Pentir Fun Run 2026

The race in Pentir is one of those I can just squeeze into my commute home. It is only 4.5 km, and I only have to make a 3.5 km detour on the bike to get to it.

This year, like last year, it was going to be a hot edition. Which I actually, in this case, prefer to the rain version we had two years ago. In a long race I travel to by car I would prefer the rain! But not here.

Race HQ

I got there and saw many friendly faces. And when I was parking my bike I was approached by Arwel. His business with me was twofold: firstly, he had a trophy for me. I had been the second fastest 45+ female (age at the start of the league counts) in the Borders League. Great! I had no idea. BL is very competitive. 

He also asked me if I could help him out that Sunday. He was organising the youth mountain running championships in y Fron again. Could I marshal? I could. 

I got my number, went to the loo, did a little warmup. I also introduced myself to a hiking friend of Neil’s that I knew would be running. And then I went to the start. 

The startline

In this race, it pays off to set off quite fast. There are many gates on the route! And if you end up in a queue you have to wait. So I wasn’t being conservative this time. 

I saw Emma, who won it last year, get ahead of me. and Llio, another Cybi who is faster than me on the short distance. And a while later, too young-looking ladies were coming past. I wondered if they might be setting off too fast. Maybe I could overtake them later on? 

We ran over the road, into the first field. By the time we reached the first gate I could check if my start had been good enough. It hadn't! I actually was in a little queue. That cost time. We did several more gates, and that spread the field out a bit, and then we got onto the terrain of Moel y Ci farm. No gates for a while!

Two things happened. One was that I realised that Louise was right behind me. The other was that one of the young ladies was in sight. I overtook her. The other ladies were so far ahead I never saw them.

I think Louise is absolutely lovely but I still wanted to finish before her! So I kept my speed up. And it must have been good enough because she didn't come past. I seemed to even increase the gap. These gates provide a good opportunity to have a look at what’s behind you. 

The last 500m. Spot the very vague Louise behind me.

A quick look at my watch revealed that I might or might not manage to beat my time of the year before. I tried to keep my speed up and then I finished. I was quite out of breath! And then I saw Louise finish.

We went to get a drink and a piece of cake. The cake is a Pentir fun run tradition. Louise's daughter, who had not run, was also welcome to participate. She appreciated that.

The cakes

After some general catching up in the finish area we went back to the village square where the results were displayed, and where the presentation would be. As I thought, I had come forth, behind Emma, Llio, and the young girl. And I had a category win! And surprisingly, I had run it in the exact same time as last year: 21:36. 

The young girl turned out to be running in the under 16s category. She is fast! She may very well be an elite runner in a few years.

I won a little bag with biscuits and sweets in. After last week’s Toblerone I was really stocking up on sugary foods! 

Presentation. Pic by Louise.

After the presentation everyone went home. And biking home was not onerous at all. Next week there wouldn't actually be a Wednesday evening race. Almost an exception at this time of year! 

Summer graduation 2026

Summer means graduation. And I practically always go. I would want other people to make my graduation day special, so I want to do it for other people as well! So I got to main campus in my smart outfit and went to do room where the grounds are handed out. I happened to get there at the same time as Stuart, our newfangled Head of School. He was looking very smart for the occasion. And he promptly got into the wrong queue. I beckoned him to the correct one, and said he should get his gown before me; as the head of School, he has all sorts of responsibilities that I don't have on a day like this. 

There were not many people doing the handing out of gowns, and we had to wait a bit. And as soon as a person appeared, who else appeared but Dei, who smoothly swanned in and requested his gown. It was so smooth he didn't even realise what was going on. When he realised he had jumped the queue in front of the Head of School he was a bit embarrassed. But we all got our gowns. Mine was lovely: blue with orange, and no hood. I think this gown is supposed to have a hood, but I wasn't going to insist. They are not practical and only make the outfit warmer.

When we have our gowns, we go to the Council Chamber to socialise a bit until the we are called to the corridor to line up. There was a bit of a cluster around the big fan there! This wasn't really weather to wear an elaborate gown over your smart clothes. But that is normal during summer graduation. We and all the students would have to put up with it! 

We were called to the corridor, but then, for unclear reasons, we didn't start the procession. No one knew why there was a delay. But we were about 15 minutes late. And then finally we made our way in. I ended up on the front row. 

In the corridor

By far most of the students graduating were ours. There were a few in Forestry and suchlike. But it’s a lot more fun if you know them. If they are doing a degree you teach a lot on, if they were your personal tutees, if they were your dissertation students, it is the best to see them on that stage.

It was also a special award for my colleague Martyn. It is well deserved! He is a very inspiring lecturer. 

Martyn getting back to his chair after being honoured 

When we had to stand up and sing the national anthem I was lucky to have the other Martyn to the left of me, and Dei next to him. They are both north Welsh so they can sing, and they know the song. I could hold onto that a bit. I had a strong impression, though, that they were singing it in a way that is supposed to be polyphonic, and doing either the tenor or baritone parts. I would sometimes go a different way. 

We then had to deal with the traditional photograph on the University courtyard. It takes a while for the photographer to line us up, and we were standing in the blazing heat. We were glad when the pictures were taken. I'm still not so sure of this tradition. They always put the staff at the front, and it is not their day. Why not the new bachelors, masters and PhDs? And why everyone in one go? Don't you want do a picture of the ocean sciences cohort, and the forestry cohort, separately? But I suppose that's not my call.

We then went to the public courtyard and mingled. It was nice to be able to congratulate some of our new graduates. Like Ellen, who had been senior student rep, and April, who had a love for palaeoclimate. And then we gave the gowns back and headed for the reception, elsewhere on campus.

New BSc Ellen with Katrien and me

I still had to drive and run, so I did not drink any alcohol. But there was cold sparkling water. Lovely! And there were some scones with cream and strawberries for calories.

Soon, our new head of school Stuart gathered everyone because he had some prizes to hand out. I knew from the exam board meetings who the recipients were. I knew two of them. They were very worthy winners. Of the other two, I didn’t know much of one of them, but the other one I may not have known but was familiar with; I had approved her own dissertation topic, and she had clearly run with it. She had an amazing grade for her dissertation.

The prize for the best sedimentological dissertation went to a lady I know quite well, but she was abroad somewhere at a festival. I hope she is very happy with the prize. The other one was for the best physical dissertation. This lady, Stana, hadn't been on the field trip, unlike the other lady, so I didn’t know her as well, but she had impressed in the other modules. She had, for instance, had to do her presentation on the applied marine geology module separately from the others, due to travels, and she had absolutely nailed it. I wasn't surprised she had written a banger of dissertation. Also on a topic she had designed herself.

She knew this was coming, of course; the students are informed beforehand. But she still seemed to struggle to believe it. Her mother was there as well, and she was waving a Seychelles flag around (that's where they're from), and had got quite emotional. Stana said he didn't want to go near her because she knew she would cry as well. I said I wasn't sure why that was a bad thing, but she referred to her make-up. Needless to say that the mother won, and got to her daughter. Who then indeed also got emotional. It was quite sweet.

Not long after that I needed to go to get to Llanberis for our Thursday Night Hill training. That would be quite a transition!

New sunglasses

The first 30-something years of my life, I didn't have prescription sunglasses. But when I learned to drive I wanted to change that. I went to the optician and got me a pair. And that pair has been serving me until now. That's quite impressive! My prescription didn't change very much over the years. And I never lost them or broke them. Until in the end, I did. They fell off my head and I accidentally stood on them. They broke. But they owed me nothing. They had served me for 17 years! 

The old (broken) pair

It was time to buy a new pair. So when teaching came to an end and I was less rushed, I went to Specsavers. And a week later, I could pick the new pair up.

They're quite comfortable! I hope this pair will also serve me for 17 years or so. It would be great if my prescription isn’t meaningfully different after that time. And I again manage to be careful with them for many years. One way to find out!

Prescription 

In the same week I went to Halfords, because I was running out of puncture patches. And when I was there anyway and I saw a comfortable pair of biking sunglasses for a reasonable price, I bought these too. It is very useful to also have a pair that is not prescription. In the past I have been running with sunglasses on, and then I can't read my watch! As they are distance glasses. And I have a pair but it has had too many repairs by now. So now I'm sorted, whether I want to see in the distance or close-up! 

Non prescription

Dragon, finally

It is done! The day after I had Deiniol in my office, and Deiniol having Dragon themselves on the line,  all of which to no avail, it got sorted.  I was at home, given that I had absolutely no reason to be in the office, when I got a message from Deiniol  saying he had had a response from Dragon. They sent a new download link. I thought it was worth the try, so I drove to the office and gave it a go. I would only be there for a short time, so I didn't want to bike.

I tried the download, and it looked identical to the previous download, but when I ran the .exe file it just worked. I could activate it with the new license key. That was how simple it should have been from the beginning. But now I was finally in business again! And I was hoping I could start again with making my RSI less bad. With this period of several months without Dragon in my office, things had got worse again. And I figured it had also been the cause of my elbow problems. If this gets better now, my hunch will be confirmed. I really hope it does!

It is back on my desktop!

Cake competition final (belated)

It was already a while ago! The cake competition finals, between marine biologist Craig and marine renewable energy expert Simon. (I was out in the first round). Craig had won it before. He has form. I suppose Simon was the dark horse.

They had come out with ‘ultimate éclaires’ and ‘orange and pomegranate cake’. We all figured the former was done by Craig. And that was true. I thought it was better than the pomegranate cake, and more people agreed than disagreed with me. Craig won again! 

Craig with the winning éclairs

The tradition is that the winner organises the next competition. But that tradition is shaky! When Craig won two years ago, he didn’t manage it, and Susan (the winner the year before) stepped in. Last year, the winner wasn’t employed by us anymore. Susan stepped in! But she is fed up now. I hope there will be a competition in the new year, though! 

And why am I only telling you this now? I didn’t take pictures, and the School only published the ‘official’ pictures on social media now…

Still no Dragon

I tried to download and activate my voice recognition software on June 16. I hoped it would be sorted that day. It sure wasn’t. It still wasn’t sorted when we sailed into July. 

Deiniol of the Helpdesk had told me to exhaust the trial period, try again, and if that wouldn’t work, let him know so he would come to my office in person. And so I did. This took longer than expected as we both had days off over that period. I also sometimes worked from home to escape the heat. We made an appointment for Monday the 6th to sort it. Once and for all? 

Once in my office on that Monday, he tried everything he could think of, but no avail. So he phoned the software company. They wanted to know all sorts of difficult to retrieve information. I had asked IT to buy it, and IT had asked the financial people to buy it, and the financial people had bought it from a distributor, and the distributor had it from the actual provider. Information can get lost along the way. But in the end, the lady on the other side of the line got all the information she said she needed. And after a bit of to and fro she said that she couldn't immediately help; she was going to mail Deiniol either that day or the day after. Right. This was not going so well. Deiniol was wondering if he should just pick up the desktop and take it to helpdesk HQ and try things there.

Later the software lady emailed something about proxy settings, but that seemed to not be helpful; my settings were already what they should have been. 

I'm not keen on going into the office if there is only a computer there I can't really use. I'm better off at home with my laptop. Deiniol can take my computer when I am not there. 

I'm not sure how this will end! It is very frustrating. I just want to be able to do my work, and not hurt myself while doing it. That seems to be a big ask. I really hope I can bring good news some time soon! 

Meeting Neil’s dad

It didn't take long for me to meet Neil’s sister, mother and stepfather. And even his niece. They seem to come over and visit him a lot. And his father had at some point also been in the neighbourhood, but for some reason that has not resulted in us actually meeting. Neil and I have now been hanging out for practically a year, and finally an opportunity presented itself.

Neil and I would meet on Sunday, and we hadn't decided what to do, when it turned out his dad was back camping on Anglesey. I made the decision of what to do easy! Their plan was to go to a weekly car boot sale on the Anglesey Showground, so we joined.

We met them there. It was lovely to finally meet them. Neil was clearly made from his father's blueprint. He is just younger and taller. Liz, Neil’s stepmom, is the one who really likes car boot sales.

It was lovely weather for it: sunny, but not too hot. And a car boot sale is actually quite a relaxed environment to get to know people. You’re just browsing a bit, sometimes al together, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes entirely dispersed. There's no pressure.

We also actually bought things. The first thing I saw was a pair of sickles. I know Jenny uses them, and she had recently complained to me that you can't buy them anywhere anymore. So I bought them for her! And I bought a little basket for myself. Neil's parents got some stuff as well. Only Neil himself was not convinced by anything he saw. 

After the car boot sale we went to a nearby garden centre, where we had a browse and a coffee. Then we went to the caravan. It was pitched in a farmer’s field. It was very quiet there! And the view was lovely. We just had a chat and a cup of tea and a scone. 

I had heard so much about them! It was great to finally meet them. And they were very welcoming, just like the rest of the family had done. I am lucky. 

Group pic with caravan