North Wales Cross Country League, Bangor

A year's worth of weather greeted the runners from across North Wales and the borders for the second in this years North Wales Cross Country League at Bangor.

The mornings sporadic rain was followed by dry weather, but as the junior men and senior women lined up for the start, the heavens opened and down came the rain.

Two an a half laps of Treborth Athletic track fields saw me up with the leaders, as the rain stopped and the hail stones started to bounce off the runners as they snaked their way along the field and through the woods!

The X Talons 212 copped well in the mud, with plenty of grip on the up hill sections.

At the half way point, I started to pass a few runners, eventually coming home strongly in fifth place.

Pictures can be seen on the SportpicturesCymru website.

National Open Cyclo Cross Championship

Day two of the weekend, saw me compete in my second race of the weekend. This time it was the National Open Cyclo Cross Race at Prestatyn, organised by TLI Cymru. The weather was kinder today, as riders from the UK travelled to North Wales to compete for the cyclo cross jersey.

I was competing in the 16-19 age category, but riding the full course with the seniors. My legs were tired after the Cross Country the previous day.

My usual bad starts at these races, was today followed by a better one, as a stampede of riders tried to make it to the very tight corner in first place, in order to avoid any possible crashes. I came out unscathed, and dug in for the full hour of racing.

The course was very technical, but relatively dry following the bad weather of the previous day.

With about 2 laps to go, I couldn't feel my legs, but I clung on to finishing, in what I thought was a category win and the TLI white jersey.

At the presentation, there was no sign of my win, but 3rd in the senior men category, which the organisers had kindly decided to put me in. A disappointing end, to an otherwise good weekend of racing.

More pictures can be seen on the SportpicturesCymru web site.

Revolution Bikes Winter Cyclo Cross Series

It was the second of the Revolution Bikes Winter Cyclo Cross Series, on Sunday 24th October at Bethesda, on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park. Again, blue skies greeted a depleted field of 21 cyclists. Discussions were abound as to why, but there were a few other races on the day. The Coed y Brenin off road duathlon and the Border League 10k race at Caernarfon to name but two. However, I think the main reason was that this race was also a duathlon, consisting of five laps riding, one running, 5 cycling and finishing off with another run. This suited me just fine due my triathlon background, and hopes were high of a good finish.

Problems with my pedals, saw me at the back of the pack, so some serious riding had to be done in order to get back with the leaders. The heavy rain on the previous days, had made the course wet, but it wasn't muddy.

A new longer course going in the opposite direction to the same race two weeks ago, made it slightly easier I thought, but still challenging.

On the first run lap I was comfortable as my triathlon training saw me running strongly, as some of the others suffered with jelly legs following the bike ride.

A few more laps on the bike, with another run lap saw me passing two more, to come home as first junior, and sixth overall. Two wins in two races, sees at the top of the leader board. The new bike worked well, along with my X Talon 212's, which worked extremely well in the wet conditions.

Great pictures can be seen on the SportpicturesCymru website.

Busy weekend next week, with the second round of the North Wales Cross Country League, followed the next day by another cyclo cross race.

Anglesey Festival of Running 10km Road Race

I was down to do the Fleetwood triathlon on Sunday, but as there was a local road race on my doorstep, I decided to head over to Anglesey to do a 10kM race.

A sunny but cold day greeted all the runners, not only doing the 10k, but also a 5km race, half marathon and a marathon!

A good start to the race saw me up with the leaders, and after about 3kM we'd broken away from the rest of the runners. At the halfway point, the two senior Eryri athletes runnig with me started to pull away, but not too far as I fought to stay with them.

As I ran into the Anglesey showground, I knew that a PB was on the cards, and I came home in a time of 36:15, over 3 minutes quicker than my previous 10k run.

Results are here with sime oictures on sportpicturescymru.

Patron of the Festival - Colin Jackson.

Llanberis Hill Climb

It was the last of the GCA races was held on Sunday 12 September, with the Llanberis Hill Climb. The route goes from the car park at Nant Peris to Pen y Pass, a total of 3.05 miles, with an overall gradient of 6.42%, with 12% in some places.
My time for the last climb at Pen y Pass was 16:49. My time today was an unofficial 13:41, a pb of over 3 minutes!
The results can be found here, with some more pictures here.

Picture courtesy of Jeremy Williams.

Llanrwst Sprint Triathlon

It was the Llanrwst Sprint Triathlon yesterday, with 168 triathletes competing for the honours on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park..
The race consisted of a 400m swim, 30k bike and a 5km run.
The swim took place in the local Llanrwst swimming pool, with a 500m run to transition. I was last to go, as I had the fastest swim time on paper. A good swim and a personal best saw me running to T2 in a time of 4:44, and the fastest time of the day.
A new bike course greeted the next leg of the race, which consisted of a 30kM time trial along the twisty and hilly roads of North Wales, and west of the beautiful Afon Conwy. A fast and steep decent to the turnaround point had its advantages, but the disadvantage was that I had to ride back up, before tackling the head on wind and 15kM to the finish. Back to transition for the run, which had a sting at the start, consisting of a 500m steep ascent to a forest track, where I battled for honours along 4kM forest trails, watched by the mountain bikers tackling the Marin Trail. Back down the steep decent to finish the 5kM run time in 18:40, which gave me 2nd fastest run time of the day, and a total triathlon race time of 1:22:05.
Good day’s work, which gave me 11th overall and 1st U20.

More pictures on sportpicturescymru.

Cycling Time Trial

It was the last of the cycling time trials on Tuesday 31 August. At only 3.8 miles, it's one of the smallest that is arranged by Clwb Rasio Mona on Anglesey. There are no prizes on offer, just individual competition against friendly club riders based in North West Wales.

The end of a sunny day on the island saw 30 riders compete for honors. A personal best for this course, saw me return to the finish line in 10.01 min, and placed 13th overall.

Results are here, and photos of the time trial can be seen on sportpicturescymru website.