June highlights

Susannah
Jul 7
3 min read

It started with Rack Raid and Castles Relays and ended with plans for the first beer run!

Team results were fantastic, so well done all!

In the Rack Raid, our 13 star runners finished 6th overall out of 30 teams, which has been the Club’s best result in several years.

Charlotte kicked off the day in Grosmont at 8am, running a 5km PB as part of her stage before handing the metaphorical baton over to Megan who ran from Skenfrith before her strong finish up the renowned hill to White Castle. Nadine took the team from White Castle to Abergavenny on stage 3 with a big smile every step of the way.

It was at Abergavenny that our San Dom men took the reins for the next 7 stages. Toby ran a controlled race up the steep 450ft ascent covering the first 2 miles before then picking off runners to fly in with a 2nd place stage position.

Hywel came top 10 on his undulating stage 5 from Moat to Monmouth before Ian O took on one of the day’s longer stages of 12.4 miles from Monmouth to Raglan finishing again in a strong top 10 position.

As a last-minute sub, Dan flew into 3rd place from Raglan to Usk despite the constant headwind he and the other runners faced. It was from Usk to Tintern, that the elevation gain of 1400ft over 13.1 miles was no match for our Cornish bred James S who took a heroic stage win after a solid kick to outdo his Ponty Rodents rival in the latter stages.

Matt T was literally up and out of Tintern on stage 9, climbing an impressive 800ft for the first 5 miles of his 10 mile stage before having a sprint race finish with a Caerleon stage runner as he dropped into Chepstow Castle to claim 5th place on stage 9.

Jhon had a strong run out of Chepstow almost not wanting to stop at his finish in Caldicot before handing the relays back to our final 3 ladies! The Club’s Chair and Team Manager Del took on the hilly new route from Caldicot to Penhow securing a strong 1st female home on stage 11.

Del was followed by Susannah who having left Penhow, ran a strong 6.6 mile leg to Caerleon to place 5th overall on stage 12. It was Cat who had the glory, taking on the final famous hill to the finish at Castell-Y-Bwch before joining everyone at The Olive Tree for the Relay Presentation to celebrate their achievements with some well-deserved food and drink.

Thank you Fairwater-Runners-Cwmbran for another brilliant relay – see you next year!

Castles Relays Round Up..

These are our twenty runners who ran from Caernarfon to Cardiff, covering over 200 miles in two days.

They took on mountains, battled against tough competition, made some new friends and memories but most of all gave their all for the blue, red and white of San Domenico

16th place overall out of 61 teams in a total time of 21:56:39, an improvement on the last three years since the pandemic as well as the years before it.

Fantastic running team!

The mid week races just keep on giving:

An excellent turnout and results at race 2 of The Rose Inn (congrats all, well done Daniel on the sweets win!) followed by the Caerleon 5 miler. Also congrats those runners who took part in the Torfean Sprint Relays...more teams next year? We'd highly recommend aprt from the heat! A hugely successful night out for our runners at the SSAFA 5k as well (pics to follow) who bagged several winning prizes!

Other races..

Including the Swansea Half Marathon and the Endure24 . Trail adventures at the Offa's Dyke Fell Race and the Steam Bunny Stomp Fell Race! Is it just me or could we do with an evening's talk by Harry, Andy and others who are acing it on fell and trail running?

Not forgetting the Barry Island 10k

Huge congrats on everyone putting in the miles in the heat....we've had excellent turn outs at training nights, club handicaps (well done Hannah, you're doing a cracking job!) and parkruns!

A full breakdown of San Dom at parkrun are on the club's facebook pages (thanks Andy for updating ALL the time, appreciated).

And finally...

We hope everyone's enjoying the summer season: training sessions as normal, and as always run at your own pace, enjoy the city's routes and get some miles in those legs!

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