CWM OGWR Running Club

Welcome to Cwm Ogwr Running Club
We are not able to take junior members at present, due to insurance regulations. Members must be over 17 years old.

The third 5 Miler was another success. We would like to thank all sponsors, participants, marshals and supporters who made the race such a fantastic event. Last years winners were 1st Male Matthew Wells (Bridgend AC 27.22 (New Course record) and 1st Female was Emma Wookey (Lliswerry Runners) 30.10 (New Course record)

About Us

The club was founded in August 2012 by Cllr. David Owen & Mrs Kelly Owen. There were a number of local runners interested in joining and the club developed within a matter of weeks. The club is going from strength to strength.

We have more than doubled our membership in 2015 and the age range from youngish to the nearly old. The Club is affiliated to the Welsh Athletics.

TRAINING

We have different groups for different abilities.

We have a new Zero to Hero beginners club starting in January 2015, this group is aimed at anyone wishing to start getting fit or returning from an injury. It will be based at Pandy Park, Ynysawdre. Times and days to be arranged and will be updated in the next week.

The main running club meets every Tuesday & Thursday 6pm at the Life Centre, we run different routes around the valley as well as speed work. During the winter nights we have started taking the club out and about around Bridgend County. We meet at 6pm at Sarn Train Station Car Park the second Tuesday of every month.

We have all ages and abilities within the running club. You will find a group suited to your needs.

Location:

Ogmore Valley Life Centre

Hours:
Tuesday 6.00-8.00pm Running Club
Thursday 6.00-8.00pm Runing Club
Saturday 9am Porthcawl Parkrun
Sunday will be long run see Facebook page for updates.

Blog

Vale Ultra

How did it all come about

So it all started last year when Dai Cappell and Dave Evans ran the inaugural Vale Coastal Ultra. I met up with the Garratts in Ogmore by Sea to cheer the runners in and was inspired. Well… at first I thought ‘they are all bonkers and I would never do anything like that’ but of course, such thoughts are common with runners who a few hours later can’t wait to sign up. I checked every day for entries to open and finally last July they did and I signed up straight away expecting to be first on the start list.

March - part 2

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.
More

March - part 1

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.
More

February Review

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.

January review

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.

review

Where to start with a incredible year for Cwm Ogwr Running Club. It’s hard to believe that in January we ‘only’ had around 50 members and realistically only around 30 of those were regularly attending training and the odd event. Now we have over 100 members with pretty much every one of them doing at least one event. We started the year with 2 training sessions per week and due to popular demand we now have 5 to choose from starting at 3 different locations.

December

Another amazing month for Cwm Ogwr runners with a huge turnout at the Pudding Run, lots signing up for the Festive Four competition and plans finalised for next years club championship.

Saturday 5th - parkruns and Run 4 All Santa Run

Cwm Ogwr represented at five different parkruns with 15 at Porthcawl, 4 at the Gnoll, 2 at Pontypridd, 1 at Colby and 1 at Conwy. Very windy conditions at most of them. Chris Roberts, Dai Power, Richard LJ and I were the four at the Gnoll where I finished in my highest parkrun position of 7th, Chris 13th, RLJ 17th and Dai 40th.

November part 2

Gareth Jenkins: Posted on 29 November 2015 11:57
The second half of November seen a bumper turn out at the Pembrey 10 miler, XC relays, more parkruns and a couple of half marathons.

Cross Country call up

Firstly some exciting news with Kelly being called up to represent South Wales in the Welsh XC Championships! The race is in Buith Wells on December 12th where she will line up with a dozen others for South Wales and race against other regions.

November - parkruns

Not great conditions for Porthcawl parkrun but 19 members braved the elements with Kelly, Jayne and Chris Roberts volunteering whilst 16 ran.

November - part 1

November has been a month of parkruns, cross country and multi-terrain. The big November news is that Cwm Ogwr is now an award-winning club with an award-winning coach. Kelly, Chris Pratt and I attended the BAVO (Bridgend Association of Voluntary Organisations) on November 6 in the Heronston Hotel. We were presented with a ‘Highly Commended’ Volunteer award for the time and effort our coaches put in every week. Afternoon tea followed and it seems most runners are partial to the odd cake (carb loading obviously) so ours went down a treat.

October - part 2

Gareth Jenkins: Posted on 06 November 2015 15:09
The second half of October for Cwm Ogwr included the Snowdonia Marathon, the club London Marathon ballot, Richard Burton 10K and yet more parkrun records.

Club London Marathon Ballot

The club ballot was drawn on October 22before our final training session before Snowdonia. Unfortunately, due to changes in allocation, we only had 1 place… and the winner was… Natasha Kerr. Really pleased for Natasha who was keen to run her first marathon in 2016 and will now get to do it at one of the best in the world.

Gallery


















training schedule

April / May : LIFE CENTRE(LC) PANDY PARK (PP)
Tues 12th April: 6pm LC Hill efforts
Wed 13th April: 6.30pm PP
Thurs 14th April: 6pm LC Road run 10K
Sat 16th April: 9am Porthcawl Parkrun
Sun 17th April: 10am Zero to Hero PP

Tues 19th April: 6pm LC Road Run 6.30pm Trail club
Wed 20th April: 6.30pm PP
Thurs 21st April 6pm LC Efforts
Sat 23rd April: 9am Parkrun
Sun 24th April 10am PP zero to hero

Tues 26th April: 6pm LC Efforts 6.30pm Trail Club
Wed 27th April: 6.30pm PP
Thurs 28th April 6pm LC Road run
Sat 30th April: 9am Parkrun
Sun 1st May: 10am zero to hero

Tues 3rd May:6pm LC Road run 6.30pm Trail club
Wed 4th May: 6.30pm PP
Thurs 5th May: LC Efforts Hills
Sat 6th May: 9am Parkrun
Sun 7th May: 10am PP zero to hero

Tues
Tues 10th May LC 6pm Efforts Cardiff St 6.30pm Trail club
Wed 11th May: PP
Thurs 12th May: LC 6pm Road run Llangeinor Common & Back
Sat 14th May: 9am Parkrun
Sun 15th May: 10am PP zero to hero

Tues 17th May: LC 6pm Road Run 6.30pm Trail club
Wed 18th May: PP 6.30pm
Thurs 19th May: LC 6pm Efforts Walters Rd
Sat 21st May: Parkrun
Sun 22nd May: PP 10am zero to hero

Tues 24th May: LC 6pm Efforts 1 mile loop 6.30pm Trail club
Wed 25th May: PP 6.30pm
Thurs 26th May: LC 6pm Road run
Sat 28th May: 9am Parkrun
Sun 29th May: PP 10am zero to hero

Trail training

Training schedule February, March & April
All sessions are on Sundays and start at 8:30 a.m.

21st Feb:
No session

28th Feb:
Never Mind the Bullocks - meet at Parc Slip

06th March:
Trail taster session (approx. 3 miles) - meet at Parc Slip

13 March:
Vale recce run - 45 minutes out and back - meet at Nash Point

20 March:
NEW ROUTE - Blackmill to Llangeinor mountain (30 minute out and back)

27 March:
NEW ROUTE - Coed Cwm Kenfig figure of 7.5

03 April:
Trail taster session (approx. 4.5 miles) - Coed Cwm Kenfig loop

10 April:
Hill One More Just - meet in Blackmill

17 April:
Braich y Cymmer Loop - meet in Pontycymmer Co-op

24 April:
tbc

Porthcawl Parkrun

We are proud to be able to bring you the parkrun event to the County every Saturday along side Bridgend Athletic, Brackla Harriers, Cornelly Striders & Pencoed Tri Club.

Bridgend Junior parkrun

What is Bridgend junior park run?
It is a 2k run for juniors only (4-14 year olds). If you are not a junior please try one of our weekly Saturday parkrun events instead.

When is it?
It is held every Sunday at 9:30am.

Where is it?
The event takes place at Newbridge Fields, Nr Halo Life Centre, Angel Street, Bridgend, CF31 4AH. See Course page for more details.

What does it cost to join in?
Nothing - it’s free! but please register before your first run. Only ever register with parkrun once. Don’t forget to bring a printed copy of your barcode (request a reminder).

How fast do I have to be?
The aim is to have fun. Please come along and join in whatever your pace!

We’re friendly!
Every week we grab a post parkrun coffee in the Halo Life Centre Café - please come and join us!

Websites and information:

Cwm Ogwr 5 Mile & 2K Family Fun Run

Date: Sunday 15th May 2016

Time: 10AM Family 2K Fun Run
10:30 AM 5 Mile

Location:
Ogmore Vale Life Centre
Aber Road
Ogmore Vale
Bridgend
CF32 7AJ

The 5 mile run is officially measured course, it is timed and results will be available shortly after the finish.
The route take you up from Ogmore Vale through Nantymoel before coming back to the Life Centre.
The roads will be open to traffic, so we ask all the runners to ensure they are aware of traffic when approaching any junctions, there will be safety marshals out along the course. We ask everyone to stay on the pavements where possible.

The Family 2K route will be available soon.

Club Championship

The club championship is a points based competition with six categories from which to collect the maximum amount of points possible. Although there is some competition involved, it rewards entering races as well as attending parkrun and volunteering so that it’s not neccesarily the fastest runner who will automatically win. There’s a good mixture of races with various terrain and distances included. I’ve tried to spread the races out over the year whilst appreciating there’s a lot of marathon / half marathon training going on up to April so there’s only a couple before then.

Results will be updated throughout the year on the Club Results and Stats section of this website with a seperate tab at the end of the Excel file. There will be male and female winners.

I will post on our Facebook page when entries to races included in the club championship open as well as reminding people when they are coming up.

Category A – Marathon / Half Marathon (Maximum of 50 points)

Any Marathon (50 points)
OR
Any Half Marathon (25 points each) – up to 2 to count

Category B – 10 milers (Maximum 30 points) – best race finish to count

Points awards in descending order (30 points for 1st club finisher, 29 points for 2nd…)

Rhondda 10 miler
Brecon 10 miler
Pembrey Multi-Terrain 10 miler

Category C – 10K (Maximum 30 points) – best race finish to count

Points awards in descending order (30 points for 1st, 29 points for 2nd…)

Dragon 10K Cardiff
Cardiff 10K
Richard Burton 10K

Category D – Off Road (Maximum 30 points) – best race finish to count

Margam Park (6 miles)
Whitford Point Multi Terrain (5.7 miles)
Merthyr Mawr Pudding Run (6.2 miles)

Category E – parkruns (Maximum 25 points)

Complete 5 parkruns during the year

Category F – volunteering (Maximum 25 points)

Volunteering at club race (5 points each time)
Volunteering at parkrun (5 points each time)

RACE CALENDAR

Plus of course parkrun every Saturday.
The ones highlighted in red font indicate Club Championship races.

JANUARY

Friday 1 Double parkrun opportunity (Cardiff 9am, Barry Island 10.30am)
Friday 1 Prince of Wales, Kenfig 4 miler
Sunday 3 Iron Trail 5 - Blaenavon
Sunday 10 West Glam XC League - Margam Reservoir
Sunday 17 Swansea Trail 10K
Sunday 17 Riverbank Rollick 9 miler
Sunday 23 Mountain Range Caerphilly Fell Race
Sunday 24 British Athletics Cross Challenge - Cardiff
Sunday 24 Buff Winter Trial Half Marathon - Bettws Y Coed
Sunday 31 Lliswerry 8
Sunday 31 West Glam XC League - Margam Park

FEBRUARY

Saturday 13 Gwent XC League - Monmouth Showground, Monmouth
Sunday 14 Cwm Ogwr Beast 10K
Saturday 20 Hatterall Hammer Fell Race
Sunday 21 Margam Trail Half Marathon
Saturday 27 Welsh XC Championships - Singleton Park
Saturday 27 Ras Dewi Sant Half / Full Marathon, Pembrokeshire
Sunday 28 Pontypool 10K
Sunday 28 St Davids Day Run 10K, Cardiff

MARCH

Saturday 5 Gwent XC League - Brecon Leisure Centre
Sunday 6 Newport Half Marathon
Sunday 13 Llanelli Half Marathon
Sunday 13 Dragon 10K, Cardiff
Sunday 13 Abergavenny 10K
Saturday 19 360 Swansea Bay 5K
Sunday 20 San Domenico 20 miler
Sunday 20 Sport Relief 1, 3 and 6 milers
Saturday 26 Half Marathon World Championships, Cardiff

APRIL

Saturday 2 Vale Coastal Ultra 32 and 18 milers
Saturday 2 Llanbedr to Blaenafon Fell Race (16 miles)
Sunday 3 HBA (Llanelli) 5 / 10 / 20 milers
Sunday 10 Manchester Marathon
Sunday 17 Brighton Marathon
Sunday 17 Great Welsh Half / Full Marathon
Sunday 24 Offa’s Orror 20K - Wye Valley
Sunday 24 London Marathon
Sunday 24 Parc Bryn Bach 6 miler
Tuesday 26 Pentrych Hill Race
Friday 29 Cardiff Summer Series 1 mile

MAY

Sunday 1 Port Talbot Harriers Tonmawr Hilly 5 miler
Sunday 1 Brecon to Cardiff Ultra
Saturday 7 Preseli Beast races - 11 / 24 or 32 miles
Saturday 7 Steam Bunny Stomp 7 mile Fell Race BM
Saturday 7 Rhondda Rollercoaster Marathon
Sunday 8 Porthkerry 5 mile
Sunday 8 Sorbrook Slog 7 mile
Friday 13 Unilite Night Trail 10K
Sunday 15 Bristol 10K
Sunday 15 Cwm Ogwr 5 mile
Sunday 15 Sirhowy Challenge 10 mile
Wednesday 18 (TBC) SSAFA 5K
Sunday 22 Cottrell Park relays
Wednesday 25 Whitford Point 5.9 miler
Friday 27 Cardiff Summer Series 2 mile
Sunday 29 Treforest 10K
Sunday 29 Womens Running 10K (Cardiff)

JUNE

Wednesday 1 Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K
Friday 10 Cardiff Summer Series 3 miles
Sunday 19 Caerphilly 10K
Sunday 26 Swansea Half Marathon

JULY

Thursday 7 Blade Runner 7 mile
Friday 8 Cardiff Summer Series 4 miles
Saturday 9 Pen y Fan 3.5 miles
Sunday 10 Fan y Big Horseshoe 10 miler
Wednesday 13 Cosmeston Relays
Saturday 16 Night of Endurance 1 mile / 10K (Cardiff)
Saturday 16 Merthyr Mawr Trail Festival (distances TBC)
Sunday 17 Pontypridd Loop 10K
Sunday 24 Snowdonia Trail Half / Full Marathon
Thursday 28 The Chase 5K (Cardiff)

AUGUST

Wednesday 3 Summer Sizzler 5K (Cardiff)
Friday 5 Murder Mile
Sunday 7 (TBC) Brecon 10 mile
Saturday 27 Llantwit Major 10K
Saturday 27 CPR Challenge (5K, 10K, 4.5K XC)
Sunday 28 CPR Challenge (Half Marathon, 1 mile)
Sunday 28 Narbeth Trail Half Marathon
Sunday 28 Severn Bridge Half Marathon
Sunday 28 Butetown mile
Monday 29 South Wales Trail Half Marathon
Monday 29 Machen Mountain Run

SEPTEMBER

Sunday 11 Cardiff 10K
Sunday 18 Swansea 10K

OCTOBER

Sunday 2 Cardiff Half Marathon

NOVEMBER

Sunday 6 Richard Burton 10K
Sunday 20 (TBC) Pembrey MT 10 mile

DECEMBER

Sunday 11 (TBC) Merthyr Mawr Pudding Run
Monday 26 Porthcawl Lions Boxing Day 7K

Membership

It’s easy to become a member of Cwm Ogwr Running Club: The fee for the Season is £22.50; this includes your Welsh Athletics affiliation and the club affiliation.

Benefits to Individual Registered Athletes:

Benefits of being part of the Cwm Ogwr team:

4 Qualified British Athletics Running Fitness Coaches are part of the team
Group discount for Cardiff 10K
All training abilities welcomed
Different training routes available inc off road
Plenty of local race knowledge
London Marathon entry* through club ballot

Level Playing Field Club Championship

What you need to know…

There are 25 races of varying distance split over 5 categories. To be in with a chance you need to run at least 10 of these races in 2016 including at least one from each category. The level playing field championship aims to give everyone a chance of winning by giving each member a ‘time to beat’ based on their past results. All of these times are on the results and stats file under the heading on the right. Depending on how much you beat your time by will determine your score.

CATEGORY A

Merthyr Mawr 5K
Caerphilly 10K
Lliswerry 8 mile
Cardiff Half Marathon (October)
Beast of Bryn 6.8 mile or 15 mile

CATEGORY B

Cosmeston Relays
Cardiff 10K
Brecon 10 mile
Llanelli Half Marathon (March)
Vale 18.5 OR any Ultra (best time to count)

CATEGORY C

Prince of Wales Kenfig 4 mile
Cardiff Bay 5 mile
Richard Burton 10K
St Davids Day 10K (Cardiff)
Cardiff World Half Marathon (March)

CATEGORY D

Hilly 4
Porthcawl Boxing Day 7K
Swansea 10K
Swansea Half Marathon
Any Marathon (best time to count)

CATEGORY E

Kenfig 5K
Ponty Loop 10K
Merthyr Mawr Pudding Run 10K
Pembrey Multi Terrain 10 mile
Margam Trail Half Marathon

Club Championship races by date order

JANUARY

1 January: Prince of Wales Kenfig 4 mile (11am)
31 January: Lliswerry 8 mile (11.30am) http://lliswerryrunners.com/lliswerry8

FEBRUARY

21 February: Margam Trail Half Marathon http://www.keepactiveswansea.co.uk/hoka-one.html
28 February: St Davids Day 10K (Cardiff) http://www.stdavidsdayrun.com/10k/

MARCH

13 March: Llanelli Half Marathon http://llanellihalfmarathon.org/
26 March: Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships http://www.cardiff2016.co.uk/

APRIL

2 April: Vale 18.5 mile / Ultra http://www.runwalkcrawl.co.uk/events/vale-coastal-ultra.html

MAY

2 May: Cardiff Bay 5 mile http://www.cardiffbay5mile.org/
25 May: Merthyr Mawr Lane 5K https://bridgendac.wordpress.com/

JUNE

4 June: Beast of Bryn 6.8 mile or 15 mile http://www.bwystfilybryn.btck.co.uk/
19 June: Caerphilly 10K http://your.caerphilly.gov.uk/10k/
26 June: Swansea Half Marathon https://race-nation.com/swanseahalf

JULY

10 July (tbc): Pontypridd Loop 10K http://www.pontypriddroadentsac.org.uk/
20 July (tbc): SSAFA 5K (3 race) http://www.ssafacardiff.org/SSAFA5k_index01.html

AUGUST

7 August (tbc): Brecon 10 mile http://www.brecon10.com/
24 August (tbc): Kenfig Nature Reserve 5K

SEPTEMBER

4 September: Cardiff 10K https://cardiff10k.com/
6 September (tbc): Hilly 4
18 September: Swansea 10K http://www.swanseabay10k.com/

OCTOBER

2 October (tbc): Cardiff Half Marathon http://www.cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk/

NOVEMBER

6 November: Richard Burton 10K http://richardburton-r-r.btck.co.uk/
20 November: Pembrey MT10 http://www.sospanroadrunners.co.uk/

DECEMBER

11 December: Merthyr Mawr Pudding Run 10K http://www.bracklaharriers.co.uk/merthyr-mawr-pudding-race/
26 December: Porthcawl Boxing Day 7K http://porthcawllions.org.uk/

Rules and further details

Each member will have times allocated for each club championship race as a ‘time to beat’. This ‘time to beat’ is based on their best 5K time from 2015 with a percentage added (depending on terrain / distance). The Runners World Race Predictor calculator used to convert these times to different distances. Where a runner does not have a 5K time or the 5K time is out of synch with other race times (for example if someone only ran one parkrun at a slower pace) then either their best 5K time from a previous year will be used, or a calculation will be done based on their 10K or other distance. All of the ‘times to beat’ are shown on the excel file on this page.

Scoring is based on the percentage by which you beat your allocated time. For example if your time to beat for Lliswerry 8 is 60:00 and you run it in 58:00 then you would score 3.33%. All results will go to 2 decimal places to make it unlikely that anyone will end up on the same score and avoid advantages / disadvantages through rounding.

Where a distance such as a road 10K or Half Marathon can be run more than once, the ‘time to beat’ on the second occasion will be the time run in the first race at that distance. For example. Joe Bloggs has a ‘time to beat’ of 50:00 for a road 10K and runs the St Davids Day 10K in 47:00. That would be a 6.00% improvement which would be his score for that race. If he then decided to run Caerphilly 10K, his ‘time to beat’ would then be 47:00. This stops members from potentially getting several good scores from one distance and encourages them to run a variety of distances.

There is an option for ‘any marathon’. Please note that should a member run more than one marathon, only the best scoring time will count so that member would still need to run 9 other club championship events. This is the same for ‘any ultra’. Again, this is to discourage members from scoring most of the points by running several marathons and not a variety of distances.

Unfortunately, it will be difficult to add new members to club championship part way through the year, especially if they have no previous times on which to based ‘times to beat’, therefore only members as at 1 January 2016 will be eligible.

The points / percentage tables and ‘times to beat’ will be updated asap after each club championship event.

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