Cardiff Half Marathon

Posted on behalf of Lucille Joannes…..

The latest Super Half Marathon took place in Cardiff at the weekend, and a band of Harriers converged on the Welsh capital to take part.

Nicola Morris, along with ex-Harrier Catherine Thorp, and Rose and Dave Sawyer drove down on the Friday so that they could fit in a parkrun on Saturday morning. The rest of the gang, me (Lucille), Geoff Hurrell, and supporter in chief Mark Godsalve (who unfortunately had to withdraw from the race due to an Achilles injury), arrived by train on Saturday. We all met up for coffee before going for a mooch around the event village. Our bibs had been posted out so there wasn’t much to do there and the merch wasn’t particularly inspiring, but Geoff did manage to bag a bargain of two pairs of Welsh Dragon socks.

Having established where the start of the race was, we wandered back to our respective accommodation and rested up. Our hotel was in the party area, and we were very entertained by the countless hens and stags roaming the streets and spilling out of the many bars. Lively was an understatement!

Nicola, Geoff, Mark and I went out for the traditional carb loading meal in the Brewery Quarter (no beer was consumed, we were all very abstemious). The food was good, but we did have to wait an hour for it and put up with the most hideous music played at ear splitting volume. An early night followed in readiness for the morning.

Mark kindly acted as baggage mule so we didn’t have to queue for the bag drop and it was quite easy to walk to the start where we all went our separate ways towards different pens, before enduring the usual toilet queues. The race was preceded by a rendition of the Welsh National Anthem which was very moving and as each wave was set off plumes of fire erupted from the castle walls…very impressive.

I quickly concluded that doing two half marathons two weeks apart wasn’t very sensible, so I resolved to make sure I completed the race and tried to enjoy the tremendous atmosphere around the course. I was running in aid of Alzheimer’s Society, and had raised over £1200 from the many generous donors to my Just Giving and Enthuse fund raising pages, so finishing the race was imperative! The support was brilliant, with over 70 cheer stations and thousands of spectators. We ran through some very scenic areas with iconic landmarks such as the Principality Stadum, the barrage and the Wales Millennium Centre. It was pretty warm so the breeze coming off the water when we ran past the marina was most welcome. Mark did a good job of spotting Harriers and giving much needed (at least in my case) encouragement around mile 7.

I was surprised to see a female Harrier ahead of me at one point so I made an effort to catch up with her. Unfortunately I didn’t get her name and, as she told me she had joined the club only recently, I couldn’t find her name in the results. She’d started in one of the later waves as she had been injured, but she looked like she was running well and soon left me behind.

Geoff and Rose were both carrying injuries, Nicola was struggling with a bad cold and I was tired from Copenhagen so no-one was particularly concerned with their times but were all focused on finishing another Super Half. Geoff and Nicola completed their sixth and final one, mine was my fifth and Rose was just starting out on the journey. I later learned that there was one more Harrier at the race, Aidan Clark, but we didn’t see him. In theory, as fourth Harrier home, he should have had the honour of writing the race report, given that it took place on the 4th of the month but that didn’t seem fair!

The race winners were Gideon Kiprotich in a time of 00:59:34, and Joyciline Jepkosgei, setting a new course record, in 01:05:40, both from Kenya.

Harrier Results (Chip times):

Geoff Hurrell 01:48:26

Nicola Morris 01:53:35

Catherine Thorp 1:56:53

Rose Sawyer 01:58:38

Aidan Clark 02:04:44

Lucille Joannes 02:20:22

We all met up afterwards for photos on the steps of the museum, with Nicola and Geoff sporting their enormous Super Half medals, before a well-deserved lunch, a restful afternoon and finally a celebratory meal in the very civilised, and mercifully quiet, Cote.