Runners get out and about despite the stormy weather

SARN Helen Running Club members ovecame dreadful weather to make appearances in Pontypool, York and, in surprisingly warm sunshine, in Aberystwyth.

The Caulkett family travelled south to Llandegfedd Reservoir near Pontypool where father Ken Caulkett gave a spectacular performance on his return from injury.

The Pont-Plod multi-terrain 11mile race is a classical new trail run in the gorgeous countryside around the reservoir, which at one point bears witness to runners ‘plodding’ for nearly a mile up a stream bed.

Caulkett placed a brilliant second overall in 1:15:32; nearly a three-minute advantage on the runner in third.

As a two-time previous race winner at Aberystwyth’s Twin Peaks race (2016, 2017), Caulkett was glad to hand the mantle over to Sarn Helen team-mate, the up-and-coming Sion Price.

Price leapt off the start line, made a bid for first place and kept it to claim overall victory.

The Sarn Helen club was well represented with 13 competitors and some fantastic results: Sion Price was 1st overall with a clear two-minute lead ran the seven-plus miles in 45:45. Simon Hall placed 6th open male in 52:14, with Mike Davies running 53:52 and placing 4th M40.

There were personal bests from both George Eadon (54:44) and Dee Jolly (55:28), who also placed 2nd lady overall and who narrowly won the hotly-contested battle with teammate, M40 runner Mark Rivers (55:29).

Trail lover Calvin Williams placed 3rd M50 in 1:00:44, followed by Eilir Evans in 1:03:13 and Mike Taylor in 1:04:26.

Sarn Helen’s strong female team ran well, with Dawn Kenwright 2nd F55 in 1:05:23, Donna Davies doing 1:10:20, and Pamela Carter and Nicola Williams running fantastic times of 1:13:05 and 1:13:23 respectively.

The junior event, the Consti Challenge, directs children on a mile loop, incorporating some of the mighty Constitution Hill. Two families made the start line of 78 brave children.

Tudur Llwyd was 4th primary boy in 7:58, Maddie Eadon was 2nd primary girl in 10:13, and Gwenllian Llwyd ran a time of 16:02 on the longer route, placing 3rd secondary girl.

Sarn Helen’s very own marathon man, Nigel Davies, travelled to York on a mission to achieve a coveted sub three-hour marathon. The York Marathon is one of the largest events of its kind in the North of England and drew a field of more than 4,000 runners. At one stage conditions looked promising, but as race day dawned the wind picked up and the rain came.

Davies went through halfway in 1hr 28, leaving a little wiggle room to achieve his goal. His pace dropped off during the second half and as fatigue set in he crossed the line in 3:06:24 to finish a superb 198th.