Hmmm, if I am not racing my bike that weekend, I could cycle up on the Friday, off road, help you out on the Saturday, then cycle back again...
Printable View
Hmmm, if I am not racing my bike that weekend, I could cycle up on the Friday, off road, help you out on the Saturday, then cycle back again...
I will be there. Look forward to it. I did it last year (when i started getting into fellrunning properly) and it nearly killed me. It's one tough cookie. Great route and great cake afterwards. :-) Whats not to like.
Attachment 6825
The race is great and the ale sounds nice! You never know I might try and get there early this time!
Attachment 6826
Must try and get the Goldie to stock this one for our race in May!
Travelling to races is a big deal these days....and you wanna be sure that the race is worth the effort. This one is! Its a tough sonofabitch and IMHO the best race that includes Pen Y Fan.
For those who may be interested:
The race starts on well defined grassy/rocky tracks.
It then plunges down a wicked traverse into a lonely valley. Nasty angle and lots of rocks hidden in tussocks.
You are then presented with a seemingly vertical wall which is the northern flank of Cribyn. Tussocks at base, bare rock at top.
After Cribyn, fab plunge down to Roman Gap before another steep drag up to Pen Y Fan summit.
After Pen Y Fan, one of those magnificent never ending ridge descents with Mid Wales laid out before you. You will be running at max pace for what seems like forever.
Last bit of race is back down a rocky track, lots of stumble opportunity before a last dash across a bog.
It's great!
Pretty much a perfect explanation of the race wheeze. Well worth the travel.
Thanks for the endorsements folks.
I'm looking for a photographer if anyone fancies it.. unfortunately Al Tye can't make it this year :(
Also, any cake requests, i fancy experimenting..
I only got to try a slice of one cake last year as it was all so popular that it went in minutes. Will try and grab some while it lasts this time.
Chocolate cake, lemon drizzle, carrot cake.... i love them all. :-)
I've never done carrot cake.. will give it a go this time. I've got a freezer now so can not do all in a mad rush.
I can do the photography... Will check calendar and let you know.
And try not to let you down by getting the start time wrong this time... :o
Ha i forgot about that.. let me know re: pics that'd be brilliant :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanneke
Chocolate brownie with orange and chilli.
Sounds like fancy foreign muck.. not sure for a trad fell race ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Brum
I haven't got any marshalls yet.. usual crew not available - any offers?
Just bumping my race up the forum..
Marshalls and photographer are now sorted, safety pins purchased, flags mended, entry forms printed, clipboards/table/tent blagged, beer on order. Let the cake making commence..
You're beginning to sound like a proper Yorkshire lass, good on yer girl!Quote:
Originally Posted by Longdogs
Had a word with the bog-monster...he will do his best.
The tussock-fiend has also promised a bumper crop this year and I know that Old Man Brycheiniog gave an extra thrust over the winter to steepen the north face of Cribyn. Crampons are now advised.
Cake baking progresses: 6 in the freezer.. 2 x choc fudge, 2 x orange and poppy seed, 2 x apple cake. 1 lemon drizzle and 1 fruit cake cooling on rack, 1 carrot cake in oven. To follow another lemon, fruit cake and carrot cake. Grating these ere carrots is a right arseache, won't be doing it again.
I always end up grating my fingers when I'm making carrot cake. It's not too bad, though, the colours just seem to mingle. (Wish I could make it to your race - even if just for the cakes.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Longdogs
Me and my brummie mate are travelling down to this one. Can someone tell me where we need to head when we arrive in Brecon please? Trying to sort out where we can leave the car.
I'll save you a bit Geoff... No blood in mine though. Problem is i don't own a grater so am using a potato peeler and pair of scissors... anyway, the last cake has just gone in the oven so that's me lot , hurrah!Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffB
There's a car park at the race start. Leaving the Brecon ring road (A40/A470) at the western end of town, take sign for town centre from this roundabout. After 500m turn right opposite pub.. race will be signposted from here, but when the road splits in 3 take the left fork and keep going straight on to the end of the road (2.5 to 3 miles from town). Look forward to seeing you mattyh :)Quote:
Originally Posted by mattyh
Matty presume you're going to come via M50? If so follow A40 for Brecon and when you get there stay on A40 to bypass the town. At the next roundabout (where the A470 goes south to cardiff) take the road on right back towards Brecon town centre (i e approaching from the West). After 1/2 mile there is a pub on your left, The Drovers Arms, turn RIGHT here.
Carry on under the bypass, the road wiggles up into the country until you reach a point where it splits into 3. Take the left hand road signed for Cwm Gwdi. Follow the road all the way up. Very narrow in parts but there is car parking at the end. Park tidy please coz lots of us will be trying to get in!
Website here with Google maps/race route if it helps http://home.cribynrace.org.uk/ :D I did it a few years ago and its a very good route. Bit far for me to go this weekend though after having last weekend away.
I have to get to Brecon by 4pm Friday to get the beer, so i'll be going round the route the night before to check things out. Party of campers has dwindled to myself and 4 scabby dogs, so anyone wants to offer entertainment in the Brecon region, i'm open to offers (Tom Daley lookalikes will be given priority). Failing that, if anyone lives in Brecon and can be back-up beer collector in case of bad traffic that'd be very helpful , ta :)
If you're on a tight schedule, M50 still has the roadworks. One lane still closed both ways J1 to J2....
Slipped to 3rd on the forum, so thought I would get you back to the top.
Cakes sound good, at the risk of having grated finger in next years bake, I know what you are getting for your next significant birthday. Hope the dogs don't reduce the offering overnight.
Tried my Tom Daley speedos on. Pork pies obviously not recommended by his dietician so will not fulfill that fantasy for you.
Oh yes, believe its a cracking race.
Larry have you had a few glasses of wine tonight? :) Was going to test sample some cake but feeling a bit nauseous after reading about your speedos.Quote:
Originally Posted by larry
Rumours of dog saliva in the cake mix are exaggerated.
Rumour has it there's some low key race on up in Yorkshire this weekend, but i'll be heading out of the county early on a Trans-Celtic beer express run, see you Cribyners on Sat. Anyone who asks me an annoying question while i am doing the results/times will receive the full force of shock and awe. Enjoy the race, and cake - remember to hold it above dog height, the hounds are not above a drive-by cake snatching.
Well done Long Dogs.
It happened.
I'm dead!
Sorry I had to high tail it before Prize Giving.
Fought off a cake crazed lurcher for a bit of vegan choccie cake and then scarpered.
Garmin link here:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/303923982
It's hard!
Well done Wheeze, and everyone else who ran. Great turnout today, 81! And perfect conditions, 2 new records. Thanks everyone for coming and thanks to all those who helped- Gill, Kay, Martin, Sue, John the Watch and Pat.. and gate-lady (sorry don't know your name!).
Sorry if my organisation was even more haphazard than usual, i had a rather fraught night last night. Having got the beer i went for a route recce, but one of my dogs conked out halfway up the Cribyn and had to be carried off. Got back in the light though and was all set for an early night. However, was not counting on Cwm Gydi car park being the local bloody dogging spot. Many hours of to-ing and fro-ing and much flashing of headlights was to follow. They come.. they flash.. they go.. they come.. they flash.. etc. Who would have thought an essential part of the R.O.'s kit would be a large sign saying "Piss off i have no interest in watching you copulate". Anyway, this desisted just after 2am when i was then able to get to sleep... alas, not for long. At 05:45 hours approx 100 soldiers arrived in a fleet of mini-buses, and proceeded to do.. well, i'm not sure what (probably not dogging), but i hope to God they weren't the SAS, because stealthy they were not. Or military intelligence, because even my friend's 12 year old daughter could tell you that a van with condensation on the inside of the windows is occupied. Pleasantries were exchanged, during which i ascertained that i was armed with 4 wimpy dogs (one of which unable to stand), and they had large guns. Now i am not known as being a person who likes to lose an argument, but when you know you're beaten you should walk away with dignity, with your head held high! Or, in my case, drive, with your head out of the window shouting obscenities. Her Majesty's finest finally left at 7am ish in a flurry of horn-pipping, just in case i had dropped off in between bouts of shouting and door slamming. (I hadn't). I did actually go back to sleep, but i wished i hadn't because i had one of those horrible lucid dreams. If you're interested, it involved an undulating canal and a 27-hour clock- mighty confusing when you think you're already awake and have a fell race to organise. Anyway, mustn't grumble, i thought.. a good strong coffee and i'll be grand. Yet.. in a cruel twist of fate, or maybe inexplicable muppetry, i had somehow packed an empty jar of coffee.. just the faint smell of coffee, but no, well, actual coffee. I confess i thought long and hard about drowning myself in the nearby stream, but i'd have been sorry to miss my annual telling off from Puffing Billy about the location of Checkpoint 1, so i decided to go and put the flags out instead.
As a consequence of the above, the 200 mile drive home and the fact i have to get up at the crack of dawn for work tomorrow, i will not be writing up the results until tomorrow. If anyone has a problem with that, do let me know, but please be aware that i have all your addresses and access to petrol and matches.
Just a word about the race.. everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and thanks to those who said nice things about the route and so on. As said conditions were very fast, and records broken.. more on this subject to follow.
To the runner who got lost, citing inadequately marked checkpoints, i'm not sure how much more obvious i can make the 2 highest summits in South Wales on a cloudless day. They're big old pieces of rock pointing up in the sky.. However, i'm sure the 5 people who hung around a cold hillside for 3.5 hours, unpaid, freezing their tits off, worrying about you, felt their time had been well spent when you got back and gave them a mouthful of abuse. Your group arrived at registration several minutes after the race should have started (and i'm aware this may be no fault of your own)..i could have turned you away but i processed you quickly without getting you to sign disclaimers so as not to keep the 77 other runners waiting any longer. I shouldn't have done this i expect, but without taking responsibility for yourself on the hill you could have put me, the race and WFRA at risk. Thankfully, you got back safe and sound.
Back to the subject of the race records and the ongoing issue of course length and validity of records. Just for the record (no pun intended), when i resurrected this race in 2009, i contacted the previous organiser for information, maps and past results. Everything had been destroyed in a flooded house, nothing had been put on disc or the internet, so there was nothing to do but ask around. It transpired after the first re-running that CP1 was too low. I subsequently asked, again, 6 or 7 people exactly where it should be, and got 6 or 7 different answers. No one, despite requests, could give me an accurate grid ref or physically show me. There was however, universal agreement that the time difference for record purposes was unlikely to be greater than 60 secs for those at the record-challenging end of the field. On balance i felt the best thing was to continue with the same location for consistency, since there was no info on times prior to 2009 except for the two records. In any case, records in fell running have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as, unlike track.road, conditions can change significantly from year to year with path improvements etc. Most people recognise this, and don't get too het up about it. For the one individual who has not been able to let this issue go after 5 years.. i don't know what to suggest. At least that i can post on here. Forgive my immodesty, but the new womens record set today is now more than 3.5 minutes faster than the 'old course' record. The men's record today arguably may or may not have beaten Colin Donnelly's on an identical course, but is still an awesome run- about 2 mins faster than when Tim Davies won the year he won the British (i think). My point is, regardless of the elusive 'true' location of CP1, these are good runs and deserve respect not denigration. The new organisers may decide to move the contentious CP next year, but for 2009-2013 these stand as good times.
I'm going to bed now.
XXX
Your a star LD
Keep up the good work girl.
I'd like to say thanks for putting on a great race with great cakes Helen. Having read your entertaining posts I have to say that you did an incredible job and your race briefing worked for me. As for the person expecting a fell race to be marked to their satisfaction when you can actually see where you are supposed to go if you have even glanced at the very clear route plans on your excellent website - I'd say stick to Parkruns mate.
I am also a bit surprised that anyone is worried about exactly where CP1 is - it seemed to be at a logical crossing point - maybe I am making an obvious error there.
I think that's devotion to duty above and beyond that expected by the normal race organiser Longdogs :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Longdogs
I think the technical term is clusterf**k!Quote:
Originally Posted by Alf
Results are done and should be on website shortly. Pics to follow.
Ascent pics.. https://plus.google.com/photos/10537...24978550840593
Thanks for the fast results, I have Tweeted https://twitter.com/SW_WHSQuote:
Originally Posted by Longdogs
Thanks.. i expect half of them are wrong, i usually make lots of mistakes :)Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Saint
Didn't know south wales fell running was now on the twittersphere!
Helen, a belated thank you for a fantastic race and for taking the time to travel down to put it all in place. I was fortunate enough to be in the area with work so took the opportunity to introduce 4 work mates to Fell Running. They loved it and could not believe that for the price they got virtually as much gorgeous cake as they could eat at the end plus it was a very friendly atmosphere.
Shame about the late arrivals and their attitude towards you and the check point staff - completely out of order, ignore them, they should clearly take up another sport.
Thanks again.