Its the start of a new year and as a novice to fell running I thought I'd give myself a reasonable challenge to get my teeth stuck into. I've decided to run the Paddy Buckley Round in North Wales; it traverses 47 peaks, approximately over a 62 miles distance with around 29,000ft of ascent. I am hoping to do this in early June, weather permitting. So to give myself abit of focus and clarity on what I have decided to do I thought why don't I write a blog about my fell running ups and downs and struggle to get fit enough to undertake the challenge in less than 24hours.
So being keen to make headway I suggested to my friend Tracy that we should head into Wales for a little New Years training run over the Pen yr Ole Wen to Capel Curig leg. I checked the forecast and it said bright sunshine for the 2nd of January, so that was the date sorted and booked. We hit the road at around 7.30am and got into Ogwen to find the car park almost full! So we were not the only daft peeps heading into the hills that day. However, most of the other people had ice axes, crampons, and Arctic clothing! Never mind though we had trusty Lycra, and lightweight gortex, whilst not forgetting our trusty Inov8 mudclaws (or should I say Snowclaws). I also packed a mini flask of coffee and a few mince pies, get in :)
The ascents were fine, it was the descents that gave us the trouble. The ice was extremely thick in places and there was no way you could travel at speed on the rocky descents. Where grass and heather was present then the going wasn't too bad, however, if you know this route you also know that around 70% of it is over rock!
Still though it was a great day with breath taking scenery and although we were 30minutes outside the schedule for that leg I think given the conditions we didn't do bad at all. Needless to say after 15.25 miles and 4625ft of ascent it was a quick trip to Pete's Eats in Llanberis for a pint of tea and a large plate of stodge before the journey home.
Cheers for now
:)
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