Come on pull the other one, it can’t be December, can it?
Thinking off you Beth, have a great 18th!
Last Thursday also saw Dorina celebrating her Birthday, thanks to Simona & Georg for joining us for an excellent meal at the Ty Gwyn in Betws & getting me somewhat out of trouble after most of her special day having being spent helping me on the log pile! She was smiling, honest!
Braved the great outdoors twice over the weekend despite the weather, one was a great experience the other simply an experience.
First up was taking part in my first Cross Country race at Mold on Saturday afternoon for Eryri Harriers. A wet & cold time hanging around at the start was soon forgotten as lungs burst & feet sunk in mud, mud & more mud. Got more cheers of ‘come on Paul’ than normal, began to smell a rat so when passing a guy I’d been tracking for the first 3 laps I said to him ‘you must be called Paul too’, indeed he was & had also thought something was odd! Thanks to Becky & all those who’d actually cheered this Paul on, it helps the pain go down. Finished 97th so know how many beat me but not as yet how many I beat, almost irrelevant as taking part was great.
Not realising that my legs were tired I then turned up for Jeremy’s Sunday Morning Training Run despite the forecast. Setting off from Beddgelert at 10:30 the 15 of us all believed Jeremy’s optimism of a 1.5 hour ‘better’ weather window & headed up towards Moel Hebog. With general consent we decided let’s go for the summit, 45 minutes later we poked our heads over the ridge & got blasted. The summit was no place to hang around so we tore off in search of Owen Gwydyr’s cave which made a very pleasant haven, then the big mistake took place. Instead of making an awkward slippery descent we went up, by the time we emerged from the relative calm of the gully the storm had intensified to a full on Gale, hail ripped into our faces, within minutes we all new this is serious, survival needed movement & a lot of caution. The next hour was full on, experienced Fell runners holding hands as they ran, stumbled & walked the long, long way to safety. Later warming up at the Cafe Gwynant, with faces glowing from the Hail Facial Scrub we’d received, there was plenty to talk about but strangely we were smiling? Anyone in Iceland finding a Harvey’s map which was ripped out of Maggie’s grasp could you please post it back to the cafe & I’ll pass it on to her.
Finally a big thanks to Alan Mannouch for hosting an excellent Open MIC Night at the cafe on Saturday, great to see a wide variety of musicians & a large crowd enjoying a relaxed evening. Based on this success we’ve decided to take the plunge, curtail our Christmas & hold the next one on Boxing Day.
