Parkrunners battle cold blustery wind at Conwy – plus other athletes on the run…

Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery

Conwy Parkrun returned to action again following the intervention of Storm Arwen the previous Saturday, but numbers were down due to a clash with other fixtures and a cold blustery wind.

The event was won by tourist Ben Hague (Rotherham Harriers) in a PB of 17 minutes 9 seconds, and his club colleague Tammy Hague also won her VW35-39 age cat in 23.03 and was the 2nd female athlete.

Nic Brook (Eryri Harriers) had a great run, finishing in 3rd place overall, and fourth was taken by international long-distance traveller Bernabe Sanchez Naffziger (Singapore Shufflers) in 19.08.

North Wales Road Runners entered nine athletes among the 164 finishers and Harry Driscoll was first club man home, finishing 5th overall in 19 minutes 22 seconds to win his SM20-24 age category, and Sean Butler was another cat winner of his MV60-64 section.

The first 11 finishers all dipped under 20 minutes including in-form Richard Eccles, who was 9th in 19.39 and was 2nd in his VM55-59 cat.

Steve Mason finished in 14th place in 20.39, and Martin Green, amidst a heavy training schedule, was 16th in 20.58.

Dave Spofforth ran well again in 23rd spot in 21.59, with Gethin Wyn Jones performing well to finish 3rd in his VM35-39 age cat in 22.23.

Daniel Owens and his guide Anthony Parvin finished 57th in 25.09, and in addition, Sean Butler won his MV60-64 cat with another good run finishing 41st in 23.48, whilst Rob Fryer claimed 3rd spot in his VM65-69 age cat finishing 71st in 26.03.

*This is the link to the provisional results for Conwy parkrun:
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/results/latestresults/

Athletes on the run

Two NWRRC athletes ran as tourists on Saturday at different UK parkruns, with another enjoying a good run in the annual Santa Dash.

Peter Armstrong won his MV70-75 age cat at the Meadowmill Parkrun in Scotland, finishing 20th overall in 25.32. And Jon Evans ran at Chester and just failed to dip under 22 minutes, recording 22.03 in 24th place overall and was 3rd in his MV55-59 age cat.

Llandudno Santa Dash

Jamie Tharme finished 4th overall in a very respectable time of 22.41 at the 5k Llandudno Santa Dash following a busy course along the pier and promenade last Saturday in very cold and windy conditions with his friends Steve Forsyth and William Williams (both representing Prestatyn RC), with the pair sharing first place in this well-attended charity race.

Offa’s Dyke Sea 2 Summit Ultra-Marathon

NWRRC’S endurance athlete Mark Davies took part in the Offa’s Dyke Sea 2 Summit Ultra-Marathon race last Sunday over an extremely challenging 32-mile route.

The staggered time start event started on Prestatyn seafront, travelling along the Offa’s Dyke footpath and finished at the summit of Cyrn y Brain which is above the Horseshoe Pass.

Mark eventually completed this gruelling run in 6 hours 31 mins and covered a remarkable distance of 52.62 km with 2,356 m of elevation.