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Cheers for that Uatb, I hadn't got that one. I also believe that there was another email saying that runners could set off any time they wanted? I've emailed Dan asking if he can send me copies of any emails I may have missed. btw, I've heard that there have been 200 entries, but only 50 of those are runners. Any more rumours?
I think I had heard the figure of 250 entries quoted, and that runners can set off with the walkers. Not sure about the number of runners entered though, there are quite a few local runners entered, probably 50 or so I think and a group of four from Holland. The Runners World forum also has a number of entrants making comments, some people are travelling from out of the area etc.
Entries close on 16th March
Just out of interest. Do you all think some runners should be allowed to start with walkers?
Interesting to read these emails from the RO, I haven't received them either!
I don't really see that it matters as there are such small numbers of us in terms of when we all set off. Can't imagine we'd pose a hazard of a stampede!
The only thing I can think of is the sociability factor of the runners setting off later and seeing the walkers again later on in the route
I just hope I catch them, Kathy!Quote:
Originally Posted by Kathyf
ha ha, good point - same here!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Nigel
I reckon we'll start picking off the first walkers shortly after the pub checkpoint, but some of the serious LDWA types may well beat the runners as they click-clack off into the distance with their fibre glass poles.
fully expecting to be beaten by a serious walker, my mate was half considering carrying a pair of poles to assist her. We are out for a day in the hills and to finish it, it has been good to focus on the recce sessions and to get to know the area wellQuote:
Originally Posted by (notsomuchofa)Fellrunner
Off to do the top loop for the first time (except for the bits I've been adding to the bottom loop ) tomorrow. Then will do the bottom loop (plus) again Sunday and thats pretty much my recces over. Do Yr Aran the week before and then , hopefully, I'll be set.
will probably do a variation of the top loop one evening next week, and that will be the recces over, taking part in an aquathon the following weekend, so need to get a bit of swim practice in as well
Did the top loop. Bugger!!!! Those road hills are not nice! Took over 2 hours to do 11.56miles and 2,390ft climb (but the bottle of 14.5 strength red wine last night did me no favours). I now calculate the whole race to be 26.39 miles long with 5,500ft of climb. One more recce to do on Sunday.
I can whole-heartedly agree that those hills on the top loop are nasty never-ending gits on the road bit. I'm done recce wise now and want some variation or i'll get bored of the route. Going to head out to Moel Y Gamelin area tomorrow and spend 4-5 hours or so out there getting a last big run in. Will do something shorter on the Sandstone Trail next weekend instead.
Last recce done. 19.27 miles and over 4,000ft. Bottom loop plus another loop around Moel Arthur. Beautiful day. If we get a day like today it will be a great day.
It was a gorgeous day to be out, did chunks of 3 fell races - 16miles and 5600ft, legs were protesting for the last few miles! we topped it off with a cuppa and some cake at the Ponderosa cafe to recover.
I really hope the weather is that good on the day.
P.s. has anyone had any new emails from the RO, i've had nothing for weeks now?
I've not had any emails, not even a reply to my email asking about any emails I may have missed out on :closed: .
18.7 miles for me on Sunday. Shall have a final run out this weekend, probably from Moel Arthur along the bridlepath to Moel y Parc & back over the hills, avoiding the drop down to the pub. Personally I'm hoping for cool weather, I've not had the chance to run in any warm weather this year & it could be carnage if my first warm run is a marathon.
Kathy what route did you run over the weekend? After the Excalibur is over I was planning on some runs from the Ponderosa. I'm assumimg you can run up towards the masts, catch up with Offa's Dyke drop down to Dinas Bran & Llangollen before running along to Rhewl & taking the Llantysilio's back to the Ponderosa.
Not long now...............
intend to run Moel Arthur, Moel Y Parc etc on Wednesday evening - avoiding the road, no need to recce that again
Weather wise, a day like yesterday would be perfect
another E mail from Dan the organiser has been sent today, has everyone received it?
I did but need to digest it. Saw it just before I went out running last night. Seems there are a plethora of start times????
Nope :thunbdown: .Quote:
Originally Posted by Usually at the back
Can you copy & paste it to the thread, or can I PM you my email?
Cheers.
Did 8 miles from MA carpark this morning. Thick pea-souper at home, beautiful & clear on the Clwydians.
NSMOAFellrunner - yes that's roughly where we went. We followed the Dee Valley way a lot and then the Clwydian way and Offas Dyke path too
Here's the rather complex e-mail!
Hello Everyone,
Not long to go now, until race day! Hope the training is all sorted, you don’t want to be exhorting yourself in the lead up!
We have had a massive amount of last minute sign-ups, so for some of you this will be your first correspondence from me so please see the links below for any who still needs to access the documents. Please do be aware if you have only registered recently, that there is still time to pass a sponsor form round friends and family. Even a little amount makes a massive difference to the lives of our children and their families!
Route Map: http://bit.ly/zKEqnM
Sponsor Form: http://bit.ly/wNrHKj
Route Brief and revised check point times: http://bit.ly/xUNMwk
PLEASE NOTE the map references are GUIDES ONLY, please use them in conjunction with the route map if you are intending to mark your own maps.
RACE DAY
Just to recap how the morning of the race is going to work, in know there has been some confusion and my previous email wasn’t particularly well set out!
Please see below for further explanation (groups will be assigned at the time of registration, i.e: 1st to register will be group 1 etc):
When you arrive to register, you will be guided into parking bays by members of the forestry commission. You then walk to the large blue Claire House tent, where the registration desks will be. Please be advised, that the tables will be laid out alphabetically by surname. Please queue at your corresponding table, and give the staff your surname and postcode, so they can quickly find you on the list.
They will then give you a short form to complete, as detailed below, and will tell you which group you will be setting off in. Once you have signed your form and handed it back, you will be given your race number and race card. The numbers are self-adhesive, so please peel of the back and stick your number onto your clothing. Once your group is called, please make your way to the start line, and then you will set off with the sound of the horn.
As you pass through the various check points, you will need to stamp your race card with the corresponding stamp at that point. They are self-inking stamps and if you have your card out to hand, the process should only take 20-30 seconds. You will need to hand in your card at the end of the race, with all 13 stamps on to verify your time.
When you pass through the finish line, you will need to hand in your race card to the desk, to receive your t-shirt and your meal voucher. There is a catering van in the site, where you will then be able to exchange your meal voucher for some hot food.
Set off times
All Walkers Must Have Set Off Anyone aiming for a sub-5hr Run
Each group will consist of approximately 25 runners. We have decided to use a computerised timing system, so it is IMPERATIVE that you set off in the group you are assigned at registration. I.e.: The 1st 25 people to register will be in group 1, the second 25 will be group 2 and so on. Please make sure that if you are an experienced fell runner, in this area, and you are confident of completing the route in under 5 hours, that you make the people aware when you register so you are put into the 9:30 time slot. This will allow the people setting off before you to disperse along the route, and also means you aren’t reaching a marshalled checkpoint, before the marshals arrive!
I appreciate it may be tedious, but at registration I will need everyone to resubmit their next of kin details, answer a few quick tick box questions on medical history etc and sign to say they agree to the race rules. These will be on display, throughout the registration area.
Finally I wish you all the best of luck, and as always if you have any queries or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Dan Thomas
Event Fundraiser
Claire House Children's Hospice
T: 0151 343 0883
M: 07850 002683
Top banana Kathy, thanks for that.
9:30 start for me. Get a lie-in that way ;) .
i'm thinking of trying for group 7 ;)
did most of the bottom loop and fenlli on sunday afternoon - it was glorious but blummin warm:w00t:
not long now
Hoping for cooler weather by Saturday, bit of a jog up Fenlli tonight, just the right temperature, but it was after 6, so not much sun left
Yes, I think maybe group 7. It'll be cooler Saturday. Perhaps too cool. Personally I'd like it the hotter the better.
Some last minute thoughts........................a bit of route advice for Fenlli - when we've headed up Fenlli in an anticlockwise direction do you think it matters if we go up the steps halfway, and turn right around the path to the back of Fenlli then up the 'Ponderosa' race route to the summit or should we go up the whole flight of steps in one go? Not clear from my map.
Also I'm unsure on descent if we go over the wonky stile or keep to the left of the steep fenceline??:confused:
Any advice gratefully received ta
Kathy
I can't say for certain Kathy, but I imagine it would behove ;-) the RO to make sure we stick to steps & proper paths......although wherever possible I avoid steps as they never seem to suit my stride length. Cheers for reminding me about that wonky stile, after 24ish miles that could be quite a challenge.
I have no idea about the correct route on Fenli, Kathy. We have debated it throughout our recces. In recces we've gone all the way on the steps and kept very left of the fence (Ie not straight down but a bit further to the left which is slightly further but more runnable). I wouldn't use the 'Ponderosa' route at all though. It might add considerable miles. Now the 'Druid' race route ...... that's another matter.:thumbup:
we have ran round anti clockwise and up the steps (not the Druid route), still some debate about the way down though
ha ha you're quite right Nigel - well spotted - i'd be well off course on the Ponderosa!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Nigel
Cheers everyone - glad to see we're all in the dark............................... on second thoughts i'll rephrase that, if we're getting benighted then we're beyond slow!! glad to see we're all as hazy as each other
A copy of a quick report I made for our club forum;
"Good event, a few things were a bit unconventional, but overall I really enjoyed today.
It was great to see so many club members, we seemed to have more runners than most, a real presence :D .
Upon arrival at the Start/Finish carpark we were being asked to drive up to the top carpark which seemed a bit harsh as people were having to park up, walk down to register, perhaps walk back up to get ready, back down to start & back up when finished :? . Registration was smooth enough, but the numbers were made of paper which wasn't ideal & I must have littered the hills as mine became lost during the race :oops: . At each CP we had to rubber stamp another piece of paper. I was concerned that this might cause hold-ups, but apart from one minor exception :roll: it worked out OK.
My main concerns about the race were;
Waterproof kit did not seem to be compulsory. In an event of this length, over this terrain, I feel that checks should have been made. The weather was fine for running today, cool & predominanly calm, but as soon as you stopped running..............just saying.
People should have been made more aware that they would be reliant on their own nav skills. It's no use just following walkers, I called several people back & know of 2 or 3 locals who went walkabout.
By far my biggest irritation was the amount of bottles from the aid stations that were left littering the hills :( . I got through a bit quicker than most & saw far too many casually lying on the paths. God knows what amount of gel wrappers, bottles & crap people were left on the hills at theend of the race :( .If they can't sort this out there is no way the event can be allowed to continue. I'll be emailing the organiser suggesting that they put a marshall 100 or so metres from the stations next to a bin telling competitors to drink or bin the bottles. I'm still fuming about this :evil: .
Despite this I really enjoyed the race. The walkers setting off early & runners being set off with times graded on their expected times worked well & there was plenty of encouragement & banter throughout the race & although a bit misty at times we could still appreciate some great views.
My nutrition/hydration plan worked out well. I left a bidon with sports drink & 6 gels shared between 2 flasks to be picked up in Cilcain & just needed water from the stations during the race. I've no idea what else was available at these stations. On my long training runs, my ave heart rate has maxxed at 140. I felt that I could aim for an average of 150, perhaps finish around 4hrs30 & still not ruin my Celtman training completely. I stuck rigidly to my plan until CP1 at 1.7 miles & was averaging 149 8) . At this point I had a conversation with a triathlete from another local tri club who wasn't quite ready to punch his card, but was willing to hang on to the punch until he was. I didn't think this was fair & may have articulated my feelings on the matter. I can't remember much of his reply, but I do remember the words "knob" & "triathlete" being mentioned. I'm sure more was said, but these were the words that hurt me most :lol: :lol: . Thereafter it was game on & for the rest of the run I averaged 160 :roll: :roll: . This meant I had completely bolloxed my sensible, canny approach & finished in a little under 3hrs45 :oops: :| .........but did exact my revenge, by some margin :wink: . It's difficult to say how I was positioned in the race overall due to the wave starts, but Rob Grantham of Ellesmere Port - who only decided to race a few days before as he needed "a 20miler for my London training" - bettered me by close to 15 mins :shock: which was pretty awesome."
FWIW my Garmin came out with 26.11 miles & 6850 feet.
Good report and observations. The car parking was very harsh, thankfully I had friends waiting for me a the end to drive me back up. I think the litter issue may well be a problem particuarly water bottles and numbers - not sure why people find it necessary to drop gel wrappers either.
Glad I spent a lot of time beforehand, some dodgy map reading going on with some participants. A lot of encouragement and friendliness though on the route (at my slow pace anyway), someone suggested that the race may be reversed next time to get Fenlli out of the way.
Kathy, what happened to your ankle? Apparently, a car was broken into, miney and rings stolen
Hopefully the race will have raised a lot of money
Quote:
Originally Posted by (notsomuchofa)Fellrunner
Is that off your garmin training centre or after uploading to Garmin connect?
Garmin connect seems to correct the data.. the training centre almost always over estimates by 25-40%.. I did a 10k race today.. the training centre said 1200ft of ascent, garmin connect 750 ft...
Training centre/connect? I've no idea Iain, I just plug it in to the computer. As I posted earlier in this thread I've little confidence in the altitude measurements & normally knock about a third off the figure that comes up on my screen. If I was more computer literate I'd investigate Garmin connect.
I've just read the post on the RW site about the thefts & that is really shit.
Kathy, what has happened to your ankle? Did you get around?
I made it (connect) 26.41 miles (had previously bot 26.4 in recces) and 5,561 ft ascent ( previoulsy had calculated about 5,500 from recces piecing bits together)Quote:
Originally Posted by (notsomuchofa)Fellrunner
Good report. I was pleased with my 5h 11m until I read it, though! Yes, I thought it was a great day. Weather helped. But some organisational issues which I agree with, wholeheartedly. We had about 16 Pensby Runners taking part so I'll compile a report and send it to the organiser. I do hope they dont mess with the route, though. The Organiser was talking of different options to finish in the top car park by chopping a bit here and adding a bit there.
One of our guys got his car broken into and £60 cash stolen. I believe there were at least 3 others.
Hi guys, yesterday was a good day out and a challenging route, it was great to see such a wide range of competitors taking part and very inspiring for lesser mortals like myself to be running with some real experts. I was relieved to catch lots and lots of walkers after the banter on here about that and pretty chuffed to catch some of the runners who had set off 2 half an hour before me too :w00t:
I hope the organisers sort out the litter issues as litter was quite prevalent and totally unnecessary when most people had rucksacks and bumbags. The 'wave' start was fine and there was plenty of water on offer on the way around.I have no issues with the lack of navigational direction, there were actually signs up in many places which I hadn't anticipated, having been given a map of the route and the checkpoint GRs. They were an added bonus as far as I could see. The LDWA event Open to Offas on a similar route has no signs at all and has a great deal more navving involved. Perhaps as you say they need to make people more aware of the need for self-sufficiency. The lack of kitchecks was also a slight concern as it could easily have been quite a different animal if the weather had turned out to be a little less perfect than it was. The paper numbers were very short lived, mine died at the Cilcain checkpoint as did several others by the sound of it from the lady marshall there. RIP!
The parking was ridiculous - I arrived at the bottom car park to be told I had to drive up and 'just walk down to registration' - and back, there was no word about this in the emails,when I asked why i was told it was because it was a 'visitors' car park! I'm afraid at that point I insisted I was a visitor and had no wish to walk to and from the top car park prior to a challenging off-road marathon thankyou very much!! I'm very saddened to hear that there were thefts - I have been told by several people that this is a local issue which unfortunately is not simply confined to yesterday's race but has been blighting the area for a while. There are also some signs up in various locations which are really sad to see suggesting that theft is rife from some of our remote hill carparks. Bad times :thunbdown:
I thoroughly enjoyed the race - my estimate of roughly 7 hours proved to be very conservative and I was thrilled to cross the line feeling relatively still full of beans at 6.24. :)
The only downer for me was my left achilles which has never ever been a problem i've had before. Sharon Basford, my Tattenhall Runners pal and I made it to the Kimnel Arms in 2 hours 15 feeling invincible (always foolish). We topped up on water, ignored the delicious smelling but potentially puke inducing soup tureen and set off up the hill. My achilles twinged slightly going up the road hill after the Kimnel Arms, I stretched and massaged it a bit and carried on with slight twinges every now and then for the next ten miles but was aware that if i pushed it or started leaping around I was in danger of really damaging it. I made the decision that as long as it was a dull and minor pain I would continue but if it began to give me real grief I would pull out so I didn't damage it too seriously but there's no doubt it slowed me down and a stopped to stretch it every time it twinged.
I ran the next ten miles more cautiously and with the help of some ibuprofen :thunbdown:. Moel famau was fine and Moel Fenlli seemed to just flow beneath my feet (possibly the caffeine gel i'd had 10 minutes earlier!), I flew down Fenlli but staggered out of the car park and through the final section at a limping jog. The St Johns were helpful with a big icepack at the end (although the St Johns girl did have to ask me how to spell achilles - bless!!)
It's sore and swollen today which is a bit of a downer. Any advice on achilles injuries - causes and treatments, very very gratefully received as I'm supposed to be doing the Sandstone Challenge in May and have no real idea why its happened as i've never had any issues with it before. ITB, Plantar fascia and calf are all familiar niggles but this is a new and highly unwelcome beast!!
Yesterday was a good day, despite injury and i'd like to do it again - i hope they don't mess with the route, i think Fenlli at the end is a great challenge.
In terms of stats - my garmin (in training centre) says 26.7 miles and 5470ft.
Well done to everyone else - some awesome times - anyone seen any official results yet??
That's your garmin training centre. If you create a garmin connect account: http://connect.garmin.com/Quote:
Originally Posted by (notsomuchofa)Fellrunner
And then you can sync your training centre to that and they must have a formula to correct your height data.. its much more accurate from connect..
You can also just down load sport tracks software on to your computer: http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks/
That's much more accurate for height gain, its a free version and easy to use.
Okay, okay Iain, one thing at a time. My Garmin Connects stats;
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/163743561
(26.11 miles & 5416ft.)
See. That's why you were 1hr 55 mins faster than me you did 0.3 less miles and 145ft less climb ... and they were the hardest bits, too!Quote:
Originally Posted by (notsomuchofa)Fellrunner