Sitting at home is boring. Time to step it up a gear.
I met Jono at lunch-time on Saturday and we tore through Bank Holiday traffic in just enough time to catch the damp and blustery start of the Tryfan Downhill Dash. The race begins at the summit (hidden from view by clouds, as we sat shivering in the rain at the finish line), and ends at the road below Milestone Buttress. The record is 8 minutes, incurring two broken wrists along the way. Anyway, when the runners appeared out of the rather low cloud base into range of our binoculars it seemed suitably hectic, but not sufficiently deadly to put me off considering entering next year. Some photos (not mine!) can be found here. If you want to see some video then there’s footage from a previous race below.
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Watching someone else running – done. Time to step it up a gear.
Our semi-regular wild camping trip rolled around again on Saturday night, giving me chance to use rambling gear that’s been feeling distinctly unloved in light of my recent running spree. We left the car at 16:00 to climb Snowdon via the Rhyd Ddu path, eventually ending up dropping back to Bwlch Cwm Llan and into Cwm Llan from there.
As we pitched up, 22 Squadron decided to come and give us a personal display of low-flying, their piloting skills being second only to my ability to whip up a mean pan of couscous and chorizo on an MSR Pocket Rocket.
A lovely clear night meant a star-filled sky, and no wind or rain meant a decent sleep too. We awoke to clear blue sky and accompanying sunshine, and promptly descended the Watkin path to the cafe.
Walking up and down a hill – done. Time to step it up a gear.
Fuelled by my toast and jam at the cafe, I hot-footed it around to Croesor to take part in Ras Cnicht. Having been up-and-down Snowdon the previous evening, Cnicht seemed an appropriately ambitious objective at 4.5 miles and 550m of ascent.
A nice small field of 50 runners set off, and I hit the top in about half an hour. The record for the entire race is 32mins (Colin Donelly) so I was in no danger of breaking that!
A very poor route choice from the summit back down saw me lose a lot of time to a chap in an SWRR top, but otherwise only a couple of places on the descent (which is normally where everyone streams past). A final time of 48:05-ish saw me hot and tired but otherwise quite pleased (19th place). The most suprising aspect of the day was the existence of an open-air swimming pool in Croesor!
Running up and down a hill – done. Now run out of gears; time for cake.