I’m going to put up two posts about this years Reach Out for Nepal Day this year (our 11th year). The first will cover my Charity run including the support crew both out with me & in the Cafe as well as how I perceived the day developed. The second will cover other events of the day itself & an overview of where ROFN is at.

Part 1 – Paul’s runs.

Before I start with the day itself let me make it clear that despite this year’s challenge not being near the top end of the hardest I’ve done from a statistical point of view, I knew that in my current condition I was truly winging it. You can’t go from a longest run of little more than 14 miles in 2025 so far to a 45 mile run in a day, with plenty of ascent, without knowing in advance that this is ‘going to hurt!’

The day started the evening before with my mate Fraser arriving as planned at about 4 pm, this led to a planned & sensible large pasta Carbonara meal & far from sensible glasses of wine, still early to bed despite this hiccup went as planned.

Alarm at 3:30 am, in car at 4:05 (5 minutes late), & arrived at Cafe 4:32 (2 minutes late). Dorina & I were soon joined by Paul for a quick cup of coffee before we headed off bang on time at 4:50 am (sunrise).

At this point I’ll just recap on the plan: To run from the Cafe in Eisteddfa to the summit of Moel y Gest & back 8 times between Sunrise & 8 pm finishing in time to take part in our charity Quiz. I had support runners lined up for most but not all of the legs as the day dawned. It would be approximately 45 miles with over 6,700′ of ascent/descent. 

Paul has long been an early doors supporter of my runs & here he was at it again, thank you Paul.

For some reason the earlier parts of these challenges seem to relatively fly by compared to the latter which can seem more never ending. Once again this was to apply this year. Before we knew it (38 minutes actually) Paul was taking a stunning sunrise photo of me on the summit of Moel y Gest. We returned to the Cafe 1 hour 15 minutes & 58 seconds after we’d set off, 58 seconds slower than I’d estimated on my schedule, job well done but doubts remaining.

Leg 2 started after a 25 minute break as planned at 6:30 am. Again Paul would support me, it went well with us hitting a return split of 1:14:59 which would be my fastest split of the day. Confidence wasn’t exactly rising but I wasn’t feeling in any trouble at this point.

Paul’s support was now over as he handed over to the ever cheerful & encouraging Carla who had committed to do the next two legs with me. Dorina was playing her part as she did all day by catering to my every re-fueling need, never easy as I go down hill & it becomes increasingly difficult to find anything that goes down anything like well. I think it was at this 2nd turnaround that Dorina told me that Helz, a runner I know by sight only, would be joining Carla & I for leg 4, that’s the running community for you!

Leg 3 started on time at 8:00 am, Carla was as encouraging as ever & was slowly learning how to do what she was told & open those gates! please Carla!! We arrived back at the Cafe in 1:16:06, which I perceived as intelligent marginal easing.

Before Leg 4 was due to start I’d planned to have a reasonable breakfast of Poached Eggs & Beans on toast as I’d allowed a longer turnaround on this one. However I struggled to find this enticing but Dorina finally persuaded me to try a smaller version of just Beans on Toast which I only managed half off. At the time this was a bit worrying with hindsight it was clearly the start of my later troubles which I would add two in other ways over legs 4 & 5.

Leg 4 (as all legs) would again start on time, this time it was at 10 am. Helz had now joined Carla & I & both she & Carla kept offering kind words of encouragement with the occasionally opened gate thrown in here & there, well you can only expect so much can’t you! We returned, in the forecasted rain, to the Cafe in 1:16:53 well under my 1:20:00 schedule, things were going well other than refuelling. Helz then committed to another leg which was absolutely great particularly as Carla would soon discover that I’d got my wires crossed with Lowri whom I’d thought was supporting me on Leg 5 but was actually turning up for Leg 6, my fault & a bit of a basic mistake. Thank you must be said at this point to Carla, who having made a similar ‘basic’ relating to her car MOT had also had to cycle to the Cafe from Llan Ffestiniog & of course would have to cycle back, what a girl.

Helz, thank you too, & I set off for Leg 5 at Midday, the rain had stopped & we had an enjoyable run getting to know each other a bit better but far too early for me to castigate her on the gate issue like I feel free to do with Carla, that will hopefully come. This was the first leg when I decided not to run one of the two of the hills that I’d been toying with ‘do I don’t I run them’ in the lead in days. This was the hill to Bron y Foel, a come & go climb of half a Kilometre or so. I ran the second of these undecided hills (the pavement climb back to the Cafe for the 5th time, it felt good but was another mistake). Helz & I reached the Cafe in 1:20:04, a slowing up that looked & felt sensible.

I can remember saying to Marion here that I know I’m slowing up but it’s not feeling any harder which was giving my confidence a boost, by now I had over 29 miles under my belt, double my longest run of the year.

I’ll break in here to say a little about the route itself. It has a mixture of everything covering a little over 9K (5 & a half miles) but a bit too much tarmac (4K). The off road sections make up for this on balance. Once you hit the Bron y Foel homestead you can head either North or South to the summit as both routes circle around to it. I’d decided to alternate these to mix up the banality thereby doing the mountain section Clockwise & anti-clockwise alternately. The Southern approach/descent section is my preferred side of the mountain & Helz was pleased that my opinion matched hers. The Northern approach is pretty technical near the summit & far from ideal for tired legs but in truth I felt safer than I’d expected to throughout the day, helped by the rocks always being dry & slip free if not trip free.

Having thanked & said goodbye to Helz I had the luxury of 3 supporters for leg 6, Becca & Alwyn (the Parry one), as planned, & Lowri, as she’d planned & I hadn’t. Here I must say thank you to Lowri whom again I didn’t really know until the day itself. We had both congratulated each other at the end of the Trailfest race in September where we’d had a bit of a ding-dong battle in the latter stages, all I knew of her really is that she runs with the Hebog club. This leg started at 2 pm. By now despite my confident words to Marion the leg started with me soon realising things needed to change & I had to manage my decline cleverly. A highlight of the leg was meeting a Capel regular, Graham, on the summit with a mate of his, at the time I believed this a simple, unlikely co-incidence (only saw 6 people on the mountain all day, subsequently realised that he had been following my plans & progress on Facebook & almost definitely had come out to support me, thank you Graham.

The return hill to the Cafe was walked for the first time, again with hindsight I probably should have walked/run it the first time. We reached the Cafe after 1:22:58, a bit slower but not slow enough.

Back at the Cafe I sat down, took a gulp of cold Pepsi Max (good) followed by a gulp of less cold full fat coke, energy levels dictated this ‘new’ nutrient, (bad), seconds later I began to wretch, hasted to the gents & spent a couple of minutes kneeling over the toilet basin, deja vu to the Llanberis path last year. Back at the table I could feel the concern all round but worse soon followed. After spending 15 minutes taking on a few grapes & satsuma slices & most of an ice cream I stood up & both legs seized from top to bottom causing me to almost collapse in a crumpled heap. This was the point, almost out of the blue, when I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do 7 let alone 8. I made it to the Bathroom to give me some peace to consider my position, right or wrong, start the leg & if it doesn’t get any better pull-out.

Leg 7 started as planned at 4 pm with Dorina in support as planned & the un-expected bonus of Maggie & Alwyn (the Oliver one) in support. I don’t think anyone understood how bad the crippled leg issue was until I left the car park at a hobbled walk, 12 miles of this simply not possible I thought! Out on the pavement I kept walking before finding an urge to ‘push’ past Maggie & try to trot. A few hundred metres on with Dorina on my heels I looked back to see a remarkable sight, I had dropped Maggie & Alwyn. So lets reflect, my body backed up by my mind (probably in reality the mind had sent messages to my body to convince me to stop) had convinced me I was toast but by somehow overriding these ‘realities’ my mind sent the body new messages ‘O.K., how do we help this idiot carry on’, I’ve read these things but you can forget them until you make that decision to carry on, that is not a recommendation, just a personal reality of my experiences.

With this renewal I also behaved, only running occasionally, even walking some flat bits but reached my 7th summit with Dorina trying to make me believe that she was hanging onto me on the steeper summit sections. We had passed Andy, our official photographer who’d been on the summit for Paul & mine second summit, at the road crossing for the last time. Here I asked him to give a plan to Maggie & Alwyn that we would meet them at Bron y Foel on our way back as I didn’t know if they knew the route we were taking. Thank you Andy for being out on the hill for so long & helping us to update others through What’s App & Facebook of our progress.

With Dorina feeding me a few drops of Gel & Electrolite frequently on the return we reached the Cafe in a surprisingly respectful 1:33:50 having rejoined with Alwyn Oliver once back on the road. Apart from giving Andy those instructions & the summit photo we hadn’t stopped once, simply unbelievable in a totally non-bragging way, I had been down & totally out before we’d left.

Deja vu Leg 8, I sat at the table almost unable to eat, Dorina re-filled my electrolite & gel bottle & gave me a Gel that I got half down, two small spoons of Yoghurt, maybe 6 grapes & no Satsuma slices, I knew how bad this was. I won’t name the people who looked at me in that ‘please don’t Paul’ type of way but I saw you/them & apologise for both ignoring talking to you or acting on your heartfelt thoughts. In a trance like state I began to get cold but at least the leg spasms hadn’t returned. Becca in particular gave me plenty of chances to bin it with respect but having put a wind-proof jacket on I decided I had to see myself for myself, was I pale, did I look like death, I walked into the Gents looked in the mirror & realised ‘Paul, you can do this’, I even smiled to myself, honestly.

Becca & Alwyn had already given me an uplift near the end of leg 6 by offering to be with me on the final leg which had been greatly appreciated. As I came out of the Gents I had a plan & told them what it was. We had 2 hours to get back before the Quiz began, ‘Alwyn, Becky, I think a fit Paul could walk the route in 1 Hour 50 Minutes so if we can walk at an easier pace with me managing to run a bit here & there I think we can do 1:50’ they went with that. I then said to John, if we are not back by eight get Tim to start the Quiz don’t delay it for me, some smart Alec replied ‘if you are not back by midnight we are calling Mountain Rescue’.

We started at 6 pm, this time I walked rather than hobbled out of the car park & was soon trotting down the hill & able to say hi to Wesley (cafe regular) as I passed him outside his house. This time I followed Becca (on a mission) & Alwyn up the steeper final climb but once again did it without stopping & reached the summit in about 56 minutes, roughly 16 minutes down on my average morning efforts but I’d got there.

Once off the technical descent section I was pretty safe albeit a couple of cramps had caused gasps of pain in doing so. We then ran the main descent before I told Alwyn I’m now going to mostly walk it from here. With the Cafe driveway now in sight I picked back up into a run for the final 400 metres to cheers & clapping & no doubt much relief to those who’d seen me earlier. The leg took 1:41:01, easily the slowest but well under the 1:50 I’d been hoping for.

The recovery that evening wasn’t bad, being able to take part in the quiz including some banter with Tim, Helena & others & of course taking on recovery fluids aka a particularly nice Lugana white from Northern Italy (it’s in Lidl, but note that the Porthmadog’s branch stock is reserved for yours truly). Dorina & I hit the pillow at circa 1:00 am, I woke up at 5:00 am & was unable to get back to sleep due to aching legs. Dorina left for the Cafe at 7am & I followed a couple of hours later, having first weighed myself to find that despite non-alcoholic attempts to re-hydrate myself I was still 9lbs lighter than yesterday. We both bonked (no please be realistic when you read that) in the afternoon & left earlier than normal.

Monday afternoon saw me go out for a run, felt better than I expected until pride came before a fall & I picked myself up with two bloodied palms. Still ran on, what a wonderful thing the body & mind is.

Of course none of this could have been achieved without the help of the people on the hill & the supporters in the Cafe & well-wishers too. That’s it except a recap of the stats, thanks if you’ve read this far:-

Leg 1 – with Paul Jones – 1:15:58

Leg2 – with Paul Jones – 1:14:59

Leg 3 – with Carla Lauda – 1:16:06

Leg 4 – with Carla Lauda & Helz Taylor – 1:16:53

Leg 5 – with Helz Taylor – 1:20:04

Leg 6 – with Becca & Alwyn Parry & Lowri Owen – 1:22:58

Leg 7 – with Dorina Savu aka Angel & partly Maggie & Alwyn Oliver – 1:33:50

Leg 8 – with Becca & Alwyn Parry – 1:41:01

Thank you.

Paul

PS. All in aid of ROFN please donate if you can.