Don Hale Blog

The Road Relay Championships return to Llandudno Promenade in April 2022. Report by Don Hale. Photo by Steve Jeffery. The North Wales Regional Road Relay Championships will be back in action again this year on Llandudno promenade, offering unique race opportunities for local athletic clubs and mixed ability runners aged from under 11s to seniors, including master veterans aged 70 plus. Organised by race directors John and Kay Hatton from NWRRC, in conjunction with  Paul  Brooks and the North Wales Regional Athletics Council, this exciting event will be held on Saturday 23rd April, following a two-year absence due to Covid-19 restrictions. The first race will start at 11am and will follow a 1km outward route starting along the promenade opposite Venue Cymru to the Cenotaph, and for the majority of runners as identified below, it will involve individual athletes running laps back and forth of either 2k or 4k, dependent upon their respective age categories, as part of a three-person relay

  *Martin Green (*above) on the start line at the Anglesey half-marathon Medals galore for NWRRC runners in Regional Championships at Anglesey half-marathon. Report by Don Hale. Photos by John Hatton and Steve Jeffrey. North Wales Road Runners collected ten Regional Championship medals at the tough Anglesey half-marathon last Sunday, including four gold, two silver and four bronze. And top club man  Martin Green  put in another tremendous performance and recorded a new PB to eventually secure 2nd place, despite severe pressure from keen rivals, and additionally collected a deserved gold medal in the NW championships. The NWRRC athlete was the first club man home from eleven colleagues, and he also won his MV45 age cat with a fast time of 1 hour 12 minutes and 10 seconds over this challenging course.  *Pictured (*above and below) some of the male and female NWRRC runners at the Anglesey half-marathon and 10k races. Martin was joined on the virtual podium by fellow NW GOLD medal winners 

Third place and a superb new PB for Steve Bozier (*above) at Conwy parkrun. Report by Don Hale. Photos Steve Jeffery.   Steve Bozier claimed a new personal best time at last Saturday’s Conwy parkrun, which this week was completed in bright sunshine in stark contrast to recent events. The NWRRC member finished 3rd overall and he was 2nd in his MV40-44 age cat in 19 minutes and 10 seconds. Steve led home seven other team-mates, with six recording age cat podium places including three outright wins! Steve Mason  (*pictured above) was another runner in top-form, and he finished shortly behind Steve in 4th place overall but won his MV45-49 cat in 19.38, with  Harry Driscoll  going well again in 11th spot and finishing 1st in his SM20-24 cat in 20.50.  Gethin Wyn Jones  (*pictured above) was back to his best in 16th place and was 2nd in his MV35-39 cat in 21.23, with  Jamie Tharme  in 27th place in 22.54, and  Josh Keogh  finished 30th and 3rd in his SM30-34 cat in 23.23.  *Jamie Tharme (*pi

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

*Charlotte-Rose Wilton Jones with her dog Millie after the Canicross event. Two NWRRC athletes at Loggerheads Country Park trail races... Report by Don Hale. Two NWRRC athletes took part in different races at Loggerheads Country Park near Mold last Saturday.  Hannah Griffith  finished 94th overall in the combined events, and 37th overall in the 10k Trail Race. Hannah was the 15th female and completed the course in 1 hour 11 minutes and 15 seconds.  And Charlotte-Rose Wilton-Jones  ran in the 5k Canicross event with her dog Millie. Charlotte finished 8th overall, 5th female, and she was also 3rd in her Open Age cat in 29 minutes and 24 seconds. *A good run on the trail from Hannah Griffith (*above) last Saturday.

NWRRC team packed well to claim four age category wins at Conwy parkrun. Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery.   North Wales Road Running Club members maintained their recent top form and returned in numbers to the Conwy parkrun, where they packed well and recorded nine podium places, including one event win, four age category wins, four second placings, and one third. *Martin and Carla Green (*above) both won their age cats and Martin was also the overall winner at the Conwy Parkrun last weekend. A team of fourteen athletes also included talented newcomer  William Williams  who finished 7th overall on his debut and 3rd in his MV45-49 age cat with a great new PB of 19 minutes and 17 seconds.  The parkrun event however was won by  Martin Green , who again won his MV45-49 cat in a superb time of 17.16.  Richard Eccles  ran well and finished 5th and won his MV55-59 age cat in 18.52.  *Richard Eccles (*above) won his MV55-59 age cat at Conwy. It then proved a very close encounter wi

Re: Arthur Bebbington Twin Piers 10k - Rescheduled date Sat 30th April 2022. Message from the race director of the Pier to Pier race. Due to the lifting of restrictions relating to Covid-19 I am pleased to announce the new date for our race will be on Saturday 30th April . For those that are unable to make the event entries can be transferred or alternatively deferring to Jan 2023 and our provisional date 14th Jan. To transfer or defer to next year please click here Russell Godwin. https://colwynbayac.niftyentries.com/Entry/TransferOffer/722f2142-d70d-4969-a1e8-ed92d58f1e98                        

*The late Rohan Ingley (*above) was the inspiration for Rohan's Run. There is still time to enter the Deganwy Dash/Rohan’s Run – a special 5-mile tribute race to an extraordinary young student – and to help raise funds for children’s cancer charities.  https://secure.onreg.com/onreg2/front/step1.php?id=4754 Report by Don Hale. Photo's courtesy of Rohan's family. North Wales Road Runners are hoping to attract four-hundred runners of any age or ability to the revived 5-mile Deganwy Dash race on Friday June 24th, 2022. The event with a 7pm start, will both commemorate and celebrate the life of an extraordinary young man, Rohan Ingley, who tragically lost his long battle with leukaemia in August 2018, aged just 17. This challenging but picturesque 5-mile race, which starts on Deganwy promenade, will take runners along the Conwy Estuary footpaths towards the Cob and Conwy Castle, and then across the footbridge to the RSPB Nature Reserve, before returning home via the reverse rou

*Elizabeth Driscoll (*above) finished as the 1st Lady in the Cape Pembroke half marathon to complete a unique sporting double at different Falklands Islands events. Report by Don Hale. Photos by Elizabeth Driscoll.   North Wales Road runner Elizabeth Driscoll celebrated a magnificent sporting achievement last week by winning the 1st Lady title in two very different activities on the Falkland Islands. The popular all-round athlete, who later collected a cash prize and a bottle of champagne for her efforts, first completed a “Dri-Tri,” event, which involved a 3k row, 15k watt bike, and a 5k treadmill, in one hour and three minutes.  And then on Sunday, Elizabeth ran in the Cape Pembroke half marathon race completed the challenging course in just one hour 48 minutes to win the 1st Lady finisher title again, and to confirm a unique double.  These latest prestigious awards add to her recent hat-trick of successes in Falkland Islands parkruns,’ where she also finished as the 1st female runne