Conwy Half-marathon, 16th November 2025

A report from Cymru by Julie Cross:

“I had a novel morning back in the Principality last Sunday, running in Conwy for the second time in five weeks. The first was the beautiful parkrun, this was for the even more beautiful, tougher, half marathon.

I am not a fan of mass participation events, and the pre race prep did nothing to change this: cheek by jowl hustle to get your number, find a teeny weeny spot to pin it and get ready, queue for this, queue again for that (une femme d’un certain age!). And loads of proper runners! Around 4000 runners turned up for Rhedeg Cymru Conwy half marathon, but I was the lucky one that day: my sister came to drive, help, take nice photos, encourage and…here’s the special bit…hold my coat until the last minute, imagine the luxury of it!

A cracking course on the first dry day all week. Nice and pretty flat via Deganwy towards Llandudno, and lots of support from the locals, though I had forgotten to tell my other sister who lives in said Llandudno that I was running, one less cheer for me.

I had a niggle all the way round in my calf, isn’t there always something, but never the thing you think you’re worried about? But all that went out to the pier when we turned to loop back into the wind to face the Great Orme: a wonderful little lane like road which goes up and up the Orme. I’ve been round there enough times to remember the climb, so am not sure what on earth persuaded me I was in for a flat half. It was not. At all. Many walked at least part of it, many groaned. Others worked very hard at distracting themselves with the views of Anglesey and Puffin Island, just magic cariad!

The miles got eaten up, as they do, back down the lollipop stick, and there was my sister shouting and ready with the camera as we ran back towards the castle and into the quayside. By now my take on mass participation events had shifted a little – maybe ok in an idyllic setting with a touch of nostalgia thrown in. What a morning and race! The least I could do was gift my t shirt to big sister.”

Well done Julie, finishing in a time of 1:45:46, 3rd in age category!