This was the first of the Super Half Marathon series we'd booked, but only three weeks ago we'd already run our first in Copenhagen. That one had been sunny, and by the end of the race was a little on the warm side. It was a busy one, but also incredibly well supported throughout the entire course - something unheard of for most races I've done, even with the London Marathon there's usually areas that are quiet. So how would Cardiff compare?

My expectation today was that it would be cold and wet. The forecast had said as much. The problem with this is that I’d then have three hours or more of driving after the race to get home, and this could be in wet clothes as I wouldn’t get to change first. It pretty much forced me to use a drop bag so I’d have something dry to change into should the need arise.

After breakfast, we checked out of the AirBNB, and drove to the Cardiff City Football Stadium where I’d pre-booked parking for £10.60. I’d consider that expensive parking for a race, but somehow it’s wasn’t the most expensive parking from this weekend. It was nice and quick to get there, and the queue to get into the car park wasn’t too bad. The walk from there to the race village took a lot longer than expected though as it took over an hour from parking up, to dropping off our bags in the race village.

It was lucky we’d used some of the toilets on the route to the race village as when we got near Cardiff Castle, it was busier than we could have imagined. There were hundreds of spectators crowding the streets there already, and this made it difficult for thousands of runners to get past to the small area where the bag drop was located. It meant we missed the pre-race photo opportunity with people we knew, Chris in particular as he was using this as his last ever half marathon. Even the race village was crowded with supporters, but the bag drop area (reserved for runners) was a little easier to manage. There were very few loos around for the runners here though, not enough for 27,000 runners.

After we dropped our bags, we’d got less than twenty minutes to find our way to the correct pens before the race started. Carmen found hers, but later found that she was starting much further back than intended as there were people in slower waves in front of her so it seems they weren’t too strict on who was going into which pens. This was a problem I found trying to get to the pen as a crowd of supporters was blocking the path and wouldn’t let runners past. I’d got three minutes until the race was due to start by this point so I decided to climb over the barrier there. The 1:30 pacer was so far in front of me though I had no chance of getting to them, or catching up with them after the race start without overdoing it. It started to spit with rain at this point too, and I thought as long as it didn’t get worse before the race start, it’d be okay.

As the race started there were jets of flame in front of the castle, I was sure I could feel the feint heat from them too. It’s certainly a fantastic start. I was alongside a runner holding a microphone saying BBC Sports as I crossed the start line, so figured there’d be some live coverage of this race. I realised I’d forgotten my bag of jelly babies, so would need to do this race without fuel, and I felt that would mean I’d be struggling around mile 8 to keep the pace going if I went at my normal pace. Instead, I started off slightly slower, hoping it’d help me to keep going a little longer.

I started off easy, and by the time I passed under the railway bridge around mile 1, I was averaging 6:59/mi so knew already a sub-1:30 would not be on the cards today as I wouldn't be speeding up, but maybe I could avoid being too much slower than Copenhagen. In this first mile was a mural saying "Only One Gary Speed." I had no idea who this was, but Carmen later explained to me he had been a footballer who had taken his own life. There was the whir of a drone overhead, it watching the runners whilst we were still fresh.

I could then see the Cardiff City Football stadium where my car was parked, and could see that we could probably have taken a shorter route to the castle after parking than where people were seemingly directed.

After mile 2 I then spotted a road bridge ahead and realised this must be the one we'd drive over a couple of times previously on the way into Penarth, and then saw the sign saying 'Vale of Glamorgan'. I then heard Europe's 'Final Countdown' blasting out, and mused how often I hear it at races. In the first 5K, maybe it's not so much the final countdown just yet though.

Just before the 5K mark was the first water station, and a guy shouting "you're almost there! Not sure where." I found it amusing and wondered if he knew what was going on. It was nice there was some support though, it'd been considerably more sparse in this first 5K than it had been for Copenhagen, but it was hardly surprising. The water stations were better than Copenhagen I think - there were bins after them so there wouldn't be discarded bottles all over the road, and they still had tables of bottles either side without it being too overcrowded. This then led into the first of the hills, and I was quite pleased with myself for running up it without walking. It wasn't a difficult hill, but was still a morale boost.

At the top of the hill I recognised where I was: near the Tesco we'd shopped at previously. The route then goes round past the Penarth Marina and the entrance to the Tesco and for a few seconds I wondered if we were going to run around the car park, or round the roundabout and back up the hill again. Instead it goes straight on, down the road that runs alongside it. I got a notification on my phone that Carmen had now crossed the start line - about 22 minutes behind me.

After 4 miles the route then goes across the Cardiff Bay Barrage, along the road there, and along the path once you get to the other side of the bay. I was expecting high winds here, but it wasn't that bad. The humidity on the other hand was quite high. I had a good look around as I ran, and glanced over at Mermaid Quay every now and then, knowing the route would take me there soon enough. A helicopter shot past overhead.

As I got close to mile 6, there was now the sound of thundering feet on the boards along Mermaid Quay. Ahead of me was Ianto's Shrine (linked to the Torchwood TV series that was filmed in this area), and then I rounded the corner up the ramp into Roald Dahl Plass, alongside the impressive Wales Millennium Centre building. The crowds started to pick up again here, and was fairly consistent with good support until the finish.

From there I recognised some of the route from our wandering around the city on Saturday. So far I was doing okay, and was keeping to a mostly consistent pace. I kept it in my mind that I wanted to run at least as much as I had for Copenhagen, and that drove me until mile 8, and then beyond to mile 9.

After mile 9 it was a gradual incline for the next mile, and I think the thought of having done 'better' than a couple of weeks ago got the better of me, and I ran it at 10 seconds per mile faster. The last five kilometres had been covered a little faster than the previous ten kilometres, and I'd overtaken around 600 people - most of which would be overtaking me again in the remaining miles. Just before the end of this was the 'rainbow roundabout' with a stage where someone in drag was singing 'Proud Mary'. I had that playing in my head for a while, but it wasn't enough to distract me from the hill at the start of mile 10.

The hill is not a long one, and it's not as steep as many I've done, but it came at the wrong time, and was steep enough for me to decide I just couldn't run up it. This was then the first time I walked in the race. I got going again just before the top, and realised there was still a slight incline and was walking again less than half a mile later despite my hasty 'decision' to make sure I only walk once per mile. I only 'lost' thirty seconds from walking in this mile though.

For a lot of this race I was high-fiving people who had their hands out, but only once as I was going round the outside of Roath Park Lake did I tap a 'power up' sign. This one felt surprisingly solid, and decided maybe it was best to stick with the high-fives after that.

I managed another half a mile before walking again, but then kept going for a while as there was another downhill back to the rainbow roundabout. I couldn't quite see the runners on the other side, and then I hit the third hill of the race. Or, it hit me.

There was no chance I was running up that hill, despite what Kate Bush says, so I walked to the top and then got running again. I did however then staying running.

I saw the 20K marker, and it was just 1K to go. When I could see a turn ahead of me I realised the finish must be literally just after the turn so sped up a little. As I got to the turn it was much further past the corner than I expected, but kept going until I crossed the finish line. I felt so hungry at the finish, but also a little sick for the first few seconds.

I’d finished in position 1,338 out of 22,407 finishers, with a time of 1:33:33. At the time I wasn’t sure how close to my Copenhagen time that was, but I’d actually beaten it by 9 seconds. Considering the hills, and the lack of fuel during the run, I felt that wasn’t too bad. I knew I’d been running most of the miles at a slower pace too, and my overall average pace had been about the same as my first ten kilometers suggesting I had for the most part paced it quite well. I'd seen them saying in some places there were 27,000 runners there today, and on the TV coverage it said 28,000 runners. Even going for the more conservative estimate, that would mean over 4,500 people either didn't turn up, or didn't finish the race. I'd not seen any issues out on the course today, but Carmen had seen multiple people being attended to by paramedics. Sadly one fatality was reported.

I would say that the course was a good one, the crowd support was pretty good for a day that started off with the potential to rain. The only negatives surrounded the race village, and how it couldn't really cope with the number of people there in terms of space or facilities.

I then made my way through then finishers area to get a medal, small finishers tee, a bottle of water, and a Titan bar (it’s like a Mars bar). There’s then a split for people with or without baggage. The baggage area was mostly deserted, except for a mass of people at the far end where I needed to collect my bag from. At this point I realised that everyone finishing around this time all needed to get their bag from the same tent, and as a result meant a long queue. I could hear runners around me cursing at the organisers for sorting it this way. I did comment to them that in theory, if the rest of the pens were organised the same way, the queues would only get worse. I was wrong though, as I don’t think they did. I think after I'd finished, the finishers had been more spread out across the tents. My phone signal however, was non-existent and would be a challenge to find Carmen after her race was over.

When we started our journey back to England, the rain arrived. It was torrential.