About Us

What is Cardif Blackweir parkrun?

Cardif Blackweir parkrun is a FREE weekly 5km event for runners of all standards, which takes place in Cardiff’s Blackweir area. The course is flat and fast, and takes in the scenic route of the Taff Trail and Bute Park. Cardif Blackweir parkrun is NOT a race, but an organised training run and as a result can be used to meet the participants needs.

Cardif Blackweir parkrun takes place every Saturday and is the latest in a growing UK series of events that are already attracting runners to parks in London, Leeds, Brighton and Stockport. The run starts at 9.00am and is open to all ages and abilities, and is aimed at providing a friendly atmosphere for all.

The objective of both parkrun is to: Promote running ; Encourage people to join running clubs and take part in local races ; and finally, Raise the standard of health and fitness throughout the local communities in which we work. Cardif Blackweir parkrun is organised by a group of local volunteers in order to bring to you an event that is free to all participants, regardless of ability. As one of our goals is to contribute to the local community, we encourage volunteers from running clubs, schools or anywhere. Anyone who wants to be involved is welcomed.

Why do a parkrun?

These are great events for “you” to measure your performance improvements over a period of time. Compare your times over a month, or year to validate your training regime and to prove you are making the right training decisions.

It’s also a fun event that is treated just like any club/training run. Everyone is invited including families and children. Best of all, it’s FREE. So whether you are a complete novice looking to get yourself fit or a seasoned athlete wanting an indication of your current fitness, why not come along and join us.

Why not consider this event as an integral part of your Saturday morning training session. Tack it on at the start, middle or end of your training run. Run it hard, compete against your friends and family or just use it to monitor your progress. It’s always the same course so you will be measuring “apples” with “apples”.

The course is designed to be fast and flat. However, these are not road races and hence we use appropriate statistics when measuring age-graded performances. The event is designed for the athlete/runner to run many times over the year providing a yard stick whereby the participant can arrive at sensible decisions about their current fitness levels.

Interested? Then come along and join us for a run or come along and see how it works.

History

Cardiff Blackweir parkrun came about thanks to the determination and drive of Phil Cook. Phil, who is Club Captain of Les Croupiers Running Club, had been looking at the possibility of setting up a Mid-Week Winter Series of 5k races, but due to difficulties in sorting out the course he decided to put it on hold. He admits to only having a limited awareness of the events at Bushy Park, and then received an e-mail from fellow Croups member John O’Shea, who had seen the article in Runner’s World, so Phil took the opportunity to look at the other parkrun events in greater detail. The thinking then turned to replacing the Winter Series with a parkrun event.

The initial steps were to approach a few people within the club and get their reaction, following this Phil organised a meeting with several of the Club Committee, experienced members and a few other representatives from the club. The outcome of this first meeting was that everyone was behind it in principal, but more information was needed. This led Phil into finding the course, and then presenting the “Committee” with a full proposal. It was decided to try and organise a couple of pilot/trial runs and progress from there. Present at the meetings were Phil Cook, Jeff Aston, John Griffin, Mick McGeoch, Nick Dukes, Stuart Crees, Chris Discombe, John O’Shea, Claire Beatty, Libby O’Duffy and Katie Beecher.

To keep the ball rolling Phil contacted a few of the other Race Directors and spoke to Paul Sinton-Hewitt. This resulted in him travelling up to London just after Christmas to spend some time with Paul and Chris Wright, and also visit Richmond parkrun to see one of the events in action. Before leaving for home that day it had already been decided that the Cardiff event would go live on 16th February 2008. The next step was to decide and then agree on a name, after a bit of discussion and thought it was decided to go with Cardiff Blackweir or CBTT (we changed to the parkrun name along with the other events in October 2008). A big thank you goes to Paul and Chris for all their help, expertise and support in getting CBTT to this point, and beyond.

As planned the Pilot run took place on 12th January 2008, with 21 taking part. Interest was generated via the club and then found its way onto Runner’s World and Fetch Everyone forums. Helping out at the Pilot run were Phil Cook, John Griffin, Karen Phillips, Nick Dukes, Mike Davies, Tim O’Sullivan and Graeme Donnan. All that was left then was the long count down to the first event proper and the journey on the road ahead.

With the full backing and support of Les Croupiers RC, Cardiff Blackweir parkrun has now hit the road running with 54 taking up the challenge of the first event. Phil and his team have been delighted with the response to this new venture and the interest that has already been generated to volunteer as well as take part. There is an air of excitement from those involved as they look to the future of the event. From an organisational side the team would like to thank Paul S-H, Jim Desmond, Roy Reeder and Vince Howley for travelling across from London on the morning to help out and support our first event. To everyone else who has shown an interest, helped out or taken part – THANK YOU – we hope you have enjoyed your experience and look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Don’t forget to tell your friends, family and colleagues about us.