Out on the course the day before the race the weather could be best described as bestial. On the lower slopes of Tor-y-Foel the wind speeds must have been approaching 50 mph, on the top with the rain as well, an inhospitable place to be. So you think if today is tomorrow then a shortened version of the race or maybe cancellation is what will happen.

Come the day the rain had gone and the wind though strong had abated. The decision on, summit or not was left until the intrepid Kay and Martin Lucas got there and were able to decide whether an hour or so on the top as a marshall was possible. Yes was their answer and a million thanks to them for their audacity.

So to the race and the highlight, a tremendous performance by Katie Beecher, first lady and with a new record of 37m 38s a significant improvement on the previous record of 39m 38s set by Emma Hitchins. The men's race was a little more competitive, Ben Moon a previous winner of the race was at the sharp end until the open section of the race started, when the order was shuffled, a fight for the front between the first three finishers. All of whom were over forty with the winner Mark Palmer a super vet with a time of 34m 10s just 2 seconds outside the best men's time of 34.08. set last year. Thus over fifty and within a mere 2 second off the record is this man a late developer or would he perhaps have been closer to 30 minutes ten years ago, answers on a postcard please.

Many thanks to all of you who came and ran the race, we started with what I thought was 115 runners and finished with 116, much better than the other option of starting with 115 and finishing with less than that.

Huge thanks also to the people who made this event work, they deserve to be mentioned, thus, Mike Bugler, Geraint James, Peter Sowerby, Huw Morgan, Stuart Iles, Kay and Martin Lucas, Andrew Jenkins, Seamus Hamill-Keays and Richard Preece as marshalls. Hilary Williams, John and Margo Sweeting, John Chidlow and Colin Huntley for number crunching, Toni and Jo at Dan-y-Wenallt for working miracles in a small space and Peter Williams for his major contribution in transforming the parking situation at the race.

Hopefully next year we will have the hostel to ourselves and thus a lot more space to breathe and, the learning process goes on and on, an improved delivery on the results side, I blame the assistant time keeper this year, having an IQ of 7 is always going to be a problem.

Hwyl am y tro,         Les Williams