Reservoir Roundabout

[DazTheSlug]

splendid day out in a spectacular area new to me
great route too, although completely different from the one I was expecting! still, it was all good navigational practice (never looked at my map so often!)
great to meet moley, who was still going quicker than me even with a torn calf!
highlight of the day for me though, was passing under the bases of two MASSIVELY overtopping dams - just unreal :w00t:
Attachment 4405
5hrs 50mins for me - legs feeling "pleasantly stressed"

[sore legs]

Ran/waled with Molehill and his mate Alwyn for first hour and a half, after his calf went going up Cefn we took off with someone who turned out to be splatcher, kept him in sight until almost back down to the road/checkpoint. Then just the two of us - saw one or two other runners, leapfrogged a team of three inc one who was in a yellow top - Sorelegs? We followed them all the way, passed them when they missed a control after the church and very decently went back for it, and then choose a different (poorer) route on the way back, going up above the forest rather than staying on the track - I have had bad experiences on forest tracks that just end! Nick getting competitive towards the end was driving me up the hills - just what I needed!

BW you were right it was me in that bright yellow top in a group of 3. The other 2 had local knowledge and had done the previous one and the map checks were not as they should have been as we were busy gassing like old women - hence why we went back for that CP at the gate in the woods. Was that you that arrived at the penultimate CP just before us??

As DTS has shown with his photo - the damns were well impressive, I have never seen the quantity of water going over any damn like that before.

Legs are fine and it was a nice run out - I will use that route again for some training in the summer.

My route details are:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/62609140

[Boy Wonder]

That was us... Nick was in a blue jacket, I was in drab green.

See you again soon!

[molehill]

The catering never amounts to much on this event (cup of tea and dry biscuit on the way round), it isn't actually run as an ldwa event (no group involved) as Carl organises it as an independent walk/run (I think with the help of Elan Estates), which probably accounts for the "ambulance" on call, slightly increased cost - and lack of cake :thunbdown:. But it is registered in the ldwa handbook events list, as are many others. You need a group event to get good grub!

Came in about 3.15ish, but don't know when I started. You were better off going above the forest track, we all took that option as it's a nicer route (not quicker) and who wants another forest track when you don't have to?

[Splatcher]

I was hoping to get round in about 4:30, and timed it at 4:29:59 - precision running! I went round more or less with Bryan & Lynette from Bristol - we were within sight of each other or running together just about all the way. I think there were just two other runners in front of us, but we never saw them, just saw the studmarks. No idea who they were or what time they started. We managed to get round without any serious routefinding errors. The missing footbridge had us stopped briefly until we spotted the piers where it used to be. Then it was up to our knees through the ford instead - lovely.

[DazTheSlug]

I had the opposite problem crossing the Elan
I had no written description, and the old map I had borrowed only showed "Ford" :w00t:
I looked somewhat dubiously at the wide, fast-flowing RIVER
thought "sod that for a game of soldiers, I'll go round the road!"
then spotted the rope bridge

[molehill]

[QUOTE=Splatcher;385788] I think there were just two other runners in front of us, but we never saw them, just saw the studmarks. No idea who they were or what time they started. QUOTE]

Probably Rob & Sian from Brecon, they started running with the walkers. They got lost 3 times (nothing unusual there, it's their speciality) so very likely you actually finished well ahead of them.

[Splatcher]

Probably Rob & Sian from Brecon, they started running with the walkers. They got lost 3 times (nothing unusual there, it's their speciality) so very likely you actually finished well ahead of them.

Whoever it was they finished ahead of us: their studs were on the forestry track near the end. We'd been following the same two pairs of running shoes for a long way.

[Spadge]

If there were dog prints as well it was probably Mike and Phil from Llandrindod. No idea what the dog was called!

[Spadge]

Loved the mass start at the beginning. We wandered down at 9.30 and no one there .... had seen bodies running off from about 9.10!