Moel y Ci fell race, Great Orme run

Competed in my first fell race of 2007 on Saturday: Ras Moel y Ci, from Tregarth near Bangor. Supposedly about 4 miles and 900-odd ft, but the general feeling was that it was more like 5 to 5.5 miles. A great route though, with a very enjoyable mix of steepish bouldery fields, along with a fair amount of fast downhill tarmac and tracks, and a steep moorland climb to the summit plateau. Then an exciting steep descent to boggy forest paths, tracks and fields to finish. I kept it fairly comfortable, but retained my position on the descent to come 25th from a field of 79 in 46:10. Next day, I felt strong enough to continue my marathon training with a superb run from Hodeston in Conwy around the North Wales coast path to the Great Orme. Ran all the way along Marine Drive, fantastically enjoyable in the wind - with seals below and fulmars cackling on the cliffs above - before emerging among the Sunday strollers in Llandudno. Quite a contrast. Then all the way along the prom to the retail park and back via Llanrhos and Deganwy to Junction and Conwy in about 1:49.

Halkyn climbs and more

An interesting trip to the post-industrial landscape of Halkyn mountain yesterday. We've had a few family sledging trips up here, and I ran around the mountain recently - but had noticed a few limestone outcrops dotted around, so explored them yesterday. There are three small crags, seemingly natural rather than quarried (good rough limestone), to the north of the road near an old lead mine. They are in what seems to be a natural sinkhole, but are sadly nowhere more than 20ft high. The left hand buttress seemed most promising, but all routes were simple - although fun given how little climbing I now do: I climbed the arete (Windmill arete, M - all tiny microroutes named without too much imagination!), crack to the right (Cloddiau crack, HD), and easy wall right again (Halkyn Steps, D). There is a harder arete on the crag to the right, and an excellent bouldering wall to the south of the road - about 50 metres long, 15 foot high - with a splendid VS/HVS traverse at mid height which I enjoyed immensely, especially as the landing is grassy and friendly. It's a fascinating area: there seem to be few natural caves dotted around which might be worth exploring. After my bouldering, I went for a fell run around the mountain, short and easy as I'd done a hard intervals session with Buckley the day before. My time for the Wrexham half was confirmed as 1:25:33, 82nd in the race, and 25th in the North Wales championships.

Wrexham half marathon

A pleasing performance in yesterday's Wrexham (Village Bakery) half marathon. I wanted to break 1:26 and did this fairly clinically at 6:30 mile pace, recording an unconfirmed time of 1:25:30, my fourth consecutive PB at the distance. This was 2.5 mins quicker than Helsby, although I pushed this a lot harder: I didn't have much choice, as I felt fine, conditions were perfectly still and sunny, and the course is largely flat. Went off too fast, going through 6 miles in about 37:50, slowing to 64:40 by 10 miles and then almost blowing up for a few difficult minutes. But just held it together to achieve my target time, almost to the second. I can feel it in my legs this morning, and intend to concentrate on the hills for a few weeks now.

Lake District/Bowland weekend

We had a brief 24-hour trip to the Lakes/North Lancashire this weekend. I managed a quick run up Clougha Pike, on the edge of the Forest of Bowland, from Jubilee Tower on the Saturday. About 30 mins to the top and back, frost and some snow preventing me from plunging into too many bogs. Conditions were grimmish. We went to Langdale the next day, the first visit for some years for me. Weather not ideal, but it cleared throughout the day. Morgan and I had a brief walk contouring the valley side as the mist cleared from the Pikes to reveal some snow, but not much (considering the amount on Halkyn mountain, Saturday morning: knee deep in places). I also had a quick run along the bridleways.

Pen y Cloddiau snowy run

At last, a cold snap - but me in St Asaph where it hardly ever snows. So today I headed to Bodfari for an excellent run in the snow up to Pen y Cloddiau summit in about 30 mins, down in just under 25. Thick snow higher up, starting to drift with quite a lot falling, a bitter wind and low cloud. An excellent outing and a good runnable route along Offa's Dyke path, exhilarating in these conditions.

Border League round 4, Allt Wen walk, Sychnant run

Still between houses and spending weekends in Conwy, trying at least to take advantage of the location. So on Saturday (3 Feb) we all went up Allt Wen in beautiful winter sunshine. This was Eve's first ever peak and she managed to walk the whole way - although she didn't much care for the 'prickles' (gorse). Fabulous views from the top: very clear. I did the 4th Border League race of the season on the 4th, and expunged the memory of my bad race in Prestatyn on round 3 with a better performance to finish 56th in the strong field men's race with a time of 37:04 (6 mile race around scenic lanes, Christleton near Chester). I scored for Buckley for the third time this season and we are now comfortably in front at the top of division one. I am 19th senior male in the league at present, although it's all rather tight. The next day I ran over the hills from the Sychnant pass on the old paths up to Tal y Fan, turning back below summit for the wonderful whaleback ridge north of Cefn Maen Amor. Fantastic sunny views down the valley, the sea below and in front: an exhilarating place to run in cold, still, bracing conditions. Had a reasonable 6 miler round St Asaph in more cold sunshine yesterday.