What a difference a day makes! On Saturday I was sunbathing in my back garden, with Saturday evening seeing the arrival of a prolonged thunderstorm followed by torrential rain right through to the start of the race at 11am the following day.

Fell runners are a hardy bunch with the moist conditions and poor visibility not seeming to put off the 30 runners who had journeyed to Storey Arms.

The race route crosses over two streams which are usually only trickles at this time of the year, but following the torrential rain had suddenly turned into waist deep, fast flowing rivers meaning that most runners opted for the safer crossing points upstream – as a consequence the race records were safe for another year.

As usual, there was keen rivalry between the two local fell running clubs with MDC narrowly taking the honours in the mens’ race with Marcus Pinker (MDC) narrowly outpacing Mark Palmer on the descent from Fan Fawr to the finish.

In the womens’ race Helen Brown (Mynydd Du) held off Clare Dallimore (MDC) by 40 seconds to claims first prize.

Given the weather conditions I was immensely relieved that all the runners returned safely to the finish but, as always, was bemused by the tales of navigational errors, unusual route choices and epic river crossings. One or two runners seemed to be convinced their compasses had developed a fault.

I am very grateful to Gareth Jones and Karen Elvers who marshalled at CP1 and then swept the remainder of the course. Steve Force, my erstwhile Mountain Marathon partner who marshalled at CP2, (well at a point adjacent to CP2, but we will skirt over the reasons for that!). And to Paul and Joc Dodd who looked after the undistinguished summit of Fan Llia. Thanks also to my wife Louse for helping at the Start/ Finish.        Andrew Blackmore