A lovely morning start, a little bit breezy to start with, I had half a litre of water, half a litre of active root sports drink, and active root gel shot and a couple of sandwiches in my pack to last the route.
I hadn't been able to recce the route so I was relying on the gpx file I had downloaded onto my phone.
The first few miles flew by around Conwy mountain seeing Conwy castle in the distance, then heading towards the old church and a fantastic view of the old roman road and walls, down to the forest where I made my first nav error but managed to notice it straight away.
Through the forest and onto the road where it then got very steep, I knew this would be a test for my legs. Then getting towards the top the wind kicked back in and it was a fierce headwind stopping me in my tracks as I headed past the yha in rowen. Half way point I was feeling good but the wind then took that out of me and I had to dig in, at mile 10 my calves were feeling it and I took my active root gel shot, also checking my phone for the nav quite often to make sure I didn't go wrong.
Heading towards llanfairfechan I made another small nav error but again quickly corrected it. Along terrace walk, I wanted to push for time but my calves were now starting to get a little tight, more climbing to come and I knew I still had a couple of steep bits as well.
I was still feeling good about the run and it was great to be out there. The last section though caused me more nav errors and I had to check keep checking my phone and I ran down 1 hilly track and nearly turned my ankle right over, luckily I was wearing supports or I think I would of been in real trouble, then hitting a boggy section, never nice but I knew I was getting closer to the finish.
Just 1 more hill to cover I had just about used all of my active root sports drink but still had quite a bit of water left, the views of Llandudno and puffin island and being able to see Conwy mountain again.
Getting onto the home straight to where I started and getting a finish time of 3 hours 55 minutes 14 seconds. Weather was good apart from the wind and definitely glad I chose to wear my trail shoes, think I could definitely improve a little bit as I need to invest in a box watch to make less nav errors.
Overall a fantastic run with some great views but also a challenge as well