OMM Elan Valley

Race: Original Mountain Marathon, Long Score Class, Day 2
Peaks: Drygarn Fawr, Gorllwyn
Area: Elan Valley, Mid Wales
Time/Pts/Position: 5:04/255pts (58/190)
Frequent squally gusts interrupted sleep, but a reasonably comfortable night meant prospects looked good. After getting the map, we headed immediately north-west then south over Waun Lydan to Esgair Ganol and finally up to the top of Drygarn Fawr. This was a long haul, but had an appealing and obvious logic: right up to the highpoint of the range. It's a fine, remote peak (last visited 6 years ago?) and it was good to be up here, dibbing the control right on the summit. A heavy shower blew up as we ran down the ridge out east to an extensive and energy-sapping bog (Carnau). After picking up some points, we were intent on getting the 50 pointer at the far end of the remote spur of Esgair Ffraith. Pleasingly, the terrain was nowhere near as bad as we'd expected (I thought it would be a real fight through the tussocks) and we retraced our steps back to Carnau to the CP below Gorllwyn. From here, the obvious route was to follow the north side of the ridge - and the line-class runners - via two CPs to a final big value checkpoint at the end of the spur down from Gamriw (also visited years ago with Steve). The weather cleared superbly at this point - great sunny views down to Rhayader and beyond. A tremendous and exhilarating final descent down the steep spur into Llanwrthwl. A fantastic way to finish - quite weird to be finishing somewhere so familar, but really good. We had far too much time left (almost an hour!), and obviously should have gone for the points south of Gorllwyn, but it was still another good day - and we did gain some places, squeezing into the top third of the field.

OMM Elan Valley

Race: Original Mountain Marathon, Long Score, Day 1
Area: Elan Valley, Mid Wales
Time/Pts: 6:22 (240pts)
My record at the OMM is less than glorious, what with last year's cancellation and the previous year's partner drop-out. So the aim here was simply to enjoy the weekend and finish respectably. The location was another big plus, not exactly home turf but at least we were in Wales for a change. I was pleased to be doing Long Score, which strikes me as the ideal class, although we were very conservative (partly as a result of the above!) and didn't use anywhere near the time available which inevitably limited our score. We started off in drizzle from Gilfach, and chose a fairly cautious initial route which took us over the side of Moelfryn to Penrhiw wen. This is the highpoint of the Rhayader 20 mile Lakes race, which I've done twice, and hence familiar. We then moved out to the first CP near Esgair Perfedd which led to superb running down tracks to the Craig Goch reservoir. We were then alone for the slog up the valley to Clawdd Du - remarkable, given 3000 runners and the appalling crocodiles of line-class runners we later joined. The score classes are just much better in this kind of terrain, which lends itself to deep trenches - there can't have been much navigation involved for those on the line classes this year. We bagged a 40 pointer before heading west to Llyn Cerrig Llwydion. After taking a line through appalling tussocks (a real feature of the weekend), a lapse in concentration saw me disorientated for the only time in the weekend. Stef's second opinion was invaluable as a result, and we landed bang on the next CP. Easier running - albeit boggy - led south to the remote Claerwen reservoir: superb running for this section, miles away from the crocodiles on the line classes, clearing weather, great scenery. Picked up more points quite easily and followed the lakeside to pick up a big 50 pointer before thigh-deep bogs over Cefn Blaen Coed and a squally shower gave us a good soaking before arriving in the campside west of Caban Coch. A good day, very enjoyable but also ultra-conservative (far too much time remaining). No real nav problems and a logical loop of the land (the elegance of the route is always important to me, more so than the points!). The struggle to put up the tent in what by now were gale-force winds was probably the low-point of the weekend - but the campsite was in a beautiful location and we got a plumb pitch next to the river.

Christleton border league

Race: Christleton '10k' (border league race 1)
Time/Position: 34:57 (35/322)
Considering my last road race was well over five months ago, I was reasonably pleased with this performance, which was well over a minute faster than my time on the same course last year. The starting pace was inevitably a bit of a shock to the system after months of long races in the hills, so I consciously relaxed for 3k or so until I could adapt to the speed. Went through 5k in 17:54, then started to push the pace a bit and felt pleasingly comfortable on the short off-road section down the path towards the final hill. Passed at least 10 runners, maybe more, on the hills in the last 4k - although as usual my lack of a sprint finish meant that three of those were able to overtake me in the last 200m across the field. Sadly, the route was definitely not a full 10k! That said, I think I would have been close to sub 36m if it had been.

Clwydian runs

Out of action for over a week with a tweaked intercostal muscle, under the rib cage. A few long bike rides replaced the running, until I recovered towards the end of last week, enough to do the full run up Famau on Friday evening. A longer outing today with Neil, from Cilcain up Famau via Brithdir Mawr, then down to Penbarras and back along the ridge via the summit to the bridleway back down to Cilcain. Drizzle and mist throughout, but good to be pain-free again.