Adam brecon beacons blog

PT Adam completes the Brecon Beacons Trail Marathon

Personal Trainer Adam Jones comes 7th out of 120 in the Brecon Beacons Trail Marathon, despite a broken wrist! Read how he got on.


My entry to The Brecon Beacons Marathon was a deferral from 2020 after many events were cancelled due to covid. I was a little late in confirming my spot due to the debate with my surgeon the week prior to the race on the smartness of racing six weeks after surgery.

Thankfully he gave the thumbs up with the agreement that if I was to fall at any point then all the pressure would go on the good wrist.....deal done.

This umming and aarring meant I missed out on nabbing any accommodation in the area decent or otherwise, so I decided to head off anyway and see what I could find.

Arriving in Talybont On Usk the evening before the race i found myself a cosy layby to call home for the night and get my head down in the back of the car.

One major advantage to its location was it was less than five minutes from the start line.

Adam Brecon Beacons blog

The slight disadvantage was the review I found on the Park4Night app explaining how one reviewer had to drop it down to just four out of five stars due to the couple in the car next door knocking on the window at 01:30 asking if the gentleman would like to join them.

Waking in the morning to crisp clear skies and no friendly evening neighbours I got up, washed in my fabulous ensuite public bathroom and sat down to an enjoyable pre-race breakfast of the muesli and banana I had brought with me, before making my way to the start line.

Brecon Beacons marathon trail

The Brecon Beacons Trail Marathon is a 26.2 mile race with over 4000ft of ascent taking in some of the most beautiful scenery in south Wales as well as some of its highest points, to include in Pen Y Fan, Cribyn and Tor Y Foel.

The race was designed to be a covid safe staggered start but as with a lot of these races descended into a swarmed mass start of 110 racers with sharp elbows all jostling for position on the metre wide canal path.

The thing about events like this is that very few ever maintain a consistent pace throughout due to the undulation so I very soon found myself falling away from the front pack within the first 5km which was the flattest part of the course.

The next time I would see the tail end of that pack was halfway through the first climb up the Beacons Way and then onto Tor Y Foel a 500+m summit taking in views of the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains.

Descending Tor Y Foel into the Talybont Forest we come across our first feed station. There were 3 feed stations in total, all well stocked with the usual array of water, drinks, nuts, crisps, and various jellied sweets as well as a lovely warm welcome from each of the volunteers.  I opted at this point to bump up two spots by heading straight past the feed station whilst others stopped to refill with water and grab snacks.

Brecon Beacons trail marathon

Within the forest we hit the “old coal route” where originally the tramway and later on the railway brought coal from the other side of the mountain to be loaded on to the barges for dispatch to Newport down the canal.  This is a 5km straight line with approximately 600ft of ascent – it’s one of the parts of the course where its best to keep your head down and just put one foot in front of the other.

When out of the forest we found ourselves on open mountain side and thanks to the clear blue skies could see the top of Pen Y fan some 10km and 1500ft away in the distance.

I really enjoy this section of the run.  Being a smaller and lighter guy, I have always found climbing easier than running on the flats so found this the perfect time to start eating up some of the places a head of me.

As it was such a lovely day the way up to the base of Pen Y fan, the mountain was full of day walkers and families getting in some Autumnal exercise and at some spots was tricky to get past a few of the groups.

The roman road that guides you up from the base of Pen Y fan is an impressive thing to see, and a great constant reminder for me that however much my legs were hurting at the time some poor fella had to lug rocks up a mountainside century earlier and lay them all to make my day that much easier.

Bad weather of fog and rain at the top dropped visibility down to about 5 metres making it tough to find the marshal at the top to check in with before heading down the way you just came.

From here the route went up and down a few more challenging hills, but none as tough as Pen Y Fan, before heading back into the valley for the final time. The last 5km of the route took us back along the canal tow path towards the race HQ, the finish, and our medal.

 

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