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. 

Yr Aran Fell Race - 21 March 2015

As my build up for the Everest Marathon this race had been looming on the horizon since the New Year and with a couple of short fell races under the belt at Moel y Ci and Pipe Dream it was time for a testing mountain effort.  I had recced the the route a couple of weeks before with Vic Belshaw on a cold and windy day which was a sobering experience in that it took a good 2 hours 45 to cover the 10.5 miles and 3000' foot of ascent - out and back. On the day four of us made the trip from Denbigh: Vic, Emma Collins, Vic's brother Mick and myself.  We met fellow Denbigh Harrier Agnew there who was in the midst of epic Ultra Marathon training and had warmed up for the race with a 10 miler the day before - is that sane?  

The route of the out and back race

The race is well organised by Meirionnydd Running Club and part of a three race winter series. There was a good field for the race with well over 100 lining up for the start as it was a counter for the North Wales series.  The day was glorious with blue skies and a gentle breeze.  We were told that it was minus 5 on the top so I abandoned my initial plan of running in only a vest and put on a thermal and gloves. After 10 minutes of running I regretted this decision. I wasn't the only one as I passed a couple of people en route de-robing.  I took it easy at the start as it was a bit crowded and lost sight of all the Denbigh runners and Mick.  However after 5 minutes of puffing along the farm track I went past Peter.  The first couple of miles of the race is a simple slog uphill along a footpath with most of it runnable.  

The route for the first three miles follows the right side of the ridge. That is Aran Benllyn in the distance

I settled into the familiar battles with other runners adopting run/walk techniques and those who never walk.   My preferred method is to run until it is impossible.  I managed to overtake a few on this stage of the race including Vic who seemed to be throwing his water bottle around.   Then came the steep section up to Aran Benllyn which involved scree, rock and snow. Again I made a few places on this stage of the race which culminates in the heartbreak of seeing the highpoint Aran Fawddwy a good 15 minutes away in the distance.  This is called the plateau which is in effect a rocky, broken and undulating section which requires decent route finding to get the best line. I was a bit taken aback when a group of runners in front of me crossed a stile onto the eastern side but I stuck with my recced route and was relieved after 5 minutes or so to see one of the leaders coming towards me having already reached the summit of Aran Fawddwy. On the plateau I think the recce and route finding gained me about 4 places. Then the really rocky section started up to the summit.  This was more of a scramble than a run which was complicated by the leaders coming down towards us. I think I caught site of Mick but it was a bit of a blur. Eventually I got to the top in about 1 hour and three minutes but didn't take time to look at the spectacular view as I really knew I was only half way through the race. On my way down the rock summit I gave Vic some encouragement and told Peter to stop moaning as he was telling other runners that this was the worst section of the race.  By this stage my route finding was not great and I used the fence line as my marker which meant some pretty awful terrain under foot and plenty of swearing. I managed to hold my own and indeed overtook one person on the way back across the plateau.  However the steep downhill across the scree lost me 4 or 5 places.  Then there was the seemingly never-ending run to the finish.  This is about 3 miles but with tiredness it felt longer.  The final mile and a half is fast but punctuated with steep stiles which seem massive after nearly two hours of tough running.  A few spectators gave some welcome encouragement towards the end and I was delighted to get a finishing time of 1.54.34 and 37th place. The others were Mick 21st in 1.47.36 and first M50, Vic 47th 1.59.54, Peter 53rd 2.03.12 and Emma 77th 2.13.38 1st W50. Full Results are here. In retrospect I enjoyed it and will be back next year I hope. Next is the lovely Llantysilio Fell Race near Llangollen.

The headline says "Too much jogging 'as bad as no exercise at all'"

Some recent research published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology  has been reported as saying that too much running is bad for you.  The research looked at about 1000 runners and 3000 non exercisers and found that all cause mortality did improve with exercise.  It also found that high intensity running did not necessarily improve mortality rates. You have to subscribe to read the whole article but as with all research I am sure there is more to this than just the headline. What worries me more is that the headline is likely to put people off running at all despite the evidence.

It does seem that someone has read the article fully and it seems that this is reheated research from 2012 and is co-authored with a well known "running kills you" academic.  The Runners World article http://www.runnersworld.com/health/the-supposed-dangers-of-running-too-much picks some good holes in the data that seems unbalanced and takes no account of gender.

Parkrun age participation

As I am part of the volunteer team for a new Parkrun in Conwy ( www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/ )I took more than a passing interest in the latest newsletter.  There was an interesting graph showing participation based on age:

I found this shape interesting and fact that numbers of both men and women tailed off so quickly in the 50s and 60s.  More incentive to keep going then.

The Everest Marathon Training Starts Here

For about a year I have been contemplating doing a real adventure race and of course with my time in the Gurkhas, love of mountains and a trip to Far Western Nepal recently this became the target.  So the deed is done.  My entry has been accepted and the race takes place on 30 November this year (2015).  It is apparently a pretty tough route even if it is mainly "downhill" with undulations. the course organiser describes the race as:

"

"The race starts at Gorak Shep (5184m), just below Everest base camp, and finishes in the Sherpa 'capital' of Namche Bazaar (3446m). The course is a measured 26.2 miles/42 km and, although it is basically downhill, the trail undulates and there are two steep uphill sections." 

The altitude will be the main challenge as walking uphill at this altitude is difficult enough let alone running.  Here is the route:

So what is the training regime?  A long hilly run once a week building up time on my feet.  I will do a lot more fell running rather than roads this year.  Apart from that I want to keep up the speed work and shorter races.  I will probably aim for a long fell race at the end of the Summer.

It's official - Rivalry is good for bringing out better running performances

I read an article last week entitled "To Run Faster, Get a Rival" which made a lot of sense.  Basically some research from the New York Stern school of business indicated that those runners running against rivals or who had rivals used this competition boost their own performances. The author of the research Gavin Kilduff says of competitive spirit, "This suggests that we may be able to boost our own levels of motivation and performance by either forming rivalries or harnessing the ones we already have."  Now anyone who is in a running club knows intuitively that this is true. Some of the best rivalries are within a club and I know that if a club member is right behind me or within reach in a race I will make an extra effort to beat them.

However with the advents of ranking systems for age this is enhanced beyond the club.  Using a ranking site such as Run Britain  it is possible to form rivalries with other runners without them knowing.  This is how it works.  You do a race and the results are posted onto Run Britain.  You see who is just ahead of you and then you compare your performances head to head on the site.  So the next race you enter you know how they have been performing and you then can make an extra effort to get ahead of them.  Below is an anonymised example.

The other change for older runners is the whole age category ranking system so that you can use Run Britain to find out where you are in the national rankings for different distances and events throughout the country. 

In addition to the rankings there are great sites like Strava that allows you to create segments or runs or whole runs that other runners then join a leaderboard for. So say you did a run in London and someone else had created a segment on that run when you uploaded your run to the Strava site you would be told where you were on the leaderboard.  Sometimes you are at the top of a leaderboard for segment - King of the Mountain or Course Record holder and sometimes you get deposed.  This increases rivalry and thus your performance.

I have been known to explore the segments in an area I am visiting to make sure I run it and see how I compare.

Parkrun - doing a recce for a possible route in Deganwy, North Wales

Today was meant to be a rest day before doing an 11k Trail Race on Sunday but all Parkrun recces have to be done at 9am on a Saturday i.e. the normal time for a Parkrun.  So this morning we set off for Deganwy 30 minutes away to park in the RSPB car park near the intended start.  The route was wonderful being mainly flat and on even trails with the most wonderful views of the Carneddau hills, Conwy Castle and the Conwy Estuary out to sea.  I think this run when it gets off the ground will be a huge success. Below is a possible route but please remember this probably will change when other options are considered and the course is accurately measured.

I took another Autographer time lapse video too.