Ponty plod
Not so much of a plod more of a gallop. Ideally I needed a 13 mile run as part of my training plan but spotted this race last minute, I remembered missing it last year due to injury. The Ponty Plod is described as a 11 mile mutli terrain race in the gorgeous countryside around Llandegfedd Reservoir. Having never ran or even visited the area before I thought it would be a nice change of scenery and besides I could always add on another 2 miles at the end.
We arrive at the beautiful Llandegfedd reservoir and make our way to the event hub for registration. Already the visitor centre is buzzing with other runners, walkers, fisherman, boaters and surfers (using the sups) on a chilly but sunny Sunday morning. We start prompt from the visitor center after a straight forward briefing from the race director of Pont y Pwl & district running club. We begin our first climb on tarmacked road before hitting what was truly a mixed bag of terrain from country fields, single tracks, rocky streams, forestry trails and hills, lots of hills, from short and steep to long and steady. There were plenty of markers and marshals lending support along the way. Treating this as a training run the pace was faster than I’d anticipated, while it wasn’t a pb time for me it was certainly fast considering the HILLS. Overall it was a challenging course, well organised with a friendly atmosphere. This race is certainly one for the calendar next year.
The run had been selected as part of the Welsh Athletics Trail Championships which saw me win gold for my age category (not to mention a bottle of red from placing 1st F40+ overall). Given the toughness of the course I forwent the extra 2 miles planned, which was no big deal - after all I am tapering :)
