Cardiff and Lloyds TSB Cardiff Half Marathon

Outside Cardiff Castle!!

Saturday 4th of October I made my way to Cardiff for the Cardiff Half Marathon. This has become an annual event. Myself and my house mate in London, Catherine Loughran from Armagh started to undertake this challenge in 2012. The initial reason I started to do this run was that my friends, Elaine McCarron from Monaghan and Martin Flood from Longford whom I went to college with in Sligo were living in Cardiff (as they still do) and this run would be a reason to make a weekend of it. Since then myself and Catherine have set a goal of running it for 5 years consecutively. Hopefully we will get to it. Nonetheless we have now managed to run it 3 years in a row.
The crowds were down on this years event but the atmosphere was still there. Cardiff is one of the most popular courses in the UK as its surface is mostly flat with only 2 or 3 short ascents throughout the race and one big hill on the penultimate mile.  It's a beautiful scenic course to run looking out on to the harbour. We brought the good weather with us too which helped. This year I took it handier than last. I managed to finish with a time of 2hrs 8mins, 4 mins slower than my 2013 attempt which I ran in 2hrs 4mins and 28 seconds. I am hoping to get it under 2 hours at some stage. As with everything though, this takes commitment and I didn't train enough this year. Simple as that. In fact the longest run I did in training for this race was 5k on the treadmill in West Park gym Tallaght, the Thursday before it. That's not enough for someone wanting to do it in under 2 hours. I will be more prepared for the next one :)

On the Saturday night we called for tea with Elaine and Flood. It was great to see them as always! They haven't chnged a bit!! :) After the race and a good nice warm shower myself and Cat went out for dinner. We were staying in a hostel called Bunk House on St. Mary's Street. Oh! Very important to mention. If you decide to stay here please note there is a very strict 48 hour in advance cancellation policy. They will charge you full price if you cancel after that. Besides that it was a nice hostel and is very central. Ideal really for a weekend in Cardiff. We went to a lovely cafe across the road for dinner. I like to go to the local cafes when at all possible. I'm not a massive fan of starbucks etc.  I don't know what it is! Perhaps they lack some soul or something! We spent the rest of the evening in O'Neills pub and The Royal Hotel Bar next door. It was so good to catch up with Catherine. #lifelongbuds
On this occasion I flew from Dublin to Bristol return for 69 euro. I got the Greyhound bus from Bristol Airport to Cardiff Bus Station for 24 euro return. It is 1hr 30mins from Bristol to Cardiff. If I were to fly Dublin to Cardiff straight it would have cost 150 euro return. A 57 euro saving. Not bad at all!
Looking forward to doing it all again next year :)

xoxo