Fast dash to ‘Race the Train’ at Caernarfon.

By Don Hale


*A passenger's view (*above) of runners as they attempted to 'Race the Train,' at Caernarfon last Wednesday night.

Fast dash to ‘Race the Train’ at Caernarfon.

Report by Don Hale. Most photographs by Steve Jeffery.

The popular ‘Race the Train’ event proved to be an enjoyable summer dash for two hundred and fifty-eight runners last Wednesday night with more than half the starters finally managing to beat the Highland locomotive and its entourage back to the start at Caernarfon.

The unique 5k course in perfect weather conditions led to a very fast downward dash for a mixed entry of local elite club and social runners with seventeen athletes dipping under 17-minutes, and 47 people in total beating the magic 20-minute mark.

The race was eventually won by Luke Northall (Wrexham AC) in 15 minutes and one-second, and he was just 7-seconds ahead of rival Tom Roberts (Meirionnydd) in 15.08, and Math Roberts from hosts (Eryri Harriers) in 15.24. 

North Wales Road Runners entered six members with many claiming course PBs. Gethin Wyn Jones was the first club man home in 26th place in 18.43, with Ben Hudson and Karl Morris running hard together with Ben finishing 40th in 19.31, and Karl 43rd in 19.41.


*Gethin Wyn Jones (*above) enjoyed a great run at Caernarfon and (*below left) Ben and Sarah Ferguson Hudson, with Elizabeth Driscoll (*right).



Sarah Ferguson Hudson was 77th and 6th in her FV35 cat in 21.16, with Elizabeth Driscoll 134th and 4th in her FV55 cat in 23.32, followed by Rachel Morris who ran well to dip under the 30-minute mark in 29.20.



*Rachel and Karl Morris (*above) at the 'Race the Train' dash.


* Other well-known local runners included Chris Yorke (Prestatyn RC), who finished 10th and he was 1st MV50 in 16.54, and Gemma Moore (Eryri Harriers) 1st FV35 in 17.58. And plaudits too for youngster Josh Mottram (Ysgol Bryn Elian) beat the train in his sponsored charity run for Conwy Connect for Learning Disibilities and finished 79th overall in 21.22. The train finally arrived back at Caernarfon, I am told, in just 23-minutes, with 115 runners successfully managing to ‘Race the Train.’

 

*This is the link to the provisional results for the Race the Train event:

https://my.raceresult.com/212448/results?fbclid=IwAR3Q52Zq4zMZJnAqHj0qf3CsO_ptmjj2dQ3vZLzthJoAsrknVpK4l1dN_zI


*You can follow Josh’s progress and help with his fundraising plan via this link:

https://gofund.me/0de685d0


*This is the link to last week's blog story about Josh Mottram's charity run:-in.html

https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2022/07/josh-mottram-plans-to-beat-train-in.html


 

Don Hale is a former award winning investigative journalist and now a best-selling author who has created a very popular blog post linked to numerous social media sites. donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025.

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