Weekly Roundup, December 25th – December 31st

Christmas Day Runs

Parc Bryn Bach parkrun

Plenty braved the wind and rain to run and support the Christmas Day parkrun at Parc Bryn Bach. There was one PB to report for Michael Cope who finished in 17:47 thanks to the 9 and half pints of beer the night before.

Keswick parkrun

Whilst visiting family in the Lake District I visited the Keswick parkrun which is a stunning course that’s more like a trail run. I couldn’t resist wearing the infamous Green Army Christmas Tree costume and a couple of runners recognised the club’s name from running our parkrun.

Julie’s Early Morning Run

Julie was up early for a headtorch run around Llangynidr before visiting the residents at Oaklands.

New Members

Christmas Day saw two new runners joining the Green Army. Huw Steadman and Seaton Stephens became the 200th and 201st members. Welcome aboard!

New Kit

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Griffithstown Harriers Fun Run

Helen Williams and Danielle Phillips were representing the Green Army at the Griffithstown Harriers Boxing Day 5 mile fun run in Cwmbran.

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Glynneath Boxing Day 5 Mile Race

The Green Army were out in force for the annual Glynneath Boxing Day 5 Mile Race with over 30 runners racing. We took away lots of bling and as with every race we participate in, we were supporting our runners coming in as well as those from other clubs.

Kathleen Jervis | 1st FV60

Nicola Jukes, Sharon Newell, Rachel Lewis & Suzie M Tew | 1st Female Vet Team

Sam Jackson | 2nd Senior Male (Under 21)

Rachel Burr-Lewis | 1st Vet 40

Nicola Jukes | 1st Vet 45

Sharon Newell | 2nd Vet 45

Michael Lewis | 1st Vet 75

Lauren Cooper & Louise Kirby | 1st Mother & Daughter

Fancy Dress Award

Maricel and Aneirin

Maricel and son Aneirin competed in the second Glynneath race and it was the first time for Maricel to run it in her Green Vest.

That Moment When You Regret Signing Up For A Boxing Day Race

Someone Didn’t Get the Chief’s Memo

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Margrett’s Magor Run

Margrett Monk headed out on a run with some runners from Magor on Boxing Day and did the right thing in wearing her club vest!

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Snow’s Back!

Boxing Day night brought snow back to the area and Sarah Lane Coote didn’t waste any time in getting out for a trail run on the Blorenge. Looked like a stunning run!

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Annual Domen Run

The snow and chilly conditions didn’t stop almost 30 club members venturing up the Domen on Thursday. Deep snow in places made it a challenging 8-9 mile run but the stunning landscape and views made it all worthwhile. New member Kevin Hale chose a perfect run for his first with the club.

Video

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Seven Sins

A posse was sent out to the tough but very popular Seven Sins race on Friday where Danielle Phillips took first place FV3034. Well done to Julie Cashell (2nd FV4044), Sam Standerwick, Roger Freeman and James Williams who also took part.

And it was good to see that Rhi and Clive Cooksey were on hand to welcome Julie and Sam back to Tredegar.

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parkrun

There were no PBs to report at PBB parkrun today due to windy conditions and perhaps a little over indulgence over Christmas. However, at least some of us turned up! 😉 I even volunteered for the first time (something ticked off my bucket list!)

Tourists

Elsewhere, club members were running at Cwmbran, Rogiet, Pontypool, Swansea, Penallta, Merthyr and Forest of Dean.

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Mathew’s Long Saturday Run

Sometimes a long Saturday run calls for digging out your Sunday best trail shoes and that’s just what Mathew Ellis did for his run from Dowlais Top to Tredegar via Trefil.

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Gloucester 10 Miler

Helen Williams was in Quedgeley for the Gloucester 10 Miler road race.Taking a similar route to the 20 mile race it’s one that she’d definitely run again.

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Llandeilo 10 Miler

Squeezing in one more race in 2017, Rachel and Tony Lewis and Richard Sheehy headed to Llandeilo for the 10 mile road race. Looking at comments on the Facebook Event page there was a hill, amongst others, that kept on giving and a hail shower to make things interesting.

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Wye Valley Wander

Sarah Lane Coote along with David Smout and Terry Vaughan ran the new Wye Valley Wander 5 mile trail race in Chepstow on Sunday. The route is very similar (perhaps the same) as the night race that’s well worth looking at.

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Old Father Time

Kevin Bradfield and Nicola Jukes were flying the Green Army flag for us at the Old Father Time race in Llandaff, Cardiff.

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Long Sunday Run

Marcus and Kym were brave enough to come with me on one of my randomly plotted routes on Sunday morning. It was a very tough 13-mile trail ‘run’ featuring non-existent paths, mud slides, waterfalls, streams to wade through and a few tumbles. There were laughs all the way as Kim even managed to embrace the mud!

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Nos Galan

The 59th anniversary Nos Galan road races took place on New Year’s Eve in Mountain Ash in memory of legendary Welsh runner Guto Nyth Bran. As always we had a large number of runners competing in both the fun run and the elite race. Next week’s roundup will feature more info and photos from the race.

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Julie’s Post Christmas Mountain Run

Julie Cashell enjoyed a post Christmas mountain run with friends although I’m not sure they what they thought of her extra terrestrial outfit!

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Vests on Tour

Whilst the rest of us are enjoying a chilly and very windy end to the year, Sarah Williams is sunning it up in southern Portugal! She did the right thing and took her vest with her so it could be featured on Vests on Tour. This was the first in quite a while so don’t forget to take your vest with you next time you travel somewhere and don’t be afraid to wear it if at a parkrun in another part of the country.

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Debbie Dawkins Reaches 1,000km

Congratulations to Debbie Dawkins for squeezing in some decent mileage over Christmas so that she could reach her goal of 1,000km for 2017!

This time last year I saw all the posts about running certain amounts of miles in certain amounts of time. This got me thinking could I? Like everyone else I have to juggle family, work, family issues, loss of motivation, injuries etc. At the beginning of December (due to a miscalculation) and all of the above things I thought my goal would escape me. But I dug deep and I blinking done it peeps!!! It took me from 1st Jan 2017 to 31st Dec 2017 but them 1000k of running steps are in the bag…woo hoo!!!!