Don Hale Blog

*Pictured (*above and below) the start of the 30th anniversary running of the 2022 Nick Beer 10k on the promenade at Llandudno.  Nick Beer memorial 10k race success gave massive fundraising boost to charities...and women's course record broken. Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery. The 30th anniversary run of the popular Nick Beer 10k memorial race proved another huge success last Sunday and gave a massive and very welcome fundraising boost for a variety of charities. This spectacular annual event attracted nearly six-hundred finishers and recorded a host of excellent results despite the blustery conditions, including top female athlete Sara Willhoit, who smashed the women’s course record! Apart from many runners enjoying this race and returning to action after many turbulent months due to Covid-19 restrictions, the race and its associated Fun Run also raised thousands of pounds for St David’s Hospice and the Llandudno Lions Club charities, plus a host of individual good cau

*Richard Eccles - set a new course record for his age with a PB at Conwy. North Wales runners take the plaudits at Conwy parkrun. Report by Don Hale. Photographs by Steve Jeffery.   Conwy Parkrun welcomed over three-hundred mixed ability athletes to the picturesque yet puddle-filled course at the RSPB site last Saturday, but it was Richard Eccles and team mates from North Wales Road Running club who took the plaudits, with some exceptional performances as the drizzle closed in. NWRRC entered fifteen members and packed well with four runners finishing in the top-ten and seven of the team also claimed age category wins, two second, and three third place awards, in addition to claiming three new parkrun PBs. And in addition,  Richard Eccles  set a remarkable new course record for his age group by ten-seconds! Jonathan Kettle  was the first club man home in 17 minutes 35 seconds, and won his VM45-49 cat, but this time he had to settle for 4th place overall behind some superb visiting elite

Parkrun finally returned to North Wales and Bryn smashed course record. Report by Don Hale. Photographs by Steve Jeffery.   Parkrun finally returned to Wales, and to the Conwy RSPB site on Saturday for the first time in about seventeen months due to Covid-19 restrictions, and despite light rain and a puddle-ridden course, the event was welcomed by 310 muddy finishers, including many tourists, and several athletes from top clubs across the UK. Colwyn Bay AC’s teenage athlete  Bryn Woodall  (*pictured top of page) stole the show however, and recorded a tremendous new course record of just 15 minutes 16 seconds over this picturesque 5k route, which was voted ‘runner-up’ last year in the Parkrun “World Cup” contest. The SM18-19 runner knocked more than two minutes off his own previous personal best time at Conwy, set in January last year, and he also smashed the previous course record set more than six years ago by Andi Jones of 15.52 in August 2015. Bryn, who is about to leave Wales short