Brecon Beacons 20
Plans to find a race in Wales were made when the Pompey fixtures revealed that we would be playing at Swansea on a Friday evening in November.
Former Stubby member and friend of the family Neil Thomas now lives near Swansea. I phoned him to say myself and Wendy would be coming up to the game. I would take Neil and his Pompey supporting boy Ben to the match and could he find a race up there for the following day.
He got back to me to say he'd found a 3 mile fell race in Abergavveny, unfortunately for him in the meantime I had found a 20 mile off road night race in the Brecon Beacons. After a few complaints from Neil that he wasn't fit enough he agreed to give it a go.
We had the best possible start to the weekend when Pompey won in sub zero temperatures on the Friday, on the Saturday afternoon we struggled across the mountains in heavy snow to arrive at the start in the small village of Talybont on usk. We checked in to our B & B and found the local tea rooms around 4pm by which time it was minus 4 degrees.
At race registration the organisers had decided to change the route slightly as the roads were so icy that mountain rescue wouldn't be able to get to some parts of the course, it was still 20 miles though a bit easier. We set off from the canal bank at 6pm by which time it was minus 8, as you can see from the photo's we were well prepared with headtorches and plenty of layers. The atmosphere from the start was superb with runners chatting and joking during the first 7 miles which were all up hill.
At the top of a mountain pass and with the field getting strung out we moved onto an icy road that saw a few runners take tumbles. It was here that Neil and myself went wrong, we were so busy chatting that we missed our turning and ended up at the bottom of the mountain, we realised our mistake after arguing over the map for a couple of minutes, turned around and climbed all the way back up again. We had gone from a top 10 position to near the back at the turn round point.
The route back was mostly downhill but real ankle twisting stuff, especially in the dark. I pulled away from Neil over the final few miles to arrive back in Talybont to be met by Wendy who was waiting outside in the freezing cold to cheer us in. Luckily there was a lovely pub nearby with an open fire where we recovered with lashings of beer and pork scratchings, it was after the refreshments that we agreed to return next year but next time study the map before we run. Chris Hall
Photos here.