A popular women’s group focuses on creating a safe community for running at night in the capital, particularly in the winter
All-female running group She Runs: Cardiff is celebrating its third anniversary.
The running group, which was founded by around 30 women, set out to be a place for women to come together and exercise without competitive pressure.
The club currently has over 2,000 members in its Facebook group, many of whom joined during the darker, winter months, for a safer community to exercise in.
One of the founders Cathryn Scott said: “I think we do provide that safe way of being able to run in the evenings.”
She added that some members who are concerned about running at night on their own, find comfort in the larger group runs.
The club recently celebrated with a large run around Roath lake, complete with a look at some of the yarn bombs created by members.
Within the group, a team of women who like to knit and crochet regularly create “yarn bombs” to celebrate key events and this forms another part of their wellbeing.
One of the women Ann Lawson-Jones added: “Yarn bombing is the ultimate payback of thanks to the group.”
Amongst the duly celebrations, this month also marked a date of importance following Baroness Casey’s report into the London Metropolitan police, after the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021.
The interim report found that: “The Met is not clear about what constitutes ‘Gross Misconduct’ and what will be done about it.”
This report has the potential to spark wider unrest about the state of police forces across the UK, particularly regarding the safety of women in the winter months.
This is something the group continues to focus on, by changing its winter routes and highlighting its run-buddies scheme.
Touching on the issue of female safety, Scott said: “Safety is sadly a huge issue, it’s really, really, sad that it even needs to be an issue.”
She added: “The onus shouldn’t be on women to have to limit their behaviour.”