RING O FIRE

This is a new race taking in the very scenic and demanding Isle of Anglesey coast path in three days with stages of 32 miles on day one 64 miles on day 2 &  35 miles on day three organised by a new team , they certainly had a great idea Race Web site the forecast looked good and headed of with my brother in law Rich Friday morning driven by our support crew MJ

Day 1 Holyhead to Amlwch 32 Miles Start at 1pm

The race started in Holyhead and the first day was to Amlwch were we would stay overnight on the town hall floor our bags being transferred there by the organisers . The first day was a part of the island I was familiar with and I new it would be a fairly tough one with one water crossing getting feet wet very early

Water crossing 

Following the coast round the island I ran with Jason who I had ran with a little at Haworth . After getting a little lost at the power station nothing major but a few mins missed the other Rich caught us and continued to drive the pace all the way to Amlwch were we enjoyed the luxuries of ultra running a Shower at the sports centre a curry at the local indian and a night on the floor of the town hall

Overnight Stay 

Day 2 Amlwch to Aberffraw start 6am 64 Miles 

Beaurmaris Sea Front

This was always going to new the most scenic day taking in some very remote and stunning coastline , nice early 6am start I ran hard for the first 10 miles staying with Stuart Mills and Tom Payne who were first and second on day one these two guys are very experinced  and talented runners and it helped me to focus on them to get a solid start to the day, Letting the two guys slug it out from the first checkpoint i concentrated on my own race very pleasant scenery to the second checkpoint at Red wharf Bay then feeling strong pushed on to Penmon Point lighthouse it was great to see my my support crew here ( finaly got out of bed ) and get bottle of coke it really is the wonder stuff that keeps you going .The route around the coast to Beaumaris was a little tricky and involved wading nearly neck deep in water to keep to the coast as tide was high at this point after Beaumaris we made our way inland towards the Menai bridge it was sad to see Stuart returning to the CP after pulling out due to sickness . The running now became a little testing with not so many hills but lots of mud , long grass , beaches with big stones and sand still enjoying it and determined to finish in daylight I finally made the check point in 13 Hours and 4 Mins with no problems feet still in good order .

Day Three Aberffraw to Holyhead 35 Miles 6am Start .

Start at Aberffraw (no we have not been drinking all night )

 After a fairly good nights sleep woke up feeling OK and thought I would give it a good push , Running with Tom whose navigation skills were as poor as mine we seemed to run backwards and forwards trying to find route great days running and after Silverbay the views were fantastic . we made good progress through all the checkpoints Tom pulling away after the final checkpoint the final tough section was over the top of Holyhead mountain and then a tough drop down to the lookout station and then back up and over to finish . Great three days of running and hats of to Q and Bing the organisers,  they put on a great event to rival many of the big UK events and £100 entry it got to be bargain of the century ( Enduracelife anglesey marathon is £49.00 )Filling up fast so get in quick enter here RING O FIRE