Congratulations - it's great to see both self-reliant and fast supported successes. This is the only recorded success I have been notified of this year. Does anyone know of any others?
Congratulations - it's great to see both self-reliant and fast supported successes. This is the only recorded success I have been notified of this year. Does anyone know of any others?
A cracking run over an intriguing route.
Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top, then you will see how low it is.
That does sound like an awesome achievement Moley!! I don't really know Wales as well as I should. Its something I now intend rectifying as I'm moving a little further south shortly! Brilliant to just go do it 'cos the weather was nice!!' :thumbup:
I M Povey New Marske Harriers
http://manwithoutashed.blogspot.com
Must have been bad for you to think about buying one of these. Mind you, it's taken you 60yrs of floundering about in the mist, fog and the darkness of night to admit this. :w00t: You might want to consider adding a folding machete to the bag for next times outing too for those little legs of yours. :thumbup:
Always happy on the hills
Have been doing a bit of research on this on the Gofar site etc. Really captured my interest.
Anybody familiar with it who has any thoughts on an oct/Nov attempt, particularly with regards to a start time?
Based on 18 hours I was initially thinking 11pm/midnight start, to enable a daylight finish (or possibly only the final hour in the dark).
Obviously I'd prefer to do the whole thing in daylight, due to unfamiliarity, and to view the scenery, but I won't be able to do a May/June/July attempt this year or next.
Also any thoughts with regards to water sources, particularly from the viewpoint of being solo unsupported. I read an account above (Molehill?) where this appears to have been an issue...
Cheers, Pete
I've no experience of the Line, but Charlie Leventon is the timekeeper for most Mercia races. If you do any Shropshire races he'll almost certainly be there and I'm sure would love to chat about it.
....it's all downhill from here.
indeed it is!
he's just had a hip operation and is back on his feet again.
....it's all downhill from here.
Yes I did it when I turned 60, as a solo unsupported run. It's a lovely straightforward route where apart from crossing a few minor roads you see virtually no habitation or human contact. As a linear route it has the benefit of public transport (bus), so you can leave your car at the finish and take bus to the start - adding motivation that you have to finish!
Water was a problem, I went about 8 hours before I picked some up from a ditch, was badly dehydrated and put me on the back foot, a dry spell had drained all the peat where I was relying on supplies. Leaving a drop at road crossing would be fine.
I also made mistake of tackling a mid section at night, where there are no paths visible, a bit of a disaster for a few hours, then I had thick clag all morning! I didn't recce much and went purely map and compass.
I think Stewart Bellamy did a very quick time a couple of years ago? Give it a go, nice route in remote country.
Thank you for the information Molehill.
I'm very tempted, and having no concrete plans as of yet for Oct/Nov, and hoping to be fairly fit, having done Stretton Skyline, LDMT, Peris in September, i really fancy giving it a go. But i'll get the impending UTS100 done and deal with the fallout from that prior to making too many plans...
Common sense would tell me to wait until summer 2019 but i'm likely to have other plans, which will necessitate October this year if i am to fit it in any time in the foreseeable future. This obviously means a significant portion in the dark. Based on your post above it seems the early section would be best (of a bad lot!) in the dark? Based vaguely on 18 hour schedule (i have never trodden a step of this route before), i would say 11pm/midnight start, would bring me somewhere a few miles short of the Arans at first light? Hopefully finishing before it gets dark again, or at least have summited Cader Idris before dark.
With regards to water... First thoughts are to give it a go unsupported and 'on sight' and carry a couple of litres of water to start with. Again, not knowing much about the route, but hoping October would mean some water around. There do seem to be a number of streams on the OS map within a few hundred metres of the route, even across the first few sections, although in the dark might be an issue to find them.