December Highlights

Susannah
Jan 3
3 min read

Let's start at the end with Boxing Day races and the last few park runs of the year!

Since Christmas, we’ve had runners at two separate races organised by local clubs.

Ben and Em were at the Griffithstown Harriers Boxing Day 5 miler before a large contingent were at the Old Father Time 5 miler in Pontcanna, organised by Croups.

There were some fantastic results and equally impressive support out on the course from Meg, Matt, Ron and Cat, Rowena & James who took some photos in an attempt to stay warm!

Around Christmas...

On Christmas day we had 28 hardy souls at Cardiff with Arthur volunteering. Ben, Jack and James ran over in Barry, Ron, Susannah and Andrew at Tremorfa and KM in Newport.

A couple of days later we were back to a much quieter Cardiff with Andy G, Phil B, Johnny L, Hannah, Dan L, Harry T, Phil R, Armanda, Paulina, Therese and Karen in attendance. Arthur volunteered over on Llanishen with James H, Matt T, Becs and Ian B running. It was a family affair for the Cartlidge’s at Tremorfa and Huw was at Trelai Park.

We also had members running at Barry Island, Bartley Park, Brooklands, Carlisle Park, CCPD, Coolum Eco , Cosmeston Lakes, Highwoods, Llanfoist Crossing, Newport, Salisbury, Stratford Park (Stroud) and Wakehurst.

Mid Month..

First, over in Pontcanna Fields, we had 13 members take on the Festive 10k, with several finishing the year with a PB.

For our off-roaders, the Pudding Race in Merthyr Mawr was the race of choice. The usual water features were present but no one went for a swim this year.

Whilst all that went on, Dave B took on the Celtic Trail ultra, covering over 50k west out of Aberdare towards Resolven and back.

Dexter took on another challenge at the Penang Bridge International Marathon enjoying bags of ice to cool down and also eat having to deal with the Malaysian humidity.

Saturday saw Harry T & Chris M run the Skirrid fell race with a climb up and down of roughly 1000ft. With nearly 150 taking part, Harry finished 17th and Chris 28th. Thanks to @tosh_simpkin for the photos

There was also the club's Christmas outing and the Festive Mince Pie run...

see the mince pie reel here - https://www.facebook.com/reel/1630479727934018

Meanwhile in Spain...

Some fantastic results in the elite field & fellow Welsh runners but a truly excellent set of results for the club at the Valencia Marathon.

Meg Parry ran a PB of 3:24 knocking off nearly 8 minutes off her previous and Matt ran 4:27 despite illness.

Three of the men ran sub 3;

Jack Hilldrup broke it after a few previous attempts so was pleased to see 2:54 on his watch, with Mark Furnish getting a PB by a minute for a 2:56.

Toby Culling made his marathon debut and snuck in just under 3 hours.

James Hansell had already decided he wasn’t going to finish the race due to Achilles issues, but enjoyed covering half the course before calling it a day to find some tapas.

Neil Williams also joined the injury bus so didn’t start the race but at least had a few days away.

And a mention about cross country..

We had a smaller team out for the Blaise Castle edition of the Gwent League on Saturday afternoon.

Sara, Sarah & Robyn ran in the ladies race getting some valuable points to help with their push for promotion to Division 1!

The men’s team was also lighter than Llandaff with Andy G, Chris O, Johnny T, Chris M, Hywel, Phil R, Ian B & Tom B scoring points for the A & B team.

Conditions were relatively decent underfoot but the wind from the east was a challenge from the start line direction, with a few gazebos exploring more of the course than anticipated

The next race will be 7th Feb at Chepstow racecourse

Thanks to Chris M, Karen & Sara for the photos and Ron for the setup of the gazebo (twice )