Fell running, mudbath time
After another restless night I was up reasonably early this morning, and as planned set off for a run in the Clwydians up to the summit of Moel Famau. It had been raining heavily during the night but this morning was just overcast and not too cold, considering this is still January!
The route I took can be viewed on gmaps-pedometer by clicking here. The altitude gained was 1100ft (335mtrs) - not too bad considering I’ve done nothing like this for a long time.
Starting and finishing in Cilcain, the route first heads up to the col on gravel/mud tracks, gradually gaining height without being too steep. Up on the ridge the path gets a lot muddier and very (very) steep in some places. Shortly before the final ascent up to Moel Famau the path loses some height then begins a killer climb up to the summit (had to walk a few paces going up here as it was ridiculously slippy and couldn’t stop falling over!). The summit was in clouds but I went through the usual conquering motions… The descent is around the edge of the nearby forest, heading towards Loggerheads before swinging back around to Cilcain. This was where the mud was at its worst and my poor trainers with their road-suited grip made it like running on ice. I really need to get some fell shoes to cope with this terrain.
Got back home and celebrated with a fresh smoothie and some breakfast. Trainers went in the bath after me. Still buzzing from the run and I’m actually feeling good for change, which is nice as I’ve been feeling pretty crap about everything lately.
Could this be a new narcotic…
Apologies for the legs photo, but thought the quantity of mud was amusing.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Mud, mud, glorious mud…………………