Llantysilio Mountain Fell Race - 28th March 2015

Last year this race was held in beautiful spring conditions. But this year two weeks later into March and Saturday the 28th dawned with rain and wind.  Although the forecast said it was going to clear by the start of the race Duncan, Menai and I walked up to registration in the Sun Inn in the rain with only the most optimistic of us thinking that it was brightening up.  Numbers seemed down on the previous year probably because the race was not part of the WFRA northern series.  However many of the usual suspects were present and nerves jangled a bit before the damp start.  After a brief briefing about the changes to the end of the race we set off fast along the road before climbing to Graig-ddu farm.  Last year we had the whole farm family out supporting the race but this year only the old man of the farm was out.  I said diolch and carried on up the hill.  Having learnt my lesson from last year and getting stuck behind slower runners going up the steep rocky spur to Mynydd Bychan I had pushed on but was suffering by the top. I was being tracked by a runner in blue but managed to lose him on the next section which was gently downhill through gorse and heather before hitting a grassy track.  This is the sort of terrain I love. We were then hit by the long drag up to the ridge path towards Moel Morfudd.  This was hard work and I made no impression n the runners in front although they did not seem that fast.  All of this time we had been in the teeth of the wind which was hard going but on reaching the ridge track it was nice to have the wind behind us. Sadly this was not much help when it came to the long slog up to the top of Moel Morfudd. 

On the top the wind really took hold and pushed me over the top of the hill.  Sadly this meant I could clearly hear the footsteps of a runner behind as I carefully picked my way down the slope and along the ridge.  The footsteps eventually caught me before the climb up to Moel y Gamlin.  Again the Mercia runner did not seem to be going that fast and he looked as if he was about as old as me so I really tried to stay with him.  However it was not to be he got away from me on the climb. More annoyingly although the wind was helping me to run in places on the climb a young lad went past me at the top.  At the top of Moel y Gamlin the wind was awful so it was nice to start down the eastern slopes with about 2 miles to go to the finish. This new route followed very narrow sheep paths that were hard to negotiate with big feet with the wind buffeting from the side. The route then contoured back round Moel y Gamlin into the wind and then down a spur to the lovey grassy track to the finish road.  I was able to get a real move on on this section and avoide being overtaken by e Clwydian runner. I was a bit disappointed by my time being down 3 minutes on the year before but realised that everyones times were down because of the new route and the wind. I was very surprised to find out that the Mercia runner was not in my age group and I ended up winning the M50 category and Menai won the F50.  Our results were: David 13th in 68.19 1st M50, Duncan 29th 78.07 and Menai 92.19 1st W50.