Ladies Team Captain

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What got you into running? 

I've always liked to challenge and test my limits. I love that feeling you get after a good hard run.

How long have you been running for?

10 years

What age did you start running? 

25

What is your favourite race/event and why?

Race the Train. Just an all round brilliant weekend in Tywyn.

If you could sum up Pont-y-pwl and district runners in 3 words, what would they be?

Life changing adventure

What one piece of advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting running and joining a club?

Don't worry about other people's abilities. It's your personal journey that counts. Come and give it a shot.

Do you have a running goal for 2023?

Run a marathon PB.

 I believe I was born to run, was always running about as a kid and remember taking part in a local community run aged about 7. I was chuffed to bits that I managed to beat lots of the older kids, the run was probably about 800m, twice round the block. Aged 12 I broke my leg and running became a staple exercise in my recuperation. I represented the school at the local inter school athletic meets at Cwmbran stadium. During my teenage years I played many sports but running was the backbone to all of them. As I grew up in the 70’s my sporting heroes were Steve Ovett and Seb Coe. During the early 80’s I used to participate in some of the local races that were beginning to spring up such as the Newport Boxing Day 5 mile. The London marathon was now beginning to get televised and the running boom of the 80’s began. My very 1st proper job after uni took me travelling around the UK, to stay fit I would run and used running to explore the local area where ever I happened to be. In 1985 I decided to have a go at the Cardiff marathon, I managed to get in two 18 mile training runs 2 weeks before race day and thought that would suffice. Needless to say at mile 20 I hit the wall and had to have a bit of a walk. I got going again and finished in 3hrs 2mins. Having seen a lot of club runners doing the race I decided it was time for me to join a club and joined the recently formed Fairwater Runners based at my old school. The following year I ran Cardiff again this time breaking the 3 hr mark with a time of 2hrs 57mins.

That was the start of many marathons to come indeed many more races of all forms and distances...road, cross country and fell running. Off road running is my favourite and until knee problems started a lot of my training would be done on the local mountains. I have fond memories of lots of local races, my favourite fell race would have to be the Waun Fach and road race the Torfaen 1/2M, the Waun Fach because of where it is, the Black mountains are fabulous and racing down the dragons back is something else. The Torfaen 1/2M because of the local support, the fast downhill from Blaenafon, running through Pontypool Park and then having to dig deep for the last 7 miles to Cwmbran stadium.

To sum up Pont-y-Pwl and District runners it would be Fun, Inclusive and Great Team.

My advice to anyone wanting to join a club is just do it!
You will never regret it, a whole new community will open up to you, you will make new and life long friends and have fun along the way.

For myself after 50+ years of running, 35 years of regular competition have taken it’s toll, so as long as I can keep running in some form I’m happy.