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. |
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