Cardiff Half MarathonHere's how RW members rated this race in the past (1108 votes). 2012 race reviewed by: Dan Schindler 2
 | | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
Date of review: October 18, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: Robbo_Run
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 100% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: Great, fast course, fast and well orga
Date of review: October 17, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: Sarah Elliott 5
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Great scenic reasonably flat route.
In full: Loved it. New route this year and it was great. Beautiful around the bay. The weather helped mind. Crowds really friendly and definitely kept me going the last couple of miles.
Date of review: October 17, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: Andrew Browning 2
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: A great race with PB potential
In full: I really enjoyed this race. I agree with what others have written about the start being too chaotic. It would have been helpful to break down the 2 hours+ runners more. I am not the quickest but even I found that there were some very slow runners/walkers getting in the way. The finish was a bit chaotic. When you are blowing out your backside it is really hard to tell where to go for your goodie bag although it's contents were great.
Apart from those minor gripes, the atmosphere was brilliant, the course was good and I will definitely do it again next year!
Date of review: October 16, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: Jason Game
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: 1 day after completeing this race i entered for the following year.
Date of review: October 16, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: i-Plodder
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Tougher but better course. Only gripe is that some organised music would have been great.
Date of review: October 16, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: sparklytiara
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In full: Great new route, although tougher than the previous two years.
Only issue I had was it was quite congested for the first few miles
Date of review: October 16, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: Shaun O'Hanlon
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 100% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: Brilliant New Route with great scenery and personal best potential!!
In full: This is the 3rd time Ive run in the Cardiff Half Marathon and this was by far the best route and best organised by far! The route strated outside the beautiful Cardiff Castle and took you along the route past cardiff city football stadium and all the way to penarth marina and the barrage, back through the city and up toward Roath park lake and back through the city to the finish. It was challenging especially from the 8th mile as its a long gradient all the way to 11 miles and then slopes back downhill. The route was treelined and a great running surface with no cobbles nor slippery surfaces. Support was fantastic in many areas and Im sure that if they keep this route next year the support will be even better. This has to be put on your running calender and is a must run. Nice t shirt medal and goody bag.
Date of review: October 16, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: ro616
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: Excellent city half marathon
In full: Really enjoyed my second half-marathon. It probably helped a lot that the weather was superb, but about as good a course that Cardiff can muster. Good support and a fast course - I took 50 mins off my PB!
Didn't have any problems with congestion as I was doing a sub-1.30. One improvement I'd suggest is having a gun clock half way round so you have a good idea of timing. Also the bag at the end could really do with some sort of energy bar. And a Cardiff marathon would be good too!
Date of review: October 16, 2012
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2012 race reviewed by: Bex66
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Lovely Route- Need to Smarten up the organisation
In full: Lovely Route (especially around Cardiff Bay- helped by perfect weather of course) but some improvements needed.
The race needs staggered starts. Very congested at the start and, from all accounts, those in the sub 2 hour category were subject to congestion/ zig-zagging runners all the way round. Some narrow bottlenecks, in part caused by crowds- a la Tour de France. More robust marshalling needed
Also- where were the race pacers?
Some more music/ bands en route might have been more uplifting
Missed some of the water stations cause not given adequate advance warning. Couldn't find the A,B, C, D family meeting point after the race. Asked a marshall who then sent me off in the wrong direction. Again, basic signage would have done the job
Hand out of medals, T-shirts and goody bags at the end was a real mess, with 15 minute waiting times. The medal and the T-shirt were good though
Support excellent in some places, in centre of Cardiff but lacking elsewhere
In conclusion, Cardiff probably has one of the best half marathon routes in the country BUT compared to the GNR or to Reading for organisation and atmosphere it still has some way to go.
Date of review: October 15, 2012
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