RAT RACE - The Pontypridd Roadents Running Club Magazine . April/May/June 2020 Issue

and the section of the run along the Cotswolds Way. You could see in every direction from this vantage point and the surface was so runnable, I found myself able to pick up speed while still stopping to capture the odd selfie on my phone. Another top of the world moment as we reach Cleeve Hill before heading back down to the race course that was visible from the high downs. The descent was slippery, very slippery, proven when some speedy young lady in road not trail shoes came flying past me before careering head over hills into a nearby bush. I stopped to help her as her friends caught up before leaving her shaken but not damaged to make her way at a slightly slower pace to the bottom of the path. Reporting the accident victim coming behind me to the next marshall, I moved on again through a mixture of paths and track before reaching the fencing outlying the race course. We skirted around this, the finish gantry visible across the open grassland, before reaching an entry gate and heading back to the car park finish line. The run was interesting and I must not be overly critical of the course as all the profits for this run went to the Caring For Communities & People Charity, so I’m glad I ran this race but would have liked to have spent more time on the Cotswold Way up on the high downs.

The SSAFA 5k (Wednesday 19th June 2019) a simple 5k race around Bute Park on behalf of the Armed Forces Charity. A very fast event that left me crawling towards the back of the crowds, even though I still put in one of my fastest 5ks in quite a while! I always enjoy running around these park areas of Cardiff and the lift of the well organized but simple event seemed to drive me on. And I got a free pen!!

Another of the fast races on the Welsh running club calendar is the Swansea Half-Marathon (Sunday 23rd June 2019). Following a mainly flat course from the County Hall into the town then out to the Mumbles via the long drag of the coastal road, it gives the runners an opportunity to push themselves without ever really having to experience any inclines of note. The route does a switch back and before long you find yourself running along the coastal cycle path between the land and the seashore back towards the town, that appears to never get any closer. Reaching the far end you skirt over the river and back before hitting the finishing line and maybe a new PB. The first time I ran this race I had felt good. So good in fact I knocked 4 minutes off my previous half-marathon best and got below 1:45 hours. The day had taken me and from that point I produced a series of decent runs that culminated with a never-to-be-bettered time of 1:42 at the Silverstone Half-Marathon within the year. The following year I found I had a mix-up on my start pen position, someone thinking I was going to run the half-marathon in less than an hour, so found myself standing next to Dewi Griffiths and a number of other running greats.

I was soon put into my righful place as half the field overtook me soon after the start gun went off! Slightly dispondent and before I really learned not to care, that race saw me give a 1:47 hours performance and from that point reality hit home as I got slower. So when I came over the finish line in 2019, I loved the fact that I enjoyed every step of my 1:51 journey because Swansea is a great friendly run with lots of waving from runners still on the road section of the course to those runners ahead of them running down the cycle path. Glad they have a chiptiming matt at the far end turn around otherwise we may have some cheating going on.

The Blade Runner (Wednesday 26th June 2019) is the simple no thrills but quite exciting club race put on

by Islwyn Runners, which takes you up then down a steep hill with a circuit around the small pretty village of Manmoel in between. Called The Blade Runner, due to the fact you start and finish near two wind turbines, the smell of Braces Bread cooking nearby waves over you as you start the run. A friendly affair where different club members can beat their chests against each other, before tackling the 6.8 mile distance and receiving a buff at the end for their efforts. Definitely an enjoyable run!

I tackled what turned out to be the last Sosban 10k (Saturday 29th June 2019), with my wife Gail after running the Llanelli Coastal parkrun 5k two hours earlier. The route was pretty much the same as the parkrun, just starting a little further down the coast on the Millennium Coastal Path before hitting a turn around that took you back past the start/finish line to another turn around then back to the start. The undulating coastal path is a dream for road runners, slightly taxing in places but mainly just straight, passing by wetlands full of wild birds and following alongside the coastal railway route. I had run this path many times, including its entire length during the Brain Tumor 40 Mile Ultra Marathon earlier in the year so knew most of the lumps and bumps of the route.

Shifnal ‘Steeplechase’ Half-Marathon (Sunday 30th June 2019) was another of my forays into England when no Welsh races suited my very hectic calendar. The race had the title ‘Steeplechase’ not because there were