Bumper turnout at Conwy's New Year’s Eve parkrun.

By Don Hale don hale blog January 02, 2023

Bumper turnout at Conwy's New Year’s Eve parkrun.

Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery.

It was a bumper turnout at the New Year’s Eve parkrun at Conwy despite the rather damp conditions, and a very heavy, and waterlogged course.
The event attracted 243 mixed ability runners from various parts of the UK, and debutant Harry Standing was the first finisher in just 18 minutes and 4 seconds, which was just a few seconds ahead of last week’s teenage age cat winner Morgan Kendall aka Bananaman in 18.13 and visiting athlete Jack Cooper (Trafford AC) with a new PB of 18.21.
The first female finisher was Anna Drinkwater (Eryri Harriers) in 19.32, with Amie Bagnall (Cheshire Dragons) 2nd in 19.44, and debutant Anna Burt 3rd in 21.41.
Ten North Wales Road Runners were involved in the New Year’s Eve parkrun at Conwy and claimed seven podium placings including five age cat wins.

Josh Keogh (*pictured above) was the club’s first finisher and made a positive return following injury. Josh finished 5th, and he also won his SM30 age cat in 18.56. Steve Mason finished 11th and he also won his MV45 cat in 19.31. Steve was followed by Carla Green, who was the 5th female finisher, and she too was another VW50 cat winner in 40th place overall in 22.45.

*Steve Mason (*above left) and Carla Green.

Cheryl Frost was yet another age cat winner, this time recording 1st place in her VW55 cat, finishing 45th overall in 23.07, with Kay Hatton 50th, and 3rd in her VW55 cat in 23.31. And veteran Rob Fryer enjoyed another good run to finish 70th and 2nd in his MV65 age cat in 25.23.

*Cheryl Frost (*above left) with Kay Hatton.

*Gethin Wyn Jones (*above left) with Rob Fryer.

Gethin Wyn Jones returned to Conwy parkrun and finished in 87th place in 26.01, with new club member and master veteran Mark Mason winning his MV70 cat in 120th place overall in 29.07. Sue Smith finished in 139th place in 30.12, and Rachel Morris despite a short break completed her 70th parkrun in 163rd place in 32.30.

*Sue Smith (*above left) with Rachel Morris.

Praise was later given to the race director and to all the volunteers foe ensuring the event went ahead despite the challenging conditions.

*This is the link to the provisional results from the New Year’s Eve Conwy parkrun

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

Other race results:

*St Alban’s: Stuart Culverhouse ran in the New Year’s Eve parkrun at St Alban’s and finished in 26th place overall and 3rd in his MV50 age cat in 21.52.

*Dolgellau: Dave Spofforth won his MV40 age cat on the same day in the Dolgellau parkrun finishing 10th in 21.27.

*Conwy: Karl Morris took part in the annual Mountain Run over the Carneddau trails last week from Conwy to Llanrwst. Although it was not an official race Karl still ran well and finished the challenging course in just over three hours.