ON SUNDAY February 28 the Daffodil Ride took place at Pendine Beach, Carmarthenshire, which saw hundreds of riders embarking on the challenge of a 43 mile loop through hilly Carmarthenshire and raised £3,500 for charity Trust PA.
The Daffodil ride is in its 9th year and is now being organised by 3rd year students from the School of Sport, Health and Outdoor Education (SHOE) at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), Carmarthen.
Five BSc Personal Training students, Jake Doan, Lauren Tynan, Nathan Collyns, Charles Parson and Owain Tobias were in charge of organising the Daffodil Ride this year. The event included a sports massage tent and a pasta party at the end of the race.
Geraint Forster, Lecturer in Outdoor Education who runs the 3rd year module Interdisciplinary Support for Adventurous Activities said: “We are thrilled with the success of the Daffodil Ride. As a School of Sport, Health and Outdoor Education, we really want to promote health and wellbeing both within and outside of the University.
To see such a wide range of riders, including staff and students of the University, as well as local people and even those from further afield, successfully challenge themselves to complete a gruelling ride is really rewarding.
Knowing that in order to complete this challenge, these individuals have had to train and prepare over previous weeks and months is also very rewarding as it has a knock-on effect on their general health and wellbeing.
“Being physically active on a regularly basis is so important for health, and can prevent the onset of numerous non-communicable diseases.
“Physical inactivity is now one of the biggest risk factors for premature mortality, so our hope is that organising an event like this motivates people to be more physically active, and also to improve other aspects of their health such as nutrition.
“It was great to be able to organise an event that both encourages physical activity and breathes life into the village of Pendine, at a time of year when it is traditionally very quiet. We are also absolutely thrilled to have raised £3,500 for Trust PA.”
As in previous years, all proceeds from the Daffodil Ride are being donated to charity. This year’s charity is Trust PA, which funds research into treatments for the repair of spinal cord injury paralysis.
Geraint continued: “Local events like the Daffodil Ride are a brilliant way of getting your name out there as a personal trainer, if you have your own business the event can raise the awareness of you and your business and secure you more clients. The 3rd year of BSc Personal Training and BSc Outdoor Fitness is very professionally focused, students run their own personal training business, it’s less lecture based and more focussed on getting out there and practising real life skills under the insurance and supervision of the University.”
Jake Doan, BSc Personal Training student was pleased with the result: “Organising the Daffodil Ride was a great experience, it gave us the chance to manage hundreds of people, which was a big change from focusing on individuals through personal training.
Hundreds of athletes relied on us to run this event. These people had February 28th on their calendar, and they had a 43 mile challenge in their minds; they were relying on us to bring this event together in a safe and healthy environment.”
Charles Parson, BSc Personal Training said: “I’d never really done anything like this before, it was really rewarding. The structure of the BSc Personal Training course is great because the first two years provide you with the information you need and then in the third year you put what we’ve learned into practice.”
Gruff Ifan, participant added: “The whole day was a really enjoyable and fun event. The bike ride itself was very challenging and it was a fantastic feeling to have completed such a gruelling route.
“The students did a fantastic job of organising, everything ran smoothly and the sports massage tent provided a much needed service. Everyone enjoyed refuelling with the pasta party at the end of the race too.”
The founder of the Daffodil Ride, Andy Edwards, who is local to Pendine, set up the event 9 years ago with the aim of breathing life into the village during an otherwise quiet season. Having now moved from Pendine to Carmarthen, Andy was determined that the Daffodil Ride would carry on and offered the organising responsibilities to UWTSD students.
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