With no prior planning, Tim and I went out on 02.04.24 to reclaim our fastest known time on Rownd Mynydd Du (Black Mountains Round).
Our original supported winter completion of 20 hours 37 minutes, was bettered in challenging wet conditions by the FKT bagging Lizzie Gatherer with a very impressive 18 hours 59 minutes in July 2023.
Lizzie's time was then lowered further by Stuart Gregory and Paul Southwood on a self supported mission in 17 hours 55 minutes in August 2023. Game on!
With both Tim and I in training for our bigger races of the season, we had pinned Tuesday 2nd April as a long training run day. Tim is currently training for the frankly INSANE - Swiss Peaks 660km race, while I'm gearing up for the more tangeable Spine South Challenger 175km in June.
The original plan was to run north to south along the Cambrian Way through the Mid Wales section. A broken down van put an end to that adventure the afternoon before so we had to come up with a new plan. Mission: reclaim our FKT.
With heavy rain forecast for the late afternoon, we decided to get an early start of 3am to try and make the most of the dry weather. With a drop bag at Pont Cadwgan, the half way point and no taper, we set off on a self-supported round.
The early hours were slow going, with thick clag widespread across the hills. Visibility was so poor in fact, that we passed the summit of Pen Cerrig Calch within 10 metres and didn't see it! After realising, we had to back track to go touch the top.
As dawn appeared, the clag lifted while we were heading down off the main Blacks towards Mynydd Llangors and Mynydd Troed and we were treated to some great views across the national park.
Coming down off Troed, I was on my arse more than upright and by the bottom, head to toe covered in mud. The Nnormal Tomir shoes were an excellent choice in terms of comfort and cushioning but didn't perform so well in the wet mud.
After a steep ascent up Y Grib, we were back on the main Blacks dipping in and out of the cloud for a really enjoyable adventure through the ridges of the Black Mountains. Most of the day went by pretty uneventful, moving consistently.
As we left Hay Bluff, we seen first hand the alien offering of a big steel beam (the monolith) dumped in the peat bogs. Which coincided with the most people we had seen all day.
The out and back to Black Hill always feels tougher than it should, but was made up for by our beautiful line, contouring off-piste across the hill to pick up the Offa's Dyke path efficiently.
After the long ridge run to Hatterall Hill, we were treated to some heavy rain to end the day off.
The final 20km of the route is 3 short, sharp climbs - the Gaer, Bryn Arw and Skirrid Fawr. Thankfully we were never in exposed places for very long, so the dropping temperatures and rain were manageable.
Following a slog down the road, we made it back to the Scout Hut in Abergavenny in a time of 16 hours 26 minutes.