The Dragon’s Back Race (Monday 2nd to Saturday 6th September 2024) - Staged only eight times, the Dragon’s Back Race is considered to be one of the toughest mountain endurance races in the world, with participants covering 380km (about 236 miles) over six days with 16,400m (approximately 53,800 feet) of ascent along the “Dragon’s Back”, which traverses the mountainous spine of Wales, from Conwy Castle in the north to Cardiff Castle in the south.
The weather during this year’s race was particularly wet and following the wet summer Wales has experienced made for some very tough going over wet, slippery rock and energy sapping bog. I can safely say that for the entire six days of the race my feet were wet for most of the time. Self navigation was also challenging with the peaks shrouded in cloud on most days although as opposed to fell running we were allowed to use GPS as an aid to traditional map & compass. This added to the tension as the race has strict cut-off times at checkpoints and each day’s finish.
Day One (49km | 3800m)
Conwy Castle to Nant Gwynant, starts with a gentle climb that gradually becomes rockier with unrelenting ascents and descents over the Carneddau & Glyderau, culminating in a ridge scramble across Crib Goch and a traverse of the full Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) massif horseshoe. I made fairly good progress on the first day completing the course in 14:00 hours.
Day Two (59km | 3000m)
Nant Gwynant to Dolgellau, draws a line directly south over some of the most broken terrain of the race, over the Moelwynion and Rhinogydd mountains which might be small but I found them troublesome finishing in 15:06.
Day Three (65km | 2800m)
Dolgellau to Ceredigion, takes you over Cadair Idris and into the Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales. If you complete Day Three, the statistics are on your side for completing the race. I managed to finish in a comfortable 14:24.
Day Four (69km | 2300m)
Through the Elan Valley and westernmost Powys, across the grass tussocks of the Elan Valley hills, the route goes to one of the highest summits in Mid Wales - Drygarn Fawr - on the remote moorland plateau of the Cambrian Mountains. I managed to make good progress, finishing in 11:48.
Day Five (71km | 3200m)
Into the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park this day is generally considered to be the hardest out of the six overall since, along with being the longest distance to cover, you're exhausted from all the other days and the lack of sleep really starts to add up (I only got about three hours total each night). The route undulates eastwards before traversing the six main peaks of the Bannau Brycheiniog, including South Wales’ highest peak Pen y Fan, then descending to Cribyn, Fan y Bîg and Waun Rydd. I purposefully threw everything I had at this knowing it to likely be the crux day of my race, finishing in a satisfactory 14:29.
Day Six (65km | 1300m)
To Cardiff Castle, the race route leaves the Bannau Brycheiniog and dives into the South Wales “Valleys” which powered the industrial revolution in the UK. The landscape still bears the scars, but there remains nonetheless a beauty to the rugged and sweeping hillsides. The route weaves through this landscape combining the best paths and trails leading into Cardiff. After having traversed the previous five days of mountains and bog, my legs finally gave up about halfway and I was forced to power walk the remaining 30km into Cardiff Castle, but nonetheless I managed to finish in a comfortable 11:14.
124 competitors managed to complete the full course out of a total participant starting count of 340.
My total race time was 81:05, and I finished in 100th position overall, 86th male & 6th V55.
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