Cardiff Half Marathon, a giraffe, and Good People
Yesterday was a great day. I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon – my first half, after having run a couple of 10k races and clocking up maybe 20 miles per week running. I didn’t really know what to expect. I was told by someone who ran it last year that it was horrible, with people shoving, vomiting, and using the roadsides as a toilet. But I saw (hardly any) of that … and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, from arriving early enough to have a coffee (and use Costa’s facilities, which meant I didn’t have to queue an hour to use a portaloo), to the race itself, and then the post-race reception held by Barnardo’s (I raised money for them through sponsorships). Great, great day. My legs hurt now.
Oh, and I finished the race in 1 hour 54 minutes … really pleased to break the 2 hour mark.
Since I’ve started running and exercising more this year, I’ve come to realise that finishing something like this is without a doubt the greatest high. During one of the particularly difficult stretches of the race yesterday – a long dual-carriageway section – I mused upon just what we were all doing there. 15,000 people running, sweating, and hurting, racing themselves as well as everyone else. And looking around, at least half of the runners were obviously running for charity. Some were in fancy dress – a giraffe, fairy, etc. These were Good People. If 7,500 people ran for charity yesterday, and they all raised roughly the same as me (about £150 … thanks to everyone who sponsored me!), then in the space of a couple of hours, over a million pounds was raised for charity. I suspect the actual figure was much higher.
Post-race, I spent the day on a real high. And even today, when my legs ache and I had to hobble to walk my son to school, I can’t think of anything I’d have rather been doing yesterday. I’ll happily admit that I’m one of those people who’ve found running later in life … and who now can’t get enough of it. It has no down-side.
And there will be more. Next month I do the Sodbury Slog madness, and I’ve already entered a full marathon for next year.
Just a day or two off now, though.
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Comments
October 17th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Good on you. I think the last time I ran anywhere it was probably for a bus. Anyway, congrats on the raising money and doing good stuff.