Well done to everyone who ran and supported the TR 2010 Welsh Castles race. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

Peter (logged in as Jen)

T'was brilliant - loved the Drovers leg (oh, it's Mark here, not Alison by the way) and had a good run despite the heat.  Held back for the hill and probably held back too much as i felt like the end arrived quite quickly - just loved that leg as it has a bit of everything, even a lovely swooping downhill, eventually. 

The weekend was, as ever, a superb event.  Lots of laughter and atmosphere, people helping each other within and across clubs and plenty of food and alcohol on sunday night! 

Running wise, the whole event doffed its cap to Marilyn who was second outright in her stage and not at all far beyond the winner.  These stages contain seveal elite runners, remember.  The top female runners do well to grace the top ten.  Sonia o Sullivan, an Olympian, ran this stage once and was 8th.   There were plenty of elites in that leg, and those that we talked to from the likes of Neath, Serpentine, Les Croupiers etc could not recall seeing a female runner so far up a stage and running so well.  These are clubs that have been in this event for years.  Les Croups organise it!  We were impossibly excited watching her run and even though the leader pulled away having had Marilyn on his shoulder for some time, it was clear he was having a hard time shaking her off.  THe guy from Serpentine in third was flooring it to catch her but couldn't.  First lady, first vet and second overall was just a stunning run, arguably one of the best ever in a tattenhall vest.

We were so proud of her, it goes without saying.  Everyone who ran and supported did the club proud too, it's more than fair to say.

THanks to Doc and Tanker and Tim for all of their brilliant organisation and effort.  Thanks to everyone for their superb support

Mark

  Wow ....my eyes are filling up !!

  (Sue not Simon !)

Thanks to Doc, Tanker and Tim for all the logistics and effort that made a fantastic Welsh Castles weekend run smoothly.  Also to Alison for organising the squad and signatures etc earlier in the year.

Well done to everyone who ran and supported alike.  A great weekend all round.

Roll on 2011.

Thanks to all competitors & helpers for making this a successful weekend. There were many highlights, but as Mark says, Marilyn's performance made us all proud to be members of this club. The look on the leader's face as we passed by encouraging her on ( and letting him know he was being hunted down by a lady runner!!) Mark deserves mention for his performance up to Drovers-he told me what pace he was going to run at ( 8min miles up hill!!), and he stuck to it in hot conditions.

Tim was a star on two counts-one for a gritty performance on leg 10, then lending a hacksaw to other competitors when one presumed local disgruntled resident of Newtown deciided to chain up the exit gate from the campsite.

One of our team, who shall remain nameless, but no doubt be swiftly exposed, nearly let the team down by being late for his leg, then at his finish( encouraged by team members) proceeded to wave pompoms around in an erratic way, instead of concentrating on where he should be going. Stress can do these things!!

Time to go back to work for a rest, but roll on 2011

Thanks for  a wonderful weekend, filled with lots of giggles, it must of taken a huge amount of time to organise so thanks to Tank, Tim, Doc and Alison for giving up your free time to make sure this event ran so smoothly ( I am still amazed that we started at Caernarfon and everyone ran to cardiff...) 

Thanks to Martin H for the kitty he provided...!!  ( I felt rather hungover for most of monday morning...) There was a fantastic band and we boogied the night away with the team from Madrid.

Marilyn is amazing, so proud of you, and I have a feeling Emma could be a stage winner next year too...!!! 

Ta Tim for introducing me to Cucumber in Gin and Tonic...!! but not for the hangover it gave me...LOL.. Chrissie and I are a recipe for disaster on a night out...!!

Looking forward to the next one..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweex-Kb060uk-Multimedia-Keyboard-Usb2/dp/B001QGKVQA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1276692839&sr=1-5

Rob I found you this on Amazon....£ 4.99  !!!!  Bargain.....I also think that if there is any money left from the castles kitty ( DAVE  ???..)   we should treat Rob to this, cause Rob economised on the fuel by not letting me have the bloody Air Conditioning on...!!!!  I was baking from all the shouting supporting the runners  and asked if we had Air con and the answer was....we save a lot of money on fuel by not having it on.....!!!!   

LOVE YA TANK..XX

That IS the way to finish a race - especially the Welsh castles!  We were all v pround when you romped into the castle, pop poms ahoy!  Well done Doc for a fantastic finish and for all of your hard work on organising the weekend. Big thanks also to Tanker, Tim, RAF and to Martin Hilton for letting us take over his pub on the sunday night!  I'm not sure that the band were used to screaming girls shouting for more, more, more!  Great weekend - highlight of the year. Roll on 2011.

 Keep the 11th and 12th June 2011 free or you'll miss the event of the year! 

Cheers

Alison

I can't believe its nearly a week since the Castles ended and am already thinking of how we could improve things for next year but to be honest i can't as the event went so well.The Saturday night 'CARVERY'??? was the only downer so next year if Martin is ok with it we will be having a Tattenhall BBQ  at the campsite.

Its always very difficult to choose my best memory of the event as each hour seemed to bring along new one but when Marilyn said to me at the end of her fantastic run'Well done for getting to my finish in time' it really made my day as I'd mentioned before my start that i had three aims for my leg which were 1 not to come last,2 not to be caught by the meat wagon,3 get to Marilyns finish before she did,so it was really nice amongst all the excitment that she remembered what i'd said.

Theres so many people to thank for making the event run so well as i'm just a small cog in a big wheel and without Alison for her brilliant admin duties and boundless enthusiasum,Doc Martins logistical know how and catering skills,Dave Oldfields ability to prise money out of people with a smile on his face and work out costings which constantly change as the weeks progress,Tim with his van which makes such a huge difference to the amount of stuff that we can take along ie luggage,the BBQ,chairs etc that we take to make life that bit more comfortable.

Elaine for doing a superb job with the marshalls which was a massive weight off my mind and everyone who ran a leg,drove a car,dropped runners at starts/finishes and offered help at critical times the event could not have gone so well without you all so a very big thanks from me for making the weekend so special and lets do it all again next year.