Ras y Aran- 2026

 It's been a while since I raced. Indeed, a while since I blogged about racing. Last year I did in fact do Cracken Edge and the Fell relays, but never got around to writing about them. 

Ras y Aran- an out and back race- although it starts at 1pm we got up super early as I was dropping Lynne off somewhere in Wales for her to ride home, and earlier was better for her. 

Lynne about to set off for home. Chilly, but sunny. 

 

No problem, and at 7:43 we parted ways and I carried on down towards Bala. Made a coffee and went for a wander at Llyn Tegid lake, and then onward to Llanuwchylln, the village where the race starts. I was indeed there ridiculously early, so took the opportunity to have a wander in the glorious sun, checking out the start and end of the route- even though its an out and back, they differ slightly. 

Acquainting myself with the locals

I was still far too early for race registration, so went and had a lie down in the van until about 1100, and then went to register. All good, I was number 5, and as I walked outside with plans for the next few hours to do not a lot, FOOM. I noticed I couldn't see anything apart from peripheral vision- migraine. Shit. 

Thankfully the van was a short walk away, where I necked a couple of asprin (theyre the only thing that seem to help), closed my eyes, set an alarm for 12:30 and resolved not to open my eyes until then and see what happenned. 

Not a lot to say about the next hour an a half, but when I got up and got changed, there were no visual disturbances, and the headache hadn't kicked in. Number pinned on, I gingerly ran up and down the road getting in a bit of a warm up. The sun was out, it was hot and I was kind of glad to have a t-shirt on rather than a vest, or I'd certainly have ended up very burnt. 

We set off at 1 on the dot, and as normal, I was looking around at all these people who looked very fit and wondered how I'd stack up. Top 20 or so? 65 runners, I think- maybe top 15? As we took the turn up the road that turned to a path, there were 5 runners ahead of me, and I was making good progress. You could see the hill above us, but from experience, I knew that the top was very much out of sight. 

See that lump in the background. That's halfway to halfway. 

As we made our way up past Garth Uchaf, the turn around for the junior race, I lost touch with Jez Brown from Buckley- still going very well indeed - and I ran for a while with one of the local guys from Merionydd. A fair amount of the route was kind of path-like, but with sections of bog, which was amusing to negotiate on the way up. It was a constant battle of "is this gradient slack enough to run? Is my heart rate going too high? why do I feel so awful?"

The migraine was not making any kind of come back, it was just that I was probably going at a faster pace for a more prolonged time that I have done for quite a while. 

At some point, the merionydd guy and I caught up with another Merionydd runner- the one I was running with took off like a rocket, and I ended up looking at the same vest, just a different runner. We went through the checkpoint at Moel Ffenigil, about the halfway point and continued up to the visible high point of Aran Benllyn. He was most definitely leading me at that point, but as we crested the rise and saw the top of Aran Fawddwy- the turning point, somewhat in the distance, I commented something along the lines of "thats a long freaking way away, isnt it?!" and continued running.. he somewhat dropped back, which was very surprising as he seemed so strong. 

Sometime prior to here I'd had a gel, which wasn't sitting well in my stomach, which was a bit of a concern as the only other "food" I had was another gel. The plan was to have it at some point on the summit cone so that I had some kind of energy for the way home. It felt like I was getting slower and slower as I approached the final climb- a bit of a scramble, and I only counted 3 people coming back from it in front of me. Or was it 4? I have no idea. 

Climbing the scramble, it was still astonishing that no-one had gone past me yet considering the snails pace I felt like I was going at. Necked a gel, got to the top where I told the marshal he was a liar for suggesting that its "all downhill from here". It really isn't, and turned back down. Right behind me was a Mercia guy, and behind him was the Merionydd runner. Feeling like I had nothing really left to give, despite being only halfway through the race, it seemed inevitable that at least 2 people would come past on the way home, maybe more. 

The slog back to Aran Benllyn was characterised by feeling worse, and following a Mercia top along the way, saying hi to all the people that were still on the way up. (saying hi = grunting in a pained way to impart that yes, Im acknowledging you, but really, I havent got the energy to do anything else). At some point, the Mercia guy continued up a line which followed a trod and the fenceline which made no sense, so I took the less obvious trod, and cut off a swathe of route, overtaking him without accelerating at all. Last time I did this race I must have been following someone else on the way down, or I had more wits about me as there were a number of slightly different lines taken on the way down than the way up... this time, it was almost all exactly the same route. 

The Mercia guy came back past, and I continued to feel awful. Trying not to overstride and end up with a stitch, taking it almost easy on the way down, it definitely felt like I was not descending to the level at which I used to. Age and reduced strength gets you in the end. 

That being said, he wasn't getting further away, and from what I could tell, no-one was really gaining on us (never look back!). We passed the checkpoint at Moel Ffenigl again and on the way down to Moel Ddu the Mercia guy pulled up short- Checking he was ok- a twisted ankle up here is going to mean a LONG walk off- he just said "cramp"- fine... I'll keep on going then. 

Down and down, and then he caught up with me again. Can't have been that bad then, but considering that I hadn't really slowed down from my already pretty slow pace, he must have put on quite a spurt of speed to catch up, which might mean that he would end up cramping again. He led me through the gate before Garth-Uchaf, we crossed the bogs and then I was surprised as I led the way up the hill and through the next gate... now we were on the ground I had recced this morning. 

I *know* this bit!

Still feeling like I wanted to thrown up (much like the previous 45 mins) I led the way down the hill, through the next gate and then left around the finish "diversion"... ie. the bit that we hadn't started out on. No idea how close he was behind me, sometimes it sounded like he was just there, and sometimes not. Through 2 more gates, around a sharp bend and then road. The sharp bend enabled me to see that he was a good 10m back, and although that should have been a comfortable margin, I still gave it some welly down the final 2-300m to the end. 1:51 and change- and I think- 4th. 

It was hot, I was feeling pretty ill, so had some water, went for a cool down "jog" that was more of a stumble and a walk. Luckily there were showers, so I was able to clean down- and then couldn't work out if I was hungry or if I still wanted to throw up. Grabbed some water for my bottle and then went and crashed out in the back of the van feeling absolutely terrible. 

Woke up on a number of occasions and didn't feel well enough to sit up, let alone move, so drank more water and lay there feeling pretty miserable. Missed prize giving, continued to feel awful and continued to drink and sleep. Eventually felt well enough to move at about 1700. I was meant to be going to a Mountain Rescue Exercise starting at 1800 on Bleaklow... well, I was goinig to be late. 

Started driving, stopped for some food (I was feeling OK to drive at this point)- got home at just before 2000 and basically just crashed into bed. 

Quite a day.