Chasing times, and trails

Therme Manchester Marathon – 3rd April

Adam Bowden might have had his sights on a Welsh Commonwealth Games qualifying time (unconfirmed). Snuggled in at the back of the lead pack until just before halfway, he crossed the 13.1-mile mark in 66:37. According to the Power of 10, that’s just 43 seconds outside his best for that distance. Detached in the second half, he lost some of the first half pace but still bagged a near 3-minute PB to finish 12th and 5th V35.

To Greg Newhams’ disappointment, Adam’s 2:17:18 slots him into 3rd in the club’s all-time rankings, overtaking Greg by a whole two seconds.

Adam’s own words: “I’m very pleased with my PB today of 2:17:18. I went off with the pace from the start and through half way in a 66 which is a little quick and I paid for it over the next half. I’m still learning the pacing but this is only my second marathon so I’m very pleased with my progression.
It was really nice to have my family there for support. The crowds were awesome and the event was well organised.”

CF64 – also 3rd April

A lovely spring day saw Gina and Gareth Hardman run the “CF64” – a nice low-key 10.4K trail race around the Cosmeston Park area, organised really well by Penarth & Dinas Runners. Normally this race would be a pretty tough muddy affair. But having been moved due to Covid, and a really dry period meant the underfoot conditions were difficult (in a different way) due to dry ruts where cows had been previously – hardly a mud patch in sight.

The race sees lots of the local “usual suspect” clubs – many of whom probably see this as an extension to the parkrun that takes place in the same area. The race goes out of the park and on to the ridge to the west of the main park area – so there’s a nice hill you go down, then back up with a mile to go which is a bit mean frankly. That would NOT have been fun if the mud was out in force for sure.

Gareth was 34th (6th v55M) and Gina came home in 41st position (2nd v45W), Congratulations to Chris Jeynes, BAC Junior Club coach – running for Brackla – coming home in 11th.

217 runners finished in total.

Parkrun results

A few stand-out runs this Saturday – Josh Morgan notched up his 50th parkrun with a debut sub 20 at Maesteg. That’s where Krista Humphry bagged a course PB. Over at Porthcawl, celebrating their 9th birthday, Sally Murray finished in a PB of 26:13.

Report by Gareth Hardman and Leigh James

Photographer credit Abyd Quinn Aziz