Time/Position: 1.46.29 (17th from 250 [1st V50])
I spent most of 1994 living in a builder's portakabin above Penrhyncoch so have an attachment to this area. I rarely come here though, and this was one of those races I have somehow missed over the years. With the cancellation of Twin Piers, the time was right to change that, and the course suited my current training regime fairly well. I was pretty pleased with the performance, even though it felt very slow initially with much of the climbing concentrated in the first half. The route leaves Devil's Bridge and then climbs gradually up the Merin valley - all very tranquil, typical mid-Wales scenery. From here, it gets tougher, with a steep climb up 'the shoot' followed by more firetracks and trails up to the highpoint near the top of Pen y Garn, around 2000ft up. Wonderful wild scenery and views over the 'Welsh wilderness' to the east, made even better by the superb sweeping descent taking runners down to the Arch, a famous watershed. After this, steep zigzags began to sort the field out a bit, with runners tiring, a sharp climb followed by more very fast descending on superb fire tracks to regain the Merin valley outward route. Then comes a vicious sting in the tail, which it would have been nice to have prior knowledge of! Luckily I managed to get a gel down before a very sharp climb over the little hills east of Devil's Bridge. This was like one of the Tuesday Eryri evening races appended to the end of a tough half marathon, it felt just like a short fell race. Fortunately I had a bit left, so kept a decent pace up the climb before the steep but grassy descent looping back to the finish at the Woodlands campsite. Conditions were good throughout: high milky cloud, not too warm, and dry underfoot with very little recent rainfall.
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