Black Mountains fell race

Race: Black Mountains fell race (17.5m/5200ft/AL)
Peaks: Crug Hywel/Table Mountain (451m), Pen Cerrig Calch (701m), Pen Allt Mawr (719m), Pen Twyn Glas (645m), Pen y Gadair Fawr (800m), Chwarel y Fan (679m), Bal Mawr (607m), Crug Mawr (550m)
Time/Position: 3.01.03 (19th from 93)
Not one, not two, but three unfortunate route finding errors rather spoiled this Welsh Championships counter for me. The last detour was by far the worst, just a few hundred metres from the end of the race (after putting a lot of effort in and heading for a reasonable time by my limited standards) I pelted straight down the road and missed a vital (unmarked) stile indicating the descent to the finish. I ended up on the road to Crickhowell, 1k from the village, and had to navigate back along the river losing a huge amount of time. If you discount the last 10 minutes, though, it was a great race! Steeply up from Llanbedr (a nice village last visited for the classic Llanbedr-Blaenafon), and up towards Crug Hywel and the main Black Mountains ridge. Superbly runnable over the limestone summit of Pen Cerrig Calch and Pen Allt Mawr, looking down to the final ridge of the Waun Fach race that I'd so enjoyed in July. High cloud, and quite warm, and we headed down steeply to Grwyne Fechan from Pen Twyn Glas. From the airless bottom of the valley, a steep haul led round to the east of Pen y Gadair Fawr. Locals took a better contouring line lower down, but I didn't lose too much ground and was comfortably in the top 10 at this stage. Superb twisting and exciting descent through a bracken path to the steep-sided valley of Grwyne Fawr, then a river crossing before a very steep climb up to Chwarel y Fan above the Vale of Ewyas and the English border. Then came a fantastic and surprisingly narrow ridge, brilliant running although I was starting to tire a bit. Over the summit of Bal Mawr before a draining and complex descent down to the road in the Mynydd Du forest. Then came more complex route finding through the maze of forest tracks leading to the open hillside below the final peak of Crug Mawr. I had my only gel, and kept a reasonable pace going - all the time unsure about the route through the thick woodland. Eventually, I emerged and tried to catch a biggish group in front on Crug Mawr. I reached the summit in 2.35, to be told by the marshall that it was '10 minutes to the finish'. Stomach cramps marred a superb descent, but it got worse as I arrived at a crossroads. No idea where to go, so waited for the next runner to join me. Straight down it was, to some tape marking the final descent. This was a relief, so I switched off and concentrated on a flat-out descent to the village. Bad decision, as I flew past the crucial stile, lost 8-10 minutes, and ruined the race. Rather gutting, as I was leading my category in the Champs before the race. The South Wales curse continues: the third time I have made a serious route-finding error in a race down here - that said, I'm told the descent from Crug Mawr is the exact reverse of the climb on Llanbedr-Blaenafon, so perhaps I have few excuses.