Having decided to postpone my South Wales Traverse until next year, I made a last-minute decision not to waste the training and decided to attempt the Gower Way FKT just 6 days beforehand. The short notice meant that much of the pool of potential support runners was otherwise committed and so it was just my wife Jo watching at 7am as I stood at the start at Penll’er Castell in my Sanctuary Runners top. The rain we had driven through had stopped but it was still quite chilly when Jo counted me down and I set off downhill. I had only gone 150m when my hat blew off, spoiling the video that Jo was filming!
The opening kilometres are largely downhill making it hard to judge my pace initially and I was a bit worried when I saw that I was a minute inside Rob Kestin’s first 5km split. As my plan had been to keep to Rob’s pace for the first 45km and then push hard, I was a bit worried that I was burning my matches too early. I watched my pace more carefully for the next 5km and reached my first support point at 10km in Felindre still a minute ahead of Rob’s split – the last time that would be the case! A following wind meant that I could discard my buff and arm warmers and the food and drink intake was on schedule.
The stretch through woods and farmland into Pontlliw was very slow because of the high vegetation and rough surface where cattle footprints had dried out – the downside of a summer attempt! That and a ‘bladder stop’ cost me a couple of minutes but it was after I had handed off my poles to Jo in Pontlliw that the wheels came off a bit. I got confused about where my turn off Allt Y Graban Road was and ended up going back and forth (including over a gate twice) before I found the path again. By now I was both behind on km splits but had also run the best part of a km extra and had to decide how to go about making up the time. At least I was able to keep eating and drinking while I covered the flat and fast stretch from there to Gowerton where my first support runner, Ed Cullen was waiting.
Ed and Jo had been doing their calculations as they waited for me and had worked out what it was going to take to get me back on schedule. Although the novelty of company had me trying to chat, the pace Ed set soon meant that my conversation was limited to monosyllabic grunts, particularly as we climbed the familiar off-road section to just outside my house in Three Crosses. A quick hit of Coca-Cola and a very familiar road had me feeling much better and we went through 20 miles at a good pace. Jo was waiting again at Welshmoor with my poles and we made good pace through the woods to Cilibion. After this the high vegetation held us back again, slowing us to a walk to get through brambles as we entered Parc Le Breos.
The long drag up through Parc Le Breos towards Cefn Bryn was hard but Ed encouraged me onwards and reminded me to keep eating – harder to do when you’re relying on your poles. I had been dreading the steep section onto the ridge of Cefn Bryn but it was fine and although the legs were beginning to complain as we went along the ridge, knowing that I had reached marathon distance in 3:28 gave me a lift. Dropping down to meet Jo in Reynoldston, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I was now in ultra running territory although my stomach was resisting attempts to eat and drink. With less than 10k to go now, and having got plenty of food and water into me earlier in the run, I decided to shed my hydration vest and settled for another hit of Coca-Cola.
Ed handed over the support running duties to Tom Guest as we set off from Reynoldston through Llandewi towards Rhossili. Tom looked after me well, racing ahead to open gates for me, sparing me the painful stop and start that gates normally mean. Nonetheless I felt that I was struggling to keep my pace up and as we climbed the shoulder of Rhossili Down, I had to walk. Heading downhill into Rhossili village was painful but when we passed the church I checked my watch and realised that I had 5 minutes to get to Worms Head to beat Rob’s time. I handed my poles to Tom and we blasted it down the path. Halfway down I could feel my right shoelace come loose but stopping to tie it wasn’t an option and I decided that I would just take my chances of tripping. As we came to the last grassy rise towards the Coastguard station the welcome silhouette of Jo came into view, in time to direct me to the finish marker - just as well as I had completely forgotten where it was! I stopped my watch as I touched the marker – 4:40:12. I knew the FKT was 4:40 but couldn’t remember how many seconds over it. At that stage I didn’t really mind, getting that close to the FKT despite running almost a km further was good enough for me, I was elated anyway. It wasn’t until after I plodded slowly back to the car park, got changed, and was sat at the Causeway Café while Jo got me some food, that I dared to look at FKT.com. Rob’s FKT was 4:40:29 – after 55km, I’d beaten it by just 17 seconds!
My first foray into ultra-running had been a success and amazingly, the combination of Innov-8 Trailfly Ultra G300 Max shoes and Injinji socks left me with no blisters. Can’t say the same about my Kalenji hydration vest – it was bouncing a lot and as a result I’ve got abrasions on both collarbones. Will I have another go? Well the SWT still beckons but a South to North Gower Way is also tempting.