Busy Caryl Jones juggles farming, accountancy and clocking up the miles in training as as she gets ready to run for Wales in the Commonwealth Games marathon. But as she tells Dai Sport’s athletics writer, Owen Morgan, she would have it no other way.
It’s said that if you choose a job you love, you’ll never work another day in your life.
Well, Caryl Jones has three “jobs” she loves, but you could never accuse the Commonwealth Games-bound distance runner of not working hard.
The 30-year-old’s typical working day starts at around 5.30pm, lasts 14-plus hours, includes two stints on the family farms, a six hour shift as a chartered accountant and two training runs which will contribute to the 100-plus miles she clocks up during a week.
All this as the Swansea Harrier prepares to represent Wales in the Commonwealth Games marathon on Australia’s Gold Coast in April.
How does she do it, I ask? “I don’t know,” replies Caryl. “I’ve just been brought up to do it. I’ve got no choice . . . my mum and dad make me! No they don’t really!
“You just get on with it. Everyone asks how I do it . . . I don’t really know. But if I sit at home I’m bored. I’ve just got to keep busy.”
Keep busy! This must be one of the understatements of the year.
A closer examination of a typical day in the life of Caryl Jones gives some clue as to why she has become such an outstanding endurance athlete.
Her day starts when she rises at 5.30am to help milk her family’s 130-strong dairy herd and help with various jobs on her parents’ two farms in Tavernspite, Pembrokeshire.
After breakfast, Jones will train between 9am and 11am before starting her second job as a chartered accountant at 11.30am.
At 5.30pm it’s back to the farm where she will help with a second stint of milking and feeding before finally arriving home at around 7.30pm.
But Jones’ marathon day isn’t over yet. Before she can relax, it’s time to lace up her trainers for the second time and set off for a 30-minute training run before eventually sitting down for a much deserved evening meal.
Caryl did recently enjoy a rare “morning off” from the farm . . . to run the Llanelli Half Marathon!
Typically she not only ran it, but won it, smashing the course record despite the blustery conditions along the scenic Millennium Coastal Path between Burry Port and Llanelli.
But the wind was no barrier for Jones, who spends so much of her working day exposed to the elements and sometimes trains on the Llanelli coast: “I do some of my training down in Pembrey and I’ve never, ever run there when it’s not windy. It can be still at home but you get down to the coast and it’s horrendous.
“My coach had warned me the wind would be against me for the first three miles, with me for the next three and then against me and he was right again, he’s always right. So I was able to execute the race that he asked for based on the wind.”
Caryl is eager to praise not only the guidance of her coach Alan Storey, but also acknowledge the support of her family and her partner in helping to keep up her training regime despite her responsibilities away from athletics.
It certainly seems to be a winning formula. Jones’ dominant performance in Llanelli followed on from some excellent performance over the past few months.
She certainly seems to be running into top form ahead of competing on the Gold Coast of Australia rather than the cold coast of Llanelli.
Last October Jones made her marathon debut in Amsterdam, clocking an impressive time of 2:34.12, helping her to finish the year ranked seventh in the UK marathon standings.
On Boxing Day she was first woman home in the Glynneath 5 mile race in a PB of 27.28. And her form continued into the New Year, winning the Telford 10k in a time of 33:18 – her fastest over the distance since her breakthrough year in 2012 when she represented Great Britain at the World Half Marathon Championships and European Cross Country Championships.
Her recent performances suggest she is returning to the kind of form she showed before suffering back to back stress fractures in 2013.
The Team Wales selectors certainly think so, naming her alongside fellow Welsh marathon runners Eli Kirk, Josh Griffiths and Andy Davies for the forthcoming games in Australia.
While many of us would jump at the chance of a stint in the sunshine when faced with the kind of schedule Jones tackles, the athlete herself admits she is going to miss her daily routine while she is Down Under.
A recent warm weather training trip to Spain gave her an insight to what it’s going to be like being away from the farm and the animals.
She said: “When you enjoy doing something it’s not a job is it? I enjoy being out with the animals, it’s great.
“I’m going to miss them when I’m out in Australia. I’ve got a little dog who I run with and I’m going to really miss him.
“It’s tough, I was glad to get home after two weeks in Spain, so I’ll be really glad to get home from Australia.”
However, the fiercely patriotic fluent Welsh speaker, is eager to make the most of the opportunity to perform in the red vest for Wales at the Commonwealth Games, an ambition she has held since she was a child.
“I’m really looking forward to going out there now,” she says. “I’ve got a task to do, I’ve got to represent my country as best as I can. At the moment the training is going in the right direction, so I am happy.
“It will be a great experience to go to Australia and I’m going to enjoy it as well as doing the best that I can for my country.”
There can be few people better prepared to take on a marathon challenge than the farming chartered accountant from Pembrokeshire.
The men’s and women’s Commonwealth Games marathons take place on April 15.