This race on 17th June was my last ultra for a while as I change my focus onto shorter distances and I can honestly say, even though this one was so hard at times, I smiled all the way round and had the best time. Both body and mind were strong.
The start was busy with the buzz of both anticipation and midgies. The first 12 miles to Checkpoint 1 (Cp 1) at Dolgellau was rolling woodland with some steep steps up to our first but mild climb of the day with a fabulous grassy downhill.
After leaving Cp1 we were straight onto a tarmacked steep climb with only 6 miles to checkpoint 2; this was a short section that saw us heading towards the mountains we would be climbing. Cp 2 was in the Dol Idris car park and I was feeling good and ready to tackle the Cadair Idris Penygader which involved a 893m climb to the summit over tricky terrain but the views were stunning. By now the day was heating up and it was getting very hot and at the checkpoint I’d filled up a third soft flask. Even though I was feeling good I wasn’t eating the planned amount of food and from experience I know this can cause problems later on. The decent off Cadair was so fun, I love a mountain descent. I’m well aware that my running skills lack the power in the climb but the downhills are where I make up time and have fun.
Cp 3 was at 23.3 miles and this was the section I needed to use this as my recovery from Cadair and use this section to refuel. As the last 5 miles of this section is flat as it heads along the estuary and across the Barnouth bridge I adopted a run walk strategy which involved a run to make up time from the climb, broken up with walks to refuel.
Cp 4 was the only indoor aid station and here I needed to address a blister on my heel. I don’t normally suffer with heel blisters but I think my feet getting submerged by earlier bogs combined with the heat with the upwards climbing had caused an issue. After fresh socks, a blister plaster and a refuel of cheese and cola, my bag of cold roasted potatoes in hand, I was ready to tackle the road out of Barmouth and the panoramic view. After a mile or so of steep tarmac I was pleased to get back into the fields and mild bog before a downhill section to the next checkpoint at mile 40 in the middle of nowhere. The day, even at 7pm, was still so hot. Every time I found a waterfall I soaked my buff to stick round my neck and cool off.
Cp 5. At this point we should have had the technical ascent and decent of Rhinog Fach but due to a short-notice change we had to follow the low-level route to Bwlch Drws Ardudwy, avoiding the ascent / summit / descent of Rhinog Fach and Y Llethr. This section started off well but soon we were deep in bogs galore for quite a long time. Other runners around me were suffering by this point and you could feel the mood dropping. Even on the uphill section that we thought might be drier, it was still extremely boggy, which also made some of the rocky section slippery. I feel the technical climb would have honestly been easier and I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to do this section. At around 2 miles from the last checkpoint we joined the original route. This is a section I had done on my reccy so I was feeling confident on the section to come. I knew the big climbs were all done and there were some enjoyable runnable sections coming up. We left the boggy section and entered some woodland track and I got my running legs back. I was also enjoying the woodland trails past waterfalls and the pink sky of the sunsetting behind the mountains was beautiful. As darkness fell quickly I slipped in the woods and even though the fall didn’t hurt I ended up with cramp in my right calf and my Garmin sending an emergency fall message, accompanied by the alarm going off. Once the cramp had passed I put on my head torch and headed to the final checkpoint.
Cp 6 saw us 8km from the finish. There were gates to climb and a concrete pipe to run over. The trail was a lot wetter than on the reccy day making some bits harder to run than I’d anticipated but I was pleased with my pace on this section. I was still able to run and I had no niggles, just fatigue and I made the most of the downhill section but with 500m to the finish I couldn’t find the entrance to the cycle track which led us under the road. Instead I ended up on the main road in the dark. After about a km of wrong route I found where I needed to be. The stony cycle track took us under the road and led to the last short but steep incline to the finish line. 87km of running and nearly 3000m of elevation – I completed it in 17 hours 20 mins and was awarded a silver medal.
Wales you were brutal, beautiful and had bogs galore!
This was a post by guest author Jen Harding
