Mountain Running News

Saturday 8 July 2017

The morning was warm, clear and fine, with a touch of breeze.  At 2pm, 37 competitors lined up, and Spiderman sounded the hooter for the start.  Off the runners went, out through the car park and on to the road through the village of Rowen, before 300m later, turning rights and the start of the ascent, first on tarmac up to the youth hostel, before levelling out a bit up along the old roman road to Cae Coch, and then after climbing the stile, up the grassy bank and then the rocks to Tal y Fan summit.  The runners then benefited from the recent sunny weather, as the usually boggy bit was not too boggy, allowing for quick runs across the moors to the Penmaenmawr stone circle.

Along the North Wales coastal path for a stretch before another right turn, and an uphill section (avoided by those running with heads down, who went left past the Old Llangelynin Church and down to the scout camp) back towards Rowen youth hostel, (except for those who failed to turn left over the wall and did a detour back to Cae Coch before realising their navigational error), and it was then downhill all the way to the finish back at the Carnival.  Gavin Roberts, Paul Jones, Matt Lewis and Emlyn Owen had a close run race at the front of the field, with Gavin pulling away after the bridge (CP5).

A big thanks to all our marshals and helpers, Mike Blake for sweeping up at the back and keeping the tail enders on the right track.  Next year we may put up a few more arrows for the navigationally challenged.

Helen and Doug Blair

Race Organisers

TAL Y FAN RESULTS 2017 final

The standings with one event to go.

Tues Night Series 2017

Tues Night after 10

Welsh 1000m peaks

Great race, brilliant conditions, records broken!

Great weather for the majority of the day, brilliant marshalls and two fantastic routes, many thanks to the organisers!

Starting in the long race at 9am from Aber, Matthew Fortes had another great run in a strong field and came in a brilliant 3rd overall! Andrea Rowlands had a fantastic run, was 1st overall lady also breaking the overall women’s record too! Jonathan Moore smashed his PB, Paul Jones was also quicker than last time and made up the 4-strong club 1st prize. Others from the Eryri contingent were Adrian Williams, Emlyn Owen (both having bashed their legs at various points!), Elton Angle-Smith, Emlyn Roberts, Gwion Williams, Becki Law, Iwan Edgar (1st vet 60, the only one in the whole race, also breaking the record!), Paul Hodges, Nia Albiston, Kate Worthington and Kean Rowlands – really well done everyone!

The relatively small turnout for this new race, organised jointly by Eryri Harriers and Cybi Striders, didn’t stop us from having a fantastic day. The weather may have lowered the numbers but it certainly didn’t lower the mood of the 19 hard-core runners or the dedicated marshals and helpers. Heavy overnight rain meant the rocky course was mostly water-logged and very slippery in sections. This didn’t prevent the lead runners from setting a blistering pace out of the country park, along the coastal path and up into the rocks of the mountain. After a bit of jostling for position early on, the lead runners stayed close to eachother all the way round. Michael Corrales of North Wales Road Runners was the eventual winner, just pulling away from Gavin Roberts of Gog Tri to cross the finish line in a time of 53.16, with Gavin coming in less than 30 seconds later in 53.40. Third was Craig Jones of Eryri in 59.08, maintaining good current form to claim the V40 category too. Dylan Huws of Eryri took the V50 category finishing 9th overall in 1.04.39. First lady over the line was North Wales Road Runners’ Gemma Moore in 12th place in a time of 1.10.33. And Eryri stalwart, Ellie Salisbury, claimed the ladies V50 category in 1.24.20.

A huge thank you to Wil Stewart of the Breakwater Country Park for his support, all the Cybi Striders gang for their invaluable help with the planning and organisation, and all the marshals for braving the elements. See you all next year.

www.facebook.com/Holyhead-Mountain-Race-1151756931603443/

Results Holyhead Mountain Race 2017

Tues Night after 7 of 8

Standings after four races

Tues Night first 4

Isle of Jura Fell Race

8 Eryri Harriers travelled in a number of different ways by land and sea to the beautiful Isle of Jura this weekend and faced the notorious Paps!

The iconic 17 mile 2300m+ course is rough and rocky with lots of scree and bog to keep you working hard, and can be tricky navigating if the weather comes in – however we were quite lucky this weekend and mainly had warm and very humid conditions to deal with.

Matthew Fortes was first Eryri home in a sub 4-hour whiskey-glass earning brilliant run which also gained him 2nd V40 and 3rd overall vet. 2nd home for Eryri was Adrian Williams who post-injury was flying despite part of his shoe falling off, followed by Jonathan Moore improving his time for the course, with strong runs also from our other Jura race regulars Paul Jones, Tim Watson and SPJ Stephen Jones (who ploughed round the course despite suspected cracked ribs!). Great effort guys!

Gweler canlyniadau Râs 10k Rhostryfan ynghlwm.

Ymddiheuriadau mawr gan y trefnydd fod yr amseroedd â gyhoeddwyd ar y noson funud cyfan yn llai na’r gwir amser oherwydd trafferthion gyda prif “stopwatch”. Serch hynny,  mae record newydd o 34m 35e gan Tom Roberts yn sefyll,  gan ei fod wedi curo’r record blaenorol gan Gwyn Owen o 4 eiliad

Results for the Rhostryfan 10k race

The organiser apologises that the times announced at the presentation were a whole minute faster than the actual time due to problems with the main stopwatch.   Despite that,  Tom Roberts’ new record of 34m 35s still stands, as he has improved on the previous record held by Gwyn Owen by 4 seconds.

2017Rhostryfan10kCanlyniadauResults