THE last few weeks have been really busy for Barry Running Club and first of all has seen the club return to Porthkerry Park for the summer months.

“Porthkerry Park, is where it all began for us, and it’s great for us to get back down there for the lighter nights” says club organiser, Chris Thomas.

“When the night’s draw in, and it gets dark, using the park becomes impossible so we move for the winter months to Barry Island. It’s been fantastic being back in Porthkerry where everything for the club was first formed. Lots of good memories.”

The park proves quite versatile for the activities that are carried out on the club’s interval sessions which are held on Tuesday evenings. The club introduced a unique set of sessions back in the autumn, a series of sessions specifically designed for the club, and returning to the park, the schedule was adapted accordingly.

These sessions include running on the hills of the park and the meadow, and new for the 2016 summer season, an additional session utilising the Golden Stairs. The session is based on several efforts up and down the steps, with either weighted bags, jackets or even other runners.

Brandon Rees tested out this session for the club, and also did the harder option one evening by giving Ashley Gulwell a fireman’s lift all the way up to the top. This of course not something everyone is expected to do, but nevertheless the test was a success.

Not your typical running session by any means, however one that is so beneficial to the muscles in the legs, and when the club members did it for the first time a few weeks back, there was a bit of scepticism, but afterwards, everyone said what a great time they had.

The beginning of April saw one of the club’s biggest challenges launch, their Run around the World challenge. Now 10 weeks into the challenge things are going exceptionally well.

The concept of the challenge is to collectively run as a group, clock up the distance they run on a weekly basis, in the effort of aiming to amass 25,000 miles in 12 months, which is the circumference around the world.

Runners were asked to pledge a minimum distance that they could commit to each week. The club have a ‘virtual route’ mapped out, and every week members submit the mileage that they have run, through the club’s website, and every Monday evening everyone gets a weekly update, with a ‘virtual’ position on the map of how far they have run.

A map is published on the club’s Facebook page showing this information, and weekly notable efforts are posted, for things like most miles run per week or most miles versus the weekly pledge. With encouragement and support when required, it all adds up to some friendly club banter on a week by week basis.

Not everyone can attend every session, so this is an ideal challenge for everyone to participate in, and there are over 60 active members participating in this event. One of the real positives that has come out of doing this, is that it has inspired and motivated people to actually go out and run with a purpose.

So far at the end of the the challenge’s week 10 the number of miles run by the club is 5843 miles and that positions them in the province of Qinghai in China on the globe. The group are ahead of schedule by a fair bit. Along the way, the group are asking for sponsorship for good causes, and if you’d like to donate, please visit the club's webpage for further details, or visit http://tinyurl.com/hs7g3wm

In other news, runners Paul Currie, Ashley Gulwell, Deri Roberts and Paul Macarthur completed the incredible Run, Walk and Crawl ultra-marathon which was a 42 mile run from Brecon down the Taff Trail to Cardiff – a totally awesome effort from the four of them.

The month of May also saw the celebration of three years of Barry Running Club and was celebrated by the members with some birthday cake at the end of one of the sessions. In line with this anniversary the club announced that new kit was to become available, sporting the recently implemented, newly styled Running Club logo. Unlike previous kit, the new hoodies, t-shirts and vests are coloured royal blue.

Other than that sessions also continue to run successfully on Thursdays and Sundays where there are several running route options available at various locations around town, one of which was a new run from the Waitrose car park into Sully. There are always three options of varying lengths to cater for all abilities and experience.

With such diversity, range of sessions, catering for all abilities of any level, the excitement and thrill of club challenges, Barry Running Club believes that all of this combined and bundled with a fun, friendly group of people, provides a complete unparalleled experience, unsurpassed by any other local running group in town.

Find the club on Facebook, and get full information about everything the club does on their website at http://barryrunningclub.weebly.com