A while ago my frined Kel and I were looking at races to keep us sharp on the run up into summer – we’d originally considered a couple in the Lakes but they didn’t work out in terms of timings – the main aim was to get some hills in, something of reasonable distance, and that was a little unusual. We’d done the https://runabc.co.uk/whinlatter-moon-runner Whinlatter Moon Runner 10k night race earlier in the year and enjoyed it, so something longer along a similar theme appealled – enter the Brecon Mountain Midnight Marathon.
It’s a marathon distance race in early summer starting near the Talybont reservoir, heading alongside it then up into the Brecon Beacons around Bwlch y Ddwyallt, Fan Y Big, Cribyn and Pen Y Fan before coming back down the long way back into Talybont. Start at 5.30pm, run a mountain marathon with 1600m ascent, finish before Midnight. Simple.
Or it would have been if I’d not fairly badly torn my calf 6 weeks beforehand – this was my second race back (the first being being the oldest fell race in the world, the Hallam Chase – do not, I repeat, do not try and do this as your first race back…. Anyway – I was short on mileage and any form of hill training.
The course itself is great – you get to run along rolling fire roads, then it’s up past the half marathon bailout if you’re not on form, up a very steep road then past a waterfall and into the mountains. THe paths at this point are as you’d expect, some fun hill running, some more sustained climbs, then some fairly wet rough paths on the way back down. Inevitably, whilst there was good views on the way up, Pen Y Fan itself was in the clouds.
Myself and Kel were running well – she had the end of a chest infection, I was trying not to go off too fast whilst getting twinges from my calf – up the hills I did well, but as we got to the half way point Kel picked up, and my stamina faded and with it started to really feel my calf trying to go wrong. We both finished before midnight, we both could have gone faster if in a better state of health. The race organisation was good (good location to start in a village hall, decent safety and food stations, and welcome soup late at night after pushing the pace up towards the end).
Worth doing?
Yes – and I’d go back again on better form. We made a weekend of it and stayed in a local campsite, had dinner at the excellent Felin Fach Griffin gastro pub and had a day trip into Brecon to be tourists.
Kit-wise it was fairly standard fell running fare with an extra layer as it was going to be into the night – so a UD running vest, short base layer and decent double later running shorts, my Scott Supertrac 2 XC fell shoes as I wasn’t sure how boggy it would be (arguably something more cushioned for the start and end sections would have worked), a decent head torch, good waterproofs just in case. The race supplied dibbers for checking into the various points on the course, although a couple of us didn’t reliably get using them the right way….right. (ahem – the race was accommodating).
Give it a go, it’s something a little different with some varied terrain and in the right weather, beatiful views. Yes, you need to be a confident trail runner (not fell), but there’s people around you, safety people on course, and it’s good training for night running.
Link to my Strava details for it: https://www.strava.com/activities/14728220301
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