Steve is Head of Event Delivery at Run 4 Wales and Cardiff Half Marathon Race Director. He is a former long-distance runner from Bridgend. He represented GB in the men’s marathon at the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympic Games and is a former winner of both the Paris and Berlin Marathon.
Whilst I have had so many memorable moments and images over the years of the event, the vivid memories that stay with me are always of “the calm before and after the storm!”
The early morning sights of first light and sometimes the sun coming up, all the infrastructure in place, waiting for the runners and crowds, who are waking up in their beds ready for their big day.
As the roads are closed, the hum of traffic slowly subsides; the hi-viz bibs of the traffic management teams chat at junctions; a few early morning revellers still looking for taxis to get home, but none to be seen.
The contractors arrive to set up; staff dress the city, volunteers arrive in their hoards, and it all takes shape – all the plans come to fruition – all waiting to make other people memories.
Then following the organised hours of mayhem, a skeletons of barriers frame the roads of the start and finish, and you can hardly believe that so much has gone on; in such a short period of time; and so many memories made; as the workforce diligently get on with their tasks, to remove all the evidence within hours, as if the event had never happened, to put the city back, as if we had never been there – and planning for the next year begins again!
