The 2009 Race
The 2009 Cardiff Half Marathon took place on Sunday 18 October 2009 and was started by sprinter Jamie Baulch. Just over 11,000 runners signed up to participate in the race, with an estimated 18,000 spectators also coming to Cardiff to offer support.
The new and improved route took runners past famous city landmarks such as the Castle and the Wales Millennium Centre and included a run along the barrage and wetlands. It started on King Edward VII Avenue in Cathays Park near Cardiff City Hall, the race looped around towards Cardiff Castle. Runners were taken down St. Mary Street, before weaving their way back towards the Wales Millennium Centre. From there it was down towards the barrage, where competitors ran to Tracy Island. From the barrage switchback runners headed towards the Norwegian Church, Cardiff The Senedd and the beautiful Cardiff Bay area. Next it was the wetlands and Taff Embankment, before returning to the streets. Thereafter it was on to Llandaff Fields and Bute Park, before returning to the Castle for the final stretch to the finish line on King Edward VII Avenue.
The men's race was won by Simon Lawson of Lisvane, Cardiff. He broke his own record of being the fastest UK junior half marathon runner with a time of 1:05:48. In second place was Michael Johnson, while Simon Jones, who won the 2007 and 2008 races, finished third.
Finishing first in the women's race was Genet Measso from Ethiopia. Welsh runners Caryl Mair Jones and Anne-Marie Hutchison took second and third place.
The race also attracted many Welsh TV and radio personalities as runners. These included Carl Edwards and Angela Benfield from ITV News Wales, Mal Pope and Louise Elliott from BBC Wales, Matthew Pritchard from Dirty Sanchez and Robin Hawkins from The Automatic.
Lots of the runners that took part were raising money for charity. Event organisers Barnardo's suggested that almost £1 million was raised by runners for a range of good causes.
Highlights of the race were also broadcast on TV for the first time. S4C showed the programme the day after the event, while Channel 4 were covering it on Sunday 8 November 2009 at 7:55am.
Read more about this topic: Cardiff Half Marathon
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“Self-determination, the autonomy of the individual, asserts itself in the right to race his automobile, to handle his power tools, to buy a gun, to communicate to mass audiences his opinion, no matter how ignorant, how aggressive, it may be.”
—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)