Excalibur Marathon

Race: Excalibur Mountain Marathon (43k/1403m/BL)
Time/Position: 4:22:36 (9th from 250)
Not a conventional 'mountain marathon', in the mode of the OMM or RAB, but rather a properly measured marathon distance over the Clwydian hills: a kind of informal, non-competitive hybrid between a long fell race and a road marathon. Billed as Britain's toughest off-road marathon, it was just an ideal local training run for me: good, if late, preparation for London. Even if I hadn't been ill last week, I doubt I would have been in a position to properly race this having not had time for enough long runs. As it was, I just kept a nice steady (slow!) pace throughout and really enjoyed the relaxed nature of the event. A small group of sub-5 hour runners started at 9.30, jogging along the fire roads east of Famau to gain the ridge at the fingerpost. Then the usual Friday night route to near the summit before dropping down to Cilcain. A long tarmac haul gains the climb up fields to the next checkpoint at the Moel Arthur car park. All very relaxed and slow-paced. Nice and friendly despite the odd urban ipod wearer! From here, the long looping bridleway on the Vale side led down to Llandyrnog, before a long but gradual climb gained the other gentle bridleway that skirts the Vale side of Pen y Cloddiau. A tough climb over Moel y Parc and back down via Aifft was perhaps the crux. Then comes the delightful home leg along OD across the top of the ridge via Pen y Cloddiau, Arthur, Famau and Fenlli. Perfect conditions: cool and cloudy after a warm week, unusually dry underfoot, and nice to be doing a long race over ultra-familiar hills that I've crossed hundreds upon hundreds of times. More notable, it is a nice logical loop of a route, which is not always easy to arrange in the unhelpfully linear Clwydians! Easy first half, with lots of road and track, climaxing with a tour of all the peaks (in that sense, somewhat reminiscent of the Jungfrau marathon!). I became increasingly distressed by the numbers of discarded bottles, though: I assume this will compromise the future of the event.