Beacons Way Route Recce: Checkpoint 1 – 3 & Checkpoint 9 – Finish

Beacons Way Route Recce: Checkpoint 1 – 3

Date: Saturday 22nd April 2023

Strava says: 22.42 miles

Elevation: 5,033 ft / 1,534 m

Weather: Bright, sunny and cold

Start: Outside Skirrid Mountain Inn

Finish: Crickhowell

Route type: Recce

Conditions: Dry

Route available here

Checkpoint 1 to Checkpoint 3

Funnily enough, when I did this route I wasn’t entered in to the Beacons Way 100 mile event. As much as I wanted to enter, my work dates did not allow. However, my boss very kindly amended my work dates so I could fit the race in hurrah!

I met up with three others from ‘Running/Hiking the Malverns’, it’s a Facebook group created by ultra enthusiast Glenn Davies who is coached by rising star Jack Scott, he was entered into the race hence the recce, I tagged along as I always like an excuse to run in the Beacons! Warwick and Francis joined us too and we had a grand day out. 

We started at the Skirrid Mountain Inn at 8.15am which will be checkpoint one and followed the gpx on my watch. I had a map and compass with me just in case. We had a quiet lane and then needed to head over a field, another tiny lane section and then a field with young heifers in.

Having only known Glenn for around an hour at this point, I could have killed him when he informed me he’d left his van keys in my car. My car was at the start, his van at the finish point, we needed the keys! Luckily we’d only run around a mile or so. We retraced our steps, there wasn’t a lot of chat at this point!

Van keys where they should be, we went back to the field of heifers and started the run proper. What a fabulous route! First stop was Hatterall Hill 9:25am, which was the later stages of Rownd Mynydd Du, it was lovely to see it again! Funnily enough, I had been here at least 3 times previously yet have never noticed the stone wall!

We continued on fabulous trails until we could see Llanthony Priory. I really got the giggles as Warwick and Glenn were ahead, Francis behind, I asked him to wait a few minutes so I could use Mother Nature’s facilities, I said I’d go behind the wall rather than find a bush as it was pretty quiet. Just as I was about to go, a group of around 10 guys came walking over the brow of the hill! Thank goodness I hadn’t started my business! I then realised there were toilets at the priory so I may as well go there.

The campsite by the priory is checkpoint 2, which we reached at 10.10am. We had done checkpoint 1 to 2 in just under 2 hours. My schedule allows for an hour and a half, due to the additional trip to the car, I believe this will be achievable on race day.

There were some young entrepreneurs with some lambs, £1 to have a cuddle with a lamb, cash only. What a shame I did not have any cash. The budding businessmen informed me that actually, it was £1 for the cuddle but photos were free and promptly handed me a lamb!

We had a climb up Bal-Bach and then on to open ridge. Turns out the next section of the route was very familiar as I had run it in Beast of the Blacks. Heading down and then through the Church of St Issui to then head up again past Crug Mawr 11:54am (another of my favourites).

We headed down again to a lane before going back onto the trails towards Table Mountain.

It was here that we started to make our way back to Crickhowell, missing a small part of the route as Glenn was still suffering with an illness and his heart rate and breathing wasn’t great.

I really enjoyed the path down as Francis was coaching me and encouraging me to run better and with more confidence downhill, giving me hints and tips the whole way. It was a lot of fun! We ran past the most incredible cows with huge horns.

We soon found our way in to Crickhowell and Glenn drove us all back to our cars by Skirrid Mountain Inn where we had a very happy lunch. It had taken us just under three and a half hours from checkpoint 2 to checkpoint 3, however the route we took was a little different at the end. I am hoping on race day I can do this section in 2 h 45 m… I do wonder that I have set myself too tricky a challenge!

The route was really easy to follow, and not too technical either, it’s going to make for a fast an exciting start for the lead runners on race day.

Results:

Elapsed time: 5 h 21 m 22 s

Strava route: https://www.strava.com/activities/8936248859

Beacons Way Route Recce – Checkpoint 9 to Finish

Date: 6th July 2023

Strava says: 25.33 miles

Elevation: 4,170 ft / 1,271 m

Weather: Overcast, brief shower

Start: Twynllanan

Finish: Llangadog

Route type: Recce

Conditions: Wet in places

Checkpoint 9 to Finish

I stayed at a really lovely B&B called Tŷ Newydd the evening before and after a very enjoyable breakfast took the short drive to Twynllanan. I’d seen on Google Maps that there was a layby that I could park in. It was easy enough to find, however, the whole journey there I became increasingly alarmed at running back to the car from the finish point at Llangadog Community Centre. It was a fast country road, no pavement and much twisty turning, I imagined I’d be jumping into the bushes and grass verges every few seconds when a car passed. I thought I would try to phone a taxi at the end rather than run back as I deemed it a much safer approach, plus it would buy me extra time so I’d get home earlier!

Starting at 10am, the first part of the route is on a narrow country lane which has surprisingly steep up and downs. I came across a chap looking for his dog, I told him I hadn’t seen it when he asked and wished him luck. I then spent the next mile or so wondering what to do if I then found this dog as I had quite a long way to go and didn’t fancy traipsing up and down the lane carrying a dog and looking for it’s owner. Luckily it didn’t happened and all thoughts were promptly forgotten when I did a double take swearing I had just seen a reindeer. I stopped in my tracks nope, make that two reindeer! Turns out there’s a reindeer herd here!

Coming off the lane and onto another steep up, this time it was a rocky and fairy wide path. No problem without poles, however I seriously suspect on race day I will be using my poles on this hill! It is essentially a straight gently uphill line until Carreg Yr Ogof 10:59am, passing the most stunning herd of piebald ponies with foals.

Once I tapped the trig at Carreg Yr Ogof, I continued my straight line to Garreg Las 11:11am a smile beaming across my face. Garreg Las is a double bronze age cairn which are on the Gwynne-Harris Round, I’d approached from a different direction and had had a tricky climb up as I hadn’t picked a good line, I’d stopped at the top for a sit down in the sun and a packet of Hula Hoops, slightly different weather today!

Continuing in a southwards direction for a bit, over the rocky terrain, I made a mental note to be careful here on race day, better to take it steady then try and run too fast and risk injury, I’ll have 75 plus miles in my legs at this point. It was time to head West towards the quarry, it was a little frustrating for me that I was essentially doing this route ‘blind’ – no hard copy map and relying solely on gpx, I have never done this before but my Harvey’s map doesn’t go much beyond the quarry and this is why I wanted to recce this part of the route. The OS covers it but having ordered it, I immediately sent it back, the map is the size of a dining room table and absolutely not practical to look at on a windy mountain top, it was also paper rather than the waterproof stuff Harvey’s use. If I did have a map, I would have known I was heading for the quarry and this would have helped when crossing this area of grassy tussocky stuff with no defined path. I picked up some sheep trails every once in a while which made it a bit easier. 

Having studied both the OS Map and the Harvey’s map afterwards, it is interesting how the route differs. Harvey’s takes you over the tops of Foel Fraith and Moel Gornach whereas OS takes you the route I went, to the side of them. Having done a bit more research and looking on the Beacons Way website, I established that my Harvey’s map must be an old one as it states on the Beacons Way website: “Please avoid the summits of Foel Fraith and Moel Gornach to prevent disturbance to the rare bird populations there.” Looking once more at the route gpx, it also avoids theses tops so the route I took on the day was correct, phew!

Once at the Quarry 12:13pm I paused  to take in the grandeur of it as well as some photos. I headed on round and down to the car park 12:18pm, smiling as this is the final checkpoint. I had done checkpoint 9 to checkpoint 10 in just over 2 and a quarter hours, I wonder how close to that I will be on race day? I’ve allowed 2h 45m in my schedule, I hope that is enough!

The next part of the route was a bit of a head fry to be honest and would have been better with a map, the gpx seems to take me up really high on a path which I did not feel safe on when there was a perfectly lovely path just to the right, I zoomed out on my gpx and could see it was following the road. I opted for the safer option of sticking to the path which I believe to be the Beacons Way anyway, sometimes the gpx can be a bit squiffy on my watch. The route takes you down on to the road then back up again then down onto the road then back up, and was sending me along very grassy terrain. I made the decision to head down to the road again and run along it, a bit longer but certainly quicker. Having inspected the OS map thoroughly afterwards, I did need to stick to the grassy route, at least I know now that I will join the road at the corner so it gives me a point to head for.

Once at this corner,  there are some lovely views of the Carreg Cannen Castle. This lane section is fabulous, it’s very quiet and goes through private land where the most fabulous herd of horned black goats live, it was a real joy to see them. The road twists down, through a farm and fields. Eventually coming to a river crossing at the foot of the castle.

It’s worth noting that the correct route goes over this style, however, if you miss it, you would still end up on the right path.

Here the route is an interesting mixture of path, trails, and lanes, including a natural tunnel made of trees!

I then passed through Carreglwyd Forest which has a stupidly steep but short hill which is going to be brutal on race day! The route continues to the Iron Age fort of Garn Goch 3:11pm. I struggled to find a clearly defined path here so I went across the undergrowth and then found a path which took me up and over the top and into the car park.

A bit of lane running now to Bethlehem, I turned at the church 3:26pm and crossed a field.

As I ran through Felindre I recognised it as my B&B was just around the corner. A curve ball was thrown though, I thought I’d run along the road but no, the gpx states otherwise. I came to a farm on the corner and wasn’t sure where the path was as it was overgrown, luckily the farmer was just coming out on his tractor and pointed me in the right direction! A bit more grassy running, a few side streets and I had arrived at the finish line. Wow, I am so glad I had done this recce as it will certainly save me time on race day and allow me to make more confident decisions!

I’d finished in just over 6 hours, a little alarming that it had taken so long, just goes to show that the terrain and nav is not as simple as it could be, a very different route to the previous recce.

I was able to get a taxi back to my car, I asked in the Post Office, they sent me to the butchers. The butcher’s brother is a taxi driver so he called him and arranged for me to be picked up. The taxi driver and his wife came for me and we had a funny journey back to my car, mostly because he could not understand my English accent and I could not understand his Welsh accent!

Results

Elapsed time: 6 h 5 m 14 s

Strava route: https://www.strava.com/activities/9399953906