Second Tuesday Evening fell race: Nant Peris

After my first Tuesday evening fell race, I was eager for more. The week after, the race would be in Nant Peris, which is very beautiful. And not very far away. Ideal? Not quite! It was a very wet day, and that makes fell racing extra challenging. I'm already scared of slipping and injuring myself when it is dry! I knew my downhill was going to be very slow. But I still wanted to race.

When I arrived I tried to pay for the entire series, but the organisation did not want to accept that. This was already the fourth race. So I just paid for this episode. And then I had a little recce. Crikey was it muddy. This was going to get interesting!

Arriving at the start

The race didn't immediately start steep, but because of the soggy ground it was a challenge anyway. And I think there normally is a path lower down on the route, but that evening it was a stream. I wasn't going very fast! And soon it was so steep no one was going fast. There was practically no running going on for most of the uphill. But much, much later than I had expected it, we started to see people coming downhill. And those at the front were obviously hurtling down the slope as if it wasn't out have them sprain their knees and break their ankles!

It gets steep

I reached the top, took two pictures, and then carefully started to make my way down. It was more important to me to come down in one recognisable shape than to be fast. So I was overtaken left, right and centre.

Looking back at the top

Summit selfie

At some point I was overtaken by a lady who then just sat down and slid some distance down the slope on her bum. That is also a way of doing it! I did consider it. But I stayed on my feet.

And down

I had heard a lot of cheering earlier on, but by the time I finally approached the finish it was quite quiet. I found out that exactly like the previous time, I had come in as the 75th runner, but the previous time the weather was gorgeous and there were a heck of a lot more of them! Under these circumstances I am pretty rubbish. I was starting to look forward to the civilised road race that was only two weeks away. It is less scenic, but you can just concentrate on the running!

The week after that, the race would be a bit further away, and again up a ludicrously steep hill. I've walked that hill a few times, and even for walking I find the downhill too steep. I think I might skip this one! There just wouldn't be any running involved for me…