Downhill Results        Uphill Results

I would imagine that many race organisers put on the kind of race they’d like to do themselves. Well, Andy is known for his downhill predilection and so unsurprisingly came up with the idea of running down the steepest part of the Blorenge and descending 480m in just 1.5 kms. This probably explains why few take part (even on a gloriously sunny evening) but I imagine it’s also slightly worrying for those that do turn up when they realise they have a similar mind set and way of thinking to Andy.

There can’t be many fell races where you run down first and then up after. I wonder if the legs feel any different the next day compared to the more usual up and then down? Do the quads get a warm down going uphill after? You would be forgiven in thinking that doing it this way round is another manifestation of Andy‘s warped sense of humour but is in fact is due to the practicalities of giving the early finishers somewhere to shelter while they wait for the return journey to start.

This year the previous record descending time of 15:57 set by Sandar Vaher was smashed by MDC’s Matt Stott 1st in 14:16 and Chris Jones 2nd in 14:17. Chepstow Harriers’ Paul Murrin who had previously set the MV40 record of 16:05 came in 3rd in 15:37 this year.

Gary Gunner has the MV60 record of 18:25, came back as a MV70 and did 19:50. I can’t think of many MV70’s who’d consider doing this kind of event. Gary is indeed one in a million.

Alice Bedwell’s FV50 time of 22:01 was beaten by Rona Davies in 21:42 and Paul Tucker exactly equalled the MV50 time of 17:19 set by Mark Saunders in 2014.

Helen Brown set the new overall ladies record with 19:00 and ticked the FV40 at the same time.

There is no current FV60 record.

Meshari Alsaeed was the 1st U23 male and Katy Benson the 1st female senior.

Uphill. It is somewhat interesting that it took the winner almost exactly double the time to run the route in reverse.

The sun was setting over by Corn Du and Pen Y Fan at 8:15pm, so when the last couple came back in at around 8:50pm the conditions could best be described as twilight.

Matt Stott and Helen Brown were again the male and female winners of the uphill route.

Andy went home happy – not only had he successfully encouraged 21 runners to take part in his favourite pastime but also, despite the odd bloodied knee or two, managed once again to avoid sullying his vast array of pristine wound dressings in his mobile first aid emporium. “Go home and clean it in the bath, tiz only a scratch” he was overheard to say.