Four go mad in Cardiff

This weekend, I bagged my first Welsh parkrun, met up with a parkrunner I got to know in Reykjavik and cycled around Cardiff on an oybike.  In the company of three ‘athoners: fortnight flo, plustenner and our wonderful hostess, there’s a six pack under here.

Everyone I’ve ever spoken to about Cardiff parkrun speaks well of it.  It’s flat, it’s fast, it’s picturesque and it’s one of the few that has an official certificate to say that it’s 5km.  Now I don’t know (and don’t much care) about the last of those, but I can now say with confidence that the rest is all true.

In some ways, it reminded me of the Reykjavik course:  you run out along a river, run round a loop and then run back to the start.  But there the similarity ends.  Because unlike Reykjavik, the whole course is tree-lined, and gloriously, blessedly, as a pancake flat.

As I got to the finishing line, flo and six pack, who were injured and unable to run, yelled encouragement and spurred me on to a sprint finish of sorts.  I then joined them to cheer plustenner across the line, and it was then off to get our barcodes scanned. 

While I was waiting in line, I spotted Mr Reykjavik, who was promptly accosted by flo and six pack.  He seemed to take it all in his stride though.  And for the record, how anyone can run a sub 20 parkrun and look fresh as a daisy ten minutes later is a complete mystery to me, but Mr Reykjavik has it down pat.

After the parkrun, six pack had the inspired idea of a cycle ride around Cardiff, so we signed up for the oybike scheme (think Boris Bikes, but with a rather interesting “Ride Me” motif) and pootled our way through the park, along the river, past the opera house, over Torchwood, over the barrier and back.

After which it was food, cards, cheese, wine, hot chocolate and chatter until the clocks struck midnight.

All in all, this weekend goes down as really rather special.

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