North Wales athletes on the run as tourists - plus results round-up from a busy weekend.

*The NWRRC team on tour at Newborough Forest, Anglesey, (*pictured l-r), Harry Driscoll, John Hatton, Mike Hayton, Carla Green and Liz Driscoll.

North Wales athletes on the run as tourists.

Report by Don Hale. Most photographs by Steve Jeffery.

 

The start of the half-term break saw many North Wales athletes travelling far afield this week to sample a variety of races at Liverpool, Leeds, Bangor, Newborough, and Newent Park in the Forest of Dean.

Five NWRRC members ran in the Newborough Forest parkrun on Anglesey last Saturday, and a further twenty tackled the muddy and windswept Conwy parkrun, with two more at Newent Park.

Carla Green celebrated her performance along the challenging trails at Newborough by claiming the 1st lady spot, an age category victory, and a parkrun PB, finishing 11th overall from 141 entrants in 20 minutes 24 seconds.

*Carla Green (*above) was the 1st Lady at Newborough and claimed a new PB, and (*below) Harry Driscoll continues to improve with a positive performance.

Other results from her team of travellers included Harry Driscoll, who continues to improve every week, finishing 14th overall, and 2nd in his SM20-25 cat in 21.00, with Kay Hatton 33rd and 2nd VW55.59 in 25.06. 

*Kay Hatton is shown (above) with Liz Driscoll (below) on the trails.

Additionally, Liz Driscoll continued her fitness battle to win her VW50-54 age cat in 25.37, and master veteran Mike Hayton relished his return to form with a fine performance and 2nd place in his VM70-74 age cat in 29.26.

*Link to provisional results at the Newborough Forest parkrun:

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/newboroughforest/results/latestresults/

 

Conwy Parkrun.

 

Jonathan Kettle was the star club runner again at the cool, muddy, and windswept, Conwy parkrun, finishing 4th overall and 1st in his MV45-49 age cat in 17.57, with Mark Jessett 6th and 2nd VM35.39 cat in 18.23. Martin Green, who is still recovering from his recent marathon run was 9th in 18.45, whilst John Dalzell looked sharp in 15th spot in 20.20.

The event attracted runners of varying standards from a wide area and race director Gwyn Williams said: ‘Well done to all 277 of you that braved that bracing wind today. A huge number of tourists from all corners of the UK and loads of first timers, great to see, and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. Thanks also the twenty-four volunteers that made the magic happen, you are all brilliant making my job really easy!’

*Steve Roberts finished 2nd in his age cat at the Conwy Parkrun.

Other Conwy results included: Steve Roberts 23rd and 2nd VM55-59 in 21.19, and Sean Butler continued to impress, with an excellent performance winning his VM60-64 age cat and finished 33rd overall in 21.59. Gethin Wyn Jones was back to normal finishing 38th in 22.12, and he was just five seconds ahead of colleague Jamie Tharme who set a new PB of 22.17, despite competing in last week’s Amsterdam marathon, finishing 2nd in his VM40-44 age cat.

*Gethin Wyn Jones (*pictured above) and (*below) Stuart Culverhouse with his son Joe, brother in law Lee and niece Olivier at the Conwy Parkrun last weekend.

Young Joe Culverhouse ran with his dad Stuart, to again win his JM10 age cat in 52nd place in 23.01. And Daniel Owens also gave chase in 54th place, running with guide Evan Williams (Eryri Harriers) in 23.04. Stuart Culverhouse also welcomed his brother-in-law Lee, and niece Olivier to the event.

Meanwhile, master veteran Rob Fryer confirmed his vast improvement with another strong run in 70th place, and he was 2nd in his MV69 cat in 23.57, with fellow vet Don Hale 79th in 24.40 and 3rd MV65-69 cat.

Helen Hannam finished 2nd in her VW45-49 age cat in 93rd spot and she was the 10th female in 25.36, with Ian Turner fast becoming a PB master most weeks, finishing 115th to just dip under the 27-minute barrier in 26.41, whilst Vicky Taylor made a rare parkrun appearance in 119th place in 27.28.

Helen Hannam (*above left) with Ian Turner (*above right).

Mike Smith continued to build upon his parkrun experience with a solid run in 184th place in 31.14, and Dave Spofforth ran with his youngster Ben, who unfortunately suffered a stitch, and finished 201st in 32.53, with veteran Joan Edwards running home in 225th place in 35.14.

*The event was won by Joe Moores (Rossendale Harriers) in a very fast time of 15.51, with Ashley Baldwin(Tamworth) 2nd in 16.54, and Dylan Coles 3rd in 17.23.

 

*Link to provisional results at Conwy parkrun:

https://www.strava.com/activities/6153280035#kudos

 

Newent Park parkrun, Forest of Dean.

 

Husband and wide duo Ben and Sarah Fergie Hudson celebrated an excellent day at the Newent Park event at the Forest of Dean, with both members winning their respective age categories, and Sarah also claimed the 1st Lady spot and gained a great new PB.

Ben was 5th overall from 75 finishers and was 1st in his VM40-44 age cat in 22.40, whilst Sarah enjoyed a great performance as the 1st female finisher, and additionally, she also won her VW40-44 age cat in a new parkrun PB time of 24.03.

*Sarah Fergie Hudson (*above) with her husband Ben (*pictured below).

North Wales cross-country league. 

Pat Finnie was the only NWRRC member at the latest cross-country meeting at Treborth, Bangor, last Saturday, and although he is recovering from ill-health, Pat still enjoyed a good performance to finish in 146th place in 49.40 in the five-mile Over 65’s lapped-race. Afterwards he confirmed: ‘I’m happy with my time as this was my first race back and I had to stop or slow down to allow the faster runners to pass. All in all, it was a good day.’

*Pat Finnie was back in competitive action again at the Bangor cross-country.

Leeds Abbey Dash 10k.

 

Hannah Griffith took part in the Leeds Abbey 10K Dash on Sunday with some friends and enjoyed her outing across the border to Yorkshire with a steady run finishing in 935th place amongst 2,717 other athletes with a superb chip time of 49.02.

* Hannah Griffith with friends at the Leeds Abbey 10k Dash.

Liverpool Rock N Roll 5k and half-marathon.

 

Rachel Morris and her teenage daughter Mia took part in the Liverpool Rock N Roll 5k race on Saturday, which attracted 2,326 finishers, as part of a weekend of varied events. And despite Mia feeling a bit under the weather, she still ran well to finish in 29 minutes 18 seconds and finished 4th in her F15-17 division (550), with her mum running home in 32.23 (861). 

*Rachel and Mia Morris are pictured (*above) at the Liverpool Rock N Roll race.

Charlie Owen also ran in the 5k on Saturday, as well as the half-marathon on Sunday and he finished in 30.20 (651), whilst ultra-distance runner Josie Davies from GOG Triathlon completed the race in 28.23 (464).

*Jon Evans ran as the two-hour pacemaker in the Liverpool Rock N Roll half-marathon, together with Charlie Owen, Kelly-Marie Alford, and Cai Roberts. Jon recorded 1.59.19, Kelly 2.04.16, Cai 2.14.55, and Charlie 2.32.10.