Sunday October 16th was the date for this years Cardiff half marathon. I first entered this marathon when i was just 15 years old and the reason i did????? All because my mother said that if myself and my brother entered she’d buy us top of the range Hi-Tec silver shadows. Take it from me Silver Shadows at the time were the dogs bollox and considering we were relatively poor and didn’t have much the thought of going to school in these trainers blew me away. Like most things back then you had to earn what you wanted and to run the Cardiff half for a pair of trainers was a good deal in my eye’s. My mother kept her promise and i started training in my silver shadows. The day came and i ran it in 2:08.36 and those were the days before the onslaught of partying, my quickest time for a half marathon is 1:37.00 which i achieved this year at silverstone.
15 YEARS OF AGE, ROCKING MY SILVER SHADOWS HAHA
Over 15 years later and i decided to run the Cardiff half again getting a time of 1:42.00 which i was more than happy with considering it was my first time back after all those years. Ever since i’ve entered the marathon every year and for the last 3 of them i haven’t been sober for one. The problem is that the marathon always falls in the middle of the students freshers party’s so myself and Daint are booked for gigs. I remember we had a gig in Plymouth 3 years ago on the saturday night and after drinking a whole bottle of Jack Daniels and partying in the van all the way home by the time i got to bed i only had 2 hours sleep and had to go and run. 2 years ago we weren’t booked for a gig but did the mistake of going for a quiet beer in Cardiff which ended up being one big house party. I went straight from the party into my house to change and got to the start line humming of booze pissed as a fart with no sleep. My mother came down to support me and couldn’t believe the mess i was in so i had a clip across the head, in her words “your never to old for a slap”. 2 hours and 20 min’s later i could see the finish but like hell was i feeling well. I don’t know if it was the excitement of seeing the finish or just the pure fact i was marinated in booze but i puked all over the place just 20 meters from the finish line. Everyone thought i did it on purpose but believe me i didnt.
After 2 years of putting myself through hell doing the marathon you’d think i’d learn my lesson but ooooooooooh nooooooooo turnip features here decided that if i went out for a drink friday i could chill saturday night before the race………….WRONG. I went out then ended up at a house party in which i stayed at for the whole of friday night, saturday day and night until it was time to run the marathon on the sunday with not even a wink of sleep. I was in all manner of trouble and in one fucking state let me tell you. If i thought the clip around my ear hole off my mother was something last year then this year (2010) i had a right belt and in front of everyone. I started and surprisingly didn’t feel to bad but it went in waves, one min i’d be fine the next felt like shit. All in all it was a tough marathon so i didn’t half have a shock when i saw the finish line and my time was 1 hour 50 min, 8 mins from my best time ever at the Cardiff half. I think that was the point when i decided i was Batman haha.
Anyway, it’s 2011 and ive decided to do the Cardiff half once again and i promised myself this year that i wouldn’t go out which was a hard decision considering it was the Wales vs France rugby world cup match. For once i managed to stay which was a good bet really as this year i decided to do it in full fire man outfit. As some of you may know i’ve done a lot on the treadmill dressed in full fire kit compleate with oxogen tank over my shoulders for the Atlantic Dash boys and Ty-Hafan hospice but this time i decided to wear the steel toecap boots and not trainers. All in all the outfit came to about 40 kilos and as i arrived ready for the start i could really feel the weight. 5 minute’s before the gun goes and the clouds clear and the sun comes out, normally it would be welcome but for once with what i was wearing it wasn’t. 2 miles into the run and im in a state, my brother trigg who is running with me (if it wasn’t for my bro i don’t think i would have finished, he really did look after me and kept me hydrated as i was loosing a lot of fluid and over heating) took one look at me and said “your fucked aren’t you??” to which i replied “yes” and all he did was laugh. I saw the funny side too but all i could think about was “fuck, i have another 10 miles to go”. The boots made one hell of a difference and the blisters at the end proved it. Even though it took me by surprise i loved it. It really made crossing that line with a time of 3 hours and 29 minutes feel even better. I woke on monday and my legs felt foreign along with my hamstrings which still are screwed today. I better start my recovery as im off to Dublin next weekend to do the dublin full marathon for the first time and looking forward to it.
The Cardiff Half marathon will be on channel 4 at 7am on November 27th and S4C this saturday at 6.25pm
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