Bute park was my venue as I ran the St David's Day Run 10k 2017! 6.2 miles around the paths of the park with, thanks to recent weather conditions, had a few... sizable puddles.
What was it like?
The race itself is undoubtedly flat, really flat... in the right conditions it would also be pretty scenic, taking in playing fields, the River Taff, Sophia Gardens, a nice bridge... Reasonable facilities on site (food etc) although once again due to the weather, the area was essentially a bog, my trails shoes would have struggled to get between the portaloos and the start! There were puddles on course as I mentioned, I was pretty much ankle deep on at least 2 occasions. But that's what running socks are for? Volunteers too all happy and supportive!
However, overall I found myself frustrated as much as enjoying the run. Races in Cardiff (particularly this and the Cardiff 10k last year) all seem to have one of the same issues, congestion.
I understand the races desire to be large, I also understand the desire to give everyone who wants to run the chance to do so. However, some of the routes chosen aren't up to this. The paths today were narrow and had 1700-1800 people crowded on to them. I'm not the swiftest as you must know by now, but even I had to run off the path to get round people, got stuck unable to pass, got run into by people with headphones on who had little awareness of their surroundings...
This s partially my fault as I wasn't early to the start (portaloo queue, shipping daughter out after the 1k) so started too far back. But at any point, it looked busy. Maybe introduce pens based on start time and stagger the start slightly? I'll probably pass on this one next year.
Nice medal though!
How did I do?
Not half bad!
My ambitions were:
Baseline:
55:00 (8:51 min/ml)
Achievable:
52:00 (8:22 min/ml)
Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time:
49:30 (7:57 min/ml)
And I did:
My chip time was 47:13 for the 136th fastest chip time (243rd place) a 58 second PERSONAL BEST!
Felt good too, I was held up at the start, can see that in my miles times (negative splits yay) but there's every chance this helped my pace in the last couple of miles. Very happy overall with the result!
Once again proving I have little idea how to get a target...
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