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Thread: Wales's oldest fell races

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sasquatch View Post
    A little off thread sorry, but I really enjoyed the Carneddau race when I did it several years ago. Anyone know how long it had been going - and why it stopped? I presume there wasn't enough interest to keep it going. Such a shame if so as it was a really cracking AM and I've often thought I'd like to gauge any interest in resurrecting it...
    I did Carneddau once in 1989; probably not the first year it was run, but it wouldn't have been going for many years before that. I agree that it was one of the toughest AM races on the Calendar, and deserves to be resurrected. Were there problems with the venue used for race HQ (pub closing, or something like that)?
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  2. #12
    Senior Member Sasquatch's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by anthonykay View Post
    I did Carneddau once in 1989; probably not the first year it was run, but it wouldn't have been going for many years before that. I agree that it was one of the toughest AM races on the Calendar, and deserves to be resurrected. Were there problems with the venue used for race HQ (pub closing, or something like that)?
    Yes maybe that was something to do with it. I can't remember who put it on, was it Eryri? Seem to remember a nice down and up near the end as well as the steep climb up Llewelylln.
    Will Meredith - Pennine

  3. #13

    penmaenmawr fell race

    Quote Originally Posted by helix View Post
    I was led to believe that Penmaenmawr was the oldest fell race in North Wales. I think it started in 1974.
    I think the pen race started in 1975. I have seen a set of results dated 1977 as being the 3rd pen race . It was originally organised by a local mountaineering club who may have had a unofficial race in 1974. It is now organised by Eryri member Chris Near.

  4. #14
    Senior Member helix's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by anthonykay View Post
    Thank you for this lead. I have just looked on the Penmaenmawr Race fb page, which includes a picture of 1977 results, saying that was the third race. This would make the first race 1975 (if it was held every year); which would still make it the third oldest fell race in Wales (after 1000m Peaks and Cilcain).

    Do you have any more information about the origins of the race? Who started it? (Eryri harriers didn't exist in 1975). When did it first appear in the FRA Calendar?
    No sorry. Just word of mouth that it was the oldest and the fact that on the 40th anniversary we all received a commemorative mug. I can't check the date on it unfortunately as I'm having the kitchen done and everything is packed away.

    It a really popular race that attracts runners from all over the place and a lot who don't normally go fell running.

  5. #15
    Master Welsh Harrier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by helix View Post
    No sorry. Just word of mouth that it was the oldest and the fact that on the 40th anniversary we all received a commemorative mug. I can't check the date on it unfortunately as I'm having the kitchen done and everything is packed away.

    It a really popular race that attracts runners from all over the place and a lot who don't normally go fell running.
    The Pen race 40th anniversary was in 2014.

    Carneddau was a British Champs race in 2007. This race has not been held for several years but the pub Y Sior (The George in English) is still going strong. I turned up with a fair number of other runners in 2013 (I think) to find that the race was cancelled because the weather conditions were not good and marshals would be at risk. It seemed OK at the pub so a bunch of us set off to run the course as a training run. All was well until we got about 500 feet short of the summit and we realised that cancelling the race had been a good call - the wind was atrocious and attempting the ridge along to Carnedd Llewellyn would have been very dodgy. We turned back the way we'd come and met a crowd of Pennine Fellrunners who'd tried to do the course clockwise - they'd also decided that discretion was the better part of valour and turned back. Dewi Sinclair (Eryri and North Wales Road Runners) was the organiser at the time.

    My first Welsh fell race was the Tavern Trail in 1995, which was a series of simultaneous short, medium and long races on the Clwydians. It had apparently been going for many years but 1995 was the last one - the organiser had a serious illness shortly after and no one else took it on. A couple of years later I did the Moel Famau race which had joint winners (teenagers A and T Davies) - this had also been a British Champs race in earlier years and was a shorter version of the Llangynhafal Loop which commenced in 1999.

  6. #16
    Senior Member Sasquatch's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=Welsh Harrier;640570]The Pen race 40th anniversary was in 2014.

    Carneddau was a British Champs race in 2007. This race has not been held for several years but the pub Y Sior (The George in English) is still going strong. I turned up with a fair number of other runners in 2013 (I think) to find that the race was cancelled because the weather conditions were not good and marshals would be at risk. It seemed OK at the pub so a bunch of us set off to run the course as a training run. All was well until we got about 500 feet short of the summit and we realised that cancelling the race had been a good call - the wind was atrocious and attempting the ridge along to Carnedd Llewellyn would have been very dodgy. We turned back the way we'd come and met a crowd of Pennine Fellrunners who'd tried to do the course clockwise - they'd also decided that discretion was the better part of valour and turned back. Dewi Sinclair (Eryri and North Wales Road Runners) was the organiser at the time.

    Thanks for that. Do you know Dewi or have you heard anything about it being put on again? It must've made a great champs race. I can understand it being called off in bad weather as some of the marshal positions must've been quite exposed up on the ridge. There's quite a drop off to the left of the ridge path too...
    Will Meredith - Pennine

  7. #17
    Member Ady's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=Sasquatch;640571]
    Quote Originally Posted by Welsh Harrier View Post
    The Pen race 40th anniversary was in 2014.

    Carneddau was a British Champs race in 2007. This race has not been held for several years but the pub Y Sior (The George in English) is still going strong. I turned up with a fair number of other runners in 2013 (I think) to find that the race was cancelled because the weather conditions were not good and marshals would be at risk. It seemed OK at the pub so a bunch of us set off to run the course as a training run. All was well until we got about 500 feet short of the summit and we realised that cancelling the race had been a good call - the wind was atrocious and attempting the ridge along to Carnedd Llewellyn would have been very dodgy. We turned back the way we'd come and met a crowd of Pennine Fellrunners who'd tried to do the course clockwise - they'd also decided that discretion was the better part of valour and turned back. Dewi Sinclair (Eryri and North Wales Road Runners) was the organiser at the time.

    Thanks for that. Do you know Dewi or have you heard anything about it being put on again? It must've made a great champs race. I can understand it being called off in bad weather as some of the marshal positions must've been quite exposed up on the ridge. There's quite a drop off to the left of the ridge path too...
    On the few occasions I've entered the Carneddau race before it ceased to exist Ross Powell was the race organiser.

  8. #18
    Master DrPatrickBarry's Avatar
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    I think Ireland can "best" Wales on that front.

    Douglas Barry, IMRA chairman, tells me the first reference to hill running comes from Irish legend. Aging hero Finn McCool decided to choose a wife by staging a women’s race up and down a mountain in County Tipperary (some versions say it was a nude women’s race, a tradition that has, alas, lapsed). Unfortunately for Finn, the winner had a mind of her own as well as great legs, and ran off with his handsome cousin, Diarmuid. This set the sport back a bit, but the mountain still bears the name Slievanamon, Mountain of the Women.

    https://www.runnersworld.com/advance...d-irish-hills/

  9. #19
    Master Wheeze's Avatar
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    Better to think of it as 'resting'....the course is still there, ready for resurrection.
    Simon Blease
    Monmouth

  10. #20
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    Penmaenmawr

    Bought a copy of the local Caernarfon and Denbigh Herald a few weeks ago, and their 'Nostalgia' section (which covers most of the paper these days!) had a photo 'This woman is about to cross the line in Dwygyflchi in the 1978 Penmaenmawr Fell Race' I've scanned the copy and tried to upload it, but he Forum seems to only accept tiny files and I can't compress it enough.If anyone would like to try and recognise 'This woman' forty years on, email me at andymullettathotmaildotcom and I'll send it to you.Andy
    "You gotta put a little bit of ****ing fairy dust over the bastard"

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