DistancIT’S Runners going the e
SARN Helen Running Club members have taken a real liking to ultra-distance events recently, with husband and wife Ken and Jenny Caulkett smashing through pain barriers in Aberdare and David Thomas taking on three mountains in Monmouthshire.
The Caulketts took part in the Where Eagles Dare event, a challenge against the clock and to see how far you can go in a sevenhour window.
The course consisted of laps of 3.3 miles around Dare Valley Country Park in Aberdare.
London Marathon preparation is well under way for Jenny and she covered eight full course laps in a fantastic five hours 25 mins — and that was just six days after a 20-mile race.
Testing himself to the limits after also completing the San Dom 20 just days before, Ken won the event overall as he completed 12 laps, 38 miles, in 5hrs 40, an incredible six miles more than the runner-up.
The following week the South Wales Three Peaks Trail was held in Abergavenny with 832 walkers/runners/ramblers taking on a variety of routes.
Sarn Helen’s David Thomas challenged himself to the long course and in splendid weather he covered 22 miles, 4,500ft of climbing and touched the summit stones of Skirrid Fawr, Sugar Loaf and the Blorenge in just shy of seven hours.
Nearly 7,000 runners took to the streets of Cardiff in the Brecon Carreg Cardiff Bay 10k, with five Sarn Helen athletes among them. There was a close battle between two male veterans, Nigel Davies and Mark Rivers, Davies clinching it to be the first club member to finish in 40:04, while Rivers paced a whisper behind in 40:08.
Eleri Rivers placed 7th in her large and elite class in 44:35. Mitchell Readwin finished in 45:28, while Matthew Walker ran a big PB and crossed the line in 46:17. Liz Pugh ran 57:02.
The weather was kind for those taking part in the second event on the Campau Caron 2019 calendar, the Tregaron Duathlon.
It comprised a 5k run, 15 miles on the bike and a 3k run, and for the second year running the overall win was by Sarn Helen’s Gareth Hodgson in 1:08:47.
The overall female winner was Sarn’s Pamela Carter, who finished in 1:54:16, all the more impressive as she had completed the Nant yr Arian Silver Trail Half Marathon the day before.
A further category win was by Sarn Helen’s Dylan Lewis (bike) and Llewelyn Lloyd (running) who won the relay race in 1:15:26, and there was a close battle between open male Mitchell Readwin and senior male Eric Rees. In the end Rees’s experience on the bike leg paid off, Rees finishing 4th in his class in 1:31:54 and Readwin 5th OM in his first ever dual event in 1:38:32.