Context

On February the 25th I attempted the South Wales Traverse as a long training run for the upcoming 100 miles of Istria race. The plan was to run 120km with 5500m of elevation gain across the whole of Brecon Beacons National Park covering all the peaks above 600m along the way. Welsh weather had other plans 🤦‍♂️

Start

It all started so well. Clear weather forecast, on-time departure and a lovely taxi driver taking me to that parking lot on the A4069, even buying me a mars bar on a petrol station, saying I'll need it (I did).

Night

As I made my way up the first mountain the heavy cloud layer came in and refused to lift up until next afternoon. In this dead silent night, navigating was really hard. Finding your way through the featureless, boggy terrain with no paths is difficult enough on a clear day, but with 2-5 meters of visibility in the dense fog of night, my progress was severely slowed down.

Beacons

By 5am I reached Storey Arms and made my way towards the Beacons (Corn Du, Pen Y Fan, Cribyn, Waun Rydd, etc). Meanwhile the wind went from almost 0 to 40mph and the cloud layer still won't let up. No view, no sunrise for me on Pen Y Fan 😞. This was certainly not going to get easier.

By the time I got to Cefn Yr Ystrad (other side of Talybont reservoir), the life energy got sapped out of me and my spirit was crushed. Knowing that the last part of the run (still 3h away) was along the ridge-lines of Black mountains, with 50% of it running directly into the wind, I decided to bail out once I reach Crickhowel.

Bailout

After a short refuel stop in Llangynidr, instead of upwards (to Pen Cerrig Calch), I turned sideways (onto the road through Crickhowel) and ran the remainder of my adventure along the winding country lanes of Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿.

Finish

At 4pm I got back to the Llanthony Abbey. Now the clouds disappear! No race banner, no music, just a few confused tourists looking at this tired-looking, smelly runner. I sent a message home.

Although this first attempt did not go to plan, I take from it the learnings, the experience and I am grateful for the time up in the clouds.

See you again South Wales, until then…

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

T. D.