September in a nutshell!

Susannah
Oct 14
3 min read

This month's update is in reverse...so we'll start at the end and finish at the beginning!

27th & 28th September

Sunday morning was the Forest of Dean Trail Half Marathon & the Loch Ness race series.

Harry T was out watching in the forest and got a few photos of George & Matt T racing it. It was perfect practice for George ahead of his Abingdon Marathon for the Welsh Masters team next month, coming home in 1:22:46 and finishing in 34th place. Matt T did it in 1:24:01 for 40th.

Slightly further afield, Rachel went on the hunt for Nessy and raced the Loch Ness 10k After getting a PB at Cardiff 10k recently, she dropped it down further to 47:02!

Mid month saw...

another busy weekend of racing and running!

* Worcester Half

* Swansea 10k

* Castle 2 Castle

* Vilnius Half

* Chippenham Half

Em ran a 1.45 half marathon in Worcester but unfortunately Ben didn’t finish the race.

We had a decent crowd for Swansea. Rowena (44:49) and Niall (49:04) ran a PB, JP had a season’s best - just a few seconds off his PB - and Kev was first back from the club in under 40mins. Renee also did really well, improving on her Cardiff 10k time by 3 minutes.

James had to pull out after 1km with an issue.

At the Castle to Castle run, we had 8 supporting the Velindre cancer charity. It was also an opportunity for Eleanor to wear her vest for the first time! Menai decided to try out how fast she could go after two successful races in the last week and came home as second female.

Well done to Ian D, Toby C, Tom F, Cat, Aisling and Holly.

Huw S took a trip to Lithuania and stumbled across the Vilnius Half so decided on a last minute entry on the Saturday, running sub 90 without his preferred race kit.

Andy Grierson (1:48:33) ran comfortably under the 1:50 mark for the first time in 6 years whilst Brian Aherne (2:23:49) scooped third place in the V70 at the Chippenham Half!

At the beginning of the month...

A delayed write up for the Cardiff 10k & Bridgewater 10k whilst we’ve collated some achievements & photos.

It was unbelievable to see so many at a local race continuing to build on a strong year of running.17 PBs, 12 season bests & 9 others out running it in some varied weather conditions.

Thanks to those on the course cheering us all on as well as Johnny L for his brilliant photography as usual!

We even made it into the South Wales Echo with a mini club photo on the finish line courtesy of one of the R4W photographers.

On the same day, Em made her debut in club colours at the Bridgewater 10k alongside Ben!

A big up to..

Dave Blackmore once again showed why he’s a club endurance legend with a fantastic performance at Dragon's Back Race . For those unaware, it’s a gruelling 380km, 6-Day ultra through Wales with 16,400m of ascent.

Day 1 was from Conwy Castle to Nant Gwynant and covered 50km (31 miles) with 4100m (13,500ft) of climbing which was the most elevation in a day.

Each of the following days covered more distance but less elevation, but would probably enough for even the most experienced marathon runner to do as a one off, let alone day after day!

The final day of 40 miles from near Talybont Reservoir to Cardiff Castle even bypassed some of the Roman Run course.

Dave finished an incredible 35th out of 300 hardy runners who signed up!