San Domenico RC

A huge congratulations to Del and Tony, who were selected by Welsh Athletics|Athletau Cymru to represent Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 at the Shrewsbury 5K earlier this month. Organised by Run Cheshire, it hosted the Masters International for Wales, England, Northern Ireland and the UK Armed Forces.

With temperatures soaring to 33°C and minimal shade, the afternoon races were held over 5 laps of a closed cycle track in incredibly tough conditions against a very competitive field.

This was Del’s second Welsh Masters vest of the year, following her selection for the Manchester Marathon in April, while it was Tony’s second time representing Wales over the 5K distance, returning after last year’s event.

Despite the scorching conditions, Del finished just shy of her 5K PB at the time, while Tony produced a brilliant sprint finish to secure 4th place in his age category.

We’re incredibly proud of both for representing Wales and our club with such determination and commitment. Well done!👏

Cosmeston Relays 2026 - 12 teams and lots of fantastic results & performances.
Last year, we had a team finish as runner’s up but they went one better (and 7 seconds faster) and were winners this year!!
A big congratulations to James H (15.10), Matt T (16.10) & Andy G (15.43) on their combined time of 47.04 minutes, 14 seconds ahead of second place.

Congratulations also go to the Master’s Men 55+ team of Kev, Rob S & Tony (Tony’s short planks) who came away as their category winners too 🏆🏆

The silverware didn’t stop there, with a further 3 teams finishing second in their category!

Mixed Masters senior 🥈 - Meg, Mark & Jack (Mark’s not been to Japan)
Mixed Masters 35-44 🥈- Jonny T, Sarah & Matt J (Worst Pace Scenario)
Masters Women 35-44 🥈- Aisling, Sara & Del (Croeso, Craic & Carreras) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇮🇪 🇪🇸

Well done to all our runners, as well as Meg as team manager & a big thanks to P&D for organising another great event!

Thanks to Eleanor, Sarah, Rowena, Kev, JC & Meg for the photos too 📸
#

Following from last Sunday, Cat and Sarah completed the Limitless Trails 29 mile trail race in the Black Mountains, with a hefty 2,300m of elevation ⛰️.

The hot weather added to the challenge, as well as it being an unmarked, self-navigation course, with some steep climbs and challenging terrain.

The beautiful views made for a worthwhile reward for the brutal climbs up, and coming away with a podium position for Cat in 3rd 🥉, and 4th for Sarah, was a bonus on top of the days adventure!

Johnny L reporting from 🇯🇵 at 室見河畔公園parkrun / Muromi kahan koen parkrun, Japan! A relatively new one (40th running) in Fukuoka. A small friendly parkrun, so much so that the token volunteer only has 55 token which did a few group photos before and after. The course is goes out and back twice alongside the Muromi river with the sounds of Japanese Cicadas in the background for this time of the year. Another hot one after his Singapore one last week, Johnny was pleased to see the event team provide electrolytes at the end!

Ceri went to Itchen Valley Country, Ian D was at Oaklands whilst Ryan, Chris M and Nick stayed more local at Pontypridd, whilst Jonathan was down the road at Riverfront. Meg and Harry joined the THE RUNS takeover at Maesteg. Andy celebrated his 666th run at Wycombe Rye and Karen pretended not to know him as he chose to dress like the devil incarnate 🍊- much to the bemusement of the local attendees.

We also had members at Cardiff, Aberdare, Cosmeston Lakes, Grangemoor, Killarney House, Llanishen Park, Penallta and Tremorfa.

A busy summer week of training & races!

Tuesday - Speed Session, Bute Park 7pm
Wednesday - SSAFA 5k Race 3 🏃🏻‍♂️
Thursday - 5 to 10k social run, Penylan Community Centre 7pm
Sunday - Magor 10k 🏃🏻‍♂️or club long run, Penylan Community Centre 9am

On Tuesday, we thought we’d have a go at the SSAFA 5k course as a time trial. A minor adjustment for the start and finish due to the event clear up but fun nevertheless.

Tonight’s handicap race in Thornhill is set to be a good one with a slightly changed course on previous years. At least it’s not pouring down like the previous one 😅

Another parkrun review covering two weeks of events!

On 4th July, we had attendance at 14 different parkruns. We had photos across South Wales, the South West & Dan L in the Netherlands.

This weekend, we had two international parkruns visited with Huw S in Budapest Park, Canada and Johnny L in East Coast Park, Singapore. As you can see on the final picture, there were a lot running from local schools!

Locally, we were at further eight local ones with a big thanks to the members helping pace at Tremorfa, with one South London event too.

Somewhat later than planned but here’s the result of another great local race - The Blade Runner.

Six took on the iconic race on a warm June Sunday morning, just before the last heatwave arrived in full force!

Organised by Islwyn Running Club, this challenging 7-mile multi-terrain race around the Manmoel lanes certainly lived up to its reputation and elevation. Every finisher went home with this year’s bright pink Blade Runner buff and a chance to grab a well deserved ice cream at the finish (a popular treat year on year!)

There were some fantastic performances from our blue and red crew:

🥈 Del finished 2nd lady, just seconds behind 1st.

👏 On her Blade Runner debut, Meg ran brilliantly to claim 4th lady.

💪 Matt T finished 4th overall and was 1st MV40.

A big well done too to Kev, Niall and JC, who all conquered the course, with some returning for another crack at it after last year’s race and others making their Blade Runner debut.

Congratulations to all six of you on a fantastic morning’s racing! 💙❤️

Thanks to Islwyn Running Club for another great event!

Extra photos from Martin Jones 📸

These are this week’s plans, including a Sunday long run at 9am from Penylan Community Centre.

On Tuesday, we’re hoping to have a few pacers available for times from 16 - 25 minutes for anyone wanting to target a 5k time after a brief warm up.

Interested in joining the club or coming along to a run? Try our Strava Club.

Lighter on numbers tonight with over 30 running at Cosmeston tomorrow, but still some solid efforts out there!

Blackweir Live is slowly getting dismantled so we’ll hopefully be back to a traffic free park soon! 🚛