Six Mighty Greens headed out of the valley on Sunday to take part in the Principality Cardiff half marathon along with 22,000+ runners and all came back absolutely buzzing from the electric atmosphere.
Mighty Green Sarah Clapham thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to run with her children, although son Tom didn’t hang around finishing in 1:43:22! All three were running for charity, Sarah Dementia UK, daughter Molly Mind and Tom Cardiff University Cancer Research and they did them proud. Sarah was very pleased with her time of 2:01:22 and Molly finished just 34 seconds behind her. It is always a pleasure to have Tom and Molly join the club night runs when they are visiting back home.
MG Sarah with Tom and Molly
For teacher Naomi Garrick it was a trip down memory lane as she spent four years in Cardiff doing her degree. Although the Mighty Green was fundraising for MIND, she was very focused on achieving a sub 2 hour time, so much so she ditched the fancy dress she is so well known for and didn’t speak to anyone during the race! It paid off though and with a determined last push finished in 1:59:50. Naomi later found out her nephew Dan Nash was the first Welsh person to finish in 65:13-running obviously runs in the family.
Naomi very happy with her sub 2hrs
Cousins Kyle, Cameron and Ashley Baker with their respective partners Nikita Kay, Megan Pewsey and Maisy Brooke all came away with PB’s bar Ashley. They enjoyed the stunning views, MG Nikita especially liked Penarth Marina and Cardiff Bay and all said the spectator support especially around the Millenium Centre was incredible and very loud- a major highlight. The entertainment and food stations were plentiful and MG Cameron, running his first half marathon, said it was the free Lucozade that kept him going. Head coach Kyle said the route was very flat compared to what we are used to running around here, with two hills, one gradual and one steep which caught MG Megan out at mile 12. Despite this Megan went on to finish in 1:47:12, the first SRC to cross the line with Kyle finishing in 1:49:45. Nikita, Maisy and Ashley finished in 2:02:22 and 2:04:47 respectively and Cameron in 2:18:49. We are hopeful that Ashley and Maisy might join the green side!
The Baker family outing
The first fortnightly off road by torch session run by John and Ben Chesters was very popular on Wednesday and chairman Terry’s Monday training sessions had a soggy start but this did not deter our mighty club runners. The junior group is growing and every session has a new challenge; it’s hard to tell who has the most fun the children or the adult helpers! A special mention must go to junior Amelia Womersley-Westlake who has been working on improving her 5k park run time and gained a new PB, 30:52, knocking 2 minutes off her previous best-fabulous!
Amelia with dad Grahame at Exmouth PR