Day 1
Started at 5:05 AM Thursday, 21st of August, 2025. Made the climb and descended Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) with Josh, who continued to support me all the way to the small town of Beddgelert - 20km mark. Worked through the day with the support of my fiancée Paige (absolute legend), meeting me at various checkpoints. The day was hot and sunny, making for some scenic but salty running.
Arrived at Dolgellau at around 2:30 PM and made a very hot climb up the beautiful Cadair Idris. Although 75km deep into the run, I was slightly ahead of my predicted pace and felt relatively fresh. This was until I made the very steep Miniffordd Path descent, leaving my quads somewhere along that path.
I kept digging deep into the evening, and then into an absolute darkness of the night. The route wasn't great; several fences had to be hopped, and dogs escaped. Any runner will know that fatigue and darkness severely skew your perception of time; minutes begin to feel like hours, and the rate at which your Garmin chimes in to notify you of another successful mile becomes unbearably distant. With around 5km from Llanidloes, I got picked up by Paige and taken to our Airbnb for the night. At this point, it was 11 PM and I had covered 120km. A shower, some food and into bed for 3 hours.
Day 2
I woke at 3:30 AM and got moving on the route by 4:05 AM. The legs were legging fairly well, and I got into a rhythm quickly. But an hour into the run, I realised that my maths didn't add up and although my moving pace was really good, all that sleeping left me with just over an hour of refuel station stopping time for the remainder of the run, if I was to beat the course record.
Very soon, I ran into my second big problem. See, I skipped breakfast and refused any 'real food' for the first 4+ hours of the run on day 2... Aaaaand not before long, the legs left the chat. I couldn't run anymore. 5km+ of walking completely threw my head out of the game, and I knew the record was slipping, but more importantly, it was the first time I thought I was not going to see the finish.
I called Paige, and she met me for an emergency meeting where I was ready to throw in the white towel. I told her the legs were simply unable to run anymore and that I was not willing to walk - it is a running challenge at the end of the day. After a 30-minute cry, lots of real food, a fresh pair of socks and shoes, dozens of supportive messages and a few phone calls, I gave it another go at running.
I tried, it didn't work, I tried again, nothing, but eventually I was shuffling. Before you knew it, I was running and running well. I knew I was going to do it; I just had to keep eating.
Ben Wiley met me at Upper Chapel and supported me to Brecon. In Brecon, Corey joined in as well, and we started the final summit to Pen Y Fan. We were up and down in under 3 hours and having beers at the Storey Arms car park by 8:30 PM.