me, you don’t like heights). Still an enjoyable run and invaluable experience for those doing the 18 or 32 mile run on April 2.

 

Saturday 6 – parkruns

 

The first parkruns of the month seen significantly reduced overall attendances due to cold, wet, windy conditions. Of course, Cwm Ogwr aren’t bothered by this and we actually had a record attendance with 32 runners across 3 parkruns. 27 of those were at Porthcawl where Chris Pratt and I set seasons bests with 21:01 and 21:05 respectively. Kelly ran her first parkrun of the year with a sub 25 clocking. Nick ran 20 miles before parkrun but still managed a 23:00. Shawn Cullen, Julie Ransom and Lynda Denholm all ran their first parkruns as part of Cwm Ogwr whilst there were a further four Zero to Hero regulars in attendance.

 

Away from Porthcawl, my January Runner of the Month, Helen LJ was running at Swansea Bay parkrun and got another best time since joining the club. Over a minute quicker than the time she had set 3 weeks earlier making it her fastest parkrun time since December 2012. Over in Pontypridd, Neil Jones and Chris Williams ran 19 miles before running Pontypridd parkrun which Neil ran in 21:29 which he noted was a fast enough pace for a sub 3 hour marathon time. Neil Harris and Fiona Drysdale also ran at Pontypridd.

 

Saturday 13 – parkruns

 

27 runners across 3 different parkruns. Chris Pratt, Aled, Nick and I were joined by Jamie from Bridgend AC to do the Barry Island parkrun and then do a recce run of the Vale Ultra course from Barry to Llantwit. Neil Jones paced at Pontypridd with Fiona Drysdale also running there. At Porthcawl there were some excellent PB’s from Stephen, Jayne, Helen LJ and Rhiannon Buckley.

 

Sunday 14 – Beast 10K

 

Setting up a trail run has been on the clubs ‘to do’ list for a while but was fraught with issues – land owners permission, accurate measurements, health and safety, marking out the course, enough volunteers, closed gates, livestock – the list goes on. However, Kelly had an great idea to overcome a lot of these – make it a free run for affiliated club members only. That way everyone is insured through their Welsh Athletics membership and the fact that it’s free means the pressures off with regards to ensuring a super accurate course measurement and having it under strict race conditions.

 

Our toughest training run, The Beast was chosen as the route which conveniently if starting at the bottom of the hill was a close as you could get to 10K bearing in mind that most trail / off road races are expected to be slightly out. Permission was granted from the land owners who ensured the gates were open and livestock not on the course. An appeal for volunteers on our Facebook page had an amazing response with more than enough putting themselves forward within a couple of hours of it being posted. Kelly then went about advertising the runs to other clubs and had a fantastic response with runners from all over South Wales wanting to give it a go.

 

The event day arrived with great weather conditions – cold but sunny and clear – perfect for taking in some of the beautiful scenery on the route. Around 20 odd volunteers met at the Life Centre at 9am with many of them having 4-6 mile round trips to get to their marshalling point or the water station which was at the top of the Beast. Others stayed at the Life Centre to help with parking whilst I ‘checked in’ the runners on Kelly’s i-pad. Some looked a little worried about what was to come having seen the video of the route that Chris Pratt had uploaded of Kelly’s recce run, plus the Facebook event page had the elevation profile staring at runners when they visited the page.

 

An amazing turnout of 96 runners despite the fact there was a Gwent League fixture the day before and Wales playing in the Six Nations.. oh, and it was Valentines Day. Apart from some bonkers fell races, I can’t think of another run that starts with a mile or so steep climb which awaited the runners but everyone attacked it whilst I warned a few around me that this was just the warm up to the ‘Beast’. Eamonn Kirk of Swansea Harriers made history by becoming the first Beast 10K winner having already won the first Cwm Ogwr 5 miler after the club resurrected the event in 2013. In fact, he won the inaugural Beast 10K by a huge margin of over 3 minutes in a time of 40:33. The female winner won by an even bigger margin with Angela Jones of Fairwater Runners finishing in 48:03 for 8 overall and over 4 minutes ahead of the next female finisher.

 

A few Cwm Ogwr runners were also given the option to run after all volunteering roles were filled and Niki Puleio finished 4 overall in a club record time on the course of 46:28. New member, Chris Thomas was the next Cwm Ogwr finisher in 23 place whilst I finished soon after in 25 with Keith Coleman in 37 despite only finishing a minute or so after me. Mark Worrall, Ann Davies, Caerwyn, Natalie, Kelly G, Stephen, Lucy H, Amanda P and Rachel A made up the remaining Cwm Ogwr finishers, most of which were running the Beast for the first time.

 

Everyone headed back to the Life Centre afterwards where Jo Pickup was selling cakes, quiches (made by herself and other Cwm Ogwr runners) and hot drinks which went down very well with runners and particularly those that had marshalled and had been outside in the cold for close to 3 hours.

 

The event page was full of positive comments and there’s no doubt in my mind that it could be even bigger next year. Some excellent photo’s with professional photographer Andrew Davis volunteering his time to capture the runners approaching the top of the Beast section whilst KXT photography were also in attendance as well as Nick Harris and Chris Pratt taking photos. With a couple of supporters from other clubs taking photo’s plus a few from marshals smartphones, I think we might have more photographs per runner than any race in Britain!

 

A huge success and flawlessly organised. A massive thanks to every single person who helped out.

 

Saturday 20 – parkruns

 

A club record 35 runners at Porthcawl which included our Pontypridd parkrunners Neil J, Neil H and Chris W joining us for the first time. Neil J and Chris clocked up over 20 miles in doing so whilst a few others also ran down to parkrun as part of half / full or Ultra marathon training. This parkrunday seen a few more of the Zero to Hero’s complete their first 5K only 5 weeks after starting this years program. Another load of PB’s with this weeks list including Mark Worrall, Claire Dunbar-Bowen, Jayne, Kelly G, Sarah Littlewood and Tammie Clement. Richard LJ was our only tourist as he tried out Grangemoor parkrun.

 

Sunday 21 – Margam Trail ‘Half Marathon’, Neath 10 miler and Beach Party 10K

 

A huge turnout of 28 runners for the inaugural Margam Trail Half Marathon. Unfortunately the event didn’t quite go to plan with the main issue being it was around 11 miles instead of 13.1. Aled lead the Cwm Ogwr runners in on the challenging course in cold, misty conditions and despite the issues, I think a few would be keen to give it another go. Certainly not speaking for everyone on that though. Interestingly Run Britain Rankings at the time of typing this, have the event down as a proper half marathon and have assigned PB’s to those who ran it faster than a previous best half marathon time which really messes up the system – although there’s lots who argue there are several flaws in the Run Britain handicap / rankings system anyway.

 

The Neath 10 miler went much more smoothly although there were a few comments about the course being slightly long but we’re talking 0.1 out rather than a huge margin. Despite that Niki Puleio set a new club record with a time of 1:07:01. Nick finished 5 minutes behind him and missed out on a PB by a couple of minutes, however, he has been doing some record high mileage weeks lately as well. Finally, David Kembery smashed his 10 mile PB with a 1:14:58 which was also an age category club record.

 

Meanwhile, a few thousand miles away, Kelly Owen was running a 10K along the seafront in sunny California with a decent time of 52:32 considering the high temperatures despite an early morning start. It was Kelly’s third running event in the US over the past couple of years having already done the Empire State Run and a parkrun in Florida.

 

Saturday 27 – parkruns and Ras Dewi Sant Marathon

 

A rare week with only runners at Porthcawl of which there were 24. I ran with the twins in their heavy non-running buggy which was a challenge. There were more members who ran down to get some extra training miles in, and couple of PB’s. Firstly Niki Puleio followed up his 10 mile club record with a 19:04 PB which puts him second only to Neil Jones in the 5K rankings whilst the other PB was for Phillip Buckley.

 

Current Runners Runner of the Year Chris Pratt set his sights on doing 6 marathons this year with Ras Dewi Sant pencilled in as the first on the list. However, this list was prior to ‘the fall’ which meant he didn’t start training until just 6-7 weeks before the marathon. Fortunately he was able to get back into it straight away and within a couple of weeks was doing record high mileage weeks and is often the only person in the club to go to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday sessions although there are occasionally others. The Vale recce runs provided a couple of long distance training runs and it was decided that Ras Dewi Sant would indeed be the first marathon of the year for Chris, and any club member for that matter. He finished in a fantastic time of 4:42 considering the very challenging hilly, off road terrain. Chris has wrote a blog post about the race at http://chrispratt24.tumblr.com/ which is a detailed account of what is one of the toughest marathons in Wales if not the UK.

 

Sunday 28 – St Davids 10K

 

This race was a great example of how much the club has grown as out of the 25 Cwm Ogwr runners, 24 of them had joined the club in the past 12 months. There were even a few who’ve only joined us in the past two months and have already gone from Zero to 10K. Christie Coleman actually decided to run the 5K event which started an hour before the main 10K event as well and already looks on course to top this years ‘most events’ table. Could my record 101 events in one year even be under threat!? Anyway, back to the race and I’m not sure we’ve ever had such a high percentage of PB’s for a race with over 20 members running. The PB list included Stephen, Caerwyn, Shelley (with an age category club record), Emma, Mark, Ann, Lucy H, Jayne, Jo, Kelly G, Kimberly, Helen LJ, Tammie, Alana and Rhiannon Buckley.

 

Chairman’s Runner of the Month – Niki Puleio

 

An amazing month for Niki which included new PB’s at 5K and 10 mile – the latter also being a club record. He was also 4th overall in the inaugural Beast 10K. Well done Niki.

 

The Presentation Night

 

The first Sunday of February seen the running clubs third annual presentation night. Organised by David and Jayne Kembery with a little help from others, it was a huge success with a big turnout and everyone having a great night. A massive thanks to the Kembery’s who we will no doubt be asking to do it all again in 12 months time.

 

The list of winners were as follows…

 

Runners Runner of the Year: Chris Pratt

Male Club Championship Winner: Nick Harris

Female Club Championship Winner: Liz Davis

Most Improved Runner: Christie Coleman

Best Newcomer: Alica Thomas

Kelly’s Kindness Award: Antony Lewis

Coach of the Year: Kevin Archie Raymond

Best Senior Male: Neil Jones

Best Senior Female: Amy Roberts

Best Veteran Male: Kevin Archie Raymond

Best Veteran Female: Kelly Owen

Club Person of the Year: David Kembery

Zero to Hero award: Jayne Kembery Tunster

Best Volunteer: Maria Lalic

Trail-Blazer award: Richard Lowcock James

Best comeback of 2015: Brian Cotton

Most PBs in 2015: Chris Pratt

Most parkruns in 2015: Gareth Jenkins

Best Supporters: Denise Bradley and Dai Power

Club Appreciation Award: Andrew Davis

Best Fall during a Training Run: Chris Pratt

Best Fall during a Trail Run: Heather Garratt

Best Fall during a Race: Chris Roberts

Best Bromance: Chris Pratt and Gareth Jenkins

The Ar$eh0le award: Aled Hughes (third year in a row)

Kelly Owen was also presented with a cookbook and a vase as a thank you for all her hard work and starting the club in the first place.

Rhiannon Buckley was finally presented with her goodie bag and medal for winning the Festive Four competition.

 

Looking ahead

 

March is a key month for many of our members doing longer distances. Newport, Merthyr, Llanelli and Cardiff World Half Marathons will all have Cwm Ogwr members participating whilst others will be doing their longest training runs ready for April Marathons or the Vale Ultra. Plus Zero to Hero will see many runners doing their furthest distances ever whether it’s 5K, 5 miles or much more.

How do you follow up the amazing year we had in 2015? Well we’ve had a pretty good start to say the least. An incredible turnout at Kenfig, Riverbank Rollick and Lliswerry, 20+ signing up for Snowdonia Marathon 2016, the big parkrun attendances continuing and a new huge batch of victims, I mean runners at Zero to Hero. I’ll also share the running goals of those who dared to share as well as a look ahead to the rest of the year.

 

January 2016 – a month that will hopefully be the start of a long and happy running journey for the amazing runners who have turned up to the new Zero to Hero sessions and Wednesday sessions which also cater for all abilities. I believe we’ve seen well over 30 if not 40 new faces this month and record attendances at Sunday and Wednesday session. Including the ones turning up to do miles, Richards trail sessions, races and others doing their own training runs, there have probably been over 50 people running on Sunday mornings throughout January. Awesome.

 

Friday 1 – Kenfig Prince of Wales 4 miler and parkruns

 

New Year’s Day is the only opportunity to get two official parkruns recorded so it’ll come as no surprise that Nick and myself decided to add to our totals whilst Martin Beard who had done two Australian parkruns over Christmas joined us for the two as well. Chris Pratt came along to support still recovering from the fall prior to Christmas. Cardiff parkrun up first where we met up with Neil Jones, Neil Harris and Dave Evans. Dave was going on to do the Kenfig run later rather than a second parkrun. No PB’s to be had as most of us took it easy after a slow first kilometre due to the crowds and Neil Harris was very pleased to sneak in front of Neil Jones on the line for the first time ever.

 

The second parkrun was at Barry Island where they had a record crowd and Cardiff runner Sally Wilder was announced as running her 250 parkrun. It’ll be mid-2017 at earliest by the time any current Cwm Ogwr runner reaches that milestone. Cold and windy conditions down on the seafront. The later start time meant there were a few more dog walkers to contend with but all went smoothly in the end.

 

Just as we would have been finishing our second event of 2016, the blue wave descended on Kenfig for a long running annual New Year’s Day race starting at the Prince of Wales pub. I did it back in 2014 with Nick and Dai Cappell and the two of them were the only Cwm Ogwr runners last year. I’d heard a few more were doing it this year but was amazed when I seen the results and seen 33 Cwm Ogwr runners on there!  Richie Pett lead the way with Rhiannon Buckley our final finisher. However, it wasn’t the position that mattered for Rhiannon, it was the time. She was in contention to win the Festive Four competition where one of the scoring systems was based on seasons best times against times ran in the Festive Four races. Later that evening it was confirmed… Rhiannon Buckley won the Festive Four! Amazing achievement considering she only started running a couple of months ago and well deserved for her determination and willingness to give seemingly any race a go.

 

Saturday 2 – more parkruns

 

Something weird is going on… Aled is turning up for parkruns including volunteering during January. The person who replies to any Facebook post about parkrun with ‘what’s parkrun’ seems to have caught the bug. Maybe it’s the competition with Richie Pett and Brian Cotton, maybe it’s pushing some of our other runners, maybe it’s the tea and toast in Pietro’s afterwards… whatever it is, the blue wave has yet another regular parkrunner.

 

The first Porthcawl parkrun of the year seen 19 runners with almost all having run the day before. No PB’s to be had but our new parkrun fan Aled clocked a 20:49 – his fastest 5K time in over 2 years. Cwm Ogwr were also represented at the Gnoll with Sian Tossell and Helen LJ putting their first 5K times of the year on the board.

 

Saturday 9 – even more parkruns

 

Twenty five Cwm Ogwr parkrunners this week with 21 at Porthcawl and 4 at the Gnoll. Liz and I were the first of what I imagine will be many to combine parkrun with their long training run. Dave Evans volunteered to pace 22:30 whilst Chris Roberts and Maria volunteered on non-running roles. No PB’s but of course lots of SB’s (season’s bests) with it being so early in the year. Niki Puleio put a marker down with the first sub 20 time of the year with a 19:33 which was good enough for 5 overall. He was actually a bit disappointed as he was in 3 approaching the final straight which would have been Cwm Ogwr’s first top 3 parkrun finish at Porthcawl. Fiona set the fastest female members time of the year with 26:18.

 

Richard LJ, Chris Pratt, Steve and Denise attended the Gnoll parkrun where there was a special memorial run for Dan Tomlinson – a promising young runner who tragically died last month. There was a record turnout with clubs from all over South Wales coming together in support.

 

Sunday 10 – West Glam XC League – Margam Reservoir

 

Christie and I went along to this with Sian Tossell and Christie’s wife Tracey supporting. An odd Cross Country fixture given it was an entirely tarmac course with two laps of the reservoir and a rough distance of 5.6 miles in total. A bumper turnout with over 300 runners meant they decided to set the women off first and the men 10 minutes later to avoid congestion. A cold, drizzly morning and the reservoir is exposed to the wind but all in all, not bad conditions. The only XC element of the course was a massive unavoidable puddle towards the end of each lap so plenty of soggy trainers on show at the end. Obviously a super flat course and only £2 to enter so hopefully this might be one of the races I’m talking about next year and saying ‘30 odd turned up when there was only 2 last year’.

 

Saturday 16 – parkruns

 

Twenty-two at Porthcawl with Dai Power at Gnoll and Fiona Drysdale at Newport. 14 seasons bests at Porthcawl but the stand out performances were Shelley and Helen LJ. I ended up pacing Shelley who had a previous best of 24:44 which she smashed with a 23:17 which is the fastest time by any Cwm Ogwr female for several months. Helen LJ clocked 34:53 which was her fastest parkrun time since December 2012.

 

Sunday 17 – Riverbank Rollick and Bath Skyline 10K

 

Another race – another huge increase in Cwm Ogwr members. Last year just Richard LJ and I ran the Riverbank Rollick. After much persuasion by Richard as well as the success of his trail runs, there were 15 this year. Richard LJ was running it for what I believe is the 3 year in a row, whilst all of the others are trying it for the first time. Richard confirmed this year was even worse conditions than the previous years which made for a tough race. Niki Puleio ran an impressive 1:11 with Richie Pett second and Aled third Cwm Ogwr member across the line. Post race comments ranged from ‘great fun’ to ‘never again’.

 

Elsewhere Martin Beard and his wife Betty were running the Bath Skyline 10K having signed up for the series of 10K races.

 

Saturday 23 – parkruns

 

A bumper 27 Cwm Ogwr runners across 4 different parkruns. Starting at Porthcawl, Niki Puleio lead home the 23 Cwm Ogwr runners in attendance with a new PB and club best for 2016 of 19:13. Brian Cotton got a PB going sub 21 for the first time with a 20:58 whilst Shelley got her second PB in two weeks finishing a second quicker to improve the best female club time of the year to 23:16. This also puts her as joint 4 fastest female for 5K in the club. Jayne Kembery knocked a massive 40 seconds off her parkrun time having come close the previous couple of weeks. Kimberly Davies also got a PB paced by Porthcawl runner Angela Walsh. Christie narrowly missed out on joining in with the PB’s by just 2 seconds.

 

Chris Pratt and I attended Grangemoor parkrun which we did before running the first 10 miles of the Vale Ultra course. Sian Tossell ensured we still had representation at Gnoll whilst Ann was back at her regular parkrun of Colby.

 

Saturday 30 – parkruns

 

This week there were 22 runners across 5 different parkruns. The only PB was Lucy Hancock at Cardiff parkrun whilst most of our runners were taking it easy before Sunday races. Neil Jones ran a seasons best at Pontypridd and lowered the club best time for 2016 to 19:03. Juliet Amner took in some parkrun tourism at Reigate Priory parkrun whilst Saul Harris was at Southampton parkrun which had the second biggest attendance in the UK with almost 800 runners.

 

Sunday 31 – Lliswerry 8, Margam XC and Winter Series London 10K

 

Last year at the Lliswerry 8 miler we had 8 runners.. this year.. 30! Some outstanding times including Neil Jones leading the Cwm Ogwr runners home and missing out on sub 50 by just 2 seconds for 42 place overall. Richie Pett beat Nick Harris to second and claimed bragging rights in the competition with Aled who was a couple of minutes further back. Brian Cotton also ran a great time that would have included his fastest mile, 5K and 10K! Heather Garratt was first Cwm Ogwr female over the line with Betty Lee who stepped in last minute second and Shelley third. Also worth noting it was the longest distance race completed by both Rhian Nolan and Helen LJ who both had excellent runs.

 

New members Phillip Buckley and Keith Coleman joined me, Nicola Prior, Kimberly and Pat for the Margam Park XC fixture with Sian Tossell running for Run for All having started the season for them, and Natalie in support on camera duties. Despite only about a third of the 4.5 mile course being on grass, we all got very muddy as one particular section was shin deep and as it was wet it flicked up covering legs, shorts and even vests. I lead the Cwm Ogwr runners home with Keith in second. Some strong finishes, particularly by Pat who we all stayed to cheer on as our final finisher.

 

Elsewhere Juliet Amner ran the Cancer Research Winter Series 10K in London in 54:15.

 

Chairman’s Runner of the Month – Helen Lowcock James

 

Hopefully I’m not giving away a big secret but Helen LJ signed up for the Cardiff World Half back in October / November when still running a maximum of 5K. It seemed an ambitious goal but Helen has really got stuck in getting up to 8 mile training runs and completing her longest race to date at the Lliswerry 8. The training also seems to be helping her 5K times as well with a quickest parkrun in over 3 years during a rare visit to Porthcawl from her new regular parkrun home at the Gnoll. The improvements made just over the past few weeks have helped put Helen as the current leader in the Level Playing Field Club Championship by quite a large margin having also ran a great time at Kenfig on New Years Day.  Inspirational.

 

Next up

 

February promises to be another great month for the club and kicks off on the first weekend with a massive celebration of what the club has achieved in the past year with the presentation night. We’ll also be hosting the inaugural Beast 10K and there’s more club championship points on offer with the inaugural Margam Trail HM and St Davids Day 10K. Exciting times.