Don Hale Blog

Josie Davies receives a certificate and medal for her ultra-fundraising skin cancer charity run Report by Don Hale.   Ultra-runner Josie Davies this week received her deserved “Certificate of Appreciation” for completing 100.7 miles, and successfully fundraising for melanoma and skin cancer charities. Josie Davies (pictured above) and her certificate and medal (below) Last month, I covered part of her endurance challenge for such a deserving cause and appreciated her efforts to both raise awareness and much needed funds. At the end of her final run, she was very relieved to finish and confirmed: ‘That’s it all done. Over 100 miles completed in May for Melanoma Focus and SKCIN Charities. Thank you to everybody whose sponsored me so far. ‘I am forever grateful as we really need to make people more aware of the devastation of this horrible disease which can just creep up on you when you least expect it. Also PLEASE protect your kids out there and not just in the beautiful weather like tod

  *Jonathan Kettle claimed a new 10k PB at Colshaw Hall (Photo Mick Hall) Personal Best time for Jonathan Kettle at Colshaw 10k   Report by Don Hale Jonathan Kettle crossed the border again to compete in another live event and claimed a great new personal best time (PB), and finished 3rd in his age category during the Colshaw Hall 10k, near Knutsford on a warm Sunday morning. The North Wales Road Runner showed grit and determination as he raced around the Cheshire country lanes and was 11th overall but won a bronze placing in his MV45 age cat in 34 minutes 16 seconds, beating his previous best time by eight seconds. Jonathan led home a small team of five club members amongst the 680 finishers with Dean Allison finishing in 117th place in 41.20, and he was just five seconds ahead of Stuart Culverhouse 119th in 41.25. Kelly-Marie Alford continued her good form to finish 357th overall and 74th female athlete in 52.12, and her partner Cai Roberts, who was pushing the buggy around the cours

Sarah Fergie Hudson is pictured (left) in the background with Emma and her brother Mark on his bike during a training session. Sarah and friends prepare for ultra-distance “Race to the Stones” charity event   Report by Don Hale   Sarah Fergie Hudson ran an amazing 31.07 miles (50k) last weekend as part of her endurance training programme for a demanding ultra-distance “Race to the Stones” charity challenge in early July along Britain’s oldest path, with two colleagues. The North Wales Road Runner is preparing to run the ultra-event with her friend Emma Vadhesha and Emma’s brother Mark Gasgcoigne, who are both raising money for cancer research, with the trio all determined to complete the 100 kms “straight through option run.” *Sarah Fergie Hudson (pictured above and lower page image) The “Race to the Stones” event is a live event scheduled for 10-11 th  July, subject to covid-19 restrictions, and has been voted the UK’s Best Endurance event for the past three years.  Sarah confirmed: ‘

Announcement from Parkrun HQ (Wed 16th July) Start of Parkruns pushed back again... Following the announcement this week from the Prime Minister, confirming a delay to Step 4 of the Roadmap until Monday 19 July 2021, it is now our intention that 5k events in England will restart on   Saturday 24 July. A huge amount of work has been done in recent weeks to ensure we have permission to return from the large majority of landowners. Whilst this delay is disappointing, we respect the fact that a significant number of these permissions were contingent on the country moving into Step 4, and   we will therefore target a new reopening date of Saturday 24 July. *NOTE:   Last week Parkrun UK suggested a date of 10th July for Parkruns in Wales to possibly re-start on 10th July. In view of this latest update relating to Parkruns in England, it looks as though it will now be pushed back to a similar start date of 24th July. We will just have to wait and see whether the Welsh Government make any furt

*Kelly Marie Alford and her partner Cai Roberts with their young son Noah ATHLETES ON THE RUN Kelly and Cai beat the heat in “Secret” half-marathon   Both Kelly-Marie Alford and her partner Cai successfully completed a virtual half-marathon event last Saturday as part of a special “Secret Half” challenge. This was an invite only event from Cardiff half-marathon organisers HOKA One-One. The invites were offered to the top twenty non-elite finishers from the 2019 race, plus the top performers from certain age categories. The pair, however, were unable to run together due to work commitments, so Cai ran his race from 12-noon, whilst Kelly completed her challenge in the evening after work.  Cai also had his child-minding duties to undertake, so he pushed their young son Noah on a tough course around the Great Orme, with the youngster strapped firmly into his buggy. He finished in 2 hours 46 minutes, and Kelly – without a buggy – ran home in 2.03.28. Afterwards, a relieved Kelly said: ‘I am

    *Ben Hudson ran the furthest distance in the relay   Club runners complete 15-hour ultra-challenge in heatwave Twelve hardy athletes from North Wales Road Runners set a blisteringly hot pace during a unique ultra-distance race despite the scorching conditions last Sunday in the Builth and District 15-hour relay challenge. In this third virtual event organised by the ambitious Builth Wells based running club in Powys, where the previous competition attracted about 100 teams, and nearly 2,000 entrants, the aim was to run as far as possible within the permitted time frame, which began at 5am and continued until 8pm. *Steve Poupart enjoyed a good run in the sun The NWRRC team eventually ran a total of 96.12 miles, with Steve Poupart running a one and half hour slot, Ben Hudson a two-hour run, and Helen Hannam completed a remarkable two and a half-hour trot from 2.30pm, at probably the hottest part of the day. *Helen Hannam ran for the longest time Rachel Morris also made a welcome come

Latest Parkrun updates globally - from Parkrun HQ Provisional date of 10th July set for Wales Last weekend saw 700 events take place across seven countries, with more than 62,000 participants enjoying the magic of free, community-led, outdoor, social physical activity opportunities. It is so encouraging to see these events welcomed back by local communities, and to see our  COVID-19 Framework  in action and working well. This COVID-specific framework sits alongside individual local risk assessments, and was developed last year to document the necessary changes and mitigations volunteers at a local level need to be aware of and follow when delivering parkrun events whilst Coronavirus is still in circulation.   Reassuringly, more than 14,000 events at over 800 locations have now been delivered in accordance with this framework, with over 250,000 different people walking, jogging, running and volunteering more than 1.5 million times. We support track and trace in every region we operate i

GOG Athletes performed well at World Triathlon championships at Roundhay Park   Report by Don Hale.   Ten members from the North Wales based GOG Triathlon Club formed a strong team at Leeds last weekend during the AJ Bell Festival of Triathlon, which was part of the World Championship series. Events were staged over hilly and challenging routes on both Saturday and Sunday at the scenic Roundhay Park, and in near perfect weather conditions. The GOG squad were pitched amongst about 4,000 competitors, including both amateur and elite athletes, and were able to gain valuable experience, and to even share the unique atmosphere at this prestigious blue carpet, multi-event finish.                                         *Angharad Lewis In the Saturday Sprint race , which involved a 750m swim, an 18.5 kms cycle race, followed by a 5k Run;  Si­mon Hick   was the first club man home in 1.28.41 , with  Caitlin Owen the 1st GOG lady to finish in 1.38.04 , closely followed by  Amelia Roberts   in 1

Rohan’s relay boost for Children’s Cancer Charities Report by Don Hale. Photographs by Steve Jeffery. Athletes and supporters of North Wales Road Runners had fun in the sun last Sunday as they competed in a special 5-mile relay challenge on Llandudno promenade in aid of CLIC Sargent, and Leukaemia in Children charities. Some twenty-six runners took part in this unique fundraising event in memory of an extraordinary young student, Rohan Ingley, and included five teams of four, plus a guide, each completing 1.25 miles (2k), and one team of five “virtual” runners each running a mile. The weather too proved a hit for all the runners, and a host of supporters and sponsors, with the relay bathed throughout in bright, and very warm sunshine.  The race, organised by club officials John Hatton and Carla Green, with essential timekeeper Liz Driscoll, proved to be a real fun occasion, with many runners recording PB’s over this unusual sprint distance.  The winning team was Team 1, who completed t

Personal best time for Carla Green in Welsh 5k test race Report by Don Hale. All photographs courtesy of Paul Brooks.   Carla Green continued with her excellent form last weekend and knocked more than a minute off her previous personal best (PB) time during the welcome resumption of the “live” Welsh 5k series of races on the Marsh Tracks at Rhyl. The North Wales Road Runner finished as the 8th female athlete, and she was 2nd in her respective F45 age category on this popular lapped course held last Saturday afternoon as part of a special Welsh Athletics test event. The race, originally targeted at elite runners, attracted a host of high-quality athletes from across Wales, and the results naturally reflected the high standard of entrants. For the ladies, despite Carla enjoying a great run in 19 mins 9 seconds, the race was won by Carol Parsons (Cheshire Dragons) in 17.49, with Emma Crowe (Deeside AC) 2nd female finisher and the 1st F45 runner in 18.00, with Tracy Rogers (Buckley AC) 3rd