It’s a mouthful of a name for one race, but this was undoubtedly the biggest race any of us had ever run. Just think, if we won we could be a WORLD CHAMPION. Probably not likely, but it was nice to think about it. Then again, the bloke who went on to win it fell over on the start line, so anything is possible.
It was awesome to be joined by runners from our sister clubs in Liverpool and London for a monster team photo!
It was also the first time we got to show off our fantastic new running tops with logo courtesy of our very own Bernie Martin.
The weather forecast was always a bit iffy, but it’s not as if we haven’t run across the barrage in the pouring rain more than once. If anything, this gave us a massive home advantage! However, when the weather hit, it really did hit. By that time our runners were strung out from Roath Park to many poor souls on the barrage itself battling a massive downpour and 40+mph gusts. It was brief but plenty to soak us all through.
Despite this, the weather was unable to stop our runners producing incredible PBs all over the shop. The majority of us ran our best ever half marathon, and nearly all by a big margin. The occasion and attention of the world focussed everyone’s race and pulled us together as a team to smash it.
Whether running solo or in a pace group, everyone’s games lifted to give a brilliant performance spurred on by a soggy but enthusiastic crowd. The jelly babies strewn all over Roath is testament to the crowds generosity (and the clumsiness of tired runners).
It’s not lazy blogging cliché to say there are too may great performance to single out individuals so here is a list of everyone’s times:
Adrien Pilat 1:19:17
Lucy Marland 1:22:29
Tom Martin 1:23:04
Nick Armstead 1:26:51
Brian Dias 1:26:53
Ryan Cullen 1:27:27
Gavin Pugh 1:29:02
Josh Dixon 1:29:14
Jon Harrhy 1:30:21
Dmitri Morozov 1:30:21
Dan Lloyd 1:32:27
Elinor McNamara 1:36:57
Jaime Hindle 1:39:16
Mikhael Puar 1:40:17
Jeremy Edwards 1:41:37
Carl Evans 1:41:50
Stewart Harding 1:42:48
Hannah Roberts 1:43:17
Sarah Fry 1:43:34
Shona Bennett 1:46:58
Stefanie Taylor 1:48:04
Amber Jordan 1:48:59
David Sinclair 1:49:12
Matt Henson 1:50:22
Katie Healey 1:51:25
Andrew Caple 1:52:11
Emma Davidson 1:52:18
Gethin Price 1:53:54
Lee Harding 1:54:07
Leah Jones 1:54:38
Maru Rubiano 1:55:39
Emma McRae 1:56:54
Nicole Brunt 1:57:51
Gareth Key 1:58:16
Sam Evans 1:58:31
Kayleigh Wilding 1:59:07
Richard Chappelle 1:59:37
Caroline Martin 1:59:40
Rich Skyrme 1:59:41
Stephanie Ferry 1:59:42
Sarah Derrick 2:00:37
Huw Phillips 2:01:48
Katherine Rands 2:03:42
Simon Melksham 2:03:48
Dean Bishop 2:04:19
Angela Farmer 2:05:23
Lisa Innes 2:05:24
Gerda Tallon 2:05:51
Mike Haworth 2:08:16
Kemesha Bogle 2:13:00
Kristina Salmane 2:15:28
Laura Parsons 2:16:19
Gaz Pritchard 2:17:31
Hels Dawson 2:18:30
Paul Cole 2:26:12
Sian David 2:27:26
Harry Harnesh 3:07:44
We also volunteered to marshall on the Easter Sunday Cardiff Junior parkrun which was awesome, especially with so many kids standing in the rain cheering us on the day before. We learnt the Cardiff’s record for their 2k course is an unbelievable 6:24 by a 14 year old! Feeling humbled, we went to Coffee #1 for recovery coffee and recovery toast.
The year’s first major is challenge has gone, and we now look forward to the Liverpool Rock n Roll weekend, which sees CDF Runners tackling various combinations of distances of 5k, half marathon, marathon and 1 mile.
There’s still time to sign up and book yourself a hotel, so get yourself on it, it’s going to be MASSIVE.
Well done CDF Runners!