After only just completing this route a couple of weeks ago with my partner Nea and getting the mixed gender team FKT, I was left wanting to see what I could do with a relatively solid effort & minus the getting lost parts.
I set off at 9:45 from a sunny Llandaff Cathedral, the first few km’s I ran a solid pace before the road starts going uphill as you start heading out of Cardiff. Once over the M4 I hit the proper trails and generally the ground was pretty solid but with some patches of bog.
I carried 2litres of carb drink and stopped at the benches next to the Dr William Price statue in Llantrisant to fill up my flask from the bottle in my pack which was my only stop during the run.
3hrs seemed like a nice goal to have when I set off but during the second half of the run I realised that it wasn’t going to be possible, so just pushed on to the finish. Knowing the path on the top of the penultimate hill was pretty useful, following the yellow signs. The final hill was just as, if not more painful last time. Ran through the golf course and finished at the well.
Definitely still some time left in that effort, on a summers day with hard ground, reckon sub3 would be in reach. Ready to leave this one for now though!