Teenage kicks all through the night.
John Cox gets his head down. (Photo: Rob Evans.)
This is really just a parish magazine, under the information-age patina. Not only do we have readers’ letters, below, we now have small ads. So for those who understand this sort of thing:
Driver (M/F age immaterial) sought by four frustrated cyclists with own vehicle (4WD with trailer), hoping to escape the city for a romantic seven day cross-country break starting at Land’s End on the 24th of May, and covering around 100 miles per day until the road runs out at the other end. Bicycle repair skills desirable but not essential; first-aid experience would be a bonus. Must be patient, hard-working team-player with GSOH. Replies to any of the following: Martin Clissold, John Crofts, Sue Neal, or Mark Williams.
Sometimes we have wandered off the path of righteousness. And I don’t just mean the time I got lost in the Clevewold Race, nor the middle of the journey of my life either. Sometimes we have made mistakes.
First Katherine Hay-Heddle writes
Just wondered if you could pass a message onto Andrew Cleves. I have just read his story on the website and while I am grateful for the mention, when the last competitor came in after the 4th stage in the MdS 2001 I was tucked up in my tent. It was an Irish girl, Shirley Thompson, who came in with the camels on that day.
Along with the other competitors who finished ahead of the camel, Andy had just run 84k across a desert, so I think he is allowed a degree of latitude in his note-taking. I’m still happy to be able to set the record straight, and to note that Mrs Hay-Heddle finished the Marathon des Sables again this year, so once again she must have been faster than the camel.
Meanwhile a Mr David Lloyd wishes me to make it known that he does not wear tinted contact lenses. He was born like that, he had no choice.
Comment is free. Facts are sacred. (CP Scott)
The passage I now regret the most on this site is the one on the races page which went
All the other road races held in Cardiff - the Cardiff Marathon, the Cardiff Half Marathon, the BUPA Great Welsh Run, the Forest Farm 5, the Arjo Wiggins 5 - have for their own reasons, joined the Choir Invisible, have in short, become ex-races.
Now that two of those are back on this year, and the Pegasus 5 is trumpeting its connection to the Wiggins course, I not only managed to look stupid, I attracted a lot of search engine hits and spread confusion. The Monty Python allusion doesn’t seem so smart either, come to think of it, even if it did work for Margaret Thatcher’s scriptwriters.
However, I’m not the only person to be doing so. Spreading confusion, that is. (You can judge the looking stupid part for yourselves.) The entry form for the Great Welsh Run states that it’s the first to be held in the capital city for 10 years, but the last Great Welsh Run was in 1995. The Barnardo’s page for the 2002 Cardiff Marathon says that they are "bringing this event back to the Welsh Capital after more than 15 years." I’ve not been able to dredge up any references on the web to the last Cardiff Marathon, and the only memento I have is an undated mug, but as I moved to Cardiff in 1991, I know I ran it in 1992.
I suppose it sounds better if an event is brought back after a long period, but I can’t help feeling that the lack of research betrays a certain arrogance on the part of both races, just as the timing of each seems a shade insensitive. If the Great Welsh Run had held its nerve and the original name of the Jubilee 10k, the date would be understandable, but Pegasus are organising their own 5 miler, which has a history going back to the 1980s, on the same day. It’s not as if there aren’t 51 other weekends in a year.
With local races dying out, we need all the events we can get. The Cardiff Marathon is a good thing in many ways - as Clare Johnson pointed out at the club recently, but holding it in the same month as South Wales’ best road races is going to force runners to make a quite unnecessary choice.
Dr Tim O’Sullivan copied to me the following letter which he sent to the AAW.
Fixture list clashes; AAW approval of road races in Cardiff.
I would be grateful for your comments on the following issue. I write as a keen but belated (and unimpressive!) recruit to road running.
Two new AAW approved road running races in Cardiff have appeared in the 2002 road running calendar, namely the ’Great Welsh Run 5 Miles’ and the Cardiff Marathon. I would like to thank those who have organised these new events and the AAW for supporting them.
Now for the moan ! The timing of the new races suggests, at best, a lack of common sense. I would be grateful for an explanation from the AAW for approving these dates.
The new Great Welsh 5M Run is on the same day (2.6.02) as the long established and AAW approved Pegasus 5 mile race organised by Pegasus RRC - the distances of both races are also, bizarrely, identical. The Pegasus RRC race may suffer financially as the new race will include a tour of the new Cardiff Bay and Barrage area (and will therefore attract fun-runners). If so, I would suggest some financial compensation for Pegasus.
Similarly, the Cardiff Powerhouse Marathon (1.9.02) is just a week before the popular Cardiff 10K (8.9.02). Conscious of the health risks of a potentially very hot 1st September marathon, I’ll probably go for the 10K (like many casual runners, I’m not up to doing both !).
The number of entries for all four races will be compromised as runners decide which to enter. I would have entered all 4 had dates not clashed.
When AAW approval was requested for the Great Welsh 5M Run, did the AAW consider suggesting an alternative date? Similarly, I would have thought the AAW should have exercised its authority and experience and proposed another date for the marathon - ideally one at a time of the year better suited to the longer race?
I would be grateful for your views and look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Tim O’Sullivan Road Runners Club (member no. 13062)
When I moved to Cardiff, there was a decent 50m (or 50yd, depending on who you listened to) swimming pool, which was perfect for stamina length swimming. Sadly, the Empire Pool was knocked down for the Millenium Stadium complex in 1998. Since then we’ve had to make do with shorter suburban pools.
Swindon Dolphin Amateur Swimming Club have an online petition for more 50m pools, which will be presented to the Prime Minister at No 10 in the week before the start of The Commonwealth Games in Manchester. You can vote for Cardiff at www.swindon-dolphin.co.uk.
Careful readers of recent results (such as the Brackla Harriers 10k) will have noticed a new name in the vets’ category. Some may have blamed the sort of computer error that promoted Corporal Major Major Major to Major Major Major Major in Catch-22; some may have been more clement. I suspected a Freudian slip on the organisers’ part, but sources tell me Nigel has been making his own plans.
If you ask me (and you did, didn’t you) Chris Morris isn’t doing a good enough job showing up the intellectual shortcomings of celebrities on Brass Eye. Some people will say anything for an iota of publicity. Sadly, one of these is David Bedford, erstwhile tough of the track, inspiration to The Goat, and London Marathon director. None of which equipped him with the nous to stay away for the misguided website of Ivan Lewis MP, Minister for Young People and Learning, where big Dave suggests "When you’re watching the race in April, why not sit with your son and convert the 26.2 mile course into kilometres or work out the average time per mile of the race leaders?" If he doesn’t know why not, I haven’t the heart to tell him.
I’ve been advised by email that Whizz-Kidz will cover the flight and accomodation costs (up to a maxmum of £475) of anyone who runs teh New York Marathon and raises over £1500 for the charity. Phone 0207 233 9696.
Last updated 17 May 2006
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