Five Carnethy travelled South to meet the dragon of Wales. Four were running, one (Matt Curry) was part of the paparazzi for the day with instructions of action shots of good running style and muscle definition, or featuring the dashing good looks of the Carnethy team.
The race – a south to north route over the 15 tops in Wales over 3000ft, starting and finishing near sea level, required being vegan for a day for some vague reason. The fire from the Dragon must have some cause after all… The route forms part of the Skyrunning series and Anthony Hemmings and Alan Renville needed to get one over on me after I’d pipped them in Glencoe last year. Ross Christie had a chance of a podium place and set off from the 5am midges at the start with the lead pack to the top of Snowdon, cloaked in thick mist and covered with probably >200 people doing the 3 summits race at 0620.
After drinking some new vegan drink (bad idea), my guts were in a bad way all the way up and I was quickly left in the wake of Ant and Alan but far enough towards the front of the chasing pack of starters to have a clear-ish route over Crib Goch. My old party trick was to traverse this with no hands, but it was a bit damp and also strewn with early morning summiteers who I asked to sit or stand still as it ‘ran’ past putting the odd hand down. I sneaked passed Alan who took a high line at one point, soon to meet up on the descent. Above Nant Peris we came across poor Ross who had crooked his ankle in a hole while in 7th place. He seemed ok but limping badly, so in Top Gear fashion, we left him for Matt to pick up, leaving Ant as first Carnethy.
A re-fuel at Nant Peris after 2.5hrs and it was clear that we would not be beating Colin Donnolly’s top-to-top record of 4hrs 20mins. The climb into section 2 onto Elidir Fawr and the Glyders was long but ok, looking first onto the massive slate tips of Llanberis, then the lake that empties to drive the hydro scheme through breaks in the cloud for a moment. This section took us on some great tracks, then rough scree and slabby boulders and a bit of scrambling here and there. Ant liked the Glyders section so much that he ran around in circles trying to convince others that they were going in the wrong direction and wasting precious time. Tryfan was fun and a steep decent ended the mid-section in about 5hrs.
The last leg required a good refuel at Ogwen and my system was still not great. Boiled potatoes were preferred over a variety of vegan offering. The flapjack was avoided as it looked like 20mins per mouthful was required to swallow it. No sign of Ant or Alan so a slow plod up Pen yr Ole Wen took an hour. From there, most of the Carneddau are runnable on motorway paths or small trods with the odd bog and just when you needed it a wee red flag appeared that mark these Sky races. My group of runners swapped places a few times but in my usual way on long runs, my guts settled and I found this the best leg and felt good, running all but one climb. I nipped ahead of a few folk and hoped to see Ant or Alan on the out and backs. Alas, they had a big lead on me and had run together a bit.
The descent from the final hill was long and fabulous running as the sun broke through. Fast green trods and tracks took us from the hillside vegetation onto grazing land past ponies, goats and sheep to a steep road descent to the finish and a few bits of slate for medals, and more varieties of veggies. The organisers laid on music bands and massages and even a shower.
Top race, great route, interesting running. I measured 58km (36 miles) and 4088m ascent.
The winning time was 07:46:39 by Mike Jones who was 1hr 10mins ahead of 2nd place!
Carnethies:
Antony Hemmings 10:23:46 (23rd)
Alan Renville 10:40:25 (36th)
Mark Hartree 11:09:31 (45th)
217 started, 149 finished. Results here.
We all agree that it was tougher than expected but a great way to see Snowdonia, albeit, we saw very little in the clag while we soon heard Lochaber had had it good… We celebrated Ant’s birthday that night eating pepperoni pizza and garlic bread, vanilla ice cream and beers watching the footy, while Ross hobbled about with Matt serving us. Thanks guys. As for the Vegan bit…well, make your own mind up.
Mark Hartree