Posted on by Gareth Jenkins

OPR at Aberfields parkrun – 2 year anniversary!

19th August 2023 – it finally happened – a parkrun in the valley the club was formed. Not only that, a parkrun that starts and finishes where the club did it’s first ever training session almost to the day 11 years earlier. It’s also where our first Couch to 5K sessions took place which included a couple of graduates who are still members to this day.

Before getting onto the OPR specific stats, I’ll start with a general overview. The second year of Aberfields parkrun started with a new course record of 16:26 which beat Jake Taskers time from event 1 by just 2 seconds. That new time stood until just a couple of weeks ago when Adam ‘Tango’ Holland set a new course best of 16:17. The female course record of 20:05 was set just 5 weeks after Aberfields started and has remained ever since. Just a few weeks ago Aberfields did have their first ever female first finisher overall with Alesha Santos running 20:16.

There have been 12 cancellations in the first 2 years resulting in 93 events so far. This year also saw Aberfields host a New Years Day event as well. In those 47 events, 182 different runners with OPR as their club have run 1,587 times at Aberfields. With there being 5,527 finishes at Aberfields in total, that means we’ve made up over a quarter of all finishers.

Most runs at Aberfields parkrun

  1. Aled Hughes 68 (joint second most after non-member Steve John with 70)
  2. Gareth Jenkins 67 (4th overall highest)
  3. Jo Jenkins 49 (7th overall and 2nd highest female runner after non-member Lynne Cabble with 52))
  4. Chris Stanlake 36 (10th overall)
  5. Jonathan Matthews 35
  6. Sally Pensom 33
  7. Laura Worrall 30
  8. Gareth Davies 26
  9. Nick Harris 25 / Dai Kembery 25 / Mark Worrall 25

It’s probably not that surprising that Aled is high on the list given I think he may hold the title for OPR member living closest to a parkrun with the start just 0.5 miles from his front door and the course passing within 500 feet of it. For myself and Jo, it’s become our home parkrun having both been regulars at Porthcawl before Aberfields started. Whilst Chris Stanlake has run 36 times, he’s actually been at more Aberfields than all of us with his volunteering added.

Fastest times at Aberfields (Men – current members)

  1. Paul Teesdale 18:15
  2. Aled Hughes 18:53
  3. Nicky Bennett 19:00
  4. John Burridge 19:06
  5. Jamie Verran 19:06
  6. Daniel Richards 19:08
  7. Kieron Burridge 19:38
  8. Jonathan Matthews 19:40
  9. Rhodri Thomas 19:46
  10. Connor Panting 19:49

Former member Jake Tasker has a 16:28, 16:37 and 16:38 at Aberfields which are the 3rd, 4th and 5th fastest ever times. Second claim member James Griffiths has run 17:43. Former member Angelo ‘Nico’ Doria has run 18:02 at Aberfields.

Fastest times at Aberfields (Women – current members)

  1. Angharad Croot 23:27
  2. Claire Dunbar-Bowen 23:39
  3. Freya Allen 23:53 – F18-19 Age Category Record
  4. Sarah Davies 23:59
  5. Marina Konstantinova 24:34
  6. Willow Hughes 24:57
  7. Katie Plimmer 25:15
  8. Fiona Drysdale 25:23
  9. Alison Allen 25:27
  10. Arwen Rees 26:19

First finishers at Aberfields

  1. Aled Hughes 8 (most overall including non-club members)
  2. John Burridge 4
  3. Jonathan Matthew 3
  4. Paul Teesdale 2
  5. Jamie Verran 2
  6. Dylan Panting / Luke Davis / Rhodri Thomas 1

Unlike other parkruns, Aberfields don’t really have a regular first finisher with 60 different runners picking up the number one token so far. Second claim member James Griffiths has also been first finisher on 3 occasions whilst former member Jake Tasker has also picked up the number 1 token on 3 occasions.

First female finishes at Aberfields

  1. Angharad Croot 3 (joint second overall with the most being 5)
  2. Sarah Davies 3 (joint second overall with the most being 5)
  3. Alison Allen 2
  4. Jo Jenkins / Deborah Edwards / Arwen Rees / Freya Allen / Willow Hughes / Fiona Drysdale 1

There have been 76 different first female finishers in total so it’s more or less someone new every week.

Volunteering at Aberfields

  1. Jay Howells 100
  2. Chris Stanlake 93
  3. Gareth Jenkins 66
  4. Toni Howells 58
  5. Judith Howells 43
  6. Rhiannon Whiteley 40
  7. Catherine Robinson 35
  8. Julie Ransom 31
  9. Shawn Cullen 29
  10. Liz Davis 26
  11. Liam O’Sullivan 23
  12. Gareth Davies 16
  13. Claudine Nicholson-Lewis 15
  14. Aled Hughes 15
  15. John Burridge 10

Aberfields has had a huge effect on how regular many of our members volunteer. The 15 listed above total exactly 600 volunteer credits between them, but there’s also a further 20+ current members who’ve volunteered at least once in the first year as well.

If you’re wondering how Jay could be on 100 volunteer credits when there’s only been 93 events – parkrun now allow volunteer credits for parkruns that are cancelled at short notice. In Jays case, he may have done volunteer coordinating that week so had already fulfilled his role before the event then being cancelled due to weather or other reasons. Everyone also received a volunteer credit a few weeks ago when they turned up to cut back the bushes that had encroached on the course leading to a cancellation.

Chris Stanlake is one of the Run Directors and has volunteered in multiple roles including getting a few run counts in as tail walker or park walker. Toni has notched up 58 volunteer credits in various roles. My 66 are all from roles that have meant volunteering and running – First Timers Welcome (5), Pre Event Course Check (1) and Pacing (60). Judith makes it three of the Howells family in the top 5 and is often on barcode scanning or marshalling. Liz Davis and Claudine Nicholson-Lewis were regular Run Directors in the first year and in the second year of the event, Liam O’Sullivan has joined the Run Director rotation.

Milestones at Aberfields

We’ve also seen multiple members celebrate parkrun milestones at Aberfields including Nick Harris becoming the first member of the club (and first at Aberfields) to celebrate 500 parkruns in Dec 2024 before I followed in February 2025. As part of a charity challenge, I turned up to Aberfields in fancy dress in the lead up to my 500th including a Giant Inflatable Eagle costume, a Welsh Wrestler, a cheerleader and various others. Aberfields was also used for our last Zero to Hero graduation where we had a full pacer team and several of the graduates have gone on to become regulars at training and races with us.

If you haven’t been to Aberfields parkrun yet, then go along sometime soon. It’s one of the most friendliest, welcoming parkruns around and you’ll be sure to see a Phoenix or two running and on the volunteer team.