Welsh 1000s fell race 2021

Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen from the descent to Bryn Poeth

Let's start at the beginning - How did I get into fell running?

I started off by running during lunchtime at work. I then found if I ran whilst I was dog walking on the hill near to home, I could get above the tree line in the hour I had. This meant I could see the views! I then realised that this was actually really positive for my mental health and so I started running more often.

I was recommended a fell race and a fell running club by a work colleague, so I headed to the race with the aim being to not disgrace myself so that I could join the club (it turns out that there are no real entry requirements, but it helps to be able to run well enough up hills to join in the weekly social runs now and again).

I had never run on the road before or anything like that since the annual school cross country when I was a kid. My first fell races were the local Coity mountain and Llanthony show fell races, both in the summer of 2016. I also joined Mynydd Du fell and mountain running club that summer.

During the next few years I improved and managed to start finishing in the front half of the races :) I even managed to represent East Wales veterans team in the Welsh Inter Regional Fell and Mountain running championships.

Fast forward to 2020

My lockdown running towards the end of 2020 was not going so well. Despite the fact that I love running in the hills, I never seem to get up enough enthusiasm to train unless I have a race in the calendar. There were no races 😞

Enter my work calorie burning challenge for Velindre, this helped me to get back into shape during the first three months of 2021. We also raised £2,500 for a great cause.

Looking for my next challenge then, I noticed it was the Welsh 1000s fell race 50th running this year (all being well, hardly any fell races have been on for the last year). This is renowned as one of the hardest fell races, so would definitely be a challenge.

Park Lodge

Sugarloaf

Welsh 1000s fell race

Category: Long Fell Race

Distance: 32km

Elevation: 2,800m (even for a fell runner this deserves a 😮)

http://welsh1000m.org/

Check out the BBC coverage of the 2018 race to get an idea of what it's all about! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/wales/44361366

Welsh 1000s - My race in the 50th running

Getting to and finding the start was the first problem. Most of the competitors get a bus from Llanberis, so that they have their transport with them at the finish. I was getting dropped off by my family who would hopefully meet me at halfway and after the finish back in Llanberis. What I didn't know was that the usual start field by the sea had been moved in land a few hundred metres so I nearly missed my start time!

Having found the new starting field, I met a few familiar faces, club mates and enjoyed chatting to people  representing different running clubs from all over Wales and England. This is a very well supported and liked fell race and actually a much shorter distance to travel to for lots of people in England than the four and a half hours it took us from South Wales.

Mynydd Du team mates in the start field (when I'd found it)

Usually for a fell race, I was starting on my own this time due to the current restrictions placed on races in 2021. I started off by catching a few club mates and having a chat, it felt very much like a club social run, but I wanted to start off easy to warm up. I stepped up my pace after about a km.

Heading towards Aber falls from Abergwyngregyn the race route then heads up to the left of the falls and goes over the top of the falls, crossing the river above them. The next section is a steep off piste (no paths) climb up to the ridge. Passing walkers in the challenge category I pushed on.

Going well, feeling good, I was pushing on up to first checkpoint Yr Aryg (866m) and onwards to my first 1000m peak Carnedd Llewellyn (1064m), going past a number of runners along the way. Looking at the splits now I was top 50 at this point, but it was very hard to know how you are doing as you are running with from an individual start time rather than a mass start.

The views on the Carneddau ridge are incredible, you can see back to the North coast of Wales out to the sea on both North and West sides (towards Anglesea). To the South you can agonisingly see much of the race to come, with Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa peaking over the top of the Glyders, looking rather a long way away! :D

View South from the Carneddau ridge

On to Carnedd Daffydd (1044m, top 40) and I ran out of water.

Did I mention that is was hot? 30+ degress in the shade, of which there was none on the entire course.

The UVB sunburn index - Very High

Coupled with no shade and rocky ground and I turned into a hot mess. No water very quickly became dehydration which would go on to become hyperthermia if unchecked.

Hypothermia / Hyperthermia 

Hypothermia is one of the most dangerous things you could encounter in the mountains. It is the cooling of the core body temperature. Even just a few of degrees is considered Mild Hypothermia and needs to be checked because once Hypothermia sets in it can be fatal (a drop of 7 or more degrees usually).

Hyperthermia is the heating of the core body temperature and can be fatal for a rise of just 4 degrees. When we get hot, different coping mechanisms set in, sweating, breathing harder, increased blood flow to the surface of the skin. In normal circumstances these work well. Racing up a hill, at speed, on a hot, windless day isn't what most bodies (including my own) would consider normal and the core temperature can increase to a dangerous level quite easily. Effectively Hyperthermia is the body over heating to a point where it is unable to cool itself down.

There are two types of Hyperthermia, Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke. Both are dangerous, but Heat Stroke is the more dangerous of the two...

Heat exhaustion

Symtoms - Faint/dizzy, mild headache, excessive sweating, clammy skin, 38C or above, rapid weak pulse, vomiting or nausea, loss of appetite but still thirsty, muscle cramps

Treatment - Remove from sunshine or heat, Lay in cool water, Apply cold compress, Place in cold shower, Lay down and raise feet, Give cool fluids (electrolytes). Should recover in 30 minutes, if not treat as Heat stroke.

Heat stroke

Symptons - Bad headache, no sweating, red hot, dry skin, 40C and above, rapid strong pulse, vomiting or nausea, possibly lose consciousness or have a fit so place in recovery position.

Treatment - Seek emergency help, call 999, attempt to cool down until help arrives

Welsh 1000s - My race in the 50th running continued...

The descent down towards Llyn Ogwen via Bryn Poeth (Poeth meaning hot in Welsh, it was well named on this day). Descending is one of my skills/advantages as a fell runner, so I pushed on here and took over many more runners (top 30 for this section).

Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen from the descent to Bryn Poeth

At the checkpoint/water station at Bryn Poeth I had already decided to start to take the long view and stop for a while to top up water, drink and eat until I started to feel better.

Just after setting off again I bumped into my wonderfully supportive family who had a pre-planned change of bag, sweets, etc. Unfortunately I had just re-filled my bag and was feeling so nauseous I could not stomach anything to eat at this point.

A club mate ran past (my kids gave her jelly babies) and I decided to crack on along the short road section by Llyn ogwen with her, she is a good barometer for how I am running (and multiple time welsh female champion).

That was going well (I actually passed her again) until we hit the next uphill section up towards Llyn Bochllwyd and towards the Gribyn ridge to get up to the Glyderau. It felt like someone had just put me in a deep sea diving suit. No air, I could not get enough oxygen and everything felt so, so heavy, my legs were a dead weight all of a sudden.

I decided I would have to slow to a walk and just drink until I could stomach eating something and get some energy back. I waved my club mate off and didn't see her again until Llanberis many hours later.

Half way up Gribyn I realised that if I was going to quit it would have to be back to Ogwen or onwards to Pen y pass. I pretty much decided I would quit at Pen y pass. Then I started to worry about how I would get back to Llanberis where my family would be!

Thankfully the slower pace and drinking meant I could start to stomach the idea of eating again, so I did that whilst still proceeding at a walking pace. Lots of runners and some faster walkers passed me on this section, but it didn't matter, I was only going to Pen y pass anyway.

The scrambling at the top of the Gribyn ridge, which I enjoyed so much on the recce I did a month earlier, was actually quite challenging in the state I was in. However once I'd got up to the Glyders ridge I started to feel much better. This is where I saw a group of mountain goats on the recce, but they'd cleared off by the time I got up there this time.

I carried on eating and didn't push on too much until I got to the Glyder Fawr checkpoint (1001m, recently added when it was found to be a few metres higher and therefore became a Welsh 1000)

Glyder fawr

Back on the descent, I got right back into my stride, feeling good and passing quite a few runners and walkers again. This was also when I spotted the first elite runner come past, a runner local to Snowdonia who ended up in third overall. I based my pace off his on the descent and still felt good. Halfway down the descent I started to struggle again though and backed off.

Once I got down to Pen y pass I continued my conservative approach of re-filling, drinking plenty and getting stocked up for the finish. I forgot all about quitting here after one of the marshalls said I was looking good to get to the finish.

Started running up to the Snowdon ridge via the Pyg track, but after a km or so started to slow again. I realised I wasn't going to get under 6 hours (target was sub 5:30) so it didn't matter too much. Got into a chat with another veteran who it turns our holds a few records still, one for this race in fact. He had been doing 120km weeks in training and was looking for a time circa 5:15, so I started to feel a little better about how I was doing. I pushed on for a while, dodging the masses of tourist walkers heading back down Snowdon.

It was at this point a familiar looking face came past on the way down and said "great work, keep going young man". I'm pretty sure this was the greatest fell runner of all time, Joss Naylor. A shepherd from the Lakes who has smashed so many records, won so many races that he really redefined the sport itself. What an honour. I especially liked being called young! 😄 Even writing this though I'm still a little unsure whether I was seeing things or not. 😄 (It turns out Joss was the guest giving the prizes out later on, so it is definitely possible that I wasn't just hallucinating).

The zig zags at the top of the Pyg track took it out of me again and my new veteran buddy zoomed past, putting a concerted effort in to get up Carnedd Ugain (1065m) before me. I realised I was in a race, even if it was laughably slow at this point, so I set off determined to catch up. I didn't catch him on Ugain, but was confident about my descent and gave what I had left to push on up to Snowdon top and the finish itself, Yr Wyddfa in Welsh (1085m). 

"Winning" my mini race, I had finished 60th overall in the long fell race category out of 140 finishers. 31 additional hardy fell runners had retired before the finish. These 171 runners had to prove navigation and racing experience in previous difficult, long fell races, so you would not expect anywhere near that many retirements. The weather really did play a large part.

From the official race report:

"The 50th race will be remembered by competitors ‘the most brutal conditions ever’ was said by many. Over the years competitors have coped with sun, rain, hail, cold, cloud and even snow but the heat this year was something else.

315 competitors started and congratulations to the 252 who completed their course and commiserations to those who retired due to the heat."

Heading up Gribyn, weirdly with a smile on my face :D

After the race I definitely said "never again" and I'm pretty sure my family will hold me to that :D

I've done the Snowdon Mountain race before too, in 2018. Up and down from Llanberis in 1:31, so I think I'm done with racing on Snowdon with the crowds of walkers. I much preferred the grassy slopes of the Carneddau and the views up there were incredible. I may be sticking to more local South Wales races again in future as that is our local terrain.

Thanks for reading this far and sticking with it, you've done your own endurance challenge there, "great work, well done young man/woman" :D