CARLA GREEN CELEBRATED QUADRUPLE SUCCESS AFTER HOLIDAY DASH

CARLA GREEN CELEBRATED QUADRUPLE SUCCESS AFTER HOLIDAY DASH.

Report by Don Hale. Most photographs by Steve Jeffery.

Carla Green celebrated an amazing quadruple achievement at the Conwy Parkrun last Saturday, which attracted a bumper Bank Holiday attendance, and saw last week’s overall course record-breaker winner Bryn Woodall, just miss another stunning attempt by a mere four-seconds.

North Wales Road Runner Carla (*pictured top of page), who had only just unpacked her suitcase after arriving back from holiday, blitzed around the hard, sun-baked course, and was the 1st female finisher, recording a superb new parkrun PB of exactly 20 minutes in her 100th Conwy parkrun, and she easily won her VW45-49 age category, finishing 21st overall.

The event again attracted much interest and excitement from a host of top club runners, who were representing many varied parts of the UK, together with a generous sprinkling of tourists enjoying a summer break, which boosted the number of finishers to 425 – some 115 runners more than last week!

*Bryn Woodall just missed out on another course record.

Colwyn Bay teenager Bryn Woodall (*pictured above) had hoped to improve slightly upon his incredible course record of just 15 mins 16 secs, which he ran last week in wet, and almost waterlogged conditions, but this week’s hard, dry, and very bumpy surface, coupled with a large entry, and hot and humid conditions, possibly hindered his chances, and eventually he had to settle for 15 mins 19 seconds, just 4 seconds adrift of another incredible new record.

NWRRC entered fifteen club members and recorded five new personal best times, in addition to five first-place age category wins, one second, and one third, with most members also improving their overall finishing times. It was a very fast event with the first twenty-runners all dipping under twenty-minutes and included nine-personal best times within this section.

             *Jonathan Kettle finished 2nd after a battle on the final stretch.

Jonathan Kettle was the first club man home in this second Conwy parkrun for over 17-months, and he faced a real battle behind the outstanding race winner Bryn, and only improved his final finishing position following a final dash from the bridge to finish 2nd overall in 17 mins 20 secs for a great new parkrun PB time. 

Jonathan also won his M45-49 age category, improving last week’s gun time by a similar four-second difference, and narrowly pipped 3rd placed rival Jonathan Tyler (Betsi Runaways) by just two-seconds.

After the parkrun, Jonathan Kettle admitted: ‘It was a real battle of a race but great fun. To be honest, I was heading for 4th place towards the bridge on the way home. I thought that using local knowledge always helps, so I went as hard as I could to catch, and then to pass the other two runners on the bridge before going flat out to the end. It’s proof that a race is not over until it’s over.’

Harry Driscoll (*pictured above) continued his return to form finishing 13th in 19.24, and he also won his M20-24 age category. Stuart Culverhouse ran a PB in 20.10, ten-seconds behind Carla, but just missed out on an age-related podium placing, finishing 4th in his M45-49 cat, and in 24th place overall. John Dalzell was another club runner in form, finishing 28th in 20.32. 

Steve Roberts (*above) claimed 1st place in his M55-59 age cat, finishing 43rd overall in 21.13, followed by Sean Butler,62nd, and 2nd M60-64 cat in 22.19, with veteran Don Hale winning his M65-69 age cat in 110th place overall in 24.13. 

Partially sighted runner Daniel Owens also improved his previous time at Conwy with his new guide Stephen Mason from the GOGs, finishing 114th in 24.16. And Jamie Tharme additionally claimed a new parkrun PB of 24.26 in 123rd place, with veteran Rob Fryer winning 3rd place in the M65-69 age cat in 26.06 and 169th spot. 

                     *Mia Morris and her mother Rachel at the Conwy Parkrun.

Teenager Mia Morris was 177th overall in 26.36, and in contrast another veteran Ian Turner celebrated another worthy PB for the second week running at Conwy, finishing 231st in 28.33, whilst Mia’s mother Rachel Morris knocked more than a minute off last week’s finishing time, recording 32.23 in 307th position.

                                        *A second PB on the trot for Ian Turner.

*This is the live link to the Conwy parkrun results: 

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=267&utm_medium=email&utm_source=resultsemail&utm_campaign=systememail

Running partners on their travels again

North Wales wanderers Kelly-Marie Alford and her partner Cai Roberts continued their running travels last Sunday and competed in the Chorley FM 10k in Lancashire.

They continued with their series of endurance events and ran together again in this popular race, which attracted nearly 700 runners. The duo finished in 309th and 310th positions respectively, in 56 minutes 8 seconds, and Kelly-Marie bravely ran with a painful leg injury, eventually finishing as the 65th female finisher.

*The race winner was Simon Croft (Red Rose Runners) in 33.46, with 2nd Daniel Miller (Un) in 35.42, and in 3rd place was Alexander Curran (Blackburn Road Runners) in 36.53. The first female finisher was Suzie Young (Un) in 42.51.

Gethin ran well at Felixstowe Parkrun

Gethin Wyn Jones was another club athlete on his travels, this time visiting Felixstowe for a short holiday. He ran last Saturday morning in the local parkrun and finished 15th overall out of 281 finishers, and was 2nd in his M35-39 age cat in a fast time of 20 mins 34 seconds.