Countdown to JCP Swansea Half Marathon 2016

As the countdown draws to a close with just over a week until the JCP Swansea Half Marathon takes place on Sunday 26^thJune 2016, the city of Swansea looks forward to welcoming athletes from all over the globe, with the race’s largest number of participants yet.

A record field of 8,000 runners are expected at the third edition of the JCP Swansea Half Marathon next week, making it Wales’ second largest half marathon. The event has recently been voted the UK’s second best half marathon at The Running Awards 2016, and is fast becoming a favourite among the running community.

The JCP Swansea Half Marathon is enjoyed for being a flat, fast and scenic 13.1 mile course, and is equally suitable for first-time marathon runners as it is for club runners and elite athletes. It attracts an elite field from Wales and beyond to#RunSwansea, drawing in athletes from as far as New Zealand and Brazil.

Many runners lining up on the start line will also be raising money for charity, as the race itself offers a fantastic platform for charity fundraising. With public places now sold out, anyone still wishing to enter the award-winning JCP Swansea Half Marathon can do so by running for one of the official charities. The Headline Charity Partner for 2016 is Cancer Research UK, with Alzheimer’s Society, British Heart Foundation, Help for Heroes and Save the Children as Gold Charity Partners.

A Family Fun Dash has been introduced for the 2016 event to enable young runners and families to experience the thrilling atmosphere of a big sporting event in the city. The Family Fun Dash covers a distance of 1K and starts at Swansea Castle at9.30am, half an hour after the start of the first wave of runners who will be taking part in the JCP Swansea Half Marathon. Participants of all ages and abilities will run the final kilometre of the half marathon route before crossing the finish line in Oxford Street. 500 spaces are available for the Family Fun Dash and those wishing to take part can still enter via the website:www.swanseahalfmarathon.co.uk

For the second year in a row, a team of race pacers will be provided by Xempo Race Pacing in association with TomTom. The pacers offer valuable support as they help runners get their speed just right and hit their target time on race day. The pacers will run the JCP Swansea Half Marathon within the following estimated times: Sub 1.30 hours, Sub 1.45 hours, Sub 2 hours and Over 2 hours. Runners need simply to look out for their pacer within their designated colour coded pen and try to stay with them throughout the race to ensure accurate timing.

Welsh singing star Ros Evans will be delivering a heart-stirring performance on stage at the start of the race. Ros will be singing with the all-female Mum’s the Word adult choir and the Mumbles Youth Opera Group, before swapping microphone for running shoes and running the half marathon herself.

The Race Village will be located on Museum Green situated near the LC and Waterfront Museum.  The village will be open to athletes and spectators from 07:00 on race day. The race will start at 9.00am in the heart of the city centre at the junction of Union Street and Oxford Street. The route takes runners on fully closed roads past Swansea castle and along a magnificent six-mile stretch of Swansea Bay towards The Mumbles, with its iconic pier and lighthouse. The wheelchair race will start at 8.50am prior to the main field of runners and the Family Fun Dash will commence at 9.30am.

Key race day timings:

• 07:00:   Race village open
• 08:30 Runners enter start funnels [Wave 1 – Oxford Street / Wave 2 – Whitewalls]
• 08:50:   Wheelchair athlete race begins on Oxford Street
• 09:00:   Elite race and Wave 1 start
• 09:15:   Wave 2 starts
• 09:30:  Family Fun Dash starts at Swansea Castle
• 10:05:   Winner of JCP Swansea Half Marathon expected
• 11:00:   Winners presentation
• 14:00:   All roads re-open
• 15:00:   Event closes

The race brochure with all race details and route map can be downloaded from the website: http://www.swanseahalfmarathon.co.uk/race-day-guide/.

The JCP Swansea Half Marathon is a fully closed road event, and as such there will be road closures for the duration of the event so residents and visitors are advised to plan their trip well in advance. Park and Ride will be in operation near the Liberty Stadium, commencing at 7.00am and running every 10-15 minutes all day. For further details on road closures across the city please check the website www.swanseahalfmarathon.co.uk

An entertaining feature of this year’s JCP Swansea Half Marathon is Bands Across the Bay, which gives bands the opportunity to showcase their talent at a number of locations along the course. From choirs to indie bands, each of the groups will be hoping to motivate the runners and give them a boost as they tackle the course around beautiful Swansea Bay. A festival atmosphere and fantastic crowd support are expected.

The race ambassadors for the 2016 Swansea Half Marathon are the men’s and women’s title winners from last year, Dewi Griffiths and Emma Wookey, who won with respective times of 1:06:48 and 1:17:51. Wookey has had to withdraw from this year’s half marathon through injury, opening the door to a new ladies’ champion. Winning titleholder Griffiths has also had to withdraw due to competing in the European Half Marathon championships, which will be taking place in July.  However, he will be making an appearance on the day as race ambassador to cheer all the athletes on.

The absence of the race ambassadors will open up the competition to a new male and female winner with some fantastic elite runners participating that include Paul Martelletti, Michael Kallenberg, Joshua Griffiths and Sam Farah. The women’s field will see Hannah Walker, Jess Parry-Williams, Tracey Barlow, Rachel Felton, Rachel Doherty, Clara Evans and Ellie Davies battle it out for a place on the podium.

Swansea’s City AFC legend and first team coach Alan Curtis will be swapping his togs for trainers at this year’s race, and he won’t be alone in the celebrity stakes as Actor, Singer and TV Personality CJ de Mooi will also be in the running crowd. CJ has lived in South Wales for 10 years and will be emigrating three days after the race so the JCP Swansea Half Marathon will be a great send off.

The team behind the JCP Swansea Half Marathon continues to work with their founding sponsor JCP Solicitors and long term partners that include; Compare Insurance, Matthews & Co, The Big Heart of Swansea & HMT Sancta Maria. ASICS is the Official Sports Training Partner, SiS the Official Sports Nutrition Partner & Brecon Carreg the Hydration Partner for the race.

Go to http://www.swanseahalfmarathon.co.uk/charities/ to run for charity at the JCP Swansea Half Marathon.

Go to www.swanseahalfmarathon.co.uk for further race details.

Like the Facebook page www.facebook.com/SwanseaHalf and follow @Swansea_HM #RunSwansea #FromTheCityToTheSea on Twitter.