Maesgwm Muddle

Race: Maesgwm Muddle fell race (16.2k/1160m)
Peaks: Moel Cynghorion, Foel Goch, Foel Gron, Moel Eilio, Cefn Du
Time/Position: 1.47.47 (57th from 182)
A very similar route to the long leg of the fell relays last October, but with added punishment in the form of arbitrary steep descents and bonus climbs. I ran this because it was the fourth race of the Welsh Champs, but in the knowledge that it was also a British Champs race: which always means that you get blown away by proper athletes. Perhaps my eighth or ninth time at a British Champs race: they are a salutary lesson in just how slow you really are! The pace was quick from the start, a climb from the youth hostel above Llanberis to gain the big track that undulates its way over to Hebron station and the savage climb up the steepest side of Moel Cynghorion. My left shoe came off in a particularly cloying bog en route: an infuriating and time-consuming schoolboy error. Cynghorion is just a head down plod from Helfa Fawr, very steep, but I did start to gain a few places and held on for the equally steep and quite infamous descent down to Maesgwm. This was the arbitrary bit, because the route then heads up the runnable bridleway to regain the main ridge. I was plodding along over Foel Goch and Foel Gron, then into the mist below Moel Eilio: all the time gradually losing time and places in this competitive field. A slow descent down the very runnable track to Bwlch y Groes, which I know well, saw more go past. I finally started to feel some endurance kick in for the final arbitrary climb up Cefn du. For the first time in the race, I felt quite good and made up some ground up to its moorland summit. A reasonably quick descent to Llanberis followed by a very unpleasant 200m climb up a steep field to finish. Both previous races across this ridge (relays in September, Moel Eilio in May) were characterised by bad weather, but today all was calm and the rain held off until the moment we left Llanberis for Penrhyn Castle.