Don Hale Blog

*Pictured above - five members of the NWRRC team at the XC champs at Bangor (l-r), Michael Finnie, Cheryl Frost, Kay Hatton, Gwen Charlton, and Karen Butler; and (*below), four NWRRC team members who competed in the Men's Senior Race (*l-r), Will  Williams, Iwan Evans, Stuart Culverhouse, and Steve Gardner.   Five podium places and two gold medals for the Road Runners in XC champs at Treborth, Bangor. Report by Don Hale. https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com www.welshmastersathletics.co.uk Nine members from the North Wales Road Running Club competed in different races during the NW Cross Country Championships at Treborth Track, Bangor, last Saturday, and claimed five podium places, including two age category wins. In the senior/master women’s race,  Karen Butler  won a deserved gold medal after finishing 1st in her W65 age cat following a great run in 39th place in 37 minutes and 30 seconds. The NWRRC team packed well with veteran  Cheryl Frost  on form again in...

*Crime thriller writer David Widdowson (*above) with his new book. Special Coast and Country Author Spotlight Feature. Welcome to another new author feature in conjunction with Amazon.   Lifer’s Chance: An Offer he couldn't refuse by David P. Widdowson... https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com   Published by North Wales based firm :   www.bookpublishing4u.co.uk   *David’s exciting new book is now available on Amazon via this link: https://amzn.to/416u4jR   About the book: This is the debut novel by David P. Widdowson. An exciting new crime thriller: A prisoner (an ex-Met Police firearms officer) is serving a life sentence. Then he is given an offer he can’t refuse… ABOUT THE AUTHOR : New crime thriller writer   David Widdowson was born in Nottinghamshire in 1952. In 1967 aged 15 he left school and started work as an apprentice agricultural engineer. He Married Jennie in 1977.  From 1981 to 1990 he studied with the Open University to obtain a BA Honours Degre...

*Sir Michael Parkinson (*above) with Don Hale OBE at an awards ceremony in London. My awards night with Sir Michael Parkinson at a star-studded presentation event in London. https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com It was sad to hear of the loss of Sir Michael Parkinson this week. I was fortunate to have met Sir Michael, some time ago, and he was a keen follower of my former justice campaign. He presented me with a top award when I was Journalist of the Year for the first time in about 2001. I was on the top table with him at an awards do, we chatted about lots of things and afterwards, he presented my wife Kath with the table flowers. It was a great star-studded evening at some rather posh place in London. RIP Parky!

Road Running duo fly the flag at Conwy parkrun. Report by Don Hale. Due to the latest 5k club championship event being held at Ruthin last weekend only two NWRRC members remained to proudly fly the flag at the Conwy parkrun, yet both athletes ran well and won their age categories amongst another popular entry of 176 varied entrants. Despite very wet conditions underfoot with another puddle-filled and muddy course, Road Runner  Will Williams continued his recent good form to finish in 4th place overall and he was also the 1st MV50 cat in 18.55. *Will Williams (*above) back to his best at Conwy following a period of ill health. And master veteran athlete  Don Hale  celebrated a surprise return to the Conwy parkrun following serious injury, which has kept him out of action since July, by winning his MV70 age cat in 75th place overall in 27.15. Due to this long delay, this was Don’s first event in this new age cat. Afterwards Don admitted: “It’s a been a long hard recovery ba...

Road Runners struck Welsh Gold at Sportcity indoor championships in Manchester. *The dynamic NWRRC duo Don Hale (left) with Pat Finnie at Sportcity. Veteran runners Pat Finnie and Don Hale swapped the great outdoors for the magnificent indoors last Saturday and struck gold at Sportcity during the North Wales Regional Championships. The two NWRRC athletes ran for the very first time on the superb and steeply banked indoor track in Manchester, which is often used for World, International, or for other national running finals. The meeting on Saturday had to be re-arranged due to fixture clashes yet it still attracted a host of top elite performers backed by a large vocal and enthusiastic support group from across the UK. In addition to recording massive PBs, both Welsh runners also collected prestigious gold medals for winning their respective age categories and time trials in the 200m and 600m track races, which has now propelled them into the top Welsh rankings over these distances. And...

*Jonathan Kettle recorded a great new PB at Rhyl FAST TIMES AND AGE CATEGORY WINS AT MARSH TRACKS 5K AT RHYL Report by Don Hale. Photographs by Steve Jeffery.   Six members of North Wales Road Runners travelled to Rhyl last Saturday to compete in the second Welsh Athletics fixture of a series of 5k races on closed road circuits, with two male athletes claiming age category wins, and the four others finishing second in their respective categories. Held on the go-cart and cycling course at the Marsh Tracks, the event gave many athletes their first taste of live race action for about 15-months and provided a fast, flat, but twisting course in warm and humid conditions. * Ben Hudson (pictured above) with Jonathan Kettle (below) Jonathan Kettle  was the pick of the NWRRC team with a new personal best time of 16 minutes 30 seconds for 3rd place and he was 1st M45 cat winner in this high-quality field of top local runners. He was pleased with a great showing, but later admi...

Parkrun will not resume on 5 June after fewer than half of its venues approved the return of the 5km runs. The community event was suspended in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.   Organisers need a significant number of landowners to give permission for races to return to avoid overcrowding at the mass participation event. Parkrun UK says it hopes to resume all 5k events across England on 26 June, with a decision to be made on 11 June. Although more than 250 events do have landowner permission to return, this falls far short of the critical mass needed to prevent overwhelming those that have been given the go ahead," a statement read. ‘Opening a small subset of Parkruns is not viable.’ It added that a number of landowners had "responded positively" to resuming at a later date. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and World Athletics president Lord Coe has  backed the return  of the event. There are 729 different locations across the UK h...

An open letter from World Athletics President Sebastian Coe in support of Parkrun. As much as I have always felt that sport is an incredible force for good, I know that it also provides an opportunity to heal: to make us better. Coronavirus has left us with deep physical and emotional scars. I have been inspired by the ingenuity and creativity of so many people over the course of the pandemic. Individuals and communities finding hope, laughter and positivity in the darkest of times. But there is no escaping the fact that the events of the past twelve months have been devastating in so many ways. Of particular concern to me is the fact that inequalities in health and wellbeing have been exacerbated. We desperately need to find ways of getting fitter, stronger and more resilient. And we need to do it in a way that embraces and includes as much of the population as possible. As we tentatively look forward, and take those first steps back to normality, grassroots sport can, if we let it, o...

Carla Green galloped home at Aintree races Report by Don Hale. Photographs by John Hatton. North Wales Road Runner Carla Green galloped home in style and marked her return to “live” racing last Sunday with a superb performance in the Run Aintree half-marathon, claiming a new personal best (PB) time and also won her F45 age category award. Carla was the 3rd female finisher amidst a high-quality field of nearly 500 mixed entrants and completed her run around a blustery racecourse route in just 1 hour 25 mins 52 seconds, confirming an amazing 5-minute PB. This result also created a cause for family celebration, with her husband Martin finishing 3 rd  in the 5k race. *Members of the successful North Wales Road Runners team at Aintree A strong team from NWRRC travelled over the border to England with nine athletes in the half-marathon, and two more in the 5k race. The event included “live” starts that were socially distanced due to Covid-19 restrictions. This option though remains ...

*Helen Hannam completed a successful charity marathon   Helen celebrated virtual London Marathon charity debut Report by Don Hale North Wales Road Runner Helen Hannam celebrated her marathon debut in style last Saturday in what she described as the ‘hardest day of her life,’ bravely running 26.2 miles for charity in the virtual London Marathon. Helen had hoped to run her first race at this distance around the streets of the capital but due to Covid-19 restrictions, she had to plod the roads and cycle routes around her Llandudno home, backed at times by the generous support of several club members. Facing warm and breezy conditions, together with a challenging route from Abergele, and running via Colwyn Bay, Penrhyn Bay, West Shore, Llandudno Junction before eventually finishing on Llandudno Promenade, the popular athlete finally completed her arduous task in 5 hours 36 seconds. Helen particularly praised the backing of colleagues Marina Abed, Nicola Wylie Davies, Llinos Davies, Ell...

*NWRRC club chairman Kevin Slattery (pictured above) won gold again Gold and silver podium places for North Wales runners in Welsh 10k virtual championships Report by Don Hale. Most photographs by Steve Jeffery. Five North Wales Road Runners competed in the Welsh Athletics Spring virtual 10k championships last weekend, with three members claiming podium places, and gold and silver medal positions. The high standard of the 10k event was confirmed by the incredible finishing times and number of quality athletes taking part. 1 st  place overall went to U17M athlete Louis Lermite (Run Free Fell Runners) in an amazing time of 33 mins 26 secs, with 2 nd  Daniel James, the 1 st  M40 age cat winner (Run4All Neath RC) in 35.11, and 3 rd  place went to Ifan Lloyd (Swansea Harriers), who was also the 1 st  M60 vet in 35.46. And Amie Bagnall from Prestatyn was the 1 st  Lady finisher and 1 st  SW in 37.00. Some 248 entrants set a hot pace in this Covid-19 restrict...