Christmas gets the better of us every year; the bombardment of chocolates, puddings and Christmas dinner somehow has a magical effect of shrinking our trousers and soon enough we will soon be making resolutions, vowing to go on a diet or contemplating the idea of a gym membership, so why not exercise and celebrate the New Year all at the same time.
Step forth the Nos Galan Road Race: a 5 km run celebrating its 57th anniversary through the village of Mountain Ash in honour of legendary Welsh runner Guto Nyth Bran. You certainly won’t be alone as over 1000+ runners have already signed up for the event and over 10,000 people attended the event last year.
Expect to see a familiar face if you tackle the run as each year a ‘mystery runner’ carries the torch from Guto’s grave at St Gwynno’s Church and completes the 4km run down to the town centre. Previous mystery runners have included the links of Adam Jones, Shane Williams, Dai Greene and John Hartson—there seems to be a sports person theme going on so if you’re a fan of Welsh sports then you could run—literally—into one of your heroes. If you’d like to see who the next mystery guest it then you best sign up soon, with over 50% of this year’s race places taken you’ll need to fight for a place.
If the motivation of completing the course alone isn’t enough then how does the prospect of a medal, Nos Galan T-shirt, bottle of water and chocolate sound for those who complete the course? How about if it’s presented in a goodie bag—who doesn’t love goodie bags right. If that still fails to motivate you there are cash prizes for the top six runners. Children can also get involved with the running with two fun runs on site; 600m for those 8-11year olds and 1.2km for the 12-15 year olds.
Get involved and run beside hundreds of others and celebrate the New Year under the magical lightshow.
Nos Galan Road Race, Mountain Ash, Thu 31 Dec. Admission: free. Info: www.nosgalan.co.uk
words GAVIN WOODWARD