Too much in a weekend !

I overstretched myself a little last weekend.

• Friday night was Ras-Y-Hafod, a shortish local trail race
• Saturday leg 5 of Dave Almond's BGR
• Sunday was Derek and Dave (from Cumbria) Paddy Moelwyn's leg.

Friday night was cracking. I got my running mojo back on a 6 mile and 1000ft local trail race (Ras-y-Hafod) through forests. But the best part was there was a kids race. My two were too young to enter (year 3 and above), but Dick the organiser let them run and I paid the entry fee anyway so they got a meddle which they were very happy about indeed. There were not confident enough to run on their own, so I ran round with them and they finished before some children who were at least 2 years older. Probably less than a mile, but they enjoyed it and it was great to see then so enthusiastic about running. I was not going to do this race as I had a Paddy to pace, but it got moved back 24 hours and as this is a local race and the kids could get involved I felt I had to support it.

Dave Almond's BGR was a textbook round, though I hear he was wobbling a bit at the end of leg 2. By leg 5 he was very strong again and took 13 minutes off the schedule from Newland's followed by a gaggle of puffing and panting pacers. I stopped at Newland's to conserve some energy for the following day. Dave has been one of the most supportive people on my attempts, he has trained hard and helped on lots of rounds so a well deserved 21:50 round. I am really pleased to have been there to see him finish.

A short sleep in a car park below Blencathera, an early start and drive down to Capel Curig for 9am was not the best prep for supporting the longest leg and their last of the Paddy Buckly from Capel Curig to Nantmoor. Dave and Derek has delayed their start by 24 hours on account of weather and Dave had dropped out around the Glyders. Derek was about 40 minutes down by Capel Curig and had some work to do. I struggled to keep up going up Moel Shabod and got left behind over the next 2 peaks. I went back to Capel Curig and drove round to Croser and walked up to the quarries with some extra food. Good thing Derek had Simon Ellis from Tattenhall as pacer who should get a knighthood for taking Derek over the rest of the leg and getting him to their start point 15 seconds before the 24 hour deadline. This was by far the most excisiting round I have been involved in and really wish I had been able to keep up, but I had taken too much out of myself on the previous 2 days. I enjoyed this round more than any other I have supported, in part because of its light weight feel, part the closeness of the end result and in part the relaxed and good natured, not too serious approach. It was a real pleasure and I really regret not being able to keep on with Derek and Simon, but I am also glad they left me behind as Derek would not have made the 24 hour limit otherwise. I won't be trying 3 events in a weekend again.

PBR pacing

View North west of the descent from Snowdon

I have had a horrible cold this week, so my ability to pace the Snowdon leg of the Paddy Buckley Round was in doubt, but in the end we managed well enough for Mick the runner to gain 30 minutes on the leg and to finish in 22.30 overall. Well done Mick.

Thought a bit cold going over Snowdon with a cold mist blowing over us, the rest of the leg was clear, the sunset quite something and the last part in the dark just stunning. A great night to be out and I am please my cold did not hold me up too much.

Well done to Jim Mann and running partner, Duncan, on winning the Elite class in the LAMM over the weekend. It looks to have been around Loch Broom just south of Ullapool which is rough and remote ground with some big hills like Beinn Dearg, a cracking area.

Welsh 1000m race : Asking a bit much of your body

The Welsh 1000m race is a classic. It is superbly organized, it has a number of classes, the hardest being class A, long fell race which I guess is about 22 miles and 9000ft of climb. Its a little harder now (but a better route) as Glyder Fawr was added in this year.

I really enjoyed the leg over the Carneddau. Starting at the back I slowly passed folks and had great fun. Coming down into the Ogwen Valley via a fantastic descent to the Ogwen MRT hut, I could feel that part of the 3/4 of a Bob Graham Round was still in my legs. I had drunk loads, but my legs were just tired. A quick survey of web wisdom suggests at least a month is needed to recover from a big outing. I entered this race last year, but got my entry deferred for a year because I was intending to do the BGR in June. Ideally, I should have got my entry changed to the short race. Going up the very interesting route to Glyder Fawr was very hard work. Legs were weak and starting the descent to Pen-Y-Pass my quad's were not happy. I am not sure if I would have carried on the last leg, it was still an open question was I descended along the start of the red spot path.

At about 2500ft I ran past 5 people sitting/lying in a lovely location, but all was clearly not right. A runner from my club was clearly in quite a lot of pain. Actually, it was well aligned with my imagination of what someone having a stroke looked like, and then some. A woman out walking with her 2 sons tuned out the be a nurse (Our friend having convulsions and being sick is a lucky boy to have a qualified palliative care nurse on hand). He claimed that he has had this condition before, it passes and he spend a year at the pleasure of the medical profession trying to find the cause. I am a great believer in leaving decisions to those who probably have the best knowledge to take such a decision and at some point the 3 adults (a fellow lady runner who found out poor unfortunate 1st, nurse and myself) decided it was time to get this chap off the mountain as he was not recovering.

As I attempted to contact mountain rescue via a phone, he started being sick. MRT were busy with other incident, so I was put through to the police who really had no clue of the questions to ask or that information like a grid reference, altitude and we are on the red spot path at this altitude between Pen-y-Pass and Glyder Fawr would give a very accurate description that the MRT could use. Instead she asked if we were on Snowdon, what the chaps name was (I had not idea) and how old was he. About 10 minutes after making the call our poor unfortunate has recovered enough to walk slowly. He did have to stop every so often, but was recovering. We were called back by the MRT coordinator, I said he was now able to move under his own steam and they agreed to keep the incident open and I would call them back when he was safe.

We were joined by a marshall and on the descent encounter some MRT out training and about to be picked up by a big yellow helicopter[who's pilot may owe me 3 quid for paying for part of his wedding]. Our poor unfortunate point blank refused to entertain any thought of getting in the big yellow taxi in the sky, even though it was hovering above him. Why? ....... in case his wife found out. The impression he gave was that to get him on the other end of a winch line, we would have had to knock him out first, which would have really gone against the point of the exercise.

We got down to Pen-Y-Pass, it took a while, but all was well.

I pondered if we did the right thing to call the MRT, even though they were not in a position to help as they were busy elsewhere. I concluded yes. He was showing no signed of improvement, a qualified nurse was getting worried and we were in a relatively remote place. He recovered, but what if it had continued.

Our passing nurse was a absolute star, every mountain should to have one.

The incident gave me an excuse to drop out of the race which given my lack of pace I was probably quite happy about it. All I did was talking on the phone and bag carrying, any turkey can do that.

Should our friend have entered the long race, given he has had this problem before on long races? I also pondered on that and decided it is not for me to judge. I don't know his personal circumstance. Its not what I would do, but I also think he is less irresponsible than many of the walker on Snowdon. He was well equipped, kept himself well hydrated and is a experienced runner.

2 year ago there was foul weather and hypothermia. This year, a chap with having an impressive set of convulsions of unknown cause. I am going to have to think very hard before entering this race again.

Congratulation to Sam Smith, one of my esteemed BGR pacers from 3 weeks previous who finished 2nd.