Before my 10k road race, what better way to prepare than with a long hilly run on trails?
So Sunday’s run was the small matter of a drive out to the Brecon Beacons, Upper Neuadd Reservoir to be exact, and a circular run round the tops of Corn Du and Pen y Fan.
The route starts with a gentle climb along boggy forest edge until you reach the reservoir damn. Then there’s a sharp left turn, you can’t miss the hill, and a stiff climb up to the ridge of Graig Fan Ddu and a long beautiful, if windy, passage along the ridge to where it meets the main path from Storey’s Arms. Despite the cold and drizzle, there were quite a few well-covered walkers around.
There’s a short climb to the top of Corn Du, followed by a little up and down to Pen y Fan, the highest point in Southern Britain at 886 metres.
There’s just time to stop and eat a condensed milk/ginger nut bar before freezing too much in the mist, then a steep steep descent to the Beacons Way path skirting the bottom of Cribyn. This is the now the same route I followed back in the spring, but instead of taking the gentle roman road back to the reservoir, we headed up past Fan y Big along Craig Cwumoergwm and over a beautiful lonely path winding between peaty clumps to Craig y Fan Ddu and down to Blaen-y-glyn waterfalls car park. That was a really horrible bit of running, down wet slippy steps, and my quads are complaining even today about it. Then there’s a gentle trot along road and cycle trail back to the starting car park. A truly fabulous day out.
