The Barry 40 stories are legend as is Mick's comentary. So pop over to Barry's Jenner Park for a day of fun filled frolics following frustrated fools flayling in flip flops facing the formidible Forty. Barry also boasts limitless sunshine, ample parking and even a Waitrose.

More background on the race can be found on the Barry 40 wing of the site.

Matt T

Well done to all the teams and individuals who won awards.

There are extended listings of the individual overall scores - if you want to check these out.

Jeff

The final Gwent League of the 2009/2010 season is on 6 March at Blaise Castle, Bristol.

The Men's race is 9600m starting at 12:05 - note the early start.

The Women's race is 5000m starting at 13:10.

Full details are on the web site www.gwent-league.org.uk

There are plenty of team and individual awards to race for so make your arrangements now!

Jeff

It is interesting to note an article mentioning the Council trying to ruin Bute Park; how history repeats itself, together with the first Castles route.

Cardiff Castle - Caerphilly Castle - Merthyr Castle - Builth Well Castle - Welshpool Castle (Powis) - Barmouth - Harlech Castle - Criccieth Castle - Caernarvon Castle.

"Next year we hope to have two teams running, a fast team and a vets team"

Enjoy the trip down memory lane.  ACE Edition 2 (April 1982).

Up against some of the foremost European Clubs, Les Croupiers' Ladies; representing the UK, did themselves proud. All finished including Jen who was suffering the latter part of the race with a painful ankle injury. 

Congratulations to all the team of Katie Beecher, Maria Zubizarreta, Libby O´Duffy, Jen Salter, Liz Ashton and team captain Phil Cook.

Now off to buy the drinkers amongst them a well deserved glass or two of Rioja.

The results can be found here:

http://www.rfea.es/competi/result2010/cross/cross_CpE_bilbao.pdf

As stated earlier on the forum, we have been to this fixture before - in 1989 in the Algarve and in 2000 in Salamanca, Spain - but never before have we represented Great Britain. It's difficult to understate how important this is - perhaps not so much in the results of the race, but in the raising of our club profile, and the belief it can give our runners. Hopefully that belief can only rub off on others.

An e-mail from Martin Duff, previewing the event for Athletics Weekly prompted me to realise - hey, the national athletic press are interested - this is our chance to promote ourselves. So good luck to Katie Beecher, Libby O'Duffy, Jen Salter, Maria Zubizarreta and Liz Ashton - you deserve to be there. Great to see so many taking the chance to travel to support - yet again proving what makes our club so great. Back home, we'll be with you every step of the way.

                                                         Bilbao Baggins

5k

5 miles

10 miles

All the 5k times so far have been achieved in parkruns, so the 5k list serves as the 'best parkun' entry for the short course championship.

Jeff

First of all many thanks to all the marshals and officials for their supervision of the runners’ safety and enjoyment – it was cold for them too!

Fifty-three runners started this popular annual event and all but one returned.

The fastest runner was Stuart Crees, who started in the last group and passed all but 6 of the others to record 55:47.

The first to finish was Sasha Macken who must have been doing some secret training as she finished over 8 minutes inside her target time!

24 finished within a minute of the expected time with 7 of those within 5 seconds of the target.

There was a runner who hit the target exactly (to .1 of a second!) – that was Kell Portelli.

Andrew Russell won that award in 2009 and was again just 1 second out!

Hope you all enjoyed it!

Jeff

Result in finishing sequence.

Result in Time Sequence.

Link to Gallery of the race.

When Jen, 34, from Thornhill, became a member at the pool she was a social runner who ran for enjoyment. Pool fitness trainer Richard Wilder helped set out a personal training programme. Jen had two targets – to run a personal best at the Berlin Marathon and to finish the gruelling Marathon des Sables, which is the equivalent to six marathons and often dubbed as the “world’s toughest footrace”. She achieved a personal best in Berlin in a time that qualified for a championship place in this year’s London Marathon and was the first British woman over the line in the Marathon des Sables Richard also persuaded her to take up the triathlon and she has qualified to represent Britain in the European championships this year.

Jen said: “The pool in particular is second to none and training in a 50m facility is invaluable. It’s a very friendly place to come and train. I feel quite humbled by this award and flattered.”
Jim was part of a fourman team that set a new record for swimming the English Channel. He said: “The pool is a great facility and having it on your doorstep is fantastic. Before, I was a member of a smaller gym which had a tiny pool and was more expensive. This was a really nice surprise.”

© Capitial Times