Variety was certainly the spice of life for members of Prestatyn Running Club over the past week when 35 members competed in a total of 16 different races and over very different distances and terrains.
The extremely busy programme began with the second race in the Joe Brown Tuesday Night Series of fell-races at Mynydd Cilgwyn, from Fron, near Caernarfon.
Though only 4.8k long and with only 182 metres of ascent it was a qualifier for this year’s North Wales FRA championship. Nine club members made the trip, with Lee Bailey the first of their finishers and Martin Cortvriend, in his first fell-race in over 12 months, winning the M70 class. Ceri Vaughan had a particularly good run, finishing 3rd lady under 23.
Positions: 23 Lee Bailey 18.42, 47 Gareth Jones 20.14, 59 Ben Thomas 20.58, 88 Ceri Vaughan 22.39, 126 Mandy Cartwright 25.33, 128 Sophie Johnson 25.38, 139 Martin Cortvriend 26.22, 168 Ann-Claire Jones 27.50, 180 James Rogers 32.25.
The following evening the club had six representatives in the popular Chester Spring 5-mile race and although the course is flat and normally fast there were some deep puddles and muddy sections to negotiate.
Oliver Birch-Jones was the club’s first finisher in 77th place overall, an indication of the quality of the competition. George Nixon was placed 3rd in the M70 category and Gareth Hughes was 1st M75.
Placings: 77 Oliver Birch-Jones 31.30, 102 Andrew Parry 32.58, 33 Marc Jones 34.38, 207 Steve Weedman 38.10, 288 George Nixon 42.13, 341 Gareth Hughes 45.53.
The packed programme of events continued over the weekend with a variety of road and fell races in addition to the usual Parkruns.
Steve Stocker made his marathon debut in Manchester and despite having hoped to break three hours was satisfied with his time of 3-09.15 as he was hit by cramp after 18 miles, was forced to walk at one stage, but then managed a sprint finish.
In the same event Dave Ellis set a new pb of 3-16.17, just 24 hours after coming 15th in the Nova Parkrun. That was three minutes faster than his time in Tokyo last month.
Two members took on highly contrasting half-marathons on Sunday. Andy Scott joined 120 others in the Summit-to-Sea 14-miler from Bodfari to Prestatyn along the Offa’s Dyke trail. Only 94 of them finished, with Andy 48th in 3-12.
By contrast, Nicki Triggs stuck to the coast in the Pier-to-Pier Half from Colwyn Bay to Llandudno and back. Finishing in 2-04.14, she took nine minutes off her pb for the course.
The day after a Parkrun outing Ann Claire Jones was one of three members who competed in the 17-mile Llangollen Trail Race, a really testing event which was a North Wales Fellracing Championship. Ben Thomas clocked 2-47.08, Ann Claire 3-51.48 and Cara Jones 3-53.12.
Darren Thompson has been on his travels of late. Over the weekend he completed the Harlech duathlon, a 5k run followed by a 21.5k bike ride and a 2.2k run, in 1-24.12. That followed his time of 1-21.42 in the previous week’s West Lancashire Spring Triathlon in Ormskirk. He was placed 175th out of 547 starters.
Weekend Parkrun results:-
Nova: 2 Oliver Birch-Jones 19.41, 9 Marc Jones 21.55, 15 Dave Ellis 22.53, 27 Andy Clark 24.45, 29 Reg Jonas 25.08, 69 Claudia Smith 28.39, 83 Lesley Furneaux, 146 Martin Gill 42.46, 174 Ian Cummins 57.14.
Wepre: 36 Ann Claire Jones 27.39, 51 Sophie Johnson 28.45, 54 Mandy Cartwright 29.06, 71 Helen Alefounder 31.19, 74 Liz Martin 31.34, 77 Karl Martin 31.47.
Chester: 60 Andy Carter 23.54.
Greenfield Valley: 9 Helen Ashworth 25.12, 44 Julie Evans 48.53.
Delamere: 39 Martin Cortvriend 23.44, 51 Steve Weedman 24.11, 287 Debbie Weedman 33.01.
Ancholme Valley Way (Lincs): 4 Jamie Betts 18.54.