Sunday 5th October 2014. Cardiff Half Marathon. Carthorse Report. This was to be the third Cardiff Half since the conception of Team Carthorse. Amongst the team representatives were a man dressed as The Riddler, a man who spent the two previous weekends drinking beer, a man who’s health food obsession had reached impossible heights and a man whose shin related injury had sunk by gravity into his foot. Despite the event being sponsored by Aviva Trains, one couldn’t help noticing that the earliest train into Cardiff from the Mighty ‘Port didn’t arrive until ten minutes past the race gun; neither had the bus companies bothered to lay on an early bus. Luckily ‘Big’ Ron Davies conveyed a number of us in the Lime Mobile and we duly congregated on the Museum Steps by 8am to meet a huge contingent of Lliswerry Runners. This year we numbered in excess of 100 athletes, a truly great testament to the team spirit and welcoming attitude at our great club. Plasters were applied to nipples, beetroot juice was drunk and bags were dropped and we congregated with the multitude outside Cardiff Castle for the off. Then we waited. Personally I didn’t moved an inch until long after the commentator proudly announced that the leaders were beyond the two mile stage, but eventually we trundled forward and crossed the start line by about 9:20am. Within a mile we were confronted by our first instructional sign: ‘Urnination = Disqualification!’ This seemed a little harsh although it seems it was implying that pee-ing in the street was the frownable offence which was however freely ignored around the route. Perhaps next year Cardiff City Council should distribute incontinence pants to one and all so one can have a stealth slash, no offence caused. Let’s not even think about number twos. The route was well supported by the good people of Cardiff which all made for a great occasion all round, and after polishing off the activity, we all congregated into the Goat Major for free Prosecco, which manifested itself into Brains SA. Jaffa cakes were freely distributed. After imbibing several pints I was treated to a late lunch and upon leaving discovered that the famous maroon headgear had been left behind. Naturally I outpaced my race effort in a mad scramble back to the restaurant to recover this precious item. Luckily they hadn’t cleared the table and the hat was successfully recovered. Carthorse Rating: 1) Weather: Cool and a little light rain to start but bright and sunny by the end. 2) Medal: Nice big round job. 3) Tee Shirt: Techy tee in quality black and amber hues although the fabric is a little thin. 4) Cuppa: Water given out at the end. 5) Cake: Jaffa cakes supplied by Team CH in the pub. 6) Hills: medium slopes at Penarth Road and Roath Park, followed by Cemetry Hill which whilst steep gave Team Beck a chance to shout encouragement/abuse at us all which gave a boost when most needed. 7) Terrain: Easy street job. Easy on all scales. 8) Benevolence Factor: Literally thousands made for charity. 9) VFM: Not an expensive race at all. 10) Overall rating: 9 carrots out of 10. cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk/
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 12:30:18 +0000
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