Sunday, September 22, 2013

Five Go Running Up A Mountain

It was an early start - well early for a Sunday. I drove to Raglan picking up New Dave on the way to
rendezvous with Judith, Matthew and James to continue the journey to Llanbedr. Kit checked, shoes donned we set out. Five went running up a mountain.

The pace was steady - although for me at the moment it was a little bit of faster steady than I was hoping for. Not to mention my legs were feeling surprisingly bad after yesterdays orienteering and warm up cool down runs.

It was a good recce. We managed to try a few route tweaks. Some good. Some not so good but that's the point of the recce. There were few points where we were tempted to play Beat the Blore but we decided against it in the end - just kidding. We all got round and we were all on speaking terms at the finish - always a bonus. I didn't win the lottery and so will have to go back to work Monday. And we all arrived safely home afterwards - at least I am assuming we all got home safely otherwise Judith was on The Facebook while she was driving...

So, some facts and figures of the day. Despite being much more overgrown than last year the alternate route to Crug Mawr is 1416m as compared to the the 1584m of Mushroom Alley. A whole 168m shorter. And even more interesting nee amazing is, that despite it being really really slow due to the overgrown plant stuff, and my confession that, due to the afore mentioned grounds, I won't be using it in the race this year, my ascent time, as clocked from the start of MA was only about a minute slower than my ascent time via MA in the 2011 race (adjusting for the call of nature incurred back then)!!! In a less vigorous growing year I really think it might have some merit.

Now the alternate route to Pen y Gadir Fawr on the other hand, has far more merit. Despite being a full 133m longer than my normal 'straight at it' route I was only 3 minutes slower than back in the 2011 race and we really weren't pushing at all on the climb today. Chatting, looking at the views, the ice-cream break, route discussion - as you do. I can't divulge the secrets suffice to say for me, 'The Track' is a goer and I will be utilising it in the race.

Anyway, that's the end of the stats and the end of the post. So it's goodnight from me and well, I got nothing else. Goodnight.

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