September 7th 2018 marked the 15th running of the Cardiff Half Marathon which has now become the second largest half marathon in the UK behind the great North Run. This year it also hosted the inaugural Commonwealth Half Marathon Championship, which attracted international athletes from across the globe.
A glorious sunny day proved ideal running conditions for the field of more than 19000, and it was the Australian athlete Jack Rayner that took gold in a closely contested men's race in a time of 1:01:01, with Uganda's Juliet Chekwel claiming gold in the ladies race in a time of 1:09:44.
Sarn Helen were well represented with 22 club members toeing the line, and it was Dawn Kenwright that brought great pride to the club by winning her F60 category by over a minute in an incredible time of 1:41:45, in doing so adding to her long list of running achievements, in one of the UK's largest events.
First home for Sarn Helen was ever consistent Carwyn Davies running in the M40 category he ran a strong second half to finish in 1:24:46 344th overall, George Eadon MSEN earned a PB with his time of 1:27:40 despite having run the Bangor Half Marathon just 24 hours earlier with his colleague and club mate Martin Darby M40 who also did the double finishing in 2:03:43, Llew Lloyd ran 1:28:08, Steve Holmes M40 ran a perfectly paced 1:29:30, Tomos Morgans MSEN competing in his first half marathon finished in a very credible 1:31:47, Eilir Evans PB’d with 1:33:57, Eleri Rivers F40 running the event for her 11th time, though far from her best was pleased to finish in 1:42:39, Donna Davies F40 was delighted with a new PB and finished in 1:52:16 closely followed by David Thomas M55 in 1:52:26, Nicola Williams FSEN finished in 1:55:08, another big PB, Matthew Walker MSEN finished in 1:55:48, Enfys Needham-Jones F45 finished in 1:55:54, Pamela Carter F35 finished in 1:56:02, Liz Pugh F50 ran a 12 minute PB to finish in 2:03:05, Eirlys Evans F55 finished in 2:13:47, Meinir Jones ran for Sarn for the first time and PB’d in 2:16:20, Jane Holmes finished in 2:20:53 and in the process raised over £500 for Velindre Cancer Care, Jane Burtenshaw-Jones F35 finished in 2:30:13, Emma Gray F40 finished in 2:36:19, and Rowena Greasley F35 finished in 3:04:51.
As mentioned George Eadon and Martin Darby took it upon themselves to complete not just one but two massive half marathon events in just two days with Bangor half marathon on Saturday, 6th Oct, and Cardiff half on the Sunday. The Bangor race starts and finishes in the city centre and goes out to the coastline, in to the magnificent Penrhyn Castle Estate then back to and along the Garth Pier over the Menai Straits, taking in views of Anglesey, Snowdonia and the surrounding North Wales coastline. Fully prepared for the challenge still to come the boys raced comfortably under the coveted two hours and crossed the line together in 1:55:44