The penultimate and final race of the Welsh Ultra Marathon Series organised by Might Contain Nuts.
Back in October I took part in the penultimate race of the welsh ultra marathon series through the stunning scenery of the Elan valley and along the wye valley path. This race started in the small town of Llangurig in Wales and ends in the village of Glasbury near Hay on Wye.
at 7.15 am we arrived in Llangurig after a short bus trip from Glasbury, we just about had time for a quick toilet break and pre race briefing before we all started running along an incline towards the hills of the Elan valley. The weather was dull but dry and I had entered the race on a whim after feeling not too run down after the Ultra Trail Of Mont Blanc. I ran the first ten or so miles at a comfortable pace with my brother James, who had also decided to give the race another crack after a good result the year before.
I had already run in the second race of the series back in the summer in the Brecon Beacons 40 (summer) race and had a good top ten result in a field of over 250 entrants, although I had missed the first race I still had a chance of completing the series as long as I didn't miss the final two races. The rules state that as long as you do 3 out of 4 of the races and one of those is the final race over the Brecon Beacons 40 winter course then you can accumulate points and have a chance in the series.
Anyway back to the race, once we reached the edge of the Rhayader Dams we had a river crossing to get our feet nice and wet then a scenic run along the trails around the reservoirs before a steep incline out of the Rhayader area to the village of Llanwrthyll.
By this stage I was feeling quite fresh so I left my brother and pushed the pace a little and on reaching the village of Llanwthyll I was lying in a top ten position. From here I ran steadily onwards on a rolling section along trails and hills and after about 6 hours of running I reached the large town of Builth wells at about the 35 mile point. I had moved up a couple of places and although I wasn't running at my full potential I still thought I could reach the end in under 8 and a half hours.
From Builth Wells there is a very steep incline for a few hours but having done the race before I knew it was pretty much flat there after. Apart from a wasp sting on the knee I was actually feeling pretty good and managed to catch another guy about 8 miles from the end who was having problems passing a herd of cows. He confessed he hated the animals and that they were chasing him, so I told him to stick right behind me and we ran straight on through the herd without any problems. I was feeling a bit fresher so I picked up the pace again and ran on opening up a good gap.
I reached the end 8 hours and 25 minutes after leaving the start line and was in 7th place. Another good run and after the results were published I was amazed to learn I was in 3rd place overall. It would seem that consistency is the key. The race was very well marshalled and marked through out and as you can see from the photos the scenery is pretty good too.
The Brecon Beacons 40 Winter Edition
The final race of the Welsh Ultra Marathon Series took part on a mild winters day at the beginning of December 2013. The start line was a small bridge over a canal in the welsh village of Talybont on Usk on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. There were over 250 entries for the final race and I was currently lying in 3rd place overall but with only 1 point in it I knew I was going to have to run well in order to hold on to that third place spot. The first two places were out of reach with Hugh Aggleton and Patrick Devine Wright in first and second place respectively. So at 7.30am we all ran off on the Taff trail before heading to the village of Llangynidr, I had settled into a top ten position and felt reasonably good although I was suffering from a cold and chesty cough. This was later to turn into a nine day lay-off from running with a course of antibiotics to clear it up but thankfully that was later and not before the race.
After Checkpoint 1 the terrain started to climb and I had joined forces with another runner Rob Woolley from Australia who was visiting family in the UK, he being only 19 years old had already run The North Face 100 in Australia and seemed to be cruising and was very impressive for a lad of his age. After hearing that I was currently in 3rd place overall he kept with me for the remainder of the race to encourage me and help me through a couple of bad patches. I have the feeling that he could of kept up with the front two but he didn't seem particularly bothered and I was glad of the company and he seemed genuinely interested in some advice I gave him.
Anyway back to the race and after a couple of short but very steep ascents we reached checkpoint 2 on top of a ridge over looking the beautiful scenery of Talybont reservoir and some of the higher beacons on the far side. From here we were to run along a rocky path and through a wooded section towards the Dolygaer Outdoor Centre and although some of the footing was awkward it was reasonably fast running and reached checkpoint 3 without any problems.
At checkpoint 3 we refilled out bottles and continued to run across the bridge which separates Pentwyn and Pontsticill reservoirs, the views around here are pretty stunning but we had know time to hang around and had to climb a steep section in boggy wet conditions underfoot towards the summit of Waun Wen where we headed in a westerly direction towards the main road which splits the beacons in two. We reached checkpoint 4 on the other side of the road in under 3 and a half hours and according to my GPS we had covered over 21 miles which in these conditions and terrain I was quite happy with. The next stretch was to take us northwards along a fire road and pass two smaller reservoirs all the way to checkpoint 5 just down the road from the Storey Arms Centre, upon reaching this checkpoint we carried on regardless to what was the biggest climb of the day towards the summit of Corn Du.
It was along this section that we caught a group of 3 runners thinly spread out running towards the summit, we managed to catch one up on the ascent and another two on the descent back down towards checkpoint 6 at mile 30. Things were going well up to now but then I was stung by a wasp on the back of my arm, unbelievably I was stung in the last race too on the inside of my thigh. The fact there are wasps about in October and December is strange enough but to get stung in two consecutive races makes me wonder if I give off a sweet honey stench whilst running or maybe it was just the chocolate and jelly babies they were attracted to, who knows.
Anyway I tried not to let the annoying sting affect me to much but wether it affected my navigation skills I don't know but we completely took the wrong turn and ended up doing about ten minutes in the wrong direction, by the time we had righted the wrong turn we had lost twenty minutes and the three we had just overtaken were able to catch up, but luckily we had quite a big gap on the rest so there wasn't too much damage done.
After a tricky river crossing we finally reached the final checkpoint at what was supposed to be mile 36 although it was more like mile 38. We had another six mile to go so the overall mileage happened to be 44 mile, but more miles, more fun. The last six mile was through fields and over stiles along the edge of the mountains and back into Talybont.
Apart from a little game of cat and mouse with another couple of runners, Myself and Rob finished the 44 mile course in around 7 and a half hours in 5th and 6th place. Although I wanted to finish under 7 hours when I take into account the extra mileage and the terrain I am fairly happy with my result on the day. What I am even happier about is the fact that I managed to hold off the other athletes competing for third place overall and even opened up a bigger margin. Thank you to the organisers of the race who put on a very competitive series this year and although I finished second overall in 2010/2011 this result means much more to me because of the stronger competition and my much quicker race teams. I look forward to next year although I have the North Face Trangrancanaria race to do first in March which is part of the Ultra Trail World Tour. I'm also very tempted to do the Ultra Brecon 100 which Might Contain Nuts have organised for July the 5th. Happy running everyone.
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