Nant Cynnyn to Snowdon and back

To prepare for this trip I had an early morning start, about 5:45am, to fit in some breakfast and some minor things to pack. After some stretching, applying sun lotion and fitting a heart rate monitor I left the house at 6:30am.

As traffic on the A55 was fairly light at this time of the morning I arrived at my destination just before 8am.

Parked at Nant Cynnyn off the A4086. Changed to my Salomon SC3s and began heading up hill towards Pen Y Pass car park. The run along the A4086 was completely on tarmac with traffic passing on both sides, so extra care was required on this narrow stretch. At just over 1 mile and 11mins later I was at the car park. The facilities were great, manged to get a loo break and composed myself for the run ahead.

From the car park I ran along the Pyg track heading towards Snowdon. The first and last sections of the Pyg track were very technical and steep. Care was need when running over smooth polished rocks, especially in the wet.

Running up steep sections was very hard going, a lot of the times I was speed hiking with hands on knees. The Pyg track levelled out further ahead. I've noticed they'd installed a new marker for Snowdon here, I'd guessed too many hikers went up the wrong way to crib goch?

Cloud cover consumed the summit, I didn't get any good views at all. Typical as the whole week prior we had continuous blue skies.

Here is another clear shot of the twin peaks of Y Lliwedd, if the weather better that would of been my next summit for the last part of the Snowdon horse shoe.

After a short lunch break on the summit of Snowdon, with a handful of people, my route of descent was part of the Pyg and mostly the miners track. Here was the summary of my run logged by my Garmin and displayed on endomondo.

Port Sunlight 10K

Start/Finish area of the 10K race. The 5K race had just finnished.

My photographer for the day! Frances.

Crowds forming as we approach the start time of the race.

452 is race ready!

Near end of first lap.

Last kilometer, penultimate bend.

Frans' super zoomed in shot!

Finished! Searching for my wife.

10K Finisher's medal!

Route details on endomondo sports tracker. 2 laps of the Port Sunlight circuit.

Official finishing chip time:- 46mins 09secs, a new PB!

Moel Famau

It is always exciting to receive new shoes for running and with this run I will be giving these Salomon Speed Cross3 a good work out.

Here are some more information taken from the Moel Famau website:-

Moel Famau that is situated in a country park near Loggerheads between Mold and Ruthin in north Wales. 

The hill itself and the country park is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) and the peak of the hill (at 1818ft / 554m) offers fantastic views. Sitting proudly on the very top of Moel Famau is the Jubilee Tower – or at least what remains of it.

Upon arrival at the start, it was only just windy. Towards the end the rain had just begun luckily.

Here are some more pics from the morning run with lots of hill work.

My Salomon SC3s, very comfortable and light with lots of grip on compact trail.

The Jubilee Tower on top of Moel Famau, the highest hill on the Clwydian range (555m)

My endomondo summary of the run.

Weather report for the day.

some more pictures from my latest extended run while I was hill training for the potters arf marathon.

Liverpool Santa Dash 2013

I was in amongst this lot somewhere!

Post race shot with medal and full attire!

Race summary from endomondo.