lazyotter

Last sunday I took part in the Y Garn fell race from Rhyd Ddu near Beddgelert. This was officially my first experience in a mountain race. Coincidentally this was also a WFRA (Welsh Fell Running Association) Open Championship event.

All fell races use the two letter scheme of classification, A/B/C meaning the amount of climbing/terrain involved, and S/M/L for short (up to 6 miles), medium (up to 12 miles) and long (more!). The Y Garn race is classed as “AS”, a short but fast 3 mile race involving 1500ft of climbing - this translates to a right b*gger of a hill to climb up in 1.5 miles! There’s a map of the route here.

I came 25th out of 93, which isn’t too bad for a first try. The results are available here.

I started off quite cautiously staying in the back half of the pack until the climb. Then I just kept my head down and slugged it out up the mountain passing as many people as I could without getting too exhausted. The summit was in the clouds and here the real running began. In fell racing it is most often the descents where time is made up or lost. I think I did quite well on the treacherously steep grassy slope, and overtook maybe 4 people. However, having reached the bottom with a killer stitch I had little energy left for the short quarter mile or so to the finish, and lost some places back.

There are various photos of me in the race and even a video courtesy of TeamDolly.co.uk.

Links to photos…
http://lh5.ggpht.com/brymills/SB9Oq0PK6GI/AAAAAAAADOc/KmoyQUlhmdA/DSC01808.JPG?imgmax=640
http://lh5.ggpht.com/the.unfranked.man/SB6n6KYWtZI/AAAAAAAAONU/NDxXxIkZQVE/TYE_9624.jpg?imgmax=640
http://lh3.ggpht.com/pete.macmillen/SB39c-CivXI/AAAAAAAAEEI/6q2lpOoFu88/IMG_5364.JPG?imgmax=576
http://lh6.ggpht.com/brymills/SB9PqEPK6tI/AAAAAAAADTc/gJv6cDClfgk/DSC01847.JPG?imgmax=640
http://images.kodakgallery.eu.com/photos454/2/20/31/57/74/96/9674573120233_0_ALB.jpg

And it’s now wednesday and my legs are still aching!

I ran in the Parbold Hill trail race today (6.75 miles). This race has been going every year for 38 years.
There was a good turnout of 456 and as always it was good to see a huge mix of people - young/old/small/big/short/tall!

I came 103rd - the results are here and there is a map of the course here. My time works out at 7.43 average min/miles which isn’t too bad at all considering the undulating terrain. The course was mostly on tracks but there were a few road sections. There were also quite a few hills that climb 300ft or so rather quickly. The biggest and most challenging of these was Parbold Hill itself which just kept going on and on! At one point I thought I was nearing the top and sped up a bit, only to find another false summit… There were also a number of sections through muddy fields, over styles, and also on muddy tracks… Did I mention the mud? I’ve really got to get some proper fell/mountain shoes as my poor trainers were sliding all over the place. Towards the end there were a few hurdles too (nearly slipped over the second one).

In the races I’ve done so far I’ve tended to go quite quickly at the start (to get into some space) then go at a steady pace trying to pick people off where possible, before a sprint at the finish. However today I started off fairly quickly and just kept going, only slowing down for the hills! I was certainly pretty tired by the end and felt like I’d pushed it more than usual. It gives me even greater respect for everyone in front of me, as I certainly came close to finding my limits. Guess I just need more practice!