Knowing when your beat?

- I knew.

We drove over to Llanbedr at just gone midday. By the time we got there and kitted up it was close to two o'clock and off we set. From Llanbedr it's almost straight into the ascent. Steep at first and then after a couple of kilometres it steadies to a meandering climb all the way along the ridge, passing Crug Mawr towards Pen y Gadair Fawr. It was along this ridge that Helen ran me into the ground. She pegged it away from me and I just couldn't keep up. Still, I got there in the end - but apparently, she'd had time for a small siesta, a cup of tea - with cucumber sandwiches with the crust cut off, of course and some fondant fancies.

From Pen y Gadr Fawr we dropped down north eastwards into the valley before Helen headed up the other side to Chwarel y Fan - try saying that with your false teeth in. I say Helen because Brown Dog was panting a bit in the heat and I very kindly volunteered to take her along the road in the valley to await Helen at the road crossing as she came down from the ridge at Bal-Mawr before we both then headed back up, through the woods, to Crug Mawr - I was so looking forward to that climb of 7-800 feet to the ridge but the animals come first in my book, can't face to see them struggle. Sadly it meant I ran a mile less than H and that little bit of ascent less - shame, a real damn shame.

Finally, after 3 hours and 20 minutes we made it back to the van. I GPSed it as 25km and 3,600 feet of ascent. Even if I did miss out that small bit - all in the name of animal care, mind - I'm still quite pleased with the run. The last time we ran the same route - with the extra mile and 7-800 feet I took a staggering 4 hours 9 minutes, so even with the reduced route I was still a fair bit quicker than last time out...