After a rendition of the Welsh National Anthem, we waited for the starting gun, fired by local Colin Jackson then headed out of the capital to the west. After a mile or so we passed Cardiff’s new City Stadium before heading to the South of the city.  Advertised as a flat course isn’t strictly accurate as there where a few surprise climbs thrown in.

Around mile 3, we approached the top of a long slow steady climb where shortly after we found ourselves running through the scenic Penarth Marina.  This brought us to Cardiff Bay Barrage which was picturesque with water on both sides of you and by now the sun had well and truly woken up and joined us making me wish I’d thought of sunglasses in the 7am frost this morning!

Passing by the new BBC Studios and then the Dr Who Experience we arrived in Cardiff Bay, the home of the Welsh Assembly and the iconic Wales Millennium Centre at around the halfway point.

We then headed back towards town before taking a right shortly after then running through a more suburban area of Roath.  There was more crowd support and a few bands playing as we ran towards Roath Lake at mile 10.  We had to do a lap of the lake, and the ‘out’ section of the lap seemed to go on for ever and much longer than I remember it being!  Once we hit the furthest point of the lake it was a straight run home – with a little surprise.

Just around mile 12 there was a short steep incline which appeared from around a corner.  This was a surprise for most people around me as many where cursing at the sight of it!  After this shock there was a welcome gentle downhill into Cathays leading us to the finish line in the iconic white buildings of Cardiff Civic Centre.

The VRUK meet up was arranged for letter ‘V’ in the beautiful Cathays Park within the Civic Centre and although only meters from the finish line was pretty much empty from the hubbub of the finish line and neighbouring runners village.  We found a vacant bench close to letter V and waited for other members.  There was myself, Cédric David, Duncan McNeill and Barry Orr.  Cédric had previously met with fellow members Kevin Jones and Ioan Williams who where meeting family so didn’t join us at the meetup.  We where however surprised to be joined by ex-member Zoe Wildgoose who was running for a friend but in her VRUK vest who joined us for a photo and said she would renew her membership.

Despite the few inclines there where at least 5 PB from the VRUK collective which is an amazing achievement.
Well done again to everyone for a fantastic race