https://www.welshathletics.org/en/blog/post/bank-holiday-weekend-round-up2
It’s been a strange year with no races taking place, that said it has also given rise to many an FKT (Fastest Known Time) opportunities on a multitude of routes. One of the most challenging of course if the Paddy Buckley round. For those of you who may not be aware of this challenge, it is one of three rounds in Britain, the other two are Bob Graham (England) and Ramsey (Scotland). Paddy Buckley is over 63 miles (100km), reaches 47 peaks and is considered the toughest of the three rounds.
The current record for the route was set a year ago by Ultra runner Damian Hall in a time of 17 hours and 31 minutes. Many runners thought this was a good time but not impossible to beat by maybe a few minutes. Math decided to take on this challenge yesterday (Sunday, 30th of August) by thoroughly planning and assembling a team of support runners for the five legs including several from the Eryri Harriers club - John Rowley, Matt Fortes, Gwyn Owen, Gavin Roberts, Jonnie Moore and 'yours truly'!
With fine weather and everyone in good spirits, the expectation was that breaking the record was definitely possible; however, the team had not foreseen how significant the result would truly be. Starting at 4am from Llanberis the pace was fast from the start. Some of the support runners were starting to wonder was Math going too fast…? But he persevered, and somehow managed to get enough breath and energy to chat and share stories during the climbs! At the end of leg 4 (of 5) the rumour among the crew were that he might not just break the record but maybe even break 17 hours?! On for the final stage (which includes Snowdon), he upped the pace up again before descending the final summit, Moel Eilio and making its way through the streets of Llanberis to the finish line in a time of 16 hours and 37! The record was well & truly broken & he brought it back home to Wales! Quite an astounding success.
Emlyn Owen, Eryri Harriers Secretary