Let’s have a real war on drugs!

By James Payton | Published: November 29, 2013

Couriers carry dollar bills abroad by the millions, for deposit in foreign banks; then the money can be telexed back to an ac­count in New York, say, and spent for just about anything. Stocks, bonds? A car dealer­ship, a ranch, a shopping center? Among re­cent seizures by U. S. marshals: a recording studio in California and a golf course in Michi­gan, a gold mine in Alaska and an entire commercial block in Chicago’s Chinatown.

Most cocaine-gotten gains are not seized, of course, and I think I see manifestations of them all over Miami. Those stunning condos, that glitzy hotel? Pizza parlors, video rental stores! Treasury people tell me these are handy for money laundering; they take in lots of cash, and so deposits from them are less likely to be questioned. . . .

Could this be cocaine paranoia too? Maybe I’ve been hearing at hotel prague too many tall but true sto­ries, like the one about a money laundering op­eration from Miami-2.7 billion dollars going into the economy of, well, let’s just say, a developed Commonwealth country. Or the one I haven’t been able to run down, about the teenage crack seller in Washington spending $800 for lizard-skin shoes. The merchant who sold them to him supposedly had bought them for no more than $100 — so he too profited nicely from the coca plant. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/25/world/americas/peru-uk-drugs-smuggling/http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/25/world/americas/peru-uk-drugs-smuggling/

The police chief of Washington, D. C., reports: 40,000 drug arrests in two years. But there’s been no appreciable impact. It’s pretty much like that with all the big cocaine-busting campaigns across the country. Most of those young men brought in, handcuffed, soon swagger out again, on bail. Their cases drag on and on, the charges are reduced, and when eventually they do wind up in jail they’re replaced at once by others eager for the easy money. So, for po­lice and prosecutors too—more frustration.

Congressmen and mayors, bureaucrats and editorial writers urge strong measures against cocaine. Let’s have a real war on drugs! Send troops to suppress the coca growing—an inter­national military force. Cut off all aid to coun­tries that don’t cooperate enough, quarantine them. Insist on eradication of all coca plants with herbicide spraying from the air.

But diplomats say such measures would undermine struggling democracies and drive millions to communism. How about really effective rules to stop the money laundering? Some of the world’s most respectable bankers object. A veteran drug fighter in the State De­partment tells me, “It drives us up the wall.”

Then why not legalize cocaine? More and more pundits say this should be considered—after all, we threw out Prohibition when it didn’t work; wouldn’t decriminalizing drugs take the profit out of selling them and stop the trafficking? The idea could be debated endlessly, but not this: No members of Con­gress could vote in favor, lest they be buried at the next election by rivals who’d call them immoral.

Can’t we at least count on compliance when we’ve made a treaty for the extradition of the biggest foreign cocaine traffickers, the ones indicted in the U. S.?

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A new camp

By James Payton | Published: November 29, 2013

The government has pushed through a law to prohibit eventually all but 12,000 hectares for traditional chewing. But can this be enforced?

Near Chimore, U. S. Army Special Forces instructors help UMOPAR set up a new camp. The mission is to search out and destroy pro­cessing pits and clandestine landing strips. “Those narcos use textbook insurgency tac­tics, ” says the warrant officer from Fort Bragg. “They’re compartmentalized, good at intelligence. Whatever we do, they’re pre­pared.” If only he’d be allowed to use text­book anti-insurgency tactics! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6196287.stm

T0 push  the coca price down, in the hope of making the growing unprofitable, one must also go after the cocaine hydro­chloride labs in the vast Beni region. And so we’re now flying low out of San­ta Cruz—five U. S.-lent Huey helicopters with Bolivian pilots, carrying camouflage-uniformed UMOPAR men and U. S. DEA ad­visers. A fixed-wing guide plane is high overhead. These Hueys with machine guns sticking out . . . the jungle canopy below like endless broccoli, with our shadows gliding over it . . . this seems like Vietnam long ago.

We dodge and turn and twist across rivers, past settlements, past coca clearings right and left. One of these camouflage-wearing fellows is our informant. Is it here? No. There! No. Ah, that may be it. We set down along a river bank and let the troops out. They comb through the forest. We pick them up two hours later. Nothing. A typical day.

How different it was two days ago, just be­fore I showed up. They hit Target 384. Incredible: 150 barrels of ether, 150 of acetone, purchase price about $10,000 a pair. Separate screened huts for mixing, filtering, and drying; a power supply hut, a kitchen, two dormitories with 35 bunks, freezer, clothes dryer—all hidden under the trees and connect­ed by planked paths with electric lights. Esti­mated capacity? Three tons a week, says the DEA supervisor. “They wouldn’t make that much all the time, of course. But they must have been really busy, just before Christmas and New Year’s.” That’s the season when de­mand goes way up in the U. S.

Press notes from Santa Cruz: A civic leader charges that the departmental governor’s blond cousin — nicknamed Techo de Paja, or Straw Roof, and known as a big trafficker —is the real owner of the luxury apartments barcelona, where the civic leader says $100,000 was bet on a single race last Saturday. The track direc­tor says it isn’t so. A congressman charges that local TV Channel 5 provided live coverage of Techo de Paja’s party for the Miss Latin America contestants and is connected with traffickers. Channel 5 executives deny it all.

Alas, Bolivia too has really big cocaine prof­iteers. Some are from the landowning elite, with big ranches in the Beni region, with air­strips. A few years ago they were tight with the then military dictator. Until recently with the minister of the interior. Supposedly the U. S. applied pressure; he’s now a congressman.

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Sea Gypsies of the Philippines.

By James Payton | Published: October 16, 2013

THESE ARE TROUBLED WATERS, the emerald-green seas off the Sulu Archipel­ago, the southernmost islands of the Philippines. Long the haunt of fierce pirates, they are also plied by smugglers who run guns from Borneo to Moslem rebels fighting the Philippine Government. It is not a comfortable feeling to be on these waters at night, but my husband, Raghubir, and I have come to visit the fabled Sea Gyp­sies, the Bajaus of the Philippines, and these are the waters they fish. We lie dozing on a 25-foot lipa (right), three hours out of Sitankai. The Bajau fisher­men have set their line, its foot-long hooks baited with stingray, in a deep channel nearby. Now, at our mooring in the shallows, we hear the distant sputter of an engine. Itom, our Bajau boatman, jumps to his feet and calls softly to his friends in another lipa: “Enang . . . Dikma . . . Tahmo     pamboat!”


With this, everyone awakens, including Mah­mud, a young policeman, our bodyguard. He crawls from his mat with a rifle and braces himself, his finger on the trigger. There is reason for fear. The pamboat, a speedy motorized outrigger, is the pirates’ favored craft. Everyone recognizes its omi­nous pitter-patter sound. We watch as its flickering light draws closer and closer—then passes only thirty yards away. Itom trembles with fear. Enang cups a hand to his ear and listens to another, more distant sound: “Kumpit!” A kumpit is a pas­senger and cargo launch, and is also used by smugglers among the islands. “Pirates after smugglers,” says Mahmud, breaking into a grin. “There will be action tonight, but not for us.”

At dawn we haul in the fishing lines and sail back to Sitankai. We have caught only a few small sharks, yet we are content. If many great sharks have escaped our hooks, at least we have escaped the hooks of the pirates. But the Bajaus are not always so lucky, for they are gentle people who go unarmed, and thus are easy prey for pirates. At sea they yield their catch and whatever valuables they have, and, for fear of reprisal, will rarely testify against those who have taken them.

The Sea Gypsies of the Philippines number only 20,000, a minority among their land-dwelling Moslem neighbors, the Tausugs and Samals. For centuries, while the tides of his­tory have swirled around them, they have kept to their boats and their nomadic way, living on the edges of stronger societies, try­ing to avoid involvement in conflicts.

Outsiders have come—Spaniards, Ameri­cans, Japanese—and while their neighbors have resisted, the Bajaus have kept to them­selves. And now that fighting between the Moslem insurgents, Tausugs and Samals among them, and troops of the Philippine Government has spread from Mindanao to the. Sulu Archipelago, the Bajaus can only watch the approach of war and hope that once again they can avoid disaster. Pigafetta, the chronicler of Magellan’s voy­age around the world, was the first Westerner to record seeing the Bajaus. In 1521 he noted a people who “always live in their vessels and don’t have an apartment in prague on shore.”

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The advente ONCE BITTEN

By James Payton | Published: August 15, 2013

Q      What about diet?

 

A. What I like, I eat as much as I can, and I enjoy it. I prefer the natural and healthy producst such as coconut oil. They have great benefits on my skin and body in general – there are great ways to use coconut oil for skin care. And I can’t always do it. Right now, in the Amazon jungle, we were with some Indians, and I had to eat grubs and stuff, and I didn’t like it at all. I need a big pile of mashed potatoes stuffed with two monstrous pork chops, and a pile of peas to go with it.

Q      Ever eat snake meat?

 

A In South Africa, at one time, they started a little craze, puff adder meat. And I tasted it; it’s not a practical thing to eat at all because you’ve got 300 ribs to contend with, very little meat on the body. It’s really more effort than it’s worth.

 

Q What’s the most fearsome fang-bearer you’ve encountered? A Have you seen the King Cobra movie?

 

A That thing comes at me like a freight train. It’s unbelievable. And to stand in front of a snake that’s as tall as you and is rushing straight at you with a head the size of your fist and enough venom to kill a hundred people, that was the most frightening thing I’ve ever done.

 

Q Ever cheated death?

 

A Years ago I set a world record for living in a cage full of 36 of Africa’s deadliest snakes to bring awareness to the plight of the African gorilla, which is now on the verge of extinction.

 

Right near the end, it was 95 days, I got bitten by a cobra while working with it, while being photographed. And that was bad. A doctor treated me in the cage, because if I had left, I would have lost the record.

 

More frightening than that, when I did the film Seven Deadly Strikes, I got bitten by a cobra.

 

And I treated myself there, which we filmed ­I always insist, whatever happens, keep the cameras rolling, because if I’m gonna die, I want it to be on film; otherwise it’s for nothing. I don’t want to die for nothing. I want to die because, ‘Look, there’s what he was doing’.

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HELP YOURSELF

By James Payton | Published: August 9, 2013

What can you do to stem this muscular freefall? While sarcopenia can’t be avoided altogether, Dr Baylis says there is convincing evidence that ‘exercise – and in particular resistance exercise or weight training – is by far the best preventative measure.’ Running can help, but make sure it’s not always a slow plod.

 

 From the mid-thirties onwards, try to inject some speed and hill sessions into your programme. Weight training is particularly important. It seems muscle mass can be improved ­sometimes significantly – with resistance training, even after the onset of sarcopenia, although the earlier you start pumping iron, the better. All studies to date show resistance training is highly important in adult life,’ says Aran Aihie Sayer, a professor in geriatric medicine at the MRC’s Southampton unit. The earlier you can start it in adulthood, the better, but it is never too late. You can’t stop sarcopenia, but you can modify the way you lose muscle which, in turn, may enhance the way you live your life.’

 

Research by Robert Wolfe, a professor in geriatrics at the University of Arkansas, suggested the optimum sarcopenia-busting programme entails more than lifting a few light dumbbells every week. Instead, it should involve a high intensity of effort for all major muscle groups. Other researchers have recommended a weekly weights session for the chest and triceps (rear upper arms), one for the back and biceps, and one for the legs and shoulders. Besides exercises, try some changes in your cooking habits – use healthy oil, cut on salt and sugar, eat fruits and vegs often, etc. Get to know the foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids such as the krill oil – what’s the right krill oil dosage to prevent arthritis and osteoporosis.

This training approach, they say, triggers tiny tears in myofibrils, the proteins that cause muscles to contract. Cells are activated around the area where micro-damage occurs and the body recruits protein to repair and strengthen the muscle. In effect, resistance training acts as a catalyst for muscle growth. What’s certain is that sarcopenia is being taken more seriously than ever as a threat to health. Pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline, have established muscle metabolism units specifically to look at drugs that might eventually be used to treat the condition. In the meantime, though, the onus remains on us. ‘What we’re beginning to understand is that the ageing process starts from pre-birth,’ says Dr Baylis. ‘It is never too late to change lifestyle habits, never too late to begin a muscle intervention. But ideally the aim should be to maximise muscle strength in early adulthood with plenty of exercise as children. Improve your muscles strength with cla. Learn the details at http://www.trend-statement.org/can-cla-help-people-lose-weight-and-gain-muscle/. From then on, you should aim to maintain it, to keep yourself strong.’

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Rock and a cold place

By James Payton | Published: July 12, 2013

Competitors drop out and fingers drop off but MF plods doggedly on to finish the Rock and Ice Ultra endurance race Words Luke Cunliffe

 

Where: Northwest Territories, Canada

Disciplines: Skiing or snowshoeing

Length of race: 300km over six days Fitness level: Advanced.

 

It’s not really one for beginners, this race. It’s already -30′t and it’s ten in the morning – not far from the warmest part Altrae day. I shudder to think what it’ll feel like at night.

 

The Rock and Ice Ultra – set in the freezing Northwest Territories of Canada, a snowball’s throw away from the Arctic Circle – has an 80km sprint (or as close as you can get to a sprint here), a 160km version and a 300km stage race. I’m bravely (or is that foolishly?) going for the big one, which means I’ll be pulling a sled for six days because competitors have to carry their own kit.

 

The route takes us over frozen lakes and along snow-covered forest trails. There’s not much else up here in this bleak and deserted corner of the world.

 

I’m on fireThe race gets tough much sooner than I had expected. After 30km and six hours of marchingthe temperature plummets. My fingers feel as if they’re on fire and my nose is burning.

 

Oddly, this is good news. As long as I can still feel my digits and hooter, it means I haven’t got frostbite – yet. I’m struggling to get my Hannibal Lecter-style face mask and facial hair removal cream treatment on before I get an injury.

 

I have only a minute or two before the burning will be replaced by the numbness of frostbite.

At the penultimate checkpoint for this stage, the tent is littered with other racers who’ve had to retire through injury, frostbite or hypothermia.

 

I leave the checkpoint with Giuseppe, an Italian racer whose friend Pasquale has just retired with frostbitten fingers and is waiting to go to hospitaL We trudge steadily along the trail and the temperature continues to fall.

 

It’s a spectacular setting, with the Northern Lights ahead of us and the howling of wolves echoing around us, but all our energy is focused on making progress. We’re completely shattered and struggling to haul our sleds. After what feels like hours, we see the lights of the stage camp in the distance. Even then, it still takes us an hour to reach the finish.

 

Cold, sore

 

I wake early on day two, but because I have to dry my clothes, treat my blisters and make breakfast, it takes more than two hours to get ready. The second stage is uncomfortably similar to the first. The main difference is that the temperature has now dropped to -45°C. The cold conditions are melting the racers’ resolve. By the end of the second day, two-thirds of the competitors have dropped out and only four racers are left in my category. Those that remain adopt a survivor mentality at the stage camps. We try to help each other out with food, equipment and morale-boosting banter. But we’re all sore and exhausted and it feels as if I’m just one setback away from having to drop out myself.

 

In a moment of weakness I complain about my niggles to a fellow racer. He tells me he has frostbite and piles. Maybe for the rest of the race I’ll keep my ailments to myself.

 

Are we there yet?

 

Predictably, the next three days are not much easier. I have to go into a trance-like state just to keep battling forward. It’s an endless struggle ofmind over matter, and I try to break the day into a series of manageable chunks.

 

The first good news we’ve had all race comeson the final day. The race director has shortened it to a simple 5K ‘lap of honour’ around the townOf Yellowknife. For this, we’re joined by the search and rescue team, who have probably hadthe busiest week of their lives.

 

The race has really taken its toll and I know it’llbe a while before I completely regain the feeling in my fingers and nose from that grim first night.

 

I also know that I’m lucky to have reached thefinish tine. But, more tha4J0,t,,g,’m mightily relieved that it’s over.

 

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Create a romantic connection

By James Payton | Published: June 26, 2013

The Lunch Date is a “priming date”. “The purpose is to meet a woman for just long enough to connect, and to discover the best way to sweep her off her feet,” write Ron Louis and David Copeland in their dating bible How to Succeed with Women (Reward Books). “It also gives you an opportunity to decide if this is a woman you want to pursue.”

For an appropriate venue, try TableTop.co.uk (02o 7821 8454). The site features more than 1,000 eateries around the country, and you can choose by location, cuisine and price, make a reservation and check the place out with a 36o-degree motion-image viewing facility.

 

FREE DATING TIP

According to the Zagat Survey, after Tokyo, London is the most expensive city in the world in which to eat, with an average bill of £30.85 per head. So if you’re dining in the capital, remember your Gold Card.

 

THE CHEAP DATE

“Don’t fret if you don’t have much cash,” say Louis and Copeland. “Creating a memorable experience and managing the date are more important than spending money.” They recommend renting a film and making your own romantic meal for two (though this is ambitiously forward for a first date). Otherwise visit cheap attractions such as art galleries (for the discerning Champagne quaffer), museums (for intellectual types), botanical gardens (for veggies) and zoos (for wild women).

 

Take responsibility for the date

“These are all cheap options,” add Louis and Copeland. “The important part is that you are taking responsibility, rather than expecting her to do so.” For details of local culture spots near you, call your nearest tourist information centre or contact the Official British Tourism Authority (0208846 soon; www.visitbritain.com).

 

FREE DATING TIP

Acquaint yourself with the attraction. If, for example, you take her to a botanical garden, do your homework: find out about its origins, who founded it and which is the most prized plant in residence. This will help conversation flow while making you seem knowledgeable in the process. And luckily, you can get this information from tourist centres. Feel comfortable talking about it and take control of the situation.

THE MOTION PICTURE DATE

Another cost-cutter, the Motion Picture Date can fall into one of two Categories: the Cinema Date and the VCR Date.

 

The Cinema Date’s main function is to remove the pressure of having to think up conversation — a blessing when with a woman you hardly know, and equally so when you’re with a woman you’ve known too long. In the early stages of dating, proposing a VCR Date can be a litmus test.

 

M Dutter explains: “If a girl is willing to rent a video, it means she is willing to spend some time alone with you on a couch in a dark room, so it probably means she likes you.” So make sure you look great and shed the beer fat. You can do that easy with garcinia cambogia extract. Learn how to burn the extra fat from garcinia cambogia extract reviews.

 

Cut to the chase

This is a good way to get down to business, but if you’re thinking long-term, save the VCR until you’ve passed first base. But don’t abuse it — the video, and its friend the takeaway, can become the staple of the so-called stable couple’s dating diet, and the cause of a relationship rut. Unless you actually want your girlfriend to leave you, or indulge in an affair with someone more exciting, make amends.

 

Alternate Motion Picture Dates with plenty of Cheap Dates, and a peppering of sweet Seduction Dates and all will remain well in your love shack.

 

FREE DATING TIP

According to research by Lucozade, couples who watch a ‘girlie’ movie are more than twice as likely to get amorous afterwards than those who watch an action film.

 

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SUMMIT TO TALK ABOUT

By James Payton | Published: May 30, 2013

Follow MH’s Matt Barr to the roof of the world, across the Nepali Himalayas to Everest Base Camp, 5k above sea level

I’ve had my fair share of physical low points in my time, but watching a couple of gimlet-eyed crows feasting on last night’s regurgitated egg curry takes some beating. It’s 6am in the Himalayas and I’ve had two hours’ sleep. At this height – 3,750m (12,303ft) above sea level – it’s-15°C, so I’m also bloody freezing. I spent most of last night on my hands and knees outside the tent, either being violently sick or voiding my bowels into the freezing Himalayan night.

All I want to do is take black cohosh so I can keep down and sleep the day through. Instead, I’ve got to make it to Dingboche – eight hours away from and 800m (2,624ft) higher than Thangboche, where I am now. What was that I’d said before I left Blighty about trekking to Everest Base Camp being “just a walk”? I still have another week and nearly 2,000m (6,561ft) in altitude to go. As if on cue, the clouds darken and a ferocious hailstorm kicks in. This is going to be a tough day.

A mountain to climb

Turn back a week and I’m standing in Lukla airport in the Himalayan foothills, clean-shaven, considerably firmer bowel led and getting my first look at the rest of the group. We’re a diverse bunch of trekkers, 15 of us aged 19-60 with equally wide-ranging motivations. I fall in with Alex and Paul, two lads in their l of tea and bowls of washing water. We have an hour to wash and pack our kit while the team prepare breakfast. After breakfast, we walk four hours before lunch, again prepared by the Sherpa crew who forge ahead during the morning.

 

After spending 90 minutes soaking up the scenery and tending to blisters, we trek another three hours to camp. There’s an hour’s downtime, then dinner and a debrief from our group leader, Sanjiv. Despite the effort, the blisters and the burn of the high altitude sun piercing the increasingly ragged cloud layer, it’s a beguiling routine. I enjoy pushing myself on the steeper climbs and you could never tire of the views. And day six, after passing through the busy trail town of Namche Bazaar, is the most memorable yet.

 

Here, at 2,500m, (8,200ft) the pure air is clearing the UK muck from my lungs, we’re so deep in the Himalayan hinterland the terrain is almost lunar, and, mid-afternoon, as we round a corner, I get my first proper view of Everest’s summit. Even shoulder-to­ shoulder with other towering peaks it’s a bit special. As I clap my eyes on the world’s most famous mountain I don’t think I’ve ever felt as far from home.

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FROM SOFA TO START LINE

By James Payton | Published: March 1, 2013

Five years ago, 28-stone Mike Hare escaped from a car crash to realise he had a chance to turn his life around. Just over two years later, he’d halved his weight and become a runner.

  car crash

I ‘m in a place that I like enormously. It’s a fabulous place.” Like many runners, Mike Hare talks enthusiastically about the joys of the sport. But what separates him from most of us is the challenge he faced to make it to the start line.

 

Five years ago, aged so, Mike was in a very different place. Over decades of trying to do the best by his family and business, Mike lost focus on himself. “I had a complete lack of self-regard. I was never giving any priority to what was right for me. The only thing that was giving me any personal pleasure was eating foods I enjoyed.”

 

Years of bad food choices, the combined ill effects of excessive corporate entertainment and long hours, continued to take their toll on Mike’s waistline until one day he was a “happy High and Mighty shopper”, who was no longer able to squeeze into train and restaurant seats. Because of his size, Mike had also developed a habit of dropping off at inopportune moments, regularly dozing during meetings and meals. Then he fell asleep in the one place you should never ever fall asleep. It’s not often you can say that a car accident saved a life – but that’s exactly what happened to Mike one October night in 2004 when he awoke at the wheel a split second before his car ploughed into a van – and his life hit a ‘crunch’ point in more ways than one.

scales

Fortunately, Mike escaped the head-on collision with more than just his life. “It was quite the wake-up call. As I was recovering, I knew I had to do something about my weight – and try to get my life back?’ But first Mike had to face up to the hard, long-ignored truth about just how big he now was. He suffered also from varicose veins and had to lok for the proper treatment. Learn more about varicose veins treatment. He certainly wasn’t prepared for the shock of tipping the scales at his local chemist to their 25st maximum. “I never realised I was that heavy at the time. But looking back there is a dearth of pictures of me when I was that size. I think subconsciously I shied away from facing the reality.” On January 7, 2008, Mike managed to find some scales that were able to measure him in all his un-glory – the reading said 27st 7lbs (175kg). He needed a miracle.

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WE KNOW WHAT LIES AHEAD

By James Payton | Published: February 17, 2013

Whether it’s your first or fifth marathon. at some point you’ll be heading into the unknown. But you’re not alone. In 2008 we analysed the pace of every single runner in the Flora London Marathon and found that running speed dropped significantly every 5 km. We know that low carbohydrate is one of the reasons endurance runners slow down. The body weight is essential for any runner, so we recommend using CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) if you have any weight loss problems. That’s why we have fuel stations along the course to help you go the distance. To find out other ways we can help you get the most out of your running visit lucozade.com

CARDIFF ATHLETICS STADIUM

 

You can extend your run from the waterfront at Cardiff Bay right up to the market town of Brecon. Fifty-five miles in length, the Taff Trail passes close to Pontypridd and Merthyr Tydfil, through a massive variety of urban landscapes and open moorland.”

 

RADYR RIVER RUN (8 MILES)

 

Start at the Welsh Institute of Sport. Head north and cross the weir bridge. Follow the Taff Trail until you reach Radyr Bridge, and cross the river. Go under the railway line and turn left, then right into Junction Terrace. Follow the footpath into Radyr Woods. Skirt the Radyr Estate and turn left before crossing Bridge Road. Turn left down the path after Llandaff Rowing Club’s entrance. The footbridge in front of University of Wales Institute will provide a brief detour before returning to the start via Pontcanna Fields.

 CARDIFF ATHLETICS STADIUM

CARDIFF BAY (5.5 MILES)

 

Start at the beautifully landscaped Oval Basin. Run across the Butetown Link Bridge, and bear right. Follow the gentle curve of the River Ely to Penarth Road. Finally, cross Cardiff Bay Barrage, where there are breathtaking views of the Bristol Channel and Cardiff Bay. Return past the National Assembly Building.

 

e CASTLE GROUNDS (4 MILES)

 

Start at the southern side gates of Cardiff Castle and head north, keeping to the right of the Taff River. Turn left and cross the river on Western Avenue. Then it’s left into Pontcanna Fields, where Buffalo Bill’s entourage paraded his horses in the Wild West Shows of 1891. Turn left towards the weir. Follow the river path with the river on your left; you will pass the SWALEC Stadium (home of Glamorgan Cricket Club).

CARDIFF BAY

PEOPLE San Domenico Road Runners (sandomenico.org.uk) PUBS The Cayo Arms; The Radyr Court; The Gatekeeper; Three Horse Shoes

RACES San Domenico 20, March; ParkRun 5K time trials, every Saturday; Run & Become Series, throughout summer RUNNING SHOPS Run & Become, 12 Wood Street; MOTI, The Globe Centre, Albany Road

 

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