My Event Ratings

Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		60%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Overall very good but a few problems caused by numbers/organisation
In full: Overall, I thought this was a good race.

This is my second Cardiff half (first in 2011) and I thought the route was much better than last year's. The support was very good, especially in Roath, Cathays and city centre, but a bit patchy.

My only gripes relate to the crowd control element. It's obvious that the organisers have intentions to make this a big event and to use it to make more big events in Cardiff. I've absolutely no problem with that. But I think they will need to sort out two issues:

1) Race route - a few too many bottleneck points at corners, after the barrage and crowd-induced bottlenecks with supporters going right into the road, Tour de France style. The support was appreciated but some robust marshalling is needed - for their safety and ours.

2) On the issue of the 2hr+ runners I would agree with other reviewers that organisers let too many off at the start in one go. I saw a quote on Walesonline.co.uk from the chairman of Run 4 Wales saying they'd got everyone through in 11 mins! But it's also up to runners to be realistic and honest with their timings. Far too many in front of me were running slowly at three, four, more abreast. And I don't like to pick on anyone but I ran past a chap at mile 1.5 who was carrying a wooden CROSS. I'm sorry but if you're doing that you will definitely not finish sub-2hr. I'm not a very seasoned runner and I'm sure it's an issue in every race and in all the pens but I'd like to see runners take on their own responsibility to gauge their pace during training and be realistic about where they start.

But like I said overall I thought it was very good.
Date of review: October 15, 2012

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