Doing a recce for an upcoming race

The Eryri Harriers have a race on their website, so when I became a member, I spotted a race I had never heard of: the Gladstone 9. It was mainly a trail race in the Penmaenmawr area, and it is beautiful there. So I registered.

The race information says it is not a marked route; there are five checkpoints along the way that you have to hit in order, and you are free to do what you want in between them. In most cases, there is one most obvious option. But not always!

Only racing day, I didn't want to be struggling with maps and compasses and walnut, so I thought doing a recce would be a good idea. So initially them Saturday I put on my running gear, and packed a bag. I brought water, some food, an emergency bag, a knee support, my phone, my power bank, two A4-sized printouts of the map, and a compass. And I drove to Penmaenmawr. 

The start of the route was very easy to find. It's a small path coming off the road. It has some hostile vegetation quite early on! And it also quite early ends up in thick bracken. Not really how I like my runs, but so be it. And at a junction I could get onto a small path that was quite kind to the legs. And then the path got wide again, and there even was a small section on asphalt (where the first checkpoint would be). I didn't mind that at all! Because right afterwards I was back on a very narrow path through bracken. With the usual brambles and gorse mixed in. I walked most of that!

Really close to the start

Soon after the awful bracken I ended up going past Llyn y Wrach to where the Cambrian Way runs. I really like that section of the route. The path is wide enough to keep the skin on your legs, and the views are amazing. And I could basically follow that all the way until I hit the flank of Tal y Fan, where the second checkpoint would be. There is no path there for a kilometre or so, until the Cambrian Way catches up with you over the ridge. The weather was briefly nice and I sat down for some water and a piece of cake.

On the Cambrian Way

Recce selfie

The wall that runs all the way over Tal y Fan; the weather is still good

The weather surely wasn't nice higher up on Tal y Fan. I didn't linger there! Not for the first time. I quickly started making my way down. And I know that now I need to largely navigate on my phone. There are no paths on the map there to the next checkpoint. And it was too foggy be able to aim for anything. But I had made a point of using my maps whenever possible, and thereby saving my phone battery. It worked! I could keep myself on track with my phone, and soon the clouds lifted and I could see the next checkpoint in the distance. It was the stone circle I had visited with Tim.

Not very good weather at the summit

Lots of moorland and not much in the way of paths between Tal y Fan and the stone circle 

From there the navigation was very simple. There was a very clear path in the direction of the next checkpoint: the summit of Foel Lûs. And from there a very clear path (with a lot of loose stones, so very good for falling over) lead back to the junction on the way out I had taken the small-and-kind-to-the-legs-path. So then I could just retrace my steps.

The path can be a bit hostile 

After some three hours I was back at the car. It is only nine miles! But I had to stop regularly to check the map, then I had stopped for food and drink, and there were plenty of places where I chose to walk in order to minimise the chances of spraining my ankle, or falling over on a muddy path in the rain, or just because I didn't fancy dashing at high speed through hostile vegetation. And I had been wearing a backpack. I don't intend to do that on the day of the race; I have now ordered a running vest. The backpack was swaying in an annoying way, and it also chafed my back. And I knew that risk was there, but I did not want to compromise safety. But on race day I should be better equipped, so I am confident I won't be that slow then.

I think I will be okay with the navigation now. Depending on the weather I might or might not need a little bit of help from my phone between Tal y Fan and the stone circle. But otherwise I think I'm okay! Bring on the actual race!