A weekend of no racing allowed me to get out on Saturday evening for my Betws Bridge circuit, arguably too much tarmac on this 10 miler but the A.5 hill back up from Betws has some kind of hold on me, very odd.
This was followed on Sunday afternoon as I finally got out for my long overdue recce for my ROFN charity run, basically how do I get from the dam at Llyn Cowlyn to Tal y Fan? Well after a little over 5 hours later I could finally say ‘well now I know, simple really’ but it’s a long, long way. 25 miles were covered during which I passed Chris & Jed (on a call out for OVMRO) both early & late on, they must have been thinking ‘what has that idiot been up to now’, well guys I only got ‘lost’ once & kept my phone turned off as I self-corrected in a bog!
This was a much needed recce but only time will tell if it’s taken too much out of me for this Saturday’s CyB Trail Marathon. Providing I make it to the start line I’ll remain an ever present member of the starting line up since Matt Ward kicked this fixture off in 2012. To date I’ve done the Half Marathon 4 times & the Marathon 3, so this year should level things up. I had been training for a pb by running the 2nd half of it 3 times in the Spring but recent ‘events’ have side-tracked my focus so it will be interesting to see how I go in what to date has proved to be my hardest Marathon by far. Good luck to Matt Ward, his team & all the runners, at least it’s going to be a lot cooler than 2017.
Also good luck to Mike Blake for his Foel Fras race (also this Saturday) & all the Fell runners taking part. Have never done this race but talking to Paul Jones it sounds like a great route so hopefully one year in the near future it won’t clash with the CyB. Sorry I can’t be there Mike but you know I can walk to the CyB start line from my house & feel a duty to do so.
For those of you looking for a race/races this summer in Snowdonia I have just updated our Events page, there are plenty to get excited about, hope I see you at one or more.
The following weekend sees me, Paul Jones & Tim Watson attempt our 46 mile charity run over the Carneddau summits (i.e. the aforementioned recce) for Reach Out for Nepal. We’d be delighted if any of you can join us at some point. Details of the route & timings are displayed in the café & on the day itself we will be carrying a tracker so that you’ll be able to assess a suitable rendezvous point. Of course we understand all those who choose to support Gonks’ great Hebog race but you could still join us in the evening to both share experiences & listen to Ali Bramall’s presentation about the Original Everest Marathon. Full details on this are also on our Events page.
Now to taper or not to taper, answers by e-mail please Kean.