lazyotter

Tonight I ran the “Trail Race up the Beast”, a 4 mile fell run taking in 1200ft. It started from the Miners pub in Maeshafn, near my current home in Mold, so would have been rude not to go. Afraid I was feeling pretty lousy during the day, quite tired and with an upset stomach, and this made the going even tougher! I really seemed to be lacking energy from the off, and struggled with 2 stitches along the way. Despite this, it was still great fun.

The route was mostly on forest paths with some exciting descending through the trees, just steep enough to go flat out without falling off! There were also some fallen logs to hurdle, just to add to the mix. The “Beast” turned out to be a very steep and long grassy bank which appeared out nowhere. It certainly lived up to it’s name. There was also some rather pleasant fells and several strength-sapping steps back up through the woods.

I’m not sure where I finished yet, but will update this when I find out.

Having just weighed myself I also seem to have lost a few pounds (that I didn’t really need to lose!). Either through running or my dodgy tummy it turns out I’m down to 8 stone 9 lbs. Bit worrying. There’s not much left on me to lose…

Last sunday as it was snowing and almost certainly not a good idea to be out on the Welsh hillside, I did the opposite and went fell running around Worlds End.

From Worlds End I headed up the road and climbed Cyrn-y-Brain (565m) on snow covered mud tracks. From the summit I descended down the concrete track a short way to find myself behind two horse-mounted police officers. I politely said good morning to them and learned that they were looking for illegal moto-x riders who were damaging the area with their bikes. Next they told me that I wasn’t on a public right of way and I was trespassing. I told them honestly that I wasn’t aware of this, despite having walked in the area for years. They then proceeded to lecture me on damage to the environment while I stood on the blustery snow covered mountain side in my shorts and t-shirt quietly freezing (can you believe this s**t?!). I could hardly see how running on a concrete track was damaging the environment… Bloody idiots.

After I left the loony lone rangers I descended roughly 1200ft (running over lovely untouched snow) down to the road from Worlds End and then immediately began the climb up to the top of Ruabon mountain/Trevor Rocks. The climb (some 950ft in under a mile) went up over fields to reach a small thicket, then begun a very steep and challenging scramble over snow covered scree up to the cliff tops. I paused to take the pic (above) and then continued along the top of the rocks all the way back to Worlds End, battling against a sub-zero degree gale from the west.

There is a map of the route here.

Although it was a bit chilly at first (1 degree C in the car when I started!) I didn’t mind the cold once I got going. The sun came out a few times and I was amazed at how warm it felt. Running on the snow was a fun experience, and my Inov-8’s held up really well too - don’t think they lost grip at all apart from on the steep scree section.

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.