Llangynhafal Loop - 2nd May 2015

This race was not in the plan for the year but it was a local race and quite a few from the club were doing it.  I had done it two years ago in 54 minutes. It is advertised as 5miles and 1500' but on my watch it is a bit shorter with more ascent at 4.7 miles and 1600'.  It was horrible weather from leaving home and really I did not feel up for this at all.  After registration in the Golden Lion in Llangynhafal with the TV showing the news of a new princess it was time to venture outside.  Cagoules were essential kit and hats and gloves were recommended but I took full kit anyway knowing that I would be waiting around at the finish.  So the warm up is a 10 minute jog to the start and then the decision was whether to run in a waterproof or not. In the end I opted for without and then we were off on a nice traversing path for about a mile until the 1,000' climb started to the top of Moel Famau.  I did ok on the less steep section but began to suffer as it steepened and eventually needed hands in the stoney gully. I was overtaken by a couple of people here. Then we were able to run properly again on an undulating section that I really like.  You can get a shift on here and managed to get in front of a couple of runners.  This is where I started to have a bit of a battle with Jeremy from Meirionnydd.  He would go past me on the uphill and I would go past him on the flat and downhill. Then at about 3 miles there is a long  downhill section which is things were kind would take you to the finish but the course has a very nasty steep sting in the tail which is a 300' pimple which has to be climbed before the run in. Here I lost out to Jeremy's superior climbing strength and could not catch him again on the downhill. I came in 16th and 4th in my age group! But 4 minutes faster than last time. On uploading to Strava I discovered that Gary, who I follow but have not met, was in the race just behind me so used the wonderful Flyby feature to see how we compared. It was interesting to see how close we were. See below: