Cardigan Valentine's 12k - 10 February 2008.

Report by Brian Conerity

It would be difficult to ask for much better weather for a February race.  It was a little cool (around 7C), but the sun was shining brightly.  Three runners from Pembs Tri made the trip: Elen, Terry, and myself.  This resulted Pembs Tri accounting for a massive 13% of the race turn out.  There was a small field of runners with only 23 making it out on such a great day for running.

We lined up at 11:00 and we were off.  The course started off heading down Gwbert Road toward the water.  We quickly turned right and commenced the steady uphill portion off the course.  The first 5-6K was a good steady uphill grade, which had me ready for some flat running by the time I reached the top.  Around this point was a water station for some quick rehydration.  After reaching the top there was a good stretch of flat running with a little downhill.  Just as I was getting used to this the road turned right and there was a short but steep stretch of uphill running.

Once making it to the top again I looked around to survey the countryside to ensure there were no higher hills in close proximity.  It this point, I was about 7K into the race and the predominant uphill running I had been doing so far was making the legs a little tight.  A long down hill stretch soon followed and I was able to kick out my stride and speed up the pace a little.

At about the 9K mark we turned back onto Gwbert Road and ran along the coast line.  There was a really nice view of the water with waves slowling coming into shore.  What a great day for running!  At 10K, my worst fears had come true when I found that I had to run up a final steep hill (that I mistakenly drove down and up when I missed the rugby club the first time by).  Luckily this was only about 1K in length and I made it to the top hoping I had the last 1K in me.  I probably wasn’t much faster than walking pace at the top of the hill, but I recovered and then tried to pick up the pace to the finish.  I came across the finish line in 56:09.  Terry was very soon to follow coming in at a very respectable 59:47 (3rd in his age group!).  Elen then came across the finish line strong with a time of 1:02:56.  Elen took top prize for being 1st in the open female category. 

All said and done it was a very enjoyable, but challenging race.  The last uphill certainly ensured I had no gas left in the tank when I finished.  The weather was great and the Cardigan Running Club did a great job of organizing the race.  They had clear kilometre markings, a good timer read out at the end of the race, and a water station around the 5-6K point of the race.  Well done to all!

Results for Club members are shown below.

For full results please click here