Llangollen Fell Race

[Travs]

A fairly new race which started last year. 17 miles and 3000ft climb.

Fully marked throughout, all on decent tracks/paths/some sections of road... pretty much entirely runnable, and no climbs that i would describe as "murderous"... yet it was hard work and incredibly undulating. Think it was classified a BL and there was certainly enough decent fell terrain to provide a challenge... an ideal first long fell race.

We were grouped into "waves" of 10-12, and each wave was dispatched within a period of a couple of minutes. I was in the 2nd wave so didn't have more than about 10-12 in front of me. I looked to be the fastest in my little group, so this made a lonely first half of the race, as i set about latching onto the back end of the first group of runners.

I found the 2nd half of the race a real slog, despite it being generally downhill from the highest point, it was very undulating, and a long section on a hard scree path and then road. But my splits show that even though i found this section tough (and my hamstring tightness reduced me to a bit of a limp on the road), i still ran a comparable split to those who finished around me.

Before the race i'd set a target of 2hrs30, and i knew it would be close. I was thwarted in the final field as we were required to do a loop of the football pitch before finishing, and i finished in 2:30:28... gutted!!

12th... 153 entered (the race was originally scheduled for April), and i think 123 ran, which is a superb turnout in the current circumstances. I really hope is was a success from the WFRA point of view... it certainly seemed so from my viewpoint.

A lovely part of the world, and a great run over some undiscovered hills.

Pete

https://www.racetek-live.co.uk/websi...plete_results/