On Saturday 12 th March, 6 intrepid Croft runners set out to take on a marathon around the picturesque Pembrokeshire coastal path . Endurance Life organise a series of 10 coastal races in Wales and the south coast of England. The Pembrokeshire race started by the sea in the little village of Little Haven and we ran south through St Brides and Marloes before turning in Dale and heading back North, most of the race was on narrow paths with a few miles on road.
The weather was perfect, still, dry and cool, however the pre-race briefing brought unwelcome news, the distance was to be just over 28 miles!, or nearly 29 for Matt Moffatt who, together with a few others, took a wrong turn. Darren’s suggestion of moving the start so we could run the proper 26.2 miles wasn’t taken too seriously either.
We set off at 9am and Dan, myself, Simon and Dave A quickly formed a Croft team of 4 and ran together for about 16 miles, running along some wonderful coastline, and on the whole a well marked route . Dave A’s recent injury and consequential interruption to his training meant he slipped back a little at this point so the 3 of us kept trotting on until around 21 miles when we each ran our own races.
Certainly I was delighted to see Little Haven come into view as we came back along the coast as I had struggled from 24 miles, and was glad to finish in 12 th place in 4 hrs, 13 mins and 13 secs. Simon was 14 th in 4.19.53, Dan 18 th in 4.23.49, Dave 26 th in 4.31.43, Matt 40 th in 4.58.17 and Darren who had run with a work colleague, 61 st in 5.36.24. There were 87 who finished the race, the winning time was 3.48.18 and only 4 broke 4 hours.
The sea was icy cold to wade in but soothed sore feet and the first pint of cold Magners went down a treat! We continued our recovery session later although I left Simon, Dave and Darren in the pub at 8 pm
I was delighted to complete my first marathon in such a beautiful part of our coastline in a well organised race and was grateful to have other club runners to help me pace myself .
Neil Powell
