Black Mountains Fell Race 27.9

I woke up scared.  And it was foggy.  But by Abergavenny the sky was a pure stretch of blue and the sun shining.

In the school car park at Lanbedr, Chepstow Harriers were arriving; me, Dick, Mark English, Paul Murrin, Andy & Gill Stott, Sue & Gerry Ashton, Andy Blackmore, Andy Creber and Matthew Lawson. Gill was supporting and Andy C carrying a chair confirmed that he was too.

A pretty little church below the mountains in the sunshine, a beautiful setting for a race start.  However, having done the race last year, I was more than a little daunted by the thought of the distance and climb to be covered before we returned. With foot hurting, stomach gurgling, sniffing, coughing and just hoping to do better than the 6.5 hour recce the week before, I set off.

This was no race for me to start fast.  Subsequently I didn’t see Matthew or Paul during the race, they were gone. 

I did start ahead of Sue Ashton and Dick but was not ahead for long.  They both past me on the climb to the first trig point at Pen Cerrig Calch.  I kept them in sight along the rocky path to Pen Alt Mawr and managed to get ahead on the flat (ish) track to Pen Tywn Glas.  On this descent my recce was lost and I took a bad route, struggling along this diagonal descent too high, while Sue and Dick sped by below.

As Pen-y-Gadair loomed above me, the water in the stream was lovely and cool, had a quick dunk as I watched Dick steaming up the most brutal, never-ending mountain.  I did meet Sue on this climb, she had decided to ‘enjoy’ the race and was chatting away!  Meanwhile Dick disappeared into the distance not to be seen again.

By the top of Pen-y-Gadair, Gerry had decided to take his own route back in the sunshine.

I was very grateful to see Gill with a drink, before clambering up by the fence on the way to Chawarel Y Fan.  At this stage I was convinced that it was quicker  to walk on all fours, rather than upright.  I was looking forward to the spectacular ridge run, during which I was pretty much on my own,  apart from a walker in a raincoat who looked a bit like Andy Blackmore.  I politely shouted ‘excuse me’ only later to discover it actually was Andy, suffering from blistered feet.  Sorry, Andy, I didn’t think it could be you.

Caught a few runners on the decent off Bal Mawr. Briefly missed the turning into the woods.  Cooled off in a waterfall.  Spotted Gill again with more drinks, urging Andy to ‘get on’ not to loose his place.  Andy S kindly offered me some of his Kit Kat as we both ran up the track to the farm below Crug Mawr, commenting on Dick flying past us earlier.

After the slog up the stony gully it was good to be on the way to the last summit, where Andy Creber was stacked with gels and very welcome water.  Little chat with Andy before the relatively smooth and wonderfully  final descent to Llanbedr.  Nearly took out a (real) walker in my glee.

On the very last rocky climb I spotted a Chepstow vest,  Mark English, thinking he needed some encouragement I caught him and tried to get him to chase me but sadly he was more than knackered.  He still improved his time from last year and was well within 4 hours but it was not what he’d hoped for.  Mark you did look ill at the end, hope you are feeling better now.

I was please to finish in 3hrs 49min.  Sitting in the sunshine on the church steps were Matthew and  Dick. Matthew, the first C.Harrier, had finished 9th in 3hrs 19min, Paul Murrin 2nd C. Harrier (I think had gone home), Dick 3rd CH, finished 19th in 3hrs 37min.

Andy Stott finished not long after Mark, next was Sue who had enjoyed the race.

The winner, Matt Palmer did 2.39, 2nd, Martin Shaw, 2.44.  3rd overall position was Jackie Lee, who finished in under 3 hours- brilliant time.  It was her 7th year as 1st Lady.

Thanks to John Darby for organising the race and all the helpers, including Sharon Woods, Emma Bayliss, and our own Andy Creber and Gill Stott.

I was very happy with my £5 prize - obviously the envelope with ‘3rd Lady’ is worth 10 times that to me.  Dick out did me with a £7 prize ( 1st in category ) and definitely deserved it - fantastic run - respect.

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