On Sunday I took part in the City of Newport Half Marathon which runs through the heart of the City of Newport and the historic village of Caerleon. The route showcases iconic landmarks in Newport and meanders along the risk Usk pathways and through the city centre.

The race HQ is right in the city centre at the University of South Wales on the riverfront. The start is on the road on Usk Way and follows the road down to the iconic SDR Bridge which we crossed and then towards the cenotaph memorial at Clarence Place. A bit later there was a sharp turn on Newport Bridge and along the path towards the village of Caerleon. The route then traced the river Usk back towards Newport and passed the Riverfront Building and crossed the Millennium Bridge. We ran over the SDR Bridge again and then the final mile ran along the river path back to the University.

The race conditions were perfect. It was a fairly cold morning but perfect blue skies and sunshine with no wind. By the time the race started the temperature had increased and was over 10 degrees by the end of the race.

Unfortunately, the start was delayed by about 10 minutes as there weren’t enough toilets and there were still lots of people queuing at the scheduled start time of 9:00 am. However, the race eventually got underway and we set off towards the CDR Bridge. It wasn’t a particularly quick start but a group of us started to pull away. I looked at my watch and saw I wasn’t running as quickly as I planned so asked the others what times they were going for. They said around 72 minutes which was slower than I was hoping to run so I pulled away, picked it up to my target pace and didn’t look at my watch again.

I locked into my pace and counted the miles down. At 10 miles we arrived back into the city centre and ran by the University but I knew we still had 3 miles to go which is always tough when you can see the finish. I kept pushing and kept a consistent pace until the end and was very happy with my performance and ran a big PB by about 4 minutes. I won the race in 1:07:18.

It was a good course but a bit more undulating than I was expecting. I have always been told that races in Newport are very flat however this race was a bit up and down when we got out into the countryside. It was an interesting mix of main roads, country lanes and park trails but was all paved. There were a few stop-start and weaving sections but was a pretty quick course overall.

The men’s podium was myself in 1:07:18, George Collinson (Les Croupiers RC) second in 1:12:08 and Simon Lewis (Pontypridd Roadents AC) third in 1:13:06. The women’s race was won by Donna Morris (Builth & District RC) in 1:20:25 with Nynke Kuiper (Les Croupiers RC) second in 1:22:17 and Madison Shaddick (Vegan Runners) third in 1:23:19. In total there were 1520 finishers. Full results of the City of Newport Half Marathon here.

Well done to everyone who raced and thank you to the race committee for organising a great event! All proceeds from the event are used to support hospice patients throughout South East Wales and Lower Powys thanks to the work of the St David’s Hospice Care.