Edd’s Eagles
The Run Wales Group of the Month for May are Edd’s Eagles from Abertillery, who meet on Wednesday evenings at the Abertillery Sports Centre. The group were nominated for the feature by Hannah Phillips, Run Activator for South East Wales.
Edd’s Eagles running group was set up around 14 months ago by inspirational group leader Hayley Edwards. Hayley started her running journey with a slow walk-jog with the dog, and she managed to reach her 5k target at a Race for Life event in no time. Catching the running bug, she went on to raise money for a hospital by running 10k. On the finish line she decided she wanted to run a half marathon and signed up and completed the Cardiff Half Marathon. Not satisfied by just her own transformation, Hayley wanted to spread the word and motivate others to feel the way she did when she ran; with the help of her husband, they set-up the social running group Edd’s Eagles.
At the launch of Edd’s Eagles back in March 2017, over 25 people turned up to walk and run together and the group has gone from strength to strength ever since. In fact, Edd’s Eagles social running group has been such a success within the community that (with the help of Run Leader Rob Bennett) they recently set up a brand-new group in Brynmawr named Edd’s Eagles Brynmawr. The Brynmawr group had over 40 runners at their first session and meet on Mondays at 6p.m at the Brynmawr Community Gym – welcoming runners of all abilities that wish to walk or run socially and get active. Many of the Edd’s Eagles Brynmawr group successfully completed the Newport 10k last Sunday morning and have already targeted their next event – the Barry 10k in August!
Congratulations to Edd’s Eagles for their continued success and brilliant work in promoting social running in Wales. If you’re interested in joining a social running group in your local area, click here: