WFRA Committee 2021.docxWho's Who.
The board of trustees is made up of runners like you. They are volunteers who are putting something back into the sport they love.
Linda Edmondsen - Calendar and Fixtures Secretary
Always last to be selected for sports teams at school, I only took up running in my late 30s as a means to make myself fitter for hill walking (my first love). It worked. I’m now LV60 and getting even slower, but still enjoy getting out in the hills and doing what I can. Being based in Manchester, I have taken part in events in England too, but always enjoy the vibe at Welsh races. I became Calendar Secretary in order to put something back into the Welsh fell running scene. My skills are not in race organisation so I like to think I’m doing my bit by doing the admin behind it all. I also have been chairing the Women in Fell Runnning working group and see myself as representing the older, less competitive runner on the committee.
My job entails keeping a database of races for each year. I ask race organisers in early autumn for details of the following year’s events and try and ensure the details are correct and don’t clash too much with other events. There is quite a bit of cross-checking and pestering involved. I also liaise with the rest of the committee as regards the championship races (always produces more clashes) and provide the copy which goes into the printed calendar for the race listings and the centre spread. I then help out with the proof-reading. It’s a time-consuming, background task from mid September to the end of October and then there is usually a flurry activity with the final preparation in November. For the rest of the year I try and keep on top of any changes which arise and update the website with these.
Andrew Blackmore. Honorary Secretary (and interim Treasurer)
I found fellrunning by accident after stumbling on an advert for a race up and around the Sugarloaf outside Abergavenny. Despite being completely out of my depth ( I recall a blustery wind and snow) and coming in right at the back of the field, I was hooked. It was a number of years before I realised that there was something called the Welsh Fell Runners Association who did... well I wasn’t sure what they did.
Like many of the current committee members we are simply well meaning individuals who volunteer their time to help organise a calendar of events for the benefit of all fellrunners. Given my current level of fitness I am most likely to be found stood on a hill marshalling as opposed to racing.
My role as Secretary is akin to herding cats as I am responsible for organising committee meetings, ensuring that we comply with legislative and regulatory requirements and draft policies, and indeed anything else which comes to mind – I know this is rather dull but needs doing! What I most enjoy is helping people organise enjoyable (and safe races).
Currently I am acting as interim Treasurer which, as the name suggest primarily involves counting the pennies and ensuring we have enough money to buy insurance and various other things to support race organisers and members. I am hoping that a volunteer will come forward to join the committee as Treasurer – it is not demanding and the only skill required is common sense.
Dominic Shields. South Wales Winter Hill Series Coordinator:
I started running seriously in 2005 because my then girlfriend was a runner, did the usual London Marathon thing and joined a conventional running club (San Domenico). I ran the standard Machen Mountain and Pentyrch Hill Races that everyone did but a few of the lunchtime runners in work were proper fell runners and urged me repeatedly to try the South Wales Winter Series so I did my first one - Winter Sugar Loaf in late Oct 2009 and proceeded to do most of them for most of the next 10 years. Somewhere along the line Andy Blackmore persuaded me into being one of the Winter Series organisers (principally results co-ordinator). It appears to be fashionable to view 'committee members' in the same light as the Soviet Union Politburo - well if they were there unpaid because nobody else would then fair play.
I used to be someone who got into 'streaks' - 50 consecutive Gwent League races, almost 50 consecutive Rose Inn races, 20-odd SSAFA 5Ks, over 550 Cardiff parkruns - various injuries has made me try to avoid getting into these any more. I suppose I can think of two bits of individual stupidity:
1. (I think 2009). Sunday : London Marathon, Tuesday : Pentyrch Hill Race, Wednesday : Welsh Masters Track & Field meeting (I did every race - slowly).
2. Possibly 2010. Saturday 9 AM Cardiff parkrun, Saturday 2PM Garth Winter Series race, Sunday 10 AM Merthyr Mawr Christmas Pudding Race (rescheduled), Sunday 3 PM Cardiff Cross Challenge XC at Bute Park.
Alex Donald of Welsh Athletics once interviewed me after the now forgotten Cardiff Bay 5 miler, he introduced me to the crowd as 'Local Running Personality Dominic', I think that is a fair summary of my actual running talent. However I am one of a select bunch that has done the downhill of the Pen Y Fan race and come back again. Dominic Shields.
Craig Jones. Chairman
I found running way back in 1991, though the requirement to pass a fitness test; so I started training, wearing a pair of Dunlop Greenflash badminton shoes! Numerous miles and painful feet later I met colleagues who took me under their wing and off-road which I loved. My first fellrace was the 1993 Welsh1000m, woefully unprepared and wearing a pair of road shoes, I finished almost last and utterly destroyed, but I was hooked. Now a V50 I've raced all over the UK and a few abroad, everything from 1 to 96 miles, 2 day nav events and the occasional XC, road race and triathlon. I love the freedom of fellracing and I'm never happier than running with the sun on my back on a mountain top.
I was encouraged to volunteer by Ross Powell, then WFRA Chairman, who asked me to think about a new race in the Conwy Valley (Pipe Dream). Later I created the Great Orme race for the Midweek Series.
I joined the WFRA committee as an ordinary member in 2007. I then Chaired Eryri Harriers 2010-2012, during which I learned a lot, and also led the team hosting the British Fell Relay. In 2015 I agreed to become WFRA Chairman and have remained so since, mainly because 1. nobody else volunteers, and 2. there's been unfinished work to do and there still is.
Fellrunning has been a hugely positive part of my adult life and I've enjoyed giving something back, though it can be a thankless task. The Chairman role involves steering the committee and encouraging progress in a wide range of areas. I'm proud to say I've contributed to Welsh fellrunning remaining firmly not-for-profit which in turn has had a wider influence on UK fellrunning. Likewise in other areas such as runner safety, use of GPS and Juniors. I strongly recommend fellrunners put something back in, it's rewarding (mostly!).
Margaret (Maggie) Oliver
I enjoyed all aspects of sport in school and beyond, but did nothing competitive for many years while bringing up four children and teaching full time!
One of our daughters, Megan, got into cross country and she and my husband Alwyn joined Eryri Harriers over 30 years ago and became very involved in fell running. I marshalled races and started orienteering, eventually joining Eryri Harriers much later. I was membership secretary for Eryri Orienteers and enjoyed representing Wales at the VHIs. Cross country and fell running took over and have enjoyed doing many Mountain Marathons, Tuesday evening series, Meirionnydd winter series and relays over the years. Have also been fortunate to run nearly every year in the Masters Cross Country International. The friendship & fun has been so appreciated. I did a stint as Secretary of Eryri Harriers and Cross Country Secretary as well.
I was one of the earliest members of the WFRA and fully supported its inception and aims. So am very pleased to become a trustee and still be involved in this fell running grass roots organisation. Am lucky enough to still be running, admittedly much slower and near the back, but am not ready to hang up my fell shoes yet!
Ellie Salisbury – Ordinary Committee Member & Organiser of the Moel Lus & Gladstone9 Fell Races
I ran XC & 800m for my school & county, but did very little running throughout my 5 years at Vet School. After graduating, I began hill walking, then rock climbing, & in 1988, I decided to enter my first KIMM (held in the Cheviots), because of all the +ve feedback from local ‘mountain’ friends who’d entered the Snowdonia event the previous year. I was hooked, despite the abysmal weather, my useless nav skills & finishing nearly last on the shortest (C2) class. I have since completed 114 mountain marathons here in the UK, the Alps & Iceland, & I began fell running really to increase my fitness & ability to properly compete in MMs. (Sadly my nav hasn’t improved much over the years!)
I’m lucky to have stayed relatively injury-free & have therefore competed in fell races in N & S Wales pretty much every week since the early 1990s, & have also run in the N Wales XC League races every year since then. The support, camaraderie & friendship is amazing – I am a T1 Diabetic, & it’s of great comfort to me that ROs, marshals & fellow-runners always look out for me, & I am grateful that most ROs will let me take my Diabetic Assistance Dog with me. I’m really slow these days, achieving far better results on my road & mountain bikes, but I hugely value the social aspect of our great sport.
After 20+ years on Eryri Harriers’ committee, I offered to fill the vacant slot on the WFRA committee. I have no specific office, so tend to mop up tasks where I can eg I’ve designed & ordered new buffs/windscreen stickers/banners, organized 2 x 1 day First Aid courses here in N Wales, drawn up an inventory of our various trophies & ordered new ones for last year’s champs/series winners, & I am a member of the Women in Fell Running WG. I enjoy being part of such a pleasant, hard-working, interesting group of fell running enthusiasts.
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