Saturday dawned sunny and breezy, unlike the previous couple of days. I knew it was going to be a hot days racing.
I took my time clearing the camp and then drove over to Blaenau Ffestiniog for the
Ras y Moelwyn (the Moelwyn 3 Peaks). The distance and ascent was similar to
Clachnaben last weekend but I was hoping to be a lot quicker. The terrain should suit me better since the descents were a lot more runnable, without the horrible high heather and bogs of Deeside, and I wasn't ill, which made a big difference.
I felt I was about 10 or more minutes behind where I should have been last week (at 2:02), so I was hoping for a sub-1:50 time here, and hopefully, I'd be in the top half of the field as well.
There were 104 starters and I was halfway down the field after a very conservative start as we gained height along the tracks up into the slate mines below the hills. A bunch of folks had overtaken me up to this point but I knew I'd need all the energy I could muster at the end and took it very easily to start. At the first major climb up a slate road, once everyone started to walk, I started to re-pass everyone since I have a natural advantage of very long legs and fast walking pace uphill.
Indeed, up every climb up to the first of the 3 peaks, I overtook a lot of people, probably about 20 all in all. I expected to see some of the them again but I never did. I kept pace down the descents, which suited me, being slow-ish and technical, and even overtook another couple of runners. I kept the pressure on up the second climb and kept descending well.
Now I was with runners moving at the same speed and up and over the final hill, I lost touch a bit with the 2 folks in front. I was still feeling ok, so I gritted my teeth and got down to the road for the last run in, which was a lot further than I remembered on the way out.
I overtook one more runner before the end but I couldn't muster the finishing endurance to hold him off and another chap came past at the end as well. Not to worry, no point killing myself for a couple of places in a training race.
The results aren't out yet but I believe I was about 35th out of 104 and finished in 1:44ish. All in all, very pleasing and showed that Clachnaben was an aberration. In 2 weeks, it's
Stuc a' Chroin, which is going to be a lot longer but a good test before
Jura.
