On paper, Dragon’s Back isn’t really the ideal race for me. It covers 380km with 16,400m of ascent along the spine of Wales over the course of six days. It was something different though, and with no plan in place after this year’s Northern Traverse it seemed like the right moment to try.
One of the things that surprised me the most after last year’s Northern Traverse, was the number of people who said they’d read my race report and then decided they wanted to do this race also. I guess we all love a good horror story.
This is great, I thought to myself. I wasn’t even being sarcastic. It must have been somewhere halfway through my third loop around Lough Currane. The weather was fairly wild but I was warm, comfortable and loving life.
180 km, 7000 m of elevation gain – in my head 13 Valleys was like the Kerry Way but with a bit more climbing. The Brits had put an Irish flag next to my name, which meant I could say I was doing the ‘Turteen Valleys’ with an odd sense of pride.
Rock or frog? Frog. Rock or frog? Rock. Rock or frog? Two frogs. It’s a Monday night on the North York Moors. The landscape here is fairly featureless on the brightest of days, which means there’s even less to distract you in the dark hours of the night. Except for the frogs. And the rocks. They are keeping me sane, although I’m not quite sure how I ended up here in the first place.
When I applied for a spot in Bauers Megabackyard Funrun (BMF) back in September, a friend of mine asked me why on earth you’d do that to yourself. I said something like ‘what could possibly go wrong’, half hoping race director Simon wouldn’t accept my application. Soon after that I received my official apologies email, meaning I got offered a place in the event.