
Originally Posted by
gafrymynydd
The poster unfortunatelly gives the incorrect info. The race is 10.6 mile and 3350ft of ascent!!!
The course is much harder than Cader in my opinion. Cader is 4 mile road, 2 mile trail and 4 mile hard pack good running mountain.
Aran on the other hand is 5.2 mile hard slog uphill on, NO man made path and very heavy going underfoot.
What caught me out the first year i did it was thinking that once I made it to the top, it's a downhill run back, WRONG. Once you've descended off the summit of Fawddwy, there's a hidden climb back up to Benllyn which really Zaps you and makes the 4.5 mile descent quite hard work then the nasty sting in the tail climb at the end.
Very rarelly the course is in full visibility, last year the first and last mile was clear the rest was in thick fog hence some runners missing the summit and descending the mountain towards Cwm Cywarch, NOT a nice situation.
Basically a totally different race to Cader and you can add another 7-10 min to your Cader time.