Talybont-on-Usk set in the foot\nhills of the famous Pen-y-Fan mountain was the start point for the next\nadventure on my XC odyssey. To this point I have mainly ran cross country,\ncoastal path and walked many of great Britain\u2019s mountainous regions, but never\ntaken on trying to run a Mountain Marathon. \nThe sun was beaming into the tent from around 5.00am n Saturday morning and\nhad dried up the previous days and nights rain. All my gear was laid out and ready to go, so I\nfuelled up and walked to the tent where the safety briefing would be held\nbefore the start at 8:30am. After the normal emergency numbers, signage etc was\ncomplete approx. 180 of us lined up and we set off on our merry way. All looked\ndecked out very similar and professional with backpacks, caps, sunglasses,\ncarbon walking poles and long sleeve tops on. I think I was the only one with\nshort sleeves on at that point and looked a little under prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first couple of miles was the\nusual plod out up a narrow path with people desperate to get past. It finally\nwidened to a slight downhill and most of the eager runners were left behind. We\ncarried on the wide compacted track to the 7 mile check point and gained around\n1000ft . I had buddied up with a couple\nof guys by then and we paced our way at 9min mile. The next 2.5 mile was all\noff-road and the views were becoming more spectacular. It was here the first climb started, 500ft in\n0.5mile, like walking up very steep stairs, sapping your thighs of energy. No\none ran these sections that I could see although the fast boys were way ahead\nof us. Once at the top we turned right to follow the ridge to Corn Du another\n600ft of climb but spread of 2 miles. \nThe path was hard to pick a route as it was uneven rocks so progress for\nall was slow and tiring. But then at\nlast after approximately 12.5 miles of uphill we had a long decent of 1.3mile\nfrom almost the top of the mountain all the way back down. Great! time to make\na few places back up so down I hurled myself, on a wide compacted track with\nrock breaks for water every 30meters. \nVery busy with tourists doing the normal Pen-y-Fan up and down walk from\nthe Storey Arms. Then with just 30 meters to go from the bottom my trailing leg\ncaught a rock which sent me crashing on to the hard rock path. I managed to\nroll slightly over towards a ditch which took some of the force out but it left\nme with a grazed and bruised hip, cut hands and elbow. No time to wait brush\noff the dust and onto the halfway point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time to regroup have some food,\ndrink assess the damage and prepare for the toughest part of the route to haul\nmyself all the way back up to the top. A steady plod all the way although it\nbecomes very steep as you approach Corn Du and you are there. The views and\nphysical relief are a welcome pleasure as Pen-y-Fan is within sight so off I\ngo. Once on the top of Pen-y-Fan I take time for a few photos including\nthoughts of those family members with Alzheimers I ran on behalf of. Right 10\nmile to go keep positive and I head down to whats known as the \u2018Gap\u2019 where a\nwelcome check point and water top up was. Then back up hill again on difficult\nterrain and finally I can recognise the route down. Easy this time soft\nunderfoot, make your own route down and the motivation of the finish. I reached\nthe last check point with a large group of runners gathering their last ounces\nof energy to get them home. I just grabbed a quick drink and continued until I\nreached Pencelli and headed along the canal to the finish. The canal seemed to\ngo on and on, until finally we turned off and headed down to the finish. My\nwife was there to meet me and get me a well deserved beer as I felt absolutely\nworn out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I managed to finished 62 \/ 174 in\na time of 5hr 46mins, no way I could have done it quicker and very pleased I\nwas around the top third finishers. Thanks to all that sponsored me, we raised\njust over \u00a3500 for the Alzheimers Society. \nBig thanks to the event organiser\u2019s \u2018Trail Events\u2019, helpers and marshals\nthat kept us going around the course, it was brutal\u2026loved it x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talybont-on-Usk set in the foot hills of the famous Pen-y-Fan mountain was the start point for the next adventure on my XC odyssey. To this point I have mainly ran cross country, coastal path and walked many of great Britain\u2019s mountainous regions, but never taken on trying to run a Mountain Marathon. The sun wasContinue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-updates","category-uncategorised","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdrr.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}