You’d be bananas to miss this event
THEY say that May Day is a good time for renewal – a time for celebrating the prospect of summer, a time for starting out afresh with extra vim and vigour. It’s almost become a ‘midterm’ chance to refresh New Year’s resolutions.
Yes, we all made those promises to lose weight and get fit – but did we keep them?
Some of us (those of a certain age) still think of ‘Vim’ as a cleaning product.
But we should still embrace the ‘vigour’ bit as life returns to some degree or normality after the coronavirus pandemic.
For me, one of the first signs of life returning to normality is the Carmarthen Mayor’s Fun Run races.
One way or another, I have been involved in the races for 40 years.
Back in 1982, when they first started, I could complete a 5K in about 30 minutes. Today, I would need to be a passenger in a car to record a similar time. As a 20-something, I did a lot of road running. And, believe it or not, I completed the first Cardiff marathon way back in 1981 in a reasonably respectable time of three hours 50 minutes. In subsequent years, I ran the Carmarthen 5K for fun. Gradually, however, as the knees started to give up, the lap times got longer. I finally gave up running the 5K when I was beaten by a guy wearing a heavy Mistar Urdd suit! The humiliation was hard to bear. After hanging up the daps, I continued to help out as a volunteer, working as a marshall and doing the heavy lifting of crash barriers. Today, even that heavy lifting is beyond me. I have now been designated as ‘the man on the mic’, doing the public address announcements alongside my co-host Marc Griffiths from Radio Cymru. With nine races on the schedule, I still get breathless – which must, of course give me some health benefit!
The 5K for ‘semi-serious’ runners and the children’s races were inspired by their founder, Dr Hedydd Davies, who worked with former Mayor of Carmarthen Councillor Peter Hughes Griffiths to get the project off the ground.
It is a testament to the hard-working team of volunteers, headed by Noelwyn Daniel (a tidy triathlete in his own right), that the Mayor’s races continue to be a success story 40 years after they started.
Each year, the volunteer team pick four charities to support. This year, the four charities chosen for the cancelled race in 2020 will continue to be supported – Carmarthen Food Bank, Wales Air Ambulance, Cilgerran Ward at Glangwili Hospital and the Salvation Army charity shop.
So, don’t be a couch potato on Bank Holiday Monday. Come on down and join in the fun.
It’s a day that celebrates community spirit. And, let’s face it, after two years of the pandemic, we could all do with a feast of that.
I finally gave up running the 5K when I was beaten by a guy wearing a heavy Mistar Urdd suit!