The fifth edition of the club’s winter training camp saw a return to Govilion Activity Centre, near Abergavenny. Tagged as a weekend of running, training and socialising it delivered on all fronts and the weather even played its part with dry autumnal conditions all weekend.
We all gathered on Friday evening at the Activity centre and once all unpacked and rooms allocated (girls dorms and boys dorms!) we all headed to the Bridgend Inn in the village. We were treated to delicious food and it was a great start to the weekend
As for so many in the club, Saturday morning at camp kicked off with the local parkrun at Llanfoist Crossing. This event had started shortly after the club’s visit to Govilon in 2025 and on Saturday the event was celebrating both its 50th event and Halloween. The start was only about 2km away perfect for a gentle warm-up. The course itself is mostly an out and back along an old railway line (so gently uphill at the start and gently downhill towards the finish with a short detour down a steep path (maybe an old embankment) to loop around a small field before back up the path to rejoin the main track. It was very welcoming and really well marshalled and a first having a pumpkin head run director!
After a post parkrun breakfast we gathered for the first of two circuits over the weekend. Kelly and Nina shared the responsibilities with each session focusing on core strength, balance and agility with a range of exercises and weights. Both demonstrated the exercises and then we paired up work through the circuits with a suitably inspiring background music! Despite all the giggles everyone worked hard and I think we all discovered areas where ‘more work is needed’ but, more importantly, all the exercises can be done at home with the minimum of equipment…
After light lunch of soup and rolls, Kelly led a short session on map reading and navigation with the aim of plotting two courses from the activity centre to the summit of the Blorenge (559m) and back. One was a 6 mile and the other a 9 mile route. People then picked their distance and headed out for their adventures (that included some fallen tree navigation…) with the two groups meeting near the parking on the south side of the hill. We also celebrated Sam’s birthday with a yummy triple layer chocolate cake baked by his daughters.
Before getting changed for the evening, Nina led a stretching session.
Liza was the architect of a fun Saturday evening. After a yummy roast dinner supper the games began – first up is a devilish game of ‘stealing’ – throw an even number and you can ‘steal’ a prize someone else has – the hottest ‘steal’ was pure sports running socks very generously donated by Lucy Austin. Some pairs must’ve changed hands a dozen times! We then settled down to a quiz that only proved our knowledge of British rivers is questionable but there were some fantastic charades – whether finding nemo, the titanic, milking a cow or the dancing queen everyone was up a laugh – Kelly’s Heroes triumphed. The Lemon Game followed (too complicated to explain) but all our competitive colours came to the fore!
On Sunday morning we did the second circuit training before a full English breakfast to fuel us up for a run up Sugar Loaf mountain. Instead of running from Govilon we drove to Abergavenny Cricket Club (which I believe is the HQ for Epona) and picked up the trail there. It was a glorious morning run with the early morning mist cleared. We headed back down and back to Govilon for a jacket potato lunch before packing up and heading home.
