|
Dragon’s Back Race June 22nd to 26th 2015 This epic stage race down the spine of Wales has just completed its 3rd edition. First run in 1992 it was resurrected in 2012 by Shane Ohly & team. I’d have liked to join the original but circumstances prevented this. Back in the 70s I lived in Cardiff and feel an affinity with the route having solo backpacked a variation (south to north) during that time as well as getting engaged to my late wife on another backpacking trip from Conway to Cwm Bychan in 1974 taking in most of the hills on the way . Having watched the DVD of the 2012 edition it was with some trepidation I sent in an entry for 2015, and part of me would have been relieved to get a message to say I’d been rejected by the vetting process, but no I was in: 22.06.2015 Day 1 49.3km with 3823m ascent 14hr 25 So Monday 22nd saw me at the start in Conway castle with an international cast of around 130 ultrarunners listening to a Welsh Male voice choir singing through showers of rain. At 7.00 am we were off and jogging along the town walls towards the mountains of Snowdonia. In 2012 the race had taken in all the 3,000 ft summits on the first day and only a handful of competitors made the cut off so for this years race a couple of outliers had been omitted making it slightly more manageable! The weather improved as we wandered our way south receiving tantalising glimpses of the peaks ahead. Highlights of the day included trying to work out a way through the maze of boulders to find a route to the control on top of Glyder Fach and reconnecting with my fear of heights traversing the Crib Goch ridge. One of the American’s apparently commented that it had been the first time he’d feared for his life in a foot race. By the time I arrived at camp most of the faster competitors were well settled into their recovery. Optimisation of the break is a significant factor of the race for slower ‘runners’ who arrive at the campsite late, possibly in the dark. They then have to sort out cleaning up, refuelling and getting rest before the early start needed to give the best chance of making the next day’s cut off – and so it repeats itself each day. I never actually got to see my tentmates – although by night 3 only 3 out of the 8 in the tent were still about anyway. Oh- did I mention the midges? 23.06.2015 Day 2 53.9km with 3544m ascent 16hr 11 After a relatively gentle start to day 2 over Cnicht & the Moelwyns the feature of day 2 was the Rhinogs, probably some of the roughest terrain around with massive boulder fields with neck high heather & bilberry concealing leg grabbing holes and only a confusing network of animal tracks to follow. If only I’d found time for a recce beforehand! I started off down Rhinog Fawr on a promising line but, too far down to contemplate turning back, found myself in some interesting ground. 24.06.2015 Day 3 68.3km with 3712m ascent 15hr 49 A glorious start to day 3 took us up onto Cadair Idris and then along the ridge to the west with superb views to either side appearing through gaps in the cloud. Then south east towards the luxuries of Machynlleth (ie a bottle of banana milk from the Spar) and the days halfway support point. The swearing levels rose significantly as we encountered more of the Welsh forests. Throughout the race there was a continuous love/hate relationship with the ungainly great slabs of map we had to wrestle with refusing to be tamed. I had a hunch about the optimum route up to the summit of Pumlumon Fawr which wasn’t obvious from the map but didn’t have the confidence to fully follow it through.
25.06.2015 Day 4 64.0km with 2275m ascent 16hr 29 Day 4 started with a senior moment when my brain stalled. Realising that it was unlikely that everybody else was going 180 degrees the wrong way I recovered and made a reasonably efficient route through the mist by myself to the first control on the edge of a large windfarm. Then another slip up as I missed a right turn down to the control – not normally used to using poles I found it hard to reach a balance between referring to the (b****y) map and actually making forward progress. Day 4 also had a change in mapping as we were using a bog standard OS 1:25,000 map as against an enhanced Harvey’s rendition of OS at 1:40,000. My initial hopes that the larger scale would be easier for my failing eyes to read were quickly dashed as a lot of fine detail was lost – and the larger size made the map even harder to handle. Towards the end there were a couple of substantial road sections and although it was a gloriously calm evening my lower back was starting to play up & I slowed up. I was tempted to try for a massage when I got in but didn’t find the time before the masseur turned in for the night – it was only midnight!. 26.06.2015 Day 5 56.5km with 2313m ascent rtd at approx 47km 13hr 03 So the last day arrived & I set off pretty confident of making the finish barring any big navigational error. We’d been given warnings about strict enforcement of the mid point cut off but this seemed easily achievable. My back had recovered pretty much overnight. Probably a mistake was to try & keep up with a group that caught me on the way to CP1 – they promptly headed off with me in the wrong direction but we got back on course without disastrous time loss. I plodded on by myself with sticks rattling away on the road section through Llandovery, my back starting to make itself felt again. Arriving at the half way point with plenty of time the team set to work with gel etc to try & ease the pain. I got going again and reached the top of Fan Brycheiniog in reasonable time as a spell of bad weather hit promising to make navigation onwards interesting. However it quickly passed & the sun reappeared. But the back was definitely going the wrong way – most of my forward motion was bent double with weight taken on the poles. Up to control 6 Carreg Yr Ogof the finish came tantalisingly into view the castle gleaming tantalisingly in the distance. Strangely despite the discomfort I was really enjoying being there. A kite seemed to be assessing its chances swooping low over me as I contoured round the hill. And then the end came quite quickly as I made my way towards CP7 the handle of one pole disintegrated and the periods of bent double forward progress shortened. Just beyond the control the route crossed a road so a pick up would be easy there. After a short stop at the top despite the fact that I still had nearly four hours available to make the finish I got out the phone. The event was
covered by open tracking – my route warts and all is currently still
shown at:
http://maps.opentracking.co.uk/dragonsb15.cfm?&n=100&box=true
.(other better/worse routes are available!). Hopefully there will
be some GPX files to download/analyse before too long. Guess there
will be plenty of blogs & photos about – as a start Ian Corless has
a good selection of inspirational pictures and I guess his next
edition of the podcast Talkultra will feature the event. Otherwise
the DVD of 2012 is worth a view – there was quite a bit of filming
going on so guess there might be another one for 2015? and a warning of what 5 days of mountain running can do to you!
Richard Beard |
