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Cardiff Half-Marathon
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Just added my thoughts on the event yesterday via the official RW event ratings:
Took part in the Cardiff Half yesterday – proudly announced as the largest ever half marathon run in Wales with over 11000 participants, and it felt like it too! I set a PB, knocking several minutes off my best time, but what should have been a great day turned into something of an anti-climax with the disorganisation and lack of forethought by the race organisers. I’ve run this event on a number of successive years now and never had any issues with getting to the start etc. but yesterday, with the increased number of entrants the roads were gridlocked. Miles of queues must have meant hundreds of runners failed to make the start line by the 9am deadline. On a sidenote, why did they move the start from its normal 10am to 9am this year? More police interference?
Despite feeling certain that they’d delay the start for all the unlucky travellers stuck in the miles of gridlocked traffic, I still left the car and ran to the start, arriving at around 8:58am, only to find the race would start on time! Without any chance to pee or stretch & warm up, we were off and the masses that did make it to the start crowded the streets of Cardiff.
No complaints on the route taken – a lovely mixture of the views (and winds) of the bay, the parks and the city centre, but some niggles during the race. For a start I completely missed the first water station as there were no signs (anywhere on the route) telling you it was approaching, and then they only had tables on the left hand side of the road, where I was running far-right!! Latter water stations were better organised thankfully, but ‘Water 500M ahead’ signs wouldn’t go amiss next year!
Likewise for the mile markers – I missed a few of them. Whether that is due to my lack of awareness or their lack of visibility I don’t know.
Anyway, the crowds at the ‘hotspots’ were great, but early on I felt the 9am start was a little much for the spectators too. Seemed like an excellent field running the race, with a winning time of 1h 04mins. Kudos to that chap!!
Great to see this years event televised – I hope I get on S4C tonight
However, one final gripe is that the changing facilities was a single, open-ended tent for passers by to glare into and they were unisex – I can see this putting a lot of people off and the organisers really need to provide private male and female changing facilities next year. I didn’t hang about much after the race for fear of getting stuck back in the traffic, so can’t comment on what else awaited on the green with all the stalls and tents.
Goodie bag was so-so. No T-shirt in favour of a re-usable bag. Some will like this, some will not. Personally I prefer a T-shirt but not to worry. Not much else in the bag other than a granola bar and a couple of leaflets which was a bit of a let-down. Lovely medal though, feels very sturdy and good quality.
It’s great to see Cardiff expanding the half marathon to a larger field. Just what it needs. The course can easily accommodate this number of runners, but the organisers need to ensure the roads can. Park & ride provisions and better traffic management are a must if this isn’t repeated next year, as runners will soon get tired of start-line fiasco’s like this one if they persist. I’ll be back next year to see if the organisers learnt from this years mistakes.
If anyone is thinking about improving their times, go to Torfaen next week. The elevation profile is here
Downhill all the way !
@Welsh Alex: I'm there next week too. looking to set 2PB's in 8 days. See the mile markers have been spray painted on the roads yesterday
My cold took its toll and finished somewhat behind schedule and way off my best, coming in at 1:32. Achieved a PB for highest avergage HR to date though, not that I'm proud of that and should have slowed a bit more.
Coments on the day (negative and positives) are in-line with what others have already said, but especially liked the changes to the course.
j0n3sy, good, thorough review. I agree with your water station warnings comment. However, imagine how much worse your start would have been if the start coincided with store opening times? I missed a couple of mile markers too, but not many. Perhaps road spraying would have helped, though this can get lost too. And, I did one race earlier this year where the markers for a completely different race the week before were still visible! Unisex changing facilities? Try relieving yourself at the unisex fence before the race!
Only thing I really would argue with is the thought that the course can accomodate extra people. There were spots that were very tight, especially over the barrage and through some of the crowd scenes (which need marshalling) towards the end. I was in a fairly clear area, but still found it tight in those areas. Can't imagine what the middle of the pack felt like. It would need two time-separated starts to double the numbers I reckon.
Torfaen? Still umming over that one. I couldn't count it as a PB, but wouldn't it feel great to knock another few minutes off!?
i won't be doing torfaen as i have used up all my running credits with hubby doing cardiff! left home at 6am, kids woke at 7.30am, didn't get back until 1pm... longest time he'd ever had the 2 of them on his own. (not like i do it all the time on the days i don't work or anything - but that's another debate!). i didn't get back to screaming (either from the kids or him) and there was nothing obviously broken, so i reckon he did alright.
anyway, no chance of torfaen for me, although i did a PB by 6 mins on that course in 2004... like you ratzer, i don't think it really counts.
Ratzer - I think Caredydd can be well pleased with itself. I was sceptical before the event but changed from doing the Abingdon mara to a fast, flat PB course.
Think I'll be back next year provided I PB or at worst get a GFA time at VLM in April. Good Luck for the future..
Glad you enjoyed it, DB9. See you next year!
Did you ever get that burger...?
Nice race. managed a pb. even managed to run the whole way, thats a first.
my only disappointment was the picture on the medal, I had hoped it would be the nice dagon logo with the running shoes.
It was the dragon on the medal last year (rectangle medal) and 2006 (round medal). 2005 was a picture of the stadium and 2007 was the castle (both round).
Anyone watching the coverage on S4C? I just clocked myself and my friend walking away from the baggage area. Fame!
And, I can't believe the lead the front runners have after just a couple of miles, they're incredible.
Good write-up on the medals WR. I'll have to check mine when I get back home at weekend, although my 2006 one was for the Full, I think it was the same as the Half.
I thought this years medal was very nice, a major Welsh/Cardiff landmark.
I watched it. Didn't get a glimpse of myself, but good to see the coverage nonetheless. its on C4 on 7thNov at 8am IIRC too
Form an orderly queue for Pingus autograph!
Don't get S4C where I am so missed it (to be honest I'd forgotten about it anyway lol)
Did a chap rather large get intervied in the park, Green t-shirt. Looked like he was about to die, said pretty much he was dying
That will be me
hi everyone - ran Cardiff hm on Sunday . well chuffed with a pb of 1.35 (ly 1.47). Training does really pay off!
Great event apart from issues pointed out about water stations and queues to get bag at end - I guess there's always room for improvement.
Now I haven't read the whole of this thread so please don't shout if the following question has already been answered but uts been bugging me -
If 11,000 people entered how come only 8,800 times recorded - did 3,000 people pay to enter and not turn up?? Just seems a really high number of non-starters.
Thanks
Well done on the PB st3jj.
When I did maths at school, 11,000 minus 8,800 left 2,200
Even so, that's a huge number of non-starters, but I guess people do sign up then not participate for whatever reason.
Ratzer - last minute change meant that I travelled on the day and arrived in North Road at 6am...sat and had coffee etc.
Then at 8 just as I was headed to the Village the marshalls put up signs "no exit from this car park 10-12"....
So I had to get out and move smartish - cut a long story short I got to the start line well warmed up and ready for a PB!!!
Hope to go back next year but wont know until after London.
Caramel - yes you are spoilt by Plymouth HM which is probably the best organised I have ever run at. BUT you pay with the lumpy bits!!!
daz1927 - obviously i'm still feeling the effects of Sunday, or at least that's my excuse!
I guess your observation must be right. The only reason I asked was cos they're talking about 20,000 runners in the future which would mean an extra 11,200 on top of this years field! Where is everyone going to go? If they kept the start where it is the 2'30'' starting pen would be at the end of Queens Street!
"6am, kids woke at 7.30am, didn't get back until 1pm... longest time he'd ever had the 2 of them on his own."
Blimey CM, your hubby is wrapped in cotton wool ! My wi*e promised me that she would do all the work when she joined the club. Needless to say .......
j0n3sy - I am doing Snowdon and am a bit gutted to miss Torfaen. The wf*e has already told me that no way is she getting out of bed at 5am to drive back from North Wales
I had so wanted to do the double this weekend.
s3tjj - I reckon getting a bigger field may well just totally spoil it.
Lol st3jj, we all have those moments, comes with age I guess.
Yes - I too read the article about getting the numbers up to 20,000. They need a major rethink of the event to achieve this.
Pebble, is that before or during the event?
I think, correct me if I'm wrong, that Bristol HM was supposed to have 20k entrants this year, but under 11k finished. So I thought that Cardiff was actually doing quite well to drop from 11k to 8,800. But I'm not that experienced with big races, so I don't know. I was actually surprised with the number who finished at Cardiff compared to the number who started - I thought it was very high!
Talking of well organised HMs, I've only read good stuff about Llanelli. Anyone here got an opinion? I'm considering that for my sub 1:27 bid.
Ratzer - As madmark says, Llanelli is a great event, I did it in 2007. However, he rightly points out the weather. My 2007 race was a sub-1:30 attempt, only managed 1:30:29 as the wind coming in off the sea in the latter stages cost most of us dearly.
Would recommend it as a decent event though.
Did any of you find any of your pics, there were quite a few of me: Wales Online Half piccies
Tip: Look for the race numbers in the results page to see how far you've browsed through.