They should put a health warning on that damn Offa's Dyke, the section that runs through the Black Moutains. It was like a flaming ice rink - I didn't know whether to try and run across it or skate. But it does give me an idea for the Dragons Den.....
Anyway, after a late start which saw me very nearly giving it a miss - I awoke with a stiff neck and thought sod it, it's only one run. But that's the kind of attitude that got men killed. So after a bit of rushing around, planning the route and getting my kit together I made it over to Llantony on schedule - although the gps took me up one shitty little lane that almost put an end to the whole shebang before it started as the lane got narrower and narrower and less road and more track to the point where I thought the car wouldn't fit - but it did. Once parked up, I donned my running garb and headed out.
I'm so glad I made it - I feel a song coming on... on second thoughts. The views from the top were amazing. You could see for miles. Snow was lying - snow, on snow - for almost the entire run once you got a hundred metres above Llantony. It was lovely for the most part. Made running difficult on the usually sodden sections though, as the ground was rutted and frozen. Still, what doesn't break your ankles, strengthens them. The only slightly disappointment was the final 10k along Offa's Dyke. It was just so completely icy for half of it that running was impossible - just staying off your arse on the ice was pretty darn difficult - but I managed it, though there were one or two moments...
In all I covered 28km - that's about 17.5 miles, in old money - and just under 3,000 feet of ascent. A descent run, completed in a time just outside three hours, which in the circumstances wasn't too bad.
So I've managed to get 2011 off to a cracking running start with just under forty miles completed in the first three days. Brilliant.
Today's route:-
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