As this was the inaugural Newport Marathon and being a proud welsh girl, it had to be done as my first ever marathon outing. 

Run4Wales always put on a good race (Cardiff Half being one of my favourites!) and they didn't disappoint on this first marathon either.

Big bag drop in the car park, which eveyone got through quickly, LOADS of toilets (I wasn't queuing behind more than 3 people for a loo, bravo on this one!).

The race did start 30 mins late, due to the park & ride but through no fault of Run4Wales, as the roadworks there are a nightmare.  Rookie error by me for not taking an old jacket to throw away, so was a bit cold.

The route is flat (apart from the bridge at mile 1 & 25 but it's only a slight gradient, nothing serious and then there is one more gradient round the course), so it's certainly a fast route if you're going for a PB!

Some of the roads are quiet as they are country roads, so not much support on the way (I was already aware of this as I had been helping out at the pre-marathon training session, so I had already run some of the course). If you don't mind not having the crowd support, then it's all good but the people who came out in Magor to cheer everyone on totally made up for it.  Plus lots of runners were chatting to each other, so the moreale around the course was good anyway.

Plenty of water stations, aid stations and lots of recycling bins & boxes on the route to throw your empty bottles and gel packs into (yet I still saw some people thowing their empty gel packs to the floor :-(.....)

Volunteers were rocking it round the course with loud hailers, big foam fingers & lots of cheers and at the finish with big hugs for us finishers.

Surreal points..... Having horses in a field run alongside us, Cows runing up to the fences to see what was going on and the Banging DJ in his pimped up red tractor of decks and speakers, smashing out dance tunes.

Only low point for me was the loop run up to the transporter bridge and back (around mile 22-24) longest few miles of my life! 

The finish line straight was amazing, so lovely to see so many people had come out to support and cheer.  You certainly feel amazing running up that last straight.  Chip timing was spot on, so my supporters knew exactly when I was coming into the finish.

Nice medal, good tshirt, congrats to Steve Brace for a super route & to all at Run4Wales for putting on a great event.  I am so coming back next year!