Cardiff half marathon 2024

At the weekend, my husband and I ran Cardiff half marathon for the first time. We’d signed up a year ago, after my brother-in-law, who’d run it previously, told us it was a good one. We thought it might be nice to try a different race (although we’ve since done lots of different races, thanks to the running club!).

Cardiff half marathon is a BIG race. Much bigger than we are used to. The biggest ones we do are Cheltenham half marathon and Worcester half marathon, which both have around 2,000 runners – plus more people running their 10k and junior races. I’d actually done some big races way back in the day – Bath half marathon in 2011 and Bristol in 2011 and 2012. Then I discovered Cheltenham, which is smaller and local, and decided not to bother travelling for big races!

I was feeling reasonably chilled about it, as we’d booked official ‘park and walk’ parking. Then, the day before, I discovered we hadn’t booked the parking! Luckily Transport for Wales was laying on extra trains for the half marathon – including one from Gloucester. So at 6:30am, we set off to catch a 7:20 train from Gloucester railway station. My younger son came along with Hetty to keep us company. We bumped into one of the running club members on the platform, so he sat with us too. It is a very pleasant journey to South Wales and the train only got really crowded at Newport.

When we got to Cardiff, it was extremely busy. I sneaked into McDonald’s to use the toilet. The whole start line and event village area for the half marathon was huge. My brother-in-law had told us there were lots of toilets. But he was wrong! My husband went to put his bag in the bag drop, which took ages. He said it was about a mile long.

At 9:20, I joined a long toilet queue. I was stood shivering in my vest and shorts. It was about 12 degrees and drizzling, and I’m a person who really feels the cold. The lady in front of me was wearing a Dry Robe type coat and she insisted on lending it to me. It was so nice! The queue was moving extremely slowly. There were lots of queues and it wasn’t really clear where they were going. It turned out our queue was just going to two disabled cubicles, while some queues were for 10 cubicles! We moved to a different queue, which moved quicker, but was still only for five cubicles.

At 9:56, I finally made it to the toilet. The race was starting at 10.

I jogged to the starting area and was there at about 10, but I couldn’t get in. Along with another couple of ladies, we climbed two fences and pushed through crowds to get to our starting pens.

There were two starting times – 10am for the faster three pens and 10:10 for the slower pens. My husband was in the green (second fastest) pen and I was in the red (third fastest) pen. Having arrived so late, I was at the very back of the pen. We didn’t start moving until about 10:10 – and that was just walking to the start line. I put my music on and listened to the first song. Then I realised we were nowhere near the start line, so I turned it off again.

At 10:20am, I finally crossed the start line.

Ahead of me was just a solid mass of people. At that time, I could have been in Worcester or Stroud. But the difference is, the pack quickly stretches out at Worcester and Stroud, and there’s no solid mass of people. At Cardiff, the solid mass of people was there for the full 13.1 miles.

And it was a nightmare.

I would have been one of the fastest runners in my starting pen – possibly I should have even been in the pen in front. And I was stuck behind slower runners. I just couldn’t get moving. I was nowhere near my usual pace. I was weaving in and out, trying to get past people. As soon as I got past a couple of people, I would be stuck behind some more.

The race started by the castle, then went through some fairly unattractive industrial estate/ business park type areas. We run round those sort of areas at Worcester and Stroud too! The course was reasonably flat, with a few small ups and downs. There was a bigger climb at around three miles, then a downhill (and an even narrower path) as we headed for Cardiff Bay.

I was horrified to see that my 5k time was 27 minutes. I was so far off the pace I wanted to run – and know I’m capable of running.

The most spectacular part of the run was across the Cardiff Bay Barrage at around 4.5 miles, which was stunning even on a very grey day. At six miles, we ran past the iconic Millennium Centre. There were lots of spectators and it was very noisy.

Then, suddenly we were on a wide and much quieter road. I could run better, and I could hear my music better. It was Stick Season, the song I’ve been obsessed with for the past year. After coming up with a playlist for Cheltenham and Worcester this year which was entirely punk, I’d come up with one for Cardiff which started off more gently before morphing into punk at about halfway.

There were four water stations at Cardiff, which felt about right for October. They were at three, six, nine and 11 miles. Water was in small plastic bottles (thank you Brecon Carreg!), which is always very much appreciated by runners. It was handed out on both sides of the road because there are so many runners. There were also energy gels at six miles and full size bottles of Lucozade at nine miles. On the whole, runners disposed of their water bottles responsibly, but there were gel packets on the ground everywhere from about mile five onwards. If you can carry the packet before you take the gel, you can carry it afterwards too!

There were crowds lining pretty much the entire route of Cardiff half marathon, but not many of them were actually cheering or clapping. To be honest, they were probably bored by the time I ran past! On my usual races, we’re used to crowds which are smaller, but a lot more enthusiastic.

There was a lot of entertainment out on the course – bands, choirs, DJs etc. There was also the Principality Rainbow Roundabout, which we passed at mile 10 and again at mile 12. This was a riot of colour and fun, with drag queens performing. Although runners blink and they will miss the entertainment. I’m sure the supporters enjoyed it all though.

And so I kept running and kept weaving round people. I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t desperate for it all to end and, to be honest, I wasn’t really enjoying it. All I could think of was that I was running too slowly and it was impossible for me to run any faster because I was just stuck behind people. It didn’t make any sense how people who were clearly so much  slower than me were still in front of me, but that’s just the way it was.

At 12 miles, there was a steep hill. Lots of people walked up it. I felt like I was sprinting up it. I still had so much energy.

Unbelievably, at mile 12 I overtook the two hour pacer! I get it – the point of pacers is, for them to be accurate, you have to start at the same time as them and finish at the same time as them. But I consistently and comfortably run sub-1:50 and it had taken me 12 miles to catch someone who should have been running about 12 minutes slower than me.

Then there was a downhill and I was heading for the 13 mile marker and the finish line. I’d changed my final songs on my playlist from my usual We Are the Champions. I’d been inspired by the final songs they used to play at clubs I went to in my younger days. At Rock City in Nottingham, it was Pearl Jam’s Alive. At my favourite club locally, it was Robbie Williams’ Angels. Pearl Jam started just after 12 miles and I had to play Angels for a second time because my playlist wasn’t long enough.

I sprinted for that finish line. According to my watch, I ran the bit after 13 miles at 6:49 minute/ mile pace – that’s not much slower than I did an actual mile race (the Meteor Mile) a few weeks ago.

My average pace for the race was 8:34. For a PB I would have needed around 8:05 pace. For a time I would be happy with, I’d need something around 8:15 pace.

I crossed the line in 1:53:05. I know it’s a time a lot of people would be happy with. It’s a time I would have been happy with myself a couple of years ago. But I wasn’t happy with it! I was very frustrated.

Remarkably, my husband got a new PB. His time started with 1:41 – his first time running below 1:42 and only his second time running below 1:43. He’d crossed the start line at 10:05am and hadn’t experienced any of the problems I’d had.

I won’t be running Cardiff half marathon again!