Pegasus AC on Tour

On Sunday 15.10.06 six athletes from Pegasus AC competed in one of the top road races in Wales. The Cardiff marathon and half marathon saw over 7000 competitors from around the world taking on the flat fast course with half marathon runners doing one lap of the city and full marathoners doing two laps.

The race started at 9.00am sharp and weather conditions couldn’t have been better with cloud cover keeping things cool and the rain staying away. After leaving the start the mass headed off towards Cardiff harbour before turning back and skirting round the edge of the city, through the parks and river paths throughout the area, through Cardiff castle and finishing in the impressive surroundings of the Millennium stadium with the athletes running one lap within the grounds and crossing the finishing line in front of the thousands of spectators.

In the full marathon Mark Roberts was the overall winner in a time of 2hrs 29 min .38, Chris Denton led home the Pegasus marathoners in a time of 3hrs 4min .25 a good solid performance to finish his marathon season., next man to follow was the ever improving Harry Reilly romping across the finish line in 3hrs 5min. 57 taking off almost 13 minutes from his previous best over this distance and all this just a warm up before he tackles 3 marathons in 3 days at the end of the month.3rd place finisher for Pegasus went to Paul Gray, battling against injury for several weeks prior to the event Paul would have been happy just to finish but he knuckled down and came home in a super 3hrs 55 min .21 to ensure he was in the top 50% to cross the line.

In the half marathon Simon Jones from Belgrave Harriers lead from start to finish to win the race in 1hr 7min.15.The Pegasus ladies done the club proud at this distance with half marathon debutant Linda Gillen first to cross the line in a solid 1hr 47 min.29, Linda seemed to be cruising round the course so watch this space in the coming year as she continues to rattle off faster and faster times. Another athlete who has pushed herself all season is Shirley Park, running with a knee injury Shirley still managed a flying time of 1hr 51min .46 to finish in the top half of the field. The third lady to cross the line was our vet Tess McComb, sprinting over the line in 1hr 54 min .24 Tess was 50th place in her category leaving thousands of well tuned running machines in her wake!

Congratulations also to Mark Douglas of Ballymena Runners who finished 21st in the marathon in a time of 2hrs 48 min.53.

Reports that Cardiff suffered a food shortage and had to introduce rationing after Harry Reilly had finished eating are unconfirmed but a big thanks must go to the people of the city for their warm welcome especially at the welsh Institute of sport.

If you fancy getting fit or would like more info on Pegasus go to our website at www.pegasusac.org.uk or phone the club secretary on 07753242192 we welcome all abilities of runner and also have a ladies only night for beginners and seasoned runners alike.