The Friendly Running Club

In attempting to get my head around accurately reporting on this monster of a weekend, decided to revisit how I approached the task last year (as you do....) I wasn't attending the whole weekend, so the Day 1 Report was out by Saturday evening. Did a bit of driving support on the Sunday, but the Day 2 Report was done and dusted by the end of that day!

It's much harder getting the Roundup out having run Saturday Stage 6 and you're stumbling around in a sleep-deprived haze. But small mercies, at least I didn't have to be up at 6am on Monday morning to get to work in London (kudos Mr Seekings!)

So this Roundup will be quite factual and thankfully blessed with lots of great photos snapped by Debbie Rees, Sarah Di Tomaso, Tim Cummings, Michael Goode, Bev Warburton, Emma Healy, Stuart Allen and Keira Pratt....thanks all! Also, I promise to get out a Video Special in the next week or so, which will hopefully reflect the truly unique nature of this amazing event.

Ross told me before his leg that he felt very honoured to be offered the Opening Stage, before I warned him that his main task for the day was to launch Club Mascot PandDr into the safe hands of the Club Support crew gathered at the Caernarfon Castle start.

Ross then went on to produce a superb opener for us, 17th Overall and 7th Vet across the line. And he looked very relaxed doing it, too....

Keira was part of our lovely Support Team last year, but this time around was selected for a longer stage, off the back of some great early season performances. I sensed later she would have liked to have run a bit faster, but temperatures were already rampaging upwards by the time Keira started, with the humidity levels particularly extreme. A very strong consistent run delivered a well-deserved 6th Female Vet placing.

Anyone running a Mountain Stage this last weekend was going to be in for a 'tough day at the office'...Kev looked visibly nervous as he polished off his porridge at 5:30 in the morning (after working out how to operate the Bunkhouse microwave!) Several Stage 3 runners needed medical assistance out on the course, but our lad measured his effort well, starting steady and walking the hills when it was necessary. 14th Vet (over 40) home, too.

I think the following stat is simply amazing...Chris Nellins has now run EVERY single stage of Welsh Castles Day 1!! Doing Castles at least ten times is pretty amazing on its own, but when you consider the range of distances and climbs on individual legs you need to be an 'old school', very accomplished runner to complete this challenge. Well done Chris, 24th in the Vet category, too (Chris is nearly Vet+30!)

Richie has probably bagged more Castles' appearances than Chris (for previous club Les Croups) and seems to know everyone there! We were also delighted to offer his 'old mucker' Nick Jukes a P&D Hospitality experience, with Nick running Stage 15 on Sunday for the very strong Les Croupiers Vets team. Richie finished 20th Vet and loved sporting his Blue and Yellow attire throughout the weekend....

As a late call-up to replace an injured John Davies, the Club Chair was delighted to take on the relatively flat stage from Barmouth to Dolgellau, with two wonderful added bonuses. The race was reduced from 10.7M to 9.1 due to a local road race in the centre of town(!), missing out the one hill, and the the first km across the bridge was 'neutralized' due to structural issues. However the big downside of this course is that water is only available at the 7M point and it's run on a cycle path with no vehicular access...so thirsty work which rather explains the suffering in these pics. Ah well, 24th Vet at least matched Nellins!

Another King Stage, with lots of clubs rolling out their Top Guns...no place for the faint-hearted, but luckily we had the services of long-time Castles competitor Simon Grant, who looked superb as he scooped up the fast starters on the never-ending climb over the pass.

Liam debuted at Castles last year on Stage 6, so this year he was "promoted" to a tougher kettle of fish. Bit of an injury scare last weekend, but he nursed himself through the week to produce a very solid run and finish 19th.

Brilliant to have another debutant for the Full Weekend Experience, and she produced a corker of a run, bagging 3rd place in the Women's Vet category. Kaarina is always a joy to see racing, high cadence efficiency coupled with a smile!

Final King Stage of Day 1, with yet another newcomer being thrown in at the deep end! However Neil had run up Buttrills Hill in Barry a few times, so he was well-prepped. A really solid time, not very far away from his HM PB set at Cardiff, so a great indicator for serious revision in October.

So going into Day 2, we were lying in 39th Overall (out of 65 teams), not at the dizzy heights of nearly top-20 from previous years, but still very respectable. Our amazing Cook Squad served up a delicious supper and we were all set for Sunday (apart from the 5am wake-up time!)

Fairly sure Stu was another first-timer taking on a King Stage, but would never be a problem for such a rock solid runner. A very controlled run which delivered 20th Vet spot.

Now Jamie Seekings can't be classed as a newcomer to Castles, but his previous appearance was probably over 10 years ago! We needn't have worried...Jamie is the epitome of the reliable pick, a very strong runner who's an expert at measuring his effort, finishing a highly respectable 13th in the Vet Category.

Mark was debuting and judging by all the pics I've seen of him, he had an absolute blast! I seriously think he's taking a tilt at the award for "Smiliest Runner in the Club"...and he must have been happy with his 17th Vet position as well.

And so it was time for our Club Captain and Organising Wizard Kit to face his demons with an appointment to scale the heights of the mythical Drovers King Stage. His verdict? "Well I quite enjoyed that...was able to forget all the stresses associated with Team Management and just run up a jolly big hill"  17th spot in the Vets matched Mark on the stage before, too.

Pretty sure that Joe was the youngest member of our team, but he ran his leg with a maturity far beyond his years...carried his own water and protected his head with a cap, as he loped into Brecon in tremendous shape.

The King Stages at Castles are absolutely brutal in terms of the gradients that need to be conquered....I'd never seen Stage 16 before, but driving up the final ascent is a struggle in a car, never mind using your legs! Fortunately our mountain goat candidate was a tough nut, but even totally unflappable Andy said "never again" on reaching the lofty finish. Weather turned nasty on this leg too, with a torrential 10 minute downpour...Andy persevered and finished a highly creditable 21st in the Vet Category.

The Barker Family got themselves efficiently to the remote start, and Catherine had another excellent run, placing 4th in the Vet Women Category and really enjoying the amazing route into Merthyr on this stage, flying downhill past the Pontsticill Reservoir.

John gets my "Man of the Match" Award, with a startling run, nabbing 3rd Veteran spot as well....and looking totally in control in every pic we took of him.

Our last two runners were delivered to their starts by Pete Cottnam, who can tell a few Castles stories himself; very grateful to Pete for stepping in to help at short notice. Mike had a solid run, looking pretty controlled all the way home.

To race or not to race, that is the question. We've all had to make decisions in the lead up to races whether to compete whilst ill or slightly injured. In Helen's case, she picked up a nasty chest infection with associated hacking cough last weekend, and was still feeling worse for wear on Thursday. Kit and I had a contingency plan in place, but with a runner as talented as Helen a slightly 'below par' run will often be minutes ahead of her replacement.

By Friday evening she felt sufficiently recovered, with strict instructions (from me!) to take it steady rather than go flat-out. She suffered like we all did in the high humidity, but delivered our chequered flag home safely, taking a magnificent 4th place in a stacked Women's Vets race. Lovely to see her being so well looked after by our supporters at the finish line, too....thank you everyone.

Phew, what a weekend! Massive thanks to Kit Lambert for putting the show on the road again, with a tried and tested plan that ensures we don't pick up the myriad of penalty points that many other clubs do. He was aided and assisted by a sub Committee made up of Colin Caesar (finance collection and affiliation checking), Keira Pratt (Friday night arrangements), Emma Healy, Kath Petersen, Bev Warburton, Debbie Rees (the Cook Squad), drivers Nigel Adams, Simon Williamson, Michael Goode, Chris Nellins, Kevin Chalke, Stuart Allen, & Pete Cottnam, navigators Pablo Sanz, Kit, Kath, Emma, Richie, Simon G, Keira, Neil & Jamie and general supporters Kay Nellins, Tim Cummings and Sarah Di Tomaso.

Of course we also need to send our massive thanks and appreciation to our friends at Les Croupiers RC for organising such a fantastic event and still managing to put together three high quality teams.

FULL RESULTS HERE FOR ALL YOU STATS NERDS.

We finished 36th Overall, and 29th in the Open Category, taking 25:13:43 to complete the distance. Well done everyone.