The Ultra Brecon 40 Winter Edition - 41 miles 7,470' ascent

Forty plus miles of mud, great crack and my first meeting with Cani Crossers.  A long tour of the Brecon National Park with a dawn start and dusk falling long before the finish (for ordinary mortals).  There was a freezing mist in the valleys and in that mist glowed the pale, clear eyes of Huskies.

I arrived at the Talybont Recreation Center in the evening after a comparatively uneventful drive and set off to find a dorm with a free bed.  I found a space and was soon chatting about this and that with a fellow who introduced himself as Ricardo and later I met my other two room mates.

The rooms were far too warm for comfort and none of us had slept for more than a couple of hours when we rose at around 05:30.  I hadn't realised that in another room, ground coffee was being served by a caterer and had settled for some disgusting all in one instant concoction to accompany my porridge.  I had organised my kit in advance so just chilled until it was time for the ten minute walk to the start line and 07:15 briefing.

As soon as the briefing was over I removed my down pullover and repacked it carefully.  Forty five seconds later START was called and I waited as a few runners went past before adopting what I thought was a sensible position two thirds back.  

There were no real bottlenecks, apart from stiles, in the whole race and we trotted without pressure up the first ascent.  The freezing mist was receding into the valleys leaving a film of white on all but the tops of the hills, the scene was amazing and everybody paused for a picture.

The first ascent and the freezing mist revealing it's handiwork. -el

There were patches that were wet/muddy, most of them easy enough to dodge and I enjoyed the early running and the scenery made especially haunting by the early light, mists and frost on the ground.

On the way to CP1 another view that few could resist the urge to record - el.

The terrain became seriously muddy after a while, check point one at 8 miles seemed a long time coming, though when I checked my watch I was making reasonable time.  I still felt reasonably fresh and had packed for self sufficiency so did not stop.


I made sure I ate and drank my scheduled amounts.  When I  reached CP2 at 12 miles I took a little water to dilute my Coke.  I felt that I was slowing down now, though I still felt OK.  Checking my split time showed that I was maintaining exactly the same pace as before.

Talybont reservoir, on the way to checkpoint 3 - el.

After a few miles I started to feel very tired and was hoping I was not going to have another fizzle out like I did at the Roaches.  I reassured myself with the memory of how worn out I had felt at a similar distance on the Long Tour of Bradwell. I also monitored my breathing to ensure that I was working at a respectable level.  I have found that it is easy to slip into a sub optimal trudge and that an increase in speed sometimes seems impossible, but once achieved is not at all uncomfortable or difficult to maintain.


Checkpoint 3 at 16 miles came and went.  I was expecting the worst when I looked at my watch and was pleasantly surprised that I was still averaging better than 15 minutes a mile, no slower than before.

The almost constant deep mud was not my "cup of tea" at all.  Sometimes it was ankle deep and threatened to pull your shoes off, sometimes it was less deep and so incredibly slippery.  Often there was a crust of ice and you never knew whether your foot would slip on the ice, break through and sink into the filth below or break and sink just enough for a shard of ice to get you in the Achille's.

I had struck up the occasional conversation here and there and the usual passing and re passing had taken place, a couple of Australian fellows and I had passed and re passed each other several times since the start.  Nonetheless, I ran much of this race on my own, my preoccupation with the filthy terrain and staying upright meant that I missed views and other opportunities that I might otherwise have enjoyed.  For similar reasons I took no more photographs.

The Aussies

As the event progressed my fatigue plateaued and after a while I just became used to it.  I continued to eat and drink as scheduled and when any temporary increase in energy came along I took advantage and upped my pace.  I started to catch a few people that I had not seen since the start.  Amongst these were some of the canni crossers and, as our paces were similar, I had the time to admire the remarkable, beautiful and noble huskies. 

Harley, Max and Gary Turner. Gary spent more time on his bottom than most of us, especially on descents.

Eventually I left the canni crossers behind and could discern no familiar faces.  I had expected checkpoint 7 at 35 miles to be significant for me as it would be further than I had ever run before.  Somehow this significance waned long before I got there as, tired as I was, I knew at twenty miles that I would make the distance barring accidents.

I continued to maintain pace through the 21 and 25.5 mile checkpoints, gained a little on the steep ascent up from the road lay by shortly after CP5.  I was sorely tempted to stop for coffee there but kept on.

At check point 5 I had caught and left the Australians and did not see them again until the steep descent before the 30 mile checkpoint 6.  They caught and passed me, I later caught and passed them again until eventually they passed me a last time running as if they had found some energy at the bottom of their packs.

The scenery was fine here and I began to enjoy the route again until darkness hid the view.  I had company on and off until the last checkpoint at 35 miles.  At this point the twilight ended and as head torches went on four of us stuck pretty much together and navigated as a team.  This worked well as signs were not always easy to see and bits of tape were invisible.  We ran towards purposeful looking head torches and assumed any running back and forth at right angles to our path were lost.  When we saw an example of the latter or where otherwise uncertain we spread into a semi circle and shouted when we identified the route.  When one of us had a bit of energy we ran ahead and shouted back if correct direction was confirmed.

We did have to zig zag or change direction occasionally (and sometimes mistook the reflection of a sheep's eye for a torch) but together we lost maybe ten minutes that could so easily have been much more, I think we also pulled each other along.  Around two miles from the finish we met a runner from the organising team who was out placing glow sticks, runners behind us had an easier time getting home.


The team; Hannah, Jonathan, Michael and myself

Our impromptu "team" finished together at 10:40:56 representing an overall pace of less than 16 minutes per mile.  I have never run at such a consistent pace in an event this long.  We shook hands then headed for refreshment.  Soon Ricardo came down to see who was home, later another room mate Paul did the same, this kind of camaraderie was a touching feature of the event.

Our last room mate, Mark (and dog), was still not home after some time and Ricardo and I headed for the pub.  I bumped into the Australians who had got back in 10:10.  I congratulated them on this achievement, after running so much of the race at a pace similar to mine they had got half an hour ahead in ten miles and that is some going as I had hardly slowed.

Mark coming home

When we returned from a very pleasant time at the White Hart, Mark was still not home.  The rest went to bed while I chilled and took some air, I checked again for Mark who had not yet arrived but a head torch could be seen in the distance.  He came across the finish a few minutes later with a smile that threatened to crack his face.  He was congratulated then attention moved to his beautiful white husky.

I can not say that I enjoyed the route, far too much filth for me.  Still,  sores in the Achilles area where mud and grit had accumulated in the opening of my shoe are the only injury I sustained.  I am pleased with my time.  The event I enjoyed enormously, the crack, the support, the laughs and especially my fourth pint from a generous comrade who understood that a cash flow situation, due to a cloned card, meant that I couldn't stand my round.

Cheers everyone, for your excellent company.  Hope you had a good journey back to Denmark Peter, good luck for the Tour de Helvellyn Emiko and cani crossers give those lovely dogs an extra hug from me.

All photographs except those credited to - el, are muen photography.  Excellent work guys.