Sbrint ‘Stiniog 2026

I had really enjoyed the 2025 Sbrint Stiniog! And I was hoping there would be a 2026 edition. I didn’t see any announcements. Until I did. And by then I saw it was on a date i already was double booked. So no Sbrint for me then. Until I saw it had been cancelled for reasons of bad weather. That matched with the rubbish weather I heard about that runners of the Anglesey 10k/HM had to put up with. I had been comfortable in sunny Birkenhead. 

I hoped it would get rescheduled. And then it was: on September 20. Again, on a day with more going on. Not only was the RNLI 5k on in Llandudno; it was also the day after Neil’s Welsh 3000s. But I figured he would be asleep at thd time of the race, as I expected him to finish in the early morning. I told him I had registered, but if he wanted me around that morning, I would just not show up.

He was happy with me racing so I got my kit ready. I was feeling a bit under the weather but I couldn’t resist the race. And in sunny weather I drove to Tanygrisiau.  I was cutting it quite sharp! I got to registration only a few minutes before it would officially close. I didn't think they really would close at that time, but still. I pinned my number on, did a little warmup, and had a last sip of drink. I was ready! And I spotted some people I knew: Alice, a former colleague, and Russell, the Tuesday Track trainer. He wasn’t running it himself; he was there to support his children who were.

Then we started. Like last year, I was at the front. A lot of people came past, but most of them were male. There was one young lady coming past, but my gut feeling was that she wouldn't manage to keep that up. I was right; after 200 m I had overtaken her.

I was quite happily trundling along. I had the feeling I had found a good balance between keeping a good speed up but not wearing myself out too soon. And quite soon I came past Nina, Russell’s wife; she cheered me on with all her might. And later, our former student Amy, who had been there last year too, did the same. 

Looking uncharacteristically worried on the way up

After a while I came to the turnaround point and could start making my way back down. That was an opportunity to see how far behind me the next woman was. And the answer was: quite far. I was confident I was going to win this. I know I am relatively slow on the downhill, but this just looked like a gap that was too big to close. 

On the steep bits I just went as fast as I dared, and on the not so steep bits I tried to keep my speed up, to not let anyone behind me come close too easily. Even if it is downhill, you can still push it! And I was sort of using a young lad in black as a pacer. And I came past Amy and Nina again, which was great fun.

Storming down behind the bloke in black

Then I got to the finish. I had done it! Second gold medal of the year! I was proud. And I went to get my bag, as I wanted a drink and my phone. A lady from the organisation congratulated me, and gave me a medal and my prize: a lovely water bottle. I went back to the finish the cheer on the next women. And whoever else was finishing.

The charming finish

I didn't stay long. I wanted to get Neil, and hear all about his adventures. He had told me about them the night before, but he had come in quite close to bedtime, and now there would be a bit more time. So I scarpered. I did notice Garmin said my heart rate had been unusually high: up to 207 bpm. I hadn't pushed it unusually hard. Maybe that was the being a bit under the weather? I had felt totally healthy while running but maybe I had fooled myself... 

When I left I didn't know my official time (I don't think it's far off last year's time) and I still don't know it at the time of writing this. There had been no updates from the organisation. I hope that will come soon but even if not; it has been a cracking race!

Neil’s Welsh 3000s

The day was finally there! The day Neil would attempt to summit all Welsh peaks over 300 ft within 24 hours. With a small group, lead by the mountain guide I had done Crib Lem with. He would do it after spending months training, and wondering how it would go. He could control himself, but he could not control the other people in the group. Would they be so slow he would get frustrated? Would they be so fast he wouldn't be able to keep up? Impossible to know, until they would be on their way!

He would set off Fron Pen y Pass at 7 in the morning. And it was a wet morning. That must have been a trying start! But he knows North Welsh weather. He would have been both mentally and physically prepared. 

At 8 I got my first update. They weren’t doing Crib Goch! Too dangerous in that wind. Disappointing in a way, but it is clearly more important to survive than to do the original route. Even though the Crib is one of the over-3000 peaks. 

While he was out there, I could see the weather improve during my marshalling duties. I was glad! That must've made a big difference.

The next time I heard something it was lunchtime. They had reached Nant Peris. They had done the first mountain ridge! Now they would go to the Glyderau ridge. And at about 3, they were at y Garn; about halfway along that ridge. That meant they had done that in 1.5 hours. Maybe only 1.5 hours to polish off the whole ridge? But no. It was over four hours later, and therefore evening, when I got the next message that they had to come down that second ridge as well.

I figured they would do it. If they wanted to do the whole route in 24 hours, they still had almost half that time for the Carneddau. And you have done most of the climbing by then. When it comes to horizontal walking you are only about halfway, but the sting is probably more in the climbs.

I was just having a cup of tea on my sofa when I heard a car pull up, and then a knock on the door. It was Neil! That must mean they had abandoned the attempt. But he looked quite happy. I was confused.

It turned out that the whole rest of the group wasn't up for continuing. Neil still felt he had the energy, even though of course by that time he was a bit worn down. But he figured that going on with only Jacob the mountain guide wasn't quite the same as doing it with the group. He said he would've pushed on if they would have done Crib Goch, but they hadn't. It wouldn't have been a full Welsh 3000s anyway! So he figured he might as well bail as well. But he said he did have an amazing day. And that is important! 

Armed with the experience of this day, he could try again next year, hoping to catch a day when Crib Goch would be possible. There were several things he said he would do differently if he had another chance. So he might be more comfortable next time.

He had also had some strong coffee to get himself ready for the last push, before the decision was made to not make that push. He was a bit hyper! And the day after he told me it had affected his sleep. Oh dear.

I was glad he had had a lovely day, and that he was fine with how it had panned out. And I was proud that he had been the last one to hold out. All the others were about 20 years younger than him! And they seem to have been suitably impressed. 

Hearing all his stories confirmed me in my decision to not consider that sort of shenanigans myself. My feet would have been killing me. And it would've been difficult to drink enough. You can't bring too much water on a hike like that as it would tire you out, and there is little water on the ridges. Filling up your bottles takes time they don't want to lose. Next time I will be just keeping an eye on my WhatsApp again!

Ad hoc marshal

The Pedol Peris race would coincide with Neil’s Welsh 3000s, and I wanted to be standby, so not stand on a mountain all day. But the night before, a call came for more volunteers. And I figured there wouldn’t be much need for me in the morning. The chances of anything happening that would improve from my input in the first hours of his hike would be vanishingly small. So I said I could do some early stage volunteering. And Suzie, the race organiser, put me on marshalling duties in Dinorwic. 

I drove south on the rain, and walked to my station in the mist. Then the sun came out. And Dinorwic is so beautiful! I also bumped into Helen, who works for the power station there, but now was in function as another marshal. She had brought her dog.

Dinorwic when I walked up

Soon after Helen had left to go to her own station, I could see the first runner in the far distance. And then two more. They would get to me soon!

There is a runner in this picture, honest

Not much later the first runner indeed appeared. I could see him for quite a while. For a distance, he looked like Rhys from Hebog. When he came closer, it turned out that he was. But I had a bit of a brain fart, and I shouted something along the lines of “Great running, Siôn!” Oh dear. At least I could show him where he should go, as I was standing somewhere where the route onwards was a bit ambiguous. And he would go on to win the race. 

Soon afterwards, a lady and a gentleman ran up together. I know it was only about half an hour into many hours worth of race, but still; a lady in shared second position is quite something!

I shouted at everyone! As usual. Even though I was wearing glasses, I only noticed I actually knew runners (if I did) if they were really close to me. There were quite some Eryri Harriers running. Great! But this is a race our own club organises, and it is right up its street, so that was not unexpected.

There were a few more runners who were not certain where to go. I actually had use! Helen had been worried about runners going places that were sensitive to the power plant, but nobody seemed that way inclined. They just might have gone the wrong way. 

When I saw a guy who had nobody in sight behind him I asked if there was anyone else; he said he was the last. So I let Suzie know that was the case, and took off my hi viz and cowbell. I decided to walk a different way down. I like Dinorwic! 

When I got to the mill, the goats were there in force. I could get quite close and take some nice pictures. And then I was off home, for lunch. It had been nice, and I had made a small difference to the club. And I still had the rest of the day. So all good. A LOT better than last year! And on another note: how would Neil be doing? 

Handsome billy

Are they flirting? 

Last day of the field trip: coring

We got to do the coring at the end of the field trip this year. The previous few years, we had done it early on. I quite like doing it last. And we always do it at the same time as the geophysics. We were scheduled to pick up the students on the Friday quite late: 11 o’clock, and then be out in the field until quite late to have all students do both activities. 

On Thursday I bumped into Dei and Katrien, who run the geophysical exercise. Since we have moved the field location to Anglesey, they are working with electrical resistance. The problem with that is that it is weather-dependent. If you soak everything in rainwater, everything has the electrical resistivity of rainwater! And they had looked at the weather forecast; on the Friday afternoon, everything really would get soaked in rainwater. What to do?

It wouldn't be raining in the morning, but they figured they couldn't fit all the students in in that short time. So their suggestion was: just don't do the geophysics, and just all team up so all students could do the coring before the rain would hit. That sounded fine to me. It would mean an earlier start, but earlier than 11 o'clock is perfectly acceptable. We barged into Jaco's office to suggest the change, and he was fine with it as well. We would pick up the students at 8:30. And then all go coring, and get it done by noon.

With the entire cohort of students coring at the same time, we would need a bit more equipment, but Dei and Katrien could magic something out of their obscure lab. Success!

The next morning the forecast had changed a bit; it would now start raining at about 10. Oh dear! We had better get our skates on. We drove to the field, dragged all our materials to the field site, and had a go at it. We had augers and gouges. Gouges are difficult to use in sand, but they provide a beautiful continuous record. Augers are totally fine in sand but provide a much messier record. We tried both. And we had a spade too; two students just dug a trench. You can’t get very deep that way, but the view on the sediments is unsurpassed. 

Throwing the kitchen sink at it like that made things a bit chaotic, but I think in the end, we got what we came for. All students had a core log, and I had taken samples from the trench. Jaco took some more from a gouge. And then we felt droplets. Time to scarper! 

I never even took a picture; that’s how busy it all felt. But that’s ok! And it was an abrupt end of the field trip, but so be it. Soon we will get to mark the students’ field notebooks, and then we will get an additional source of information on how well it all went! 

Last Thursday Night Hill session off-road of the season

It had felt like autumn for a while already. Pretty much since I came back from the Netherlands. And when we entered September it meteorologically became official. And now there is something else to mark it. On the online invitation to the weekly Thursday Night Hill run, it was specified that this would be the last time this year we would be in the hills before we would get back to our winter route on asphalt. That made me slightly sad! Even though I also like our winter runs. 

We ended the season with subtlety. No crazy ascents of Moel Eilio or Elidir Fawr or any of that. Just a bit of running around in a general vicinity of Llanberis. Only some 400 m of ascent. But it was a gorgeous evening for it! Even though I, and several other people, got cold arms, as we were in short sleeves, and that might not have been ideal. I had a jacket in my running vest but it stayed there.

There was also a bit of slapstick when the group fell apart into two subgroups; I was in the slower one. We got to a junction and couldn't see the fast group. Rhian, sort of is in charge of the slower group, was certain the front runners had gone right. Until she suddenly shouted "STOP!" as she had decided that they had gone left. But after we went left the situation repeated. And again when we went right. I wasn't entirely sure if she was genuinely confused, or just wondering how long she could string that along. But by then, the front group had sent a messenger to indicate where they had actually gone.

It was a nice night! Big turnout, with both regulars and newbies. And when we will hit the roads, at least the people won't change. And then we will all still be fit when we get back into spring!

Surveying

After all the surface sampling was done, there were two days scheduled for surveying beach transects. We survey the same lines each year to see if the beaches have lost or gained sand, and by approximately how much. On the first day, I was needed for this. And low tide wasn’t so frightfully early anymore, so Stef (the technician) and me picked up the students at 7:00. We drove them to HQ, where Martin divided the students into three groups (we would do three transects) and we loaded up the kit. 

Once parked we each headed to our transects. I thought I knew where the start of ours was, marked by a wooden post. Without problems we walked to where I thought it was. I didn't see a post. I must have been mistaken. We kept walking, but it soon looked like we had overshot it. We then looked at the GPS; we knew its coordinates. We found the GPS a bit clunky to work with. While we were struggling, I sent one student north and one south, to see if they could just spot it by eye. No success! But then we managed to get the GPS to do what we wanted, and could, with its help, just walk towards it. And it brought us straight back to where I thought it would be in the first place. And then I suddenly saw it. It was the most obvious wooden post in the world! How could we all have missed that? And some of us several times?

We had lost some time this way, so now we needed to get moving. The beginning of a transect like that is always slow, because the temporary benchmark is placed out of reach of the incoming waves, so in the dunes, quite high up. That means you have to move your tripod a few times to get it into a position from where you can survey large parts of the beach. 

Even though all the students had been complaining they had learned to survey a million times, the start was a bit slow. The students were trying to get their head around what exactly it was they needed to note down, and where. But in the end they got it, and then I figured we would speed up. And we did.

Surveying on a sunny and windy beach

With the students being more confident we got to the waterline; here we obviously had to turn around. With big steps we headed back to our benchmark. From WhatsApp I found out that the other groups were already done.

We made big strides back. Soon we were close to the benchmark again. I eyeballed it and figured it was about a meter above instrument height. Our documentation suggested otherwise. Hmm. Had something gone wrong? We looked back at all the numbers that had been written down. Was something miscalculated? 

By then we were tired and windswept and brains were not firing at full speed. When the students were certain they had all the necessary numbers to be able to recalculate we packed up and went back to the vehicle. 

Once back at HQ the students could bring the paperwork in order in comfort. I had a drink and a sandwich. After a while the other students got impatient as they had finished well before my group. And we were in several vehicles so they left. My group got it sorted, and then we could leave as well. Another part of the field trip done and dusted! 

Digital access issue

The university has to deal with the changing world. One thing that changes is the increase in cyberattacks. Back in them days, you just logged in. Then, two-step verification came in. Initially, you didn’t have to confirm that often. Now you do. And I always had a code sent to my mobile phone. The other option was to use my mobile Outlook app. It should let you enter a code, but mine never did. But that was not a problem, as there was an alternative. Until there wasn’t.

One day the SMS option just seemed to vanish. And without it, I can’t log in. I tried to check something for the fieldwork and failed; when I told Martin about that, he seemed to know what was going on. He said I must have missed some emails about this; he said they hadn’t been particularly obvious. But they said that we now all needed to use an Authenticator app. That would explain things.

I found the right app in the App Store and downloaded it. Then I tried to link it to my work account. Guess what? You need two step authentication for that. How would I get that? 

When I got to campus after a morning in the field, I went to my office and first had a look for the emails I seemed to have missed. To my embarrassment, the earliest mention of it was from years ago. But there were only two, over the last six years or so. Possible to miss. But reading them didn’t help me. I phoned the helpdesk. 

To my relief, the person answering said he could sort this. He did a remote log-in on my computer, and that way managed to link the app to the account. And it works now! That was a big relief. I might be up to date-adjacent now. The times will inevitably catch up with me again, but maybe not for a bit of a while now! 

It works!