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Cardiff Half Marathon 2013
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This will be my 2nd Cardiff half.
I decided to run again when i watched the race back on S4C and didn't remember running accross the barage - am wearing my contacts this year
Ghostess - if you didn't run across the barrage you must have the ability to run on water!
I'm still wondering how the course will cope with 19000 runners. We shall soon see.
I'll bet at least 3000 don't show up.
6 days to go now, I'm incredibly excited!
I got back from holiday at the weekend and had my race pack waiting for me. Can't wait now!!
On the other hand I also had my regection magazine from VLM!
So just over 2 days to go. I have been checking the weather and it looks like it will be dry at least which is a bonus. Just need to start thinking about taking on carbs ready for Sunday, unfortunately beer doesn't count
Hoping my 8 month old son lets me have some sleep before Sunday, although getting up at 5.30 would actually be helpful on race day.
Beer totally counts! I'm having 2 pints on saturday/ I count it as essential race fuel
I've got my last training run tonight. Slow 4.5 miler and I think I'll take a couple mile walk on saturday. Carb wise I'm just going to have pasta saturday night.
I'm glad they've announced parking at cardiff city stadium - thats my last concern for the race. We have a hotel in Caerphilly and am hoping to park near albany road, so if everyone goes there it will be a bonus!
Parking is always a nightmare but somewhere by Albany Road sounds like a good idea. I usually end up park in Canton (the other side of the City Centre) and there is always somewhere to park.
I am lucky that I live in Cardiff and I can usually get my support team to drop me off and pick me up. But this year it looks like I will have to attempt to get a bus (if they are running at that time on a Sunday) or use getting to the start line as a gentle 4 mile warm up.
the football ground are offerring carparking for £2....and they say its a mile walk to the start.......i think its a bit more than a mile but its still an option for some
I think the Cardiff City Stadium is a good option for parking as ity is not too far from the start. Although make sure you leave enough time, I seem to remember last year running past a couple of stragglers rushing towards the start line when I was on my way to the mile 1 marker.
I think my family plan to try and see me at a couple of points on the route so I tend to get dropped off at the start while they head to somewhere further out on the course. Planning the logistics is the job for Saturday.
Having considered the options, its definitely going to be the stadium.
- Guaranteed to be able to actually get there irrespective of road closures (It's not in the middle of the loop)
- Its not far to the start
- The roads will be open by the time I finish
- Quick to leave afterwards
Weather forecast is getting better by the day. Its gone from "Mostly Cloudy" to "Partly Cloudly" so conditions are set to be ideal!
This is my 4th consecutive Cardiff Half. I'm in Orange pen and looking for a sub 1:40 time.
In terms of numbers, I'm sure I read somewhere and have noticed myself that normally only about two-thirds of entrants actually turn up so probably looking at around 12,000-13,000 runners. The roads at the start are very wide, but still a bit of congestion last year although I think it improved on previous years when they didn't have the coloured waves and people just started wherever they felt like.
Cardiff City Stadium good option for parking - I think I seen on the website they are only charging £2 to park there which is a lot cheaper than anything you'll get nearer.
I loved the event. The weather was fantastic, the mass start was decently organised, I enjoyed the route and the t shirt and medal were decent. Only a few negatives from it
- the water stops were too 'short'. As in if you were running in the middle of the road, by the time you saw the first and got safely across the road the tables were behind you
- after the barrage there was a bottle neck getting through a gate near the BBC
- gels in Roald Dahl plass... Peoples dropped gels made the floor so slippery! And on runner trampled a half full one next to me and it sprayed all up my leg!
- meeting points on the museum steps were impossible to see. They needed to be on big poles in the air or something.
All in all it was fabulous. I will be back - maybe not next year but I will definitely run the 'Diff again!
My first half marathon, so can't compare to anything else but to be fair it all went very well for me. There were a few bottle necks on the route, but wasn't too bad, and the route was generally very nice scenery, mainly flat (though a few gradients here and there). Organisation to me seemed very good. No complaints at all.
I parked at the stadium for £2, for exactly the same reasons as mentioned above. About 15 mins walk each way, so not too bad, and just saved some messing about as I'm not overly familiar with the city.
Already looking forward to next year!
(My time was 9 minutes quicker than I went for, at 2h:08:18, a very comfortable run for me, helped a lot by the cheering crowds around the route).
For some reason the Cardiff Half always has stunning weather. This is about my sixth, and can't remember a wet one. Of the courses they have tried, this is definitely the best - nicely scenic, not many narrowings, and a good start/finish area. Obviously there are a few improvements that could be made:
- Gels in Roahl Dahl. Its nice run up through the Oval Basin, why spoil it with a gel station?
- One more water station as lots of people don't want the sports drink.
- I very much approve of pens, but why was I in green (pen 3), despite having a predicted finish time 10 minutes faster than my friend in orange (pen 2).
- More people handing out goody bags would have helped.
Overall I this is a great event, and getting better.
I agree. Lovely event and I shaved 8 minutes off my pb! They DEFINITELY need the letters on high poles (or even the big museum columns?) in the meeting area though, it was impossible to find people when the letters were so low.
It's a strange thing about the weather Ian, Cardiff is not generally known for dry and sunny weather but it does reliably come up with the goods for the half marathon.
I really enjoyed the race. I normally prefer much smaller events but this was so well organised it was a joy to take part in.
If he's reading this I'd like to apologise to the marshall I accidentally hit with my water bottle!
New PB for me at 1.59.09. Finally under 2 hours after 4 halfs
Much better course than 2011.
I agree with everything mattyware said above:
The water stations were outrageously short for an event of such size, I nearly missed out on the water twice.
People throwing gels on the road was ridiculous, throw them off to the side, the road was so sticky.
The bottleneck at the Bay was stupid, you can't have an event of almost 20,000 and have a section that narrow.
The small t-shirt is just enormous, it's far too big, meaning my boyfriend who didn't run the race now gets to wear it instead of me- not fair!
Other than that, great course, great day-if a little hot-fantastic support, well done to the marshalls and ambulance crew who looked very busy.
A really well run day and great support, agree with the Oval basin comment, it seemed an odd place for a gel stop, I didnt have a very good time as I prefer much cooler conditions but still a great day
The hill at 20k was a killer though! not much of a hill but at that point it felt like Everest
Great race today. I started the race 15 minutes late (traffic!) and the very last runner to start but I smashed my pb in 1 hour 35, so can't complain! Perfect race weather, it's a lovely fast course too!
I'm surprised that the official results are by gun times which will make people starting in green and especially yellow pens seem very slow. In mass participation events usually chip times are used.
My official time then was 1:48, slower than expected and than I would have liked. Especially when my eldest son storms by just after mile 12 with a "C'mon, Dad. Keep up". (It was his first half marathon and my 20th.)
Well done everybody - good to see people getting PBs.
I last ran this race in 2011 and it has evolved to become much better organised. Plenty of good points:
- Course is so much better than in 2011 with 4 miles of dull dual carriageway; loved the very fast downhill final mile!
- Support was fantastic all the way around.
- Marshaled start pens, so nobody trying to jump ahead.
- Goody bag is much higher quality than the poor attempt in 2011.
Only a few minor niggles, some which have been echoed already:
- They need to separate the pens with a waved start. I was in orange and started running, only to come to a complete stop after 30 seconds or so. This lead to awful congestion during the first 2 miles.
- They handed out Lucozade Elite rather than the regular Lucozade Sport. There was no mention of this on the website or in the race pack, so I doubt many of us would have trained with it (plus it's hard to find in shops). What happened to not trying new stuff on race day?
What did others measure the course as on GPS? Mine came up as 13.22, so I was just edged out of a 1:30:XX finish. I don't think the course was long and suspect I didn't run as a clean a line as I could have due to congestion and bunching on the route.
enjoyed the route,,,,,T rex.they supply chip and gun times so noit sure what the problem is.but as it was a championship race then the results have to be sorted by gun time.......I had a great time running as part of a hen weekend..slowest ever half but enjoyable.......glad i wasn't racing as it was too hot for me
well done anyone who got their PB's
Enjoyable race although a bit gutted to miss out on PB which seemed on until 10 miles but slipped away around the Roath park section. Ended up finishing in 1:40:21 which is 2 minutes slower than PB. I found the congestion quite bad and seemed to be running around people the whole way. Maybe should have started a bit further forward but I think wherever you start you'll have people in front who should clearly be starting way behind and vice-versa.
My running app (which is normally quite accurate) measured my run at 13.56! Bit gutted about that as clearly would have got PB had I been able to run closer to racing line which was impossible. Never mind - there's always smaller races for PB's.
First Cardiff Half for me yesterday and I really enjoyed it, finishing in 1:20:59. Nice course with great support along the way. My Garmin measured the course at 13.22 miles, however I would expect that as you tend to be weaving in out of people during mass participation events like this.
Great goody bag, medal and T-shirt at the end with plenty to drink and eat as well.
Well done to everyone who ran and thanks to all the volunteers who helped on the day!!
My first race for roughly 7 years, first one as an insulin dependant diabetic and I had surgery on both legs just over 12 months ago.
I ran a personal worst, but it was ace
Well done Colonel Wax!!
Been doing this event since 2006, this is definitely the best course,
there needs to be more people handing out bottled water.
I had no issue with the start pens
there seemed to be huge queues for the toilets as i made my way to the pen, i hope people managed to start on time!
My first race for roughly 7 years, first one as an insulin dependant diabetic and I had surgery on both legs just over 12 months ago.
I ran a personal worst, but it was ace
Well done Colonal Wax, here's wishing you many happy returns
Loved the day! Took 8 mins off my PB to finish in 1 hr 53m - could not be happier. Great support from the crowd and Marshall's. Well done Cardiff!