Holyhead breakwater 5 mile race

When I found out there is such thing as the Eryri Harriers road championships, I got very excited. And there were a lot of races in it that I had never heard of. One of them was the Holyhead breakwater 5 miles. I definitely wanted to do that. So as soon as I saw the announcement that registration was open, I put my name down.

Chris was also going to race it, so we would share transport. And in rather good racing weather we drove up, and parked where the coastal road turns west. Then we walked to the start, which wasn't very far. We got our race numbers in no time. And we went to the loos. That was where the organisation was a bit weak; there were no portaloos, and the whole event relied on the public toilets near the start, but even though Chris and I were quite early, the ladies’ toilets already had no toilet paper left. People were improvising in various ways.

We had a chat with several other runners, and I went for a little warmup run. And then it was time to pose for a club picture, and line up for the start. We were set on our way by one of the two trainers of the Tuesday Track sessions, who had organised this race. 

Club pic

I noticed I was inclined to start too fast. I was aiming at an overall 4:25 (min/km) pace. But the first km I know I can be tempted to run below 4. I can’t sustain that! I slowed myself down. And did the same with fellow track runner Louise, who suffers from the same issue. Together we settled into a more sensible pace. She said she would stick with me as long as she could. We know from the track I’m a bit faster! 

 

Near the start. Spot me in the back

Things felt ok at 4:15, so I stuck with that. And I just trundled on. The pace felt a bit hypnotic. And I kept an eye on whether there were any runners coming the other way already. It took longer than I thought! Finally I saw two really fast chaps coming my way. And then nothing for a long time. 

 

Rounding the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater 

Finally, an actual trickle of runners appeared. I kept an eye out for women. Emma (who wins lots of races) was in the lead. Unsurprising! Then a lady in black I didn’t recognise, and then a North Wales Road Runner. That was it. Aha, I was in 4th position! And that NWRRC lady looked like she was within reach. Time to find out if I could get past. 

The distance slowly, slowly got smaller. And I caught up with her. Success! The lady in black was so far ahead, I would never catch her. And all the while I enjoyed waving and occasionally shouting at the people that I knew coming the other way.

When I came to the end I did the bit on gravel not looking at my watch. I figured my pace didn't matter so much. The only thing that mattered was that the NWRRC lady wasn't coming closer. And it looks like she wasn't. So I could take it easy on the terrain I'm not so good on.

When I was back on asphalt I ended up behind a gaggle of blokes. I was not of a mind to overtake them. There is no gain in overtaking men. I sort of ended up merging with them. I knew I could take it easy now that my bronze medal was more or less guaranteed, but going anomalously slow seemed silly. I just ran with the blokes to the finish. And found myself quite out of breath! Later I would see that I had done the last kilometre at a 4:02 pace. I didn't realise that at the time! It did explain the breathlessness though.

It was Louise’s daughter who handed me my medal. It looked like she was having a good time! And then I cheered on the NWRRC lady who came in about half a minute later. 

I went to get my shorts so I could have my phone on me, and I got some fruit and a granola bar. And make sure to be there when Chris came in. He was also quite out of breath at the finish! As one should be. Together we cheered more people on. And had a chat with other people who had finished. 

It was chip timed so we could see our results right away. I had done it in 33:57! A lot faster than my fastest Borders League at 34:39. Chris had also done the last km by far the fastest. It did have a tail wind, by the way, which may have helped. 

We cheered on the last runner, and then it was time for the presentation. It was a double one, like the one in Llanrug. First the normal one, and then the Welsh Athletics one for club runners (and therefore members of WA). I got another medal as the fastest woman in my age category (Gold and Silver woman were in their thirties). And then it was time to get home again. This was the last one of the lovely string of four races in July. From now on it will get a bit quieter. I only have one race booked in August!

Chuffed with my trophy

Posing for the Eryri Harriers FB site

Penmaenmawr quarries

I have spent years driving past Penmaenmawr, and I always look at the remnants of the old quarry there. I always wanted to explore them, but the moment never seemed right. I had been in a very small part of it, but from driving past on many an occasion I knew that there was a lot more to it than that. 

Then an opportunity presented itself to explore some more. A third date, with a man who likes that kind of stuff as well. We met up in eastern Llanfairfechan, and found our way to the public path that leads towards the quarry. It was a bit wetter than we had hoped! We successfully found our way to an incline, and with incline come drum houses. And by the second drum house, which had an intact roof, we decided to sit down for lunch. And then we went on. The rain had stopped!

The first drum house, in not very good nick

It had been quite civilised until then, but from there we went several levels up, on inclines that tended to have quite a lot of vegetation on them, a lot of it hostile. It was a bit of a crazy adventure, but we both enjoyed ourselves! And that made it even better. If you have some niche interests, it's nice to find someone who shares them.

Looking down towards Anglesey

Level with drum house, workshops and more

Up the incline we go! 

There were some beautiful mine relics on the various levels. And the levels themselves were rarely visited, and quite serene. 

Infrastructure 

Rails bending down into the incline 

When we arrived at the level I had been before, we decided from there to pick up the public footpath again, that brings you to the Wales Coast Path. No need to retrace our steps! This was a lot more civilised. 

More rural scenes on the way down

Pretty fungi along the way

We had had a great time! And are keen to also explore further west. I hope that will happen. You never know with dates! 

Running ambition

I know that over the past years, I have been getting faster. I also know that there is inevitably an end to that. I thought it would be cool if I would manage to have my peak as late as in my 50s. I suppose most people peak a lot earlier. But it should be doable! Most of my personal best are from the last year or two, so already in my late 40s. If I push it a bit, surely I can tighten some of these PBs next year?

Thinking about this a bit I decided to set myself an official goal. In fact, I compete in five distances: 5k, 5m, 10k, 10m, half marathon. And I want to set at least three of my personal bests beyond my 50th birthday. If I manage that then I think I can argue I have indeed reached my peak then.

I supposed the difficult one to beat will be the 10k, given that I run that distance so often (13 times since I started racing again after lockdown), and have been actively chasing podium positions in it. My current personal record is set at the Bangor 10k. 

I'm not sure about the 5m. That's Borders League distance, and I surprised myself by running a lot faster than expected in these races. But I have only done two, and if that type of race just inspires me to be fast, than maybe next year it's still well, and I can beat these times that are already quite fast for me?

The 10 mile should be doable. I only did one since lockdown. There are not many of these around. The next time I run that distance is quite possibly going to be the next Colwyn Bay 10m, and that is in spring, after my birthday.

The 5k should also be doable! Yes I ran myself quite empty in Bethel, where I set my current record, but this is a distance that is fairly easy to train on. It doesn't take a lot of time to practice a 5k! 

The half marathon should also be doable: my current record was set in a race where halfway, I had to stop and put knee supports on. I ran the second half of it like a scarecrow. But I have another flat half marathon in the diary (the same one) before my birthday. It is quite possible that that will yield the time I will have to beat next year. 

I will have to see how it goes! And what if I manage? Well you can always get new ambitions. Maybe try to nab a course record in my age category for some race. Or just increase my collection of finisher medals. I’m sure I will still enjoy it even if I don’t improve anymore!

More strained expressions expected with these ambitions 

Late harvest

I suppose it was all the running. I just didn't spend much time in the garden this spring and summer. Normally, I would have announced the fruit season a lot earlier than this. But this year I did notice at some point that my berries were ripe, but they were almost beyond that point by the time I finally got around to harvesting them. But now I finally have! In one fell swoop I harvested the black currents. And decided to turn them into cake.

The harvest

I think I overdid it a bit in the berries over cake batter ratio. It wasn't a particularly good cake! But it will do.

I also have gooseberries. I will see if I have time to harvest these as well, and turn them as well into cake. And the next thing will normally be plums, but this year the plum tree is seriously not feeling it. So then the waiting is for the apple tree. And that has a stronger appeal. I suppose this year my garden fruit will end up feeling a bit underappreciated!

TNH: Foel Gron again

I wasn’t sure about this week’s TNH. I had been away over the weekend, and chores had piled up. I had been busy doing some emergency catching up with these on Monday night. On Tuesday I was on the track, and on Wednesday I had been marshalling a race. I was tired and felt a bit apprehensive about all the other things that needed doing. 

I went anyway. We gathered in Llanberis. That happens often! And we headed for the eastern shore of Llyn Dwythwch. There is no path there, so the running is uncomfortable. Uneven terrain, mostly parallel to a slope. But the views are really good. 

Just out of town

Past Llyn Dwythwch 

We came to the ridge in the saddle between Foel Goch and Foel Gron. The views were great there too! And where would we go from there? Up, of course. And westward, to Foel Gron. The previous time we had been there, we had taken a ludicrous decent straight down from the ridge. Would we do that again? Or would we go around? That would add 100 m ascent to the run. But that was hardly outside the range for the TNH. 

Off-piste ascent

On the saddle

Scenic evening shot

It turned out we descended the ridge between Cwm Cesig and Cwm yr Hafod. Still very steep but not quite as steep as that last time in June. And then things got more civilised again. 

The descent

The view back down in the valley

It had taken us well over 2 hrs! I was quite peckish by the time we were done. But I was glad I had gone. It had been beautiful! And I could do chores the next day…

Marshalling Race the Train

I had heard of Race the Train. A race in Tywyn, mid Wales. You race a train going downhill, and you run on grass. That didn't seem to be my kind of thing at all!

Later I found out there is also a version in Caernarfon. That is also downhill, but very gently, on a bicycle path. That is much more up my street! And there was an announcement that registration would open at some time om a Sunday. I thought I'd register, but it failed. Then I noticed another announcement. The first announcement had a mistake; registration would open up at that same time on Monday. 

On that Monday I did my usual thing, with work and dinner and suchlike, and then thought I'd give registration a go. Too late! It turns out that this race sells out about as fast as an Oasis concert. Hence that they announced what time registration would open. Normally, that information is not given. Quite a lot of races never sell out, and those who do, often only do it in weeks. 

With that ship having sailed I emailed to say I was available as a marshal. So that was how it turned out. Instructions had been: be at the heritage steam train station in Caernarfon at 18:30. I decided to bring my bike; it is a 5k route, and if you get stationed 4k from the finish, a bike comes in handy. But when I got to HQ I was told I was stationed at most 200 meters from the finish. The bike had come for no reason. Oh well! Nothing lost.

The reason why they suddenly had a lot of marshals near the finish is that that is where the bicycle path comes onto a road. Normally, the road is very quiet, and that means the runners can just get onto it, and have all the space in the world to do some last overtaking manoeuvres. But this time, a parallel road had been closed, and there was a lot of traffic trying to squeeze itself down that road. It was imperative to keep the runners on the pavement! And that would be a lot of the marshals would be stationed right there, in the last 200m before the finish. 

We had been summoned at 18:30, but the train would only leave with the runners at 19:30. It would ride to stations inland, stop, let the runners out, give them a head start, and then make its way back. The start would be at 20:00, and a bit over 15 minutes later we would expect the first runner. So other than being told where we were stationed, we had precisely nothing to do between 18:30 and 20:15. I can imagine the organisation once they Marshalls to be there in good time in case of unexpected changes, but it felt a bit superfluous! I just had a nice chat with fellow marshals and with runners.

Runners getting on the train

The locomotive was still getting supplied

 

We did watch the train leave. The race was obviously sold out, so the locomotive pulled quite a number of carriages! It is a fine sight. 

The train, ready to leave, and a cluster of marshals on the other side of the wall

There it goes!

I got in position in good time. And then, some 17 minutes past eight, I could hear some shouting from the marshals further in land. The first runner was spotted! 

The first runner

We had traffic cones and tape to keep the runners on the pavement, so our job was basically just to cheer. The front runners ignored us; they needed all their energy to go as fast as they could. But after the first 10 runners or so, people started to respond. I knew quite a lot of the runners! These are always the most fun to cheer on. But the race numbers had names on, so you could cheer on complete strangers by their name as well. Sometimes you have to be careful; we knew some people had dropped out, because of injury or something, and had managed to transfer their number to somebody else. So then you could have the metaphorical bloke running with a race bib that says ‘Sue’. If that happens, it's probably a transfer case, and you might choose to do nameless cheering…

I thought we would be done quite quickly, but there were some people who need a lot more time than the front runners. The winner did it in 13:59 (the race must have started a bit after 8pm), but the last runner needed 47 minutes. So we were out there for a while! And most people beat the train. That seems to be unusual! It was said to have been a bit sluggish…

If I get to run it next year, I have a target time: 19:53. There was a Cybi Strider who tends to finish somewhere near me; we finished within 4 seconds of each other in the Pentir race, and 5 seconds in Felinheli, so he is a good proxy for my time. And that was the time he did it in. Very fast! Given that in Bethel, on a flat course, he needed 21:58. 

When the last runner had passed, we took down the tape and piled up the cones. And I went in to see the presentation. That started not much later. And rightly so; if you finished around 20:18, you might not like waiting until 21:00 or so to get your prize. I know, many races are worse, but they are also almost certainly longer, with the latest prize winner finishing a longer time after the overall winner. You could tell people wanted to go home; quite some prize winners didn’t show up, and many others left as soon as they had their prize. The last people to get chocolate or biscuits did so to a very small audience. 

I took a picture of the castle against evening skies from the pedestrian bridge over the track during the tidy up

Lots of prizes ready for the presentation! To be handed out by local legend Mike, assisted by local legends Ann and Sharon (yes they are sisters)

When it was done I left too. I had been there since 18:30 and hadn’t been needed for a minute of it. Time to get home, and to bed! 

Supplementary Assessment Week (fortnight)

Most students make it without difficulty into the next year, or, if they are in their final year, their graduation. But not all. And those generally get the opportunity to redeem some low grades in summer. Originally, we had Supplementary Assessment Week (SAW) in July. Some students were allowed to just resit an assessment they had missed (first sits), maybe because they were ill, and some students were doing assessments that represented entire modules (supplementary assessment), in order to improve on their module grades. SAW is by now a bit of a misnomer as the period lasts two weeks, but the principle is the same.

The first thing that happens is that after the exam board meetings you get a message from the Assessment Officer or the Senior Tutor or someone along those lines, that you have to get all these assessments ready. All my modules had them. Quite often, you have to prepare for both first sits and supplementary assessments. It's more work than you might think!

More work comes, of course, when the students have submitted. Then it all needs to be marked really quickly. Sometimes that is problematic as teaching staff are on holiday. This is the middle of July, after all!

I had quite a lot, but not everything in my modules had to be marked by me. I have, of course, the dissertation module, with all the third year student in it. There were quite a lot of them entitled to submit something during SAW; 16 pieces of work in total. But if that was a first sit, then the people originally designated to supervise or second-mark that were supposed to take care of that. The supplementary assessments were mine. And, by complete coincidence, there were three first sit dissertations submitted, and I had to second-mark two of them.

The supplementary assessment for the dissertation module involves sea ice

 

I also have to deal with any cases of breach of academic integrity regulations, of course. Luckily, there weren't many of those, but more than zero. Ending up in my spreadsheet of AI cases during SAW is not a good sign. But standards need to be upheld!

In the week after SAW, so when all the marking took place, I practically did not make any progress on my Senior Fellowship application. In this way, someone quickly runs away! Autumn always comes too fast. And I haven't even had holiday yet. I'll have to try to be efficient with the rest of my summer!

Alderley Edge mines

On Sunday we would do a mine (or several mines) of which I didn’t know more than that it was warm in there, and no SRT was involved. So I had packed an old pair of outdoor trousers and an old waterproof jacket. 

Over breakfast (basically, yesterday’s lunch) I found out the entrance was walking distance away. And now things started to make sense! Why the club hut and its adjacent field were here, for instance. That was because of these mines. I had run past an open lode with a fence around it, and an information sign about the DCC leasing and maintaining the site. So if you have such a responsibility, you might as well have a base there too, with a kit store, and a place where you can have a brew under a roof after a hard day of mine maintenance. 

We got kitted up and set off. The entrance was in the fenced off lode! There was a door there. And so we stepped into a mine in Permo-Triassic Red Sandstone. I had never been in a place like that! I love red sandstones. They normally don’t have mines in them. These did for reasons of hydrothermal activity. I wondered if that would have been associated with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The open lode

It was beautiful in there! Obviously. And quite spacious. And with lots of infrastructure, as there are tourist trips in there. 

Space and infrastrucure. Pic by Sal

 

It’s a bit of a warren! Not like some slate mines that form a highly regular pattern. And it had lots of shafts and winzes and flooded bits and ladders and whatnot. And amazing sedimentology. And lovely blue and green drippies because of the hydrothermal activity.

Look at these sedimentary structures!

Sharon at the top of a laddered winze with drippies

Mary in on of the irregular passages

Ripples in the ceiling

Me looking at drippies. Pic by Sharon

The canoe trip rom one mine to the next. Pic by Sharon

I think we did two interconnected mines. The connection was flooded, and negotiated by canoe. On the other side we ran a bit out of steam, so we only saw a small part of the second mine. But that was ok! Maybe there’ll be an opportunity to come back one day. I was tired and had seen way more than enough to make it worth the trip. So that was the underground fun of my first ladies only weekend away! Maybe more will follow…

Hillocks mine

The only thing I knew about Saturday’s mine, Hillocks in Derbyshire, was that it required full SRT kit and that I hadn’t been before. That was enough for me! 

Over breakfast in the cafe we had made a plan. The mine is essentially a big U. We would go in at both ends, meet at the bottom, and then come out on the other side. We would de-rig on the way out. And it was a part mine part cave, in Carboniferous limestone and the mine was old; it was largely made with pick-axes, and thus quite constricted. But some of the levels had later been widened with the help of explosives. 

‘Before’ picture 

It had been decided I would go in the direction that was seen as more sporty, with Sal, Liz and Bee. We went down a narrow irregular shaft with lots of rebelays. That was fun! And then some more, shorter pitches. All went well. And then we reached the bottom, where the space opened up. And really soon we heard the others. Together we went to a suitable lunch spot. I had loads of lunch with me, but was still full of breakfast, so I didn’t eat much. But I did drink. 

Liz about to start her way down from the surface

Hybrid level: original narrow level with the bottom widened using explosives

Underground group pic

Then we went on. We started on a pitch past a pesky rock, and then up a smooth lip without footholds, and all sorts of fun. Because we helped each other it all went well. And then we got to a pretty shaft where it was a bit awkward coming off the rope. And that brought you into a rather tight horizontal level. The end was a proper belly crawl! But from there on, it got wider, and not much later we were out. Mission accomplished!

Waiting one’s turn

Sal coming up the pretty shaft

Sal at the top of the pretty shaft

We walked back to the car and saw that the other group was already there. They had come out only minutes earlier. They had had fun too! 

We look a bit ominous in this picture 

I hadn’t done that much SRT in a while. It was not large distances, but a lot of short or interrupted pitches! It was fun. And although there was nothing in the way of artefacts or suchlike, it was a pretty mine!

Ladies’ caving weekend: the non-caving

After a really pleasant women-only giving trip in Parc I was pleased to hear of a whole weekend with the same crew. It would be in Derbyshire, so not stupidly far away, but still far enough to would guarantee I would have not visited any of these venues ever before. So when I saw I could make it, I signed up. 

There would be eight of us; six from Wales, and two ladies from the Derbyshire caving club (DCC). And the accommodation was simple: a field. So I got my tent ready, and everything that comes with that. We would have vehicle access to the field, so I didn't have to pack light. Not that packing light is compatible with mine exploration anyway.

My luggage got a bit heavier when we were told that there would be no water there. I packed a fair number of water bottles. I also had a good look on the map. There were some streams there, and there was even a waterfall indicated! I figured that would then be a washing opportunity. I figured drinking water wouldn't be a huge problem, but these streams could be a back-up.

I struggled a bit with leaving the house early. Some people would already be on the field at 18:30. I hadn’t even left by then! But once I left everything went well; traffic was fine, and I found it without problems. I said hello to the Welsh ladies, introduced myself to the DCC ladies Sal and Jane, and quickly pitched my tent. Then I joined them for a drink. One without alcohol for me. And I went to bed at a reasonable hour. I would get plenty of opportunity to hang out with these ladies in the coming two days!

Our home for the weekend! Mine is the dark green tent.

This super cute building is the DCC club hut

Because I was travelling by car anyway, I had brought my running kit. I figured I would be able to get a run in before we set off! And on the Saturday, that was even imperative, as I am a bit of a sucker for the Saturday Guardian, and I had spotted a supermarket about 3 km away. I figured I could run there in the morning, buy a newspaper, and be back on time! We wanted to set off for a café where we would meet some of the others, and have breakfast, at nine. 

My plan worked. I hadn’t slept overly well, but got up at seven anyway. Only then did I think to Google the shop’s opening hours. It opened at eight! Plenty of time, so I took the beautiful route to the shop.

We were right by Alderley Edge; a Permo-Triassic sandstone escarpment, which obviously doesn’t lend itself much to either building on or agriculture, so is wooded and pretty. And has very well-maintained paths following it. And the nearby town (with supermarket) is also called Alderley Edge. I ran through the woods to the town, got there a bit early, waited for the shop to open, bought a newspaper and a pistachio croissant when I was there anyway, put the newspaper in a bread bag in my running vest (it was raining), and ran back. I was on time to change, get my kit together, and brush my teeth. Then we set off! 

Damp view from the edge

I was sharing a ride with Mary, who had created this ladies only initiative. She seems to have single-handedly raised the proportion of females in the club from 10% to 26% in a year! That is good going.

We got to the very cute village of Monyash, with its even cuter cafe the Old Smithy. They found Sharon, Liz and Gwyneth. We sat down for breakfast. This was mainly fry-ups. I settled for a bap with fried egg and cheese. Not a familiar combination for Brits. And I learned something new: they had ‘oat cakes’ in the fried breakfast, and I know these as a sort of oaty cracker the size of a biscuit, but here they were oaty pancakes, filled with melted cheese. It’s a Derbyshire thing. One of the ladies couldn’t finish hers so I got to try. Quite nice! 

Interior of the cafe

We also decided to split in two groups of four, with the groups travelling in opposite directions. We would meet in the middle. It would be a rope-intensive trip, and if you do it with all eight ladies in one group, you spend a long time waiting!

After breakfast we went to the mine, and got changed. In the rain. And headed for the entrances. But the actual mine trip will get its own post.

The two groups came out only minutes apart. There had been mention of tea and cake in the same cafe  we had had breakfast in, but it would soon close, so we just  changed and went back to our field, only stopping to drop one lady off who had to leave. We would find a new one at the field who had not been able to make it earlier. 

We wanted to go to a nearby Thai restaurant,  but fortunately, people weren't in a big hurry, and they didn't mind that one of the ladies, Bee, and me wanted to check out that waterfall first. It was about a kilometre away.  it would be nice to feel clean while having dinner!

We didn't struggle to find the location indicated on the map. What was harder was to recognise it as a waterfall. There was absolutely minimal water coming down! I'm sure that in a very rainy November this can be a proper waterfall, but it totally wasn't right now. With a bit of patience you could still get considerably cleaner in it than you had been beforehand, so it was still worth it, but decidedly underwhelming.

Bee putting her shoes back on by the ‘waterfall’. In full screen mode you might be able to spot the water! 

After Bee and I came back, Sharon and I  drove everybody to the restaurant. It was an unusual place! It was an old-fashioned English pub, but also a Thai restaurant. Luckily, it did both things well. The food was delicious and served really quickly, and the atmosphere was fittingly rustic for a bunch of mine explorers.

When we got back we had another drink on our field. We had been paying Manchester prices in the pub! But we also had our own beer. And Mary produced  a super cute portable fire pit. We had a lovely rest of the night by the fire.  I had an actual alcohol-containing beverage!

Evening drinks

The next morning I went for a run again. This time I didn't have to slot a shop into my run, so I stayed out of the village. It was lovely!

Near our field

Scenic woodland 

Some signs of sandstone quarrying

Good quality paths

Handsome cattle

When I got back I got ready for our second adventure.  This was in a mine that was so close by we could walk to it. And this place will also get its own blog post.

We came out at about 2 pm, and we had a little cup of tea by Sharon's vehicle. But then it was time to go; it is a two hour drive. But I had had a great time! It was a lovely group to go underground with, and I liked the venues. And in spite of the lack of running water, I had enjoyed the camping in the field. Especially by the fire! And I had managed to slot some runs in. And we even had great Thai food. What is not to like.  I'm totally up for doing this more often.

Another thing we want to do is invite the DCC ladies back. They were up for it! It would be great to return the favour. Stay tuned! I hope I will be able to write more about ladies’ caving adventures in the not too distant future…