Port Talbot Half Marathon

Yep, I went back to the Port Talbot half marathon for the 3rd year in a row. I only really did it again this year because my friend Lisa, (who is the receptionist at Whitchurch Chiropractic in Cardiff, who treated me for a pelvis misalignment), was looking for a race to enter. I gave her a list of races that I had completed previously and that I knew were coming up in the near future and she chose the Port Talbot half marathon.

Now the Port Talbot half marathon is not a race around the streets of Port Talbot, and in fact it isn't even in Port Talbot, it takes place in a lovely valley north of Port Talbot starting at the Glyncorrwg Ponds & Visitor Centre, an outdoors venue for fishing, cycling and walking mostly but, the race is organised by Port Talbot Harriers, which is where the race gets its name from.

On the day I arrived nice and early as last year I seemed to remember that car parking was at a premium and I didn't fancy having to park too far away from the start, which is a bit ironic if you think about it. There I was worrying about a bit of a walk to and from the car when I was about to run 13.1 miles.

Lisa arrived with her husband Stephen and it was just a case then of hanging out until our start time, which was a little after 11 AM. Now I decided that I was going to run with Stephen and Lisa, dropping back a couple of starting pen places as I had been suffering from runners knee which had been bugging me for about three weeks. I had run at Parkrun the day before, which I took at an easy pace and my knee had held up but I could feel it niggling in the background all the time so, knowing that my usual pace was going to be quicker than Stephen and Lisa's, I had decided that I would run with them and see how my knee fared over the longer distance.

3 - 2 - 1 Bang .........

And we were off, pretty slowly, along a narrow path and we soon came grinding to a halt as the crowds funneled through a narrow gate. The path took us around the ponds, up a steep but short ramp and then we had a very long straight section but, there were so many people that it was difficult to get past anyone, but we did manage to pass a few people on our way to the first water station at about 3 miles.

I was keeping my eye on Stephen who was a few meters behind me and who was a few meters in front of Lisa and they were keeping a stead pace, however I was finding that I was having to slow my pace to keep in touch with them as I naturally wanted to run faster. My knee was feeling OK as long as I didn't lengthen my stride too much, so I kept a shorter stride but increased my cadence.

4.5 miles in and we began a very gradual decent down to the water station at mile 6. I looked behind me and Stephen and Lisa were quite a bit further back. I had obviously quickened my pace without realising it and so I made the decision to deliberately increase my speed. I wanted to make the most of the extra speed I could achieve on this decent before we began the 7 mile ascent from the 6 mile water station where I knew my pace would be somewhat slower.

The crowds had thinned out dramatically by now and so passing others wasn't a problem and I reached the water station with no issues and feeling strong and good, now we begin the uphill section.

Going up!

Now I say uphill, and I do use the term in this instance loosely because it is a very gradual incline, however, after running up this incline for 7 miles most people are usually feeling the burn in the quads and glutes with a couple of miles still left to run but, I wasn't feeling to bad at all.

I was having to concentrate on my running form for the final mile though. I was passing others who were obviously tired, their feet were shuffling along, torso's stooped over and heads bowed looking almost down at their feet. It is so easy to end up doing this but I kept telling myself to keep my head up, my body straight or a very slight lean forward and power my arms back and forth which would drive my legs forward naturally, and this got me strongly through to the finish in about 02:09, which I was happy with considering my knee and holding back my pace for those first few miles.

Stephen crossed the finish line next followed by Lisa a few minutes later. Lisa has a charity place for the 2020 London Marathon so this would be a good start to her training. If she can keep 13 miles in her legs until after the Christmas holidays then she has a good basis to start training from and should then only need about 3 months to get to a race ready position and, my advise to her would be to get to 23 miles in training, not the 18-20 miles as recommended by many. I remember reaching 20 miles at Manchester and then those final 6 miles were the hardest 6 miles I had ever run.

So all in all this was a good race, particularly so as the rain held off, and those that know me will tell you how much I dislike running in the rain.

Lisa and I are next running on the 1st September in the Tough Runner organised Cotswold trail half marathon.

So check out the video below, please hit the LIKE 👍button, share it with your friends and most importantly, subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss any future video's.

Trail Running at Blaen Bran Community Woodland

The Blaen Bran Community Woodland is a little gem of a woodland that I have passed many times but I've never stopped to take a look around.

I had planned on doing a 11 or 12 mile road run in preparation for the Port Talbot half marathon, but I got out of bed late that Sunday morning and I didn't have the time then to be out for a couple of hours, so I had the idea of trying out this trail.

The woodland does have its own small car park, and it was almost full when I arrived but there is ample parking only a very short distance down the road.

I put on my Hoka ATR trail shoes and made my way through the gate onto a hard packed, gravelly uphill path which took me to the remains of a building and a junction in the path. At the turn of the 20th century there had been a coal mine on this site and also clay was excavated for the brick works at the bottom of the hill. I decided to take the path to the left, thinking that this would take me up the left hand side of the woodland.

The climb up the path wasn't too steep, but it was steep enough to get my heart rate up and beads of sweat forming on my brow. About half way up I came to a small, man made water reservoir, which was about half full, or half empty, whichever way you want to look at it, and I continued up the hill.

There was a gate at the top of the hill by the boundary fence, which I went through and turned right. This took me on another climb along a rough, stony path which was difficult to run along. The path leveled out and I recognised where I was and continued to follow the path. This brought me to a junction in the path which I knew would take me to the Mountain Air car park if I went left, so I turned right knowing that this would take me back into the woodland.

There are lots of paths and lots of junctions, so I would just choose a junction, preferring one that had an incline and I ran here and there until I'd been out for an hour or so. At one stage I ended up in what looked like an overgrown orchard where the public path was overgrown and obviously little used. I gave up trying to find a path through here and so I doubled back on myself and headed back to the car park. However I had lost my bearings somewhat and so I ended up using the "back to start" feature on my GPS Polar M430 watch which showed me the direction I needed to run to head back to my starting position, which was only 0.32 of a mile away.

I have to say that this was a very enjoyable run, only a fifteen minute drive from home, with different ground surfaces to run along, uphills, downhills and level running. I could easily run two laps of the perimeter for about 8 miles. From the top of the woodland there is a rough path which would take me to the top of the hill behind where, if one was so inclined, one could run all the way to the old bronze age fort at the top of Twmbarlwm and back, which I estimate would be a good 13 miles. I will definitely be running here again.

Solo or group running - which are you?

I enjoy my club runs on a Tuesday & Thursday evenings, plus parkrun on a Saturday morning. I enjoy the company, the chat and the motivation that running as part of a group gives me. There are times that I do have to to go out for a solo run, maybe because I need to put in some extra miles and the weekly club 10k isn't enough and a Tuesday is my only available day to get in a longer run, as it was this Tuesday or, I need to run an extra distance on top of the club runs. There are many reasons why I do sometimes have to go out on my own.

Whenever I am out running, either alone or with a group, I always see plenty of other runners out there running alone, headphones plugged in to their ears listening to some, "banging tunes", or maybe a podcast or audio book. Are they running alone by choice because they prefer to run solo? Do they not want to run with others as part of a club? I do know that clubs aren't everyone's cup of tea, some people don't feel that they are competitive enough or feel that they may not be fast enough for club running, or that they don't want to feel pressured into having to represent their club at races. There are probably as many reasons for not joining a club as there are for joining a club. I know people who do prefer to run solo, it gives them a chance to think, or they just prefer the solitude.

If I have to run solo then I like to take my mp3 player with me which has a built in radio, I like the mixture of music and chat which can be very entertaining and seems to help make the running time go by quicker. I will often stop to take in a view or watch some wildlife, and yes, I do use this time to think about life, the universe and everything but, given the choice of running solo or with a group, I would choose the group every time, whether that be with the club or just a group of friends.

So check out my video below on this same subject where I ran an 11 mile route, along a canal, country lanes and along the River Usk. Please like 👍 my video, share it with your friends and subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss any future videos.

A Change of blog name & the Mic Morris Torfaen 10k

Hey all. I've been really quiet on here for a long while and that is due to me having started a YouTube channel called Purple Running Wales. With this change I decided that I would change this blog name to that of my YouTube channel. So basically this is going to be a new blog to back up my YouTube channel where I will link those videos onto here. I think a video says a lot more than words can but I will try to add any additional snippets of info that I can.

So to begin, last Sunday I ran in the Mic Morris Torfaen 10k. This race begins in the small Welsh valley's town of Blaenavon and winds its way down to the park in Pontypool. The organisers promote this race as being the "fastest 10k on the planet"! Well I don't know about that but I do know it is a fast route due to it being either flat or downhill. If you can't get a PB on this course then you never will, however, when I first ran this race 2 or 3 years ago I knocked something like 4 minutes off my then current 10k PB time, but I haven't counted that race as a PB as I don't believe it is a accurate representation of my abilities, just like Mo Farah's Great North Run half marathon PB wasn't counted due to a downhill stretch near to the finish.

Anyway, it was a lovely day, a bit warm and definitely sweaty. I didn't break any PB's as I'm not as fit now as I was and I have put on some weight, which I am currently trying to lose. So check out this video, please like it, share it with your friends, and subscribe to my channel.

New YouTube Channel

Hey guys & girls, I'd like to tell you about my new YouTube channel, Purple Running Wales. 

There are a multitude of YouTube channels out there covering all aspects of running, but it appears that no one is doing anything on a regular basis covering running in Wales, particularly in my area of  S Wales so, having bought some new camera equipment I thought I'd make the most out of it and start making running video's.

I have a lot to learn about making videos, particularly remembering to look directly into the camera lens when I'm talking, instead of looking around me as I do now. My first video which I published on Sunday 27th January about the Lliswerry 8 road race in Newport, showed me that there were sound issues when it is windy, where my voice couldn't be heard over the noise of the wind or, the camera was cutting out one of the two microphones as it recognised wind noise. So I've ordered an external microphone which hopefully will improve the sound quality.

I also need to learn how to improve my video thumbnails, those pictures that you see when choosing which video to watch, but there are a load of video tutorials available to teach me how to do this, I just need to find the time to watch them.

So here is my video of the Lliswerry 8 road race last weekend. It would be very helpful if you could like and share my video and subscribe to my channel.

A New Year Update

Hi guys & girls. It's been a while since I posted here, not that a lot has happened before Christmas but the activities are beginning to pick up now.

The four weeks before Christmas I picked up a bug which gave me a tight chest and cough. Once I thought I was over the worst of it I tried to go for a short run but only got as far as the bottom of my street before I began coughing again. So my first run was parkrun in Cardiff on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year. That was when I discovered how much fitness I had lost over those few weeks. I had also put on about 6 lbs in weight and felt heavy, bloated and sluggish. It was horrible! Since then I have been out on a few runs and my fitness is returning but, I seriously need to lose a few pounds.

On January 12th, club mate Michelle and I headed off to the Afan Forest, just north of Port Talbot for the Tough Runner Buff 10k trail, a race we both did last year.

The final few steps up "The Wall"

This isn't a technical course particularly as most of the route is on forestry fire tracks, but right from the start we had a 1.5 mile long hill to climb. Then right at the end is what I nick named hernia hill, or others called it tourette's hill, but Tough Runner call, The Wall! Oh the pain of it!

When Michelle and I initially spoke about doing the Buff race, she had already booked the Bath Skyline 10k trail which was starting at 6 PM on the same day, it was then that Michelle suggested we run both races. I thought about this for a moment and said yes, what the hell, lets go for it, and that is what we did.

Michelle & me

We managed to persuade a few others from Caerleon RC to join us and a few of us even booked a hotel in Bath so that after the race we could get some food and a few beers and make a bit of a social day and evening of it.

The Bath Skyline begins at the university and is two, 5km laps. I ran with Michelle and I was fine for the first lap but, half way around the second lap I just ran out of energy, my lack of fitness still showing. By the time I finished my quads felt like they were burning up and I was so glad to get to my hotel room and have a hot shower, then it was on to Wetherspoons for food and beer.

The Bath Skyline crew

All in all if was a good day, but I would have felt better about running two 10km races had my fitness levels been better.

Saturday 20th of January and I made an early start to drive to the NEC in Birmingham for the National Running Show. I had arrived before the doors opened at 9 AM as I had a list of speakers I wanted to see. There were Olympic athletes speaking such as Roger Black, British 400m champion, Jo Pavey, British 10,000m champion and Iwan Thomas, British 400m champion. Also Ben Smith of the 401 challenge, who ran 401 marathons in 401 days. Then there was one of my favourites, Claire Maxted, otherwise known as the Wild Ginger Runner who spoke about her DNF at the Cape Wrath Ultra.

Me with Claire Maxted

This was a fantastic show over two days, although I only went for the one day but, I will definitely go again next year. Many running equipment/clothing/shoe manufacturers were there trying to sell their wares, and in fact I did buy a new pair of Hoka One Clifton 5 road shoes and Hoka One Challenger ATR 5 trail shoes. My Salomon Speedcross 4 shoes are great for cross countries and more technical courses where the ground is soft and/or muddy, but the deep lugs on the out sole are a bit aggressive for many of the forestry fire tracks I run on, or drier courses in the summer, so these shoes hopefully will be better.

Although many manufacturers were there, there were two who were noticeably absent, Salomon and Inov8. I would dearly have loved to have seen them there showing off their wares. Hopefully they will go next year eh?


I also bought some Runderwear
and Feetures plantar fasciitis socks.


I shall be featuring these in a future gear test, once I have given these a thorough workout over the next few weeks.

So what is next? Well, on Sunday 27th January I am running a local race, the Lliswerry 8, an 8 mile race on a route that is as flat as they come. In contrast on the 9th February I am running in the Tough Runner Hoka One trail half marathon, which has another 1.5 mile hill at the beginning and a hill at the end known as, The Wall! Will I see you there?

Autumn Catch Up

Hi all, it's been a little while since I posted so I thought I ought to tell you about what has been happening in my purple running world.

After the Stroud half marathon, my running seemed to go pretty quiet with me only finishing off helping to coach the latest C25K group.That course has now completed and many of that group are now continuing on their journey to reach the 10k milestone.

On the 17th November I took part in the Tough Runner Brechfa Trail Half Marathon. This is held near the village of Brechfa near Carmarthen and was going to be my first trail race running the half marathon distance, all my previous races having been at 10k distance. Upon arrival I bumped into my friend Claire Louise of Lliswerry Runners, I had forgotten that she'd registered for this race and as I'd not run a trail at this distance previously I wasn't worried about my time, but only about finishing, so I told Claire that I was happy just to run the route with her.

Pre start selfie

The start was a few minutes late but eventually we were off on a wide, uphill track. It was at this point that Claire told me she was nursing an ankle injury which was going to prove difficult for her very quickly. In fact we hadn't reached half way up that first hill and Claire was having to walk saying that her injury was causing here foot to go numb, and so it was that at every hill she had to walk. By mile 4 she could see that I was itching to go and so she told me to go on.






There were plenty of hills, but it was the hill between miles 9 & 10 that was the most difficult.

The best anyone could manage was power hiking up the narrow trail up to where it reached a wider track, but then the incline didn't stop there and it just seemed to go on and on. I caught up with two other guys, or did they catch up with me? That's probably more like it, but we had a little chat and then finally the water station came into view at the top of the hill about 100m away and I decided to try to break into a trot, however my calf muscles had other ideas and each time I tried to run again, cramp would set in and I had to slow back down to a walk. I took a bottle of water and tried to run/walk, and it probably took me close to a mile to be able to run again non stop. I'm guessing it was a build up of acid in my muscles that was causing them to cramp up.

With only a parkrun distance left to go I had to dig deep on the next few inclines then, finally, I came over the final brow with a descent to the finish line.

My time was 02:31, which was slower than I had anticipated but then I did have a very slow first 4 miles with Claire Louise, and then that slow mile with the cramp also. But overall I was happy, loved the run, and now I know I am able to run 13 miles on a trail.

So what else has been happening? Well, I've completed a Leadership in Running Fitness course with Welsh Athletics which may lead me to doing the full Coaching in Running Fitness course next year. I felt that in order for me to coach new runners in the C25K courses, I should have a recognised qualification behind me to back me up and make me feel qualified to coach them.

And finally .........

A group from Caerleon RC have been on the parkrun tourist trail and I joined them in the Forest of Dean. But rather me tell you abut it, here is a short video.I hope you enjoy it.