| Pen y Fan Sat 17th July Results |
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76 seniors and 11 juniors wanted beer and curly wurlies enough to make this a proper party of puffing
and panting. Before the start Martin Shaw was looking lean and nippy, but Will Horsley also had a spring
in his step, particularly when he found out Mark Palmer was away to run Holme Moss. The juniors mingle
with the rest on the fast run out to the stile, then turn and hurtle back, dodging the trailing grown-ups.
Louis Norton of Brecon AC won by 15 seconds, while Sadie Melhuish just beat Arunn Jones in a sprint finish
for second, also setting a new girls record for the course. When the seniors appeared on the skyline,
two runners were clear - Martin leading Will up the long haul to Corn Du, with a thin group a couple of hundred metres behind. By the summit, Martin had a lead of about 30 seconds, and from the finish we saw him taking his "most cunning" line off Pen y Fan, much further north than the direct descent taken by everyone else. For a while we thought Will might catch him, but Martin's line is obviously a good one, and he powered home in 34:05 with Will still half a minute behind. Paul Murrin certainly took the scenic route, and it was a full 5 minutes later that he crossed the line, holding onto 3rd place despite touring much of South Wales on the way down. Kevin Hagley ran a blistering descent as usual to finish 4th and 1st V40, but the fastest descender of the day was actually Stewart Bellamy, who pulled through from 18th at the summit to 7th at the end, taking 9:28 from top to bottom (note that KA's fastest was 7:05!). Helen Marshall pipped Alice Bedwell in the ladies race, and our prize fund for breaking the records remains unclaimed. As in 2009, MDC packed well to take the team prize. Thanks to Mike Law on the summit, Tom Harrison at the Tommy Jones obelisk, Colin Cottell and David McCoy or Corn Du, Martin Wilkerson on the descent, Hartmut and Viviana at the stile, Ricky and Emma at registration and the finish, and to anyone else we've forgotten. And thanks to the sponsors Breconshire Brewery and St. Mary’s Bakery, the beer and food for all seemed to go down well! Crispin and Naomi |