A festival of fast five ks
This is a bumper round-up, not just for this week but events spanning three weeks or so.
Fast Running – 16th April
In the fastest parkruns for Saturday 16th April, Adam Bowden proudly sat in the number one spot. His 15:01 at Pontypridd was enough to lead the way. A snip under two weeks after his marathon at Manchester, it looked like a good test of speed.
Blustery Bath – 23rd April
A few athletes took to the road for Bristol Track Club’s 3k/5k, which wasn’t held in Bristol but in Bath’s Odd Down Cycle Circuit. St George’s day brought gusty conditions to the cycle track. But that didn’t seem to slow our youngsters down much, Rhydian was 6th over the line and Katie 11th – she sped in with a fine first place for the girls.
3k results
6th Rhydian Lloyd-Francis 11:20 (3rd u13)
11th Katy Griffiths 11:57 (1st female)
5k results
Leigh James 20:38
Leigh James in the finishing stretch
Rhydian Lloyd-Francis
https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16665&RId=3323&EId=1
Eight and a bit 5ks – 24th April
Kept under wraps, Nick Stocker quietly ventured to Sheperdine to run a marathon. On a looped course, he covered the five+ laps in 3:33:08 to finish 23rd out of 49.
“No shade, no shelter from the wind, very lonely! But very friendly.”
An endorsement from Nick… “great after race support and refreshments, no stress and very cheap.”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ply62Ffg53cKrkuUmfdFV7T_jtSblQbX/view
Nick Stocker
First finisher – 24th April
In her debut parkrun (on a Saturday or Sunday) Bella Thie stormed to a first place finish and third overall at Cardiff junior parkrun, in a nippy time of 8:21 for the 2k distance.
Bella Thie
There may have been an outing to Yale too for the UK Youth Development League, but not being at the event and no mutterings of news or results we can’t report anything here. Keep your ears to the ground though, and eyes on Facebook.
Welsh Junior Trail Running Championships Devils Bridge – 31st April
Josh turned to the trails to take part in the Welsh trail champs. We hear it was a tough course – although that was what we’d expect from an event like this. We haven’t seen the results, yet.
Josh Morgan to the fore
Race for Victory 5k – 1st May
Many club members spent their bank holiday weekend racing around the streets of Whitchurch. At the pointy end were athletes competing for Wales and their regions. As with previous years, the race included the Welsh 5k championships.
With 20 runners in yellow and blue hooped vests, it’s perhaps one of our strongest turn-outs for an event in a while. A good balance too, almost 50/50 male and female.
It looked like a storming run from Rhydian, a target sub 19 PB for Josh (the day after running up big hills). There were too many PBs in the mix to highlight them all. Pencil next year’s race in your diaries though – it’s the place to go for fast times and a quality event.
Gun positions, chip times:
56th Devin Coombes – 15:43
108th Mark Emery – 16:37
159th Sean Petty - 17:32
191st Ryan Bowen – 17:54
242nd Rhydian Lloyd-Francis – 18:33
260th Josh Morgan – 18:51
343rd Leigh James – 19:55
370th Benjamin Jones – 20:23
392nd Katy Griffiths – 20:58
407th Mia Allen – 21:07
410th Dan Morgan – 20:59
420th Sophie Moore – 21:14
438th Freya Allen – 21:28
448th Gareth Hardman – 21:19
500th Huw Roberts - 22:23
501st Ruth Davies – 22:08
648th Seren Hardman – 24:08
712th Abigail Morgan – 24:52
747th Krista Humphrey – 25:11
844th Daisy Lewis – 26:44
1380 finishers
https://results.sporthive.com/events/6926486474351149312
We’ll sit tight for Welsh champs results.
Most recent parkrun results
A few stand-out runs this Saturday – Rich and Georgie took on what’s considered one of toughest parkruns in the UK, at Woolacombe Dunes. Rhydian switched 3k for 5k, with a storming 18:59 at Cardiff, while Jack hit his sub 24-minute target at Porthcawl.
Let us know if we’ve missed your result, and if you’re up for writing a report sometime – it’s a team effort.
Report by Leigh James
Photographer credits Seren Hardman, Leigh Francis, Tosh K Simpkin, James Thie, Welsh Athletics.