Cardiff Marathon - Outstanding performance for Everyone!

... Runners and Supporters! Our 2-hour Saturday morning Hype Park runs for the past few months paid off. Of course not to mention, Lau's superb organizational skills that got all of us down to Cardiff for the weekend retreat before the race.

We have
# Seng and supporter Bonnie
# Lau and Jacque with Eu-Gene as our sneezing and flem-congested supporter... oh still as sweet and sexy (FYI, I am paid to write the latter) as ever! But it's commitment la!
# Rina with her ever beautiful and zealous Novi and Heidi supporting! Of course most importantly, they are the ones with CAMERA!
# Lipeng and supporter Hui Leong aka HL, that feeds with me with all the last-min fast facts about the run and Cardiff!
# Sisse and Kobe, with Sissie's family that resides in Cardiff supporting

But most importantly, to Nicola, Lau's cardiff mate, that put us up at her newly renovated apartment on Saturday night! Nicola, you are such a darling! *Pple, her place is gorgeous and not too mentioned, immaculate and comfy!*

(pictures are coming soon!)

Here's the official time for all the runners (with a new additional: Seng, Eu-Gene's cousin, Bonnie's other half! ;) ). Time is by RaceAhead.net.

At a glimpse,

Seng 1:47:10
Lau 1:49:45
Jacque 2:01:17
Rina 2:15:17
Kobe 2:34:52
Lipeng 2:35:44
Sissie 2:56:20

It was a great morning to run. Temperature ranged 10 C - 12 C with slight breezy, well afterall we were in much smaller island by the coastline of Wales. Ground was damped from the drizzling the night before. Of course the night before, all of us went to the highly recommended Woods Bar and Brasserie for our pre-run (but really it was actually the pre-opera menu, which some of us just went after dinner and totally fall in love with it, right Heidi?) celebration. For the rest of us did the less cultured like England v France Semi-Final Rugby World Cup after dinner! All I can say, France should have won!

Sorry side-tracked! Back to the morning. Cant be better, well only with both Rina and I safety-pinless and my hamstring aching to a irritating level that you just cant ignore and Lau's verrucas. It was no time to pull out now, both Lau and I (independantly) think. We have to do it!! And we did it anyway.

The route stretched from the city central to the bay area, back to the city central, passing many historical landmarks and modern architectual buildings, as significant to the developing Cardiff. The last stretch included running by the Bute park and of course the ever so magnificent Cardiff castle where we finished!

Lau thought he would have clocked a better time, if it was not for the inflammation. For me, it was the cobblestones towards the finishing line that caused so much imbalance and discomfort that it slowed me down by 1 min and 17 secs. Seng concurred with me. For Rina, it was predominantly thanks and (no-thanks) to the BO of the surrounding runners that pushed her to finish the race in her record time! *Please take all this para with a pinch of salt ya* Still to my opinion, it was easy breezy for Rina, like it was any of our Saturday morning run! I was limping with massive muscle tightening and aching after the run and so was Lau. She was the one gracefully hopping with joy that she finished in the awe-struck timing!

Unfortunately, we was not able to wait till all the runners finished as we only had two hours to go back to Nicola to change and lunch before we raced off for our bus back to London.

It was a awesome outing and accomplishment! Thanks to all that organized and went. I sure enjoyed myself!

At the starting line

Next race: London Marathon 2008, the ballot results would be out by end of this month!