Nick Gant reports on his little adventure!
A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to North Wales to attempt the Dragon’s Back Race. This is a six day race that starts in Conwy Castle and heads South to Cardiff Castle taking in most of the mountains of Wales along its course. The official stats for the 2025 route were 380km (236miles) with 16,400m (53,800ft) of climbing.
The event is run in stages between camps that are moved everyday by the crew so your objective is to get to the next camp within the time limits. The course is open from 06:00 to 22:00 so in theory you have 16 hours to complete each stage. Sounds easy… Within each stage there is a water point and a support point where there are intermediate cut-offs.
Day 1 – This day had the most climbing and we summitted most of the 3,000ft peaks in Wales. There was plenty of wind and rain, there was also lighting risk so we skipped the iconic traverse of Crib Goch (directed along the correct route by Tom Withers on volunteer duty) and went up the Pyg Track to the summit of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). I had thought all the climbing for the day was done, but the route took us along the rest of the horseshoe with another chunk of climbing. Looking at some of the other participant tracks there are some contouring options to help out. The final descent to camp was down a steep, wet, grassy slope of death (a participant had to be evacuated off this section by helicopter after breaking their ankle). I felt good when I got back to camp, I didn’t feel I had gone too hard and got on with settling in for the night.
Day 2 – An early start to load up on camp breakfast before getting on the road towards Cnicht. My quads were complaining from the start. I summitted Cnicht and started the descent on more death grass, I spent plenty of time descending on my derriere. Sometimes this was intentional, other time less so. I got to the bottom where I retrieved my shorts before getting moving again. In this part of the world the paths are not very well travelled so it can be hard even following a gpx track to know you are on the correct path. A technical descent from Moelwyn Bach continued to hammer my legs and my progress continued to slow towards the water point. I was 40 minutes inside the cutoff point and was encouraged to keep moving by the volunteers. A long slog past Llyn Trawsfynydd and the decommissioned nuclear power station led up to the rocky, ankle ruining, plateaus of the Moels. At this point I was moving so slowly I knew I wouldn’t make the next cutoff. The geography makes route finding difficult with lots of big rock steps and cliffs to confuse you. I caught up with a fellow participant on the descent, knowing we were not going to make the cutoff we picked our way down to the support point over an hour outside the time limit to catch the ‘minibus of failure’ (©Nick Gant – 2023 Yorkshire Three Peaks) to the overnight camp at Dolgellau.
Day 3 – After a very poor night sleep I was awake at 04:00 looking at travel options to come home. Due to the Cross Country rail strike it would take me over 8 hours to get home by public transport. I came to the conclusion that is would be less faff to tape down the big toe nails, join the rest of the Hatchlings and catch the bus to Machynlleth to complete the second half of the day 3 route. The Hatchling option is for people who either can’t or don’t want to complete full days for various reasons. The idea is that you will do either the first half or second half of the days course, due to logistics these are not necessarily equidistant. A rag tag bunch of people left the camp at 08:30 to walk in the rain to coach pickup point. The people were a selection those, like me, had missed cutoffs or who were happy with the challenge of the shorter courses. By going to straight to Machynlleth we missed the worst of horrendous weather that meant we had to take extra cold weather kit for the day and avoided the climb of Cadair Idris.
On arrival in Machynlleth I made a bee line for pharmacy to buy the largest tube of the strongest Voltarol they had. This had been recommended by some more experienced multiday runners to help with the muscular soreness in my legs. Second stop was the Greggs in the back of the Spar for a sausage roll and a Belgian bun, third stop was the café for a pot of tea and a bacon and brie panini, fourth stop was the pharmacy for another tube of Voltarol. I wandered round the mythical Co-operative to keep out the rain and then liberally smeared my thighs with the topical cream just outside the entrance. The route for the day was 25km with 1,300m of ascent with a steady run on tracks across open moorland before leaving the track to hit the tussocks alongside the stream of Nant y Llyn. I got a lucky break here when I followed someone who crossed from the East side to the West side of the stream rather than follow the gpx line, this alternative led us up to a track where we could abuse the people struggling on the East side of the stream. A steep climb up Pumlumoh into the horizontal rain kept me entertained. I was passed by eventual second female Jodie Gauld who was happy in a vest and shorts with me in three layers. A generally downhill run to the camp where it was no longer raining finished the day, FV60 Tina Usherwood came flying past me on the final steep descent showing me how it should be done.
Day 4 – Another lie in and a bus ride to the Elan Valley visitor centre. A pot of tea, a freddo and a freshly toasted tea cake were consumed before heading to the support point for a mass hatchling start as several of the front runners came through in the mizzle. It was here that I witnessed an amazing sight as Tom Chandy necked a 1litre carton of Ambrosia custard is seconds. A combination of tracks and paths led to the summit of Drygam Fawr. A descent through a field of tussocks led to a forestry track and a road section. This led to a new forestry track taking us most of the way to the next valley where another long road section led down to camp. There was a pub within hobbling distance of this camp but I took advantage of the early finish and sat in the later summer sun.
Day 5 – This was the last big day for everyone. For the Dragons it was 72km and 3,200m of climbing across the Brecon Beacons. For the Hatchlings like me, it was 32km and 1,800m of ascent. We had a short ride from camp to Llandovery in minibuses. The lovely bakery had obviously been tipped as they dealt with the hungry hordes with exceptional efficiency. I had a massive Chelsea Bun, a cup of tea and a bacon and cheese slice which I dropped on the floor for extra seasoning but consumed anyway. A bus ride followed to the support point near Cray Reservoir. I looked out the bus window and nearly asked for help getting to a train station.
The climb up Fan Gyhirych ascends 350m in less than a kilometre. Thankfully my poles helped me once again and when the initial ascent was over it was rolling terrain along the various summits to the road crossing at the Storey Arms and the water point. The climb to Pen y Fan was the first interaction with ‘normal’ people on the trails since Eyri with quite a few people taking advantage of the dry weather. The route continued along the stunning ridge line to Cribyn and the teenage boys favourite Fan y Big. I finally succumbed to the dreaded tibialis anterior tendonitis in my left ankle here and struggled to keep running so I eased off to mostly walking to make sure I got back to camp and get to Cardiff.
Day 6 – This was the final day with a run to the finish at Cardiff Castle. It was a short 32km with only 500m of ascent and it definitely wasn’t a race amongst the Hatchlings. My first stop in the morning was the camp medical tent where they taped up my ankles to help with the tendonitis. Another bus ride took us through Merthyr Tydfil to Treharris where we once again joined the Dragons on course. The route was mostly on road, tracks and well-defined paths in a general down due to the proximity of civilisation. This was the first day where I didn’t need my waterproof and needed the water point as my bottles were empty due to being able to run consistently and it being warm. The final few miles alongside the River Taff led to the finish at the Castle.
1st male was David Parrish in 48:40:14, 1st female and second overall was Holly Wootten in 50:46:16. Holly also smashed the female course record by over 3 hours.
In the end I managed 220km and 11,000m of the whole course.
Nick’s Dragon’s Back Top Tips:
·If you want advice on how to successfully finish talk to Tom Withers.
·It is not a running race for us mortals; it is a hiking race with some running. This is especially true of day 1 and day 2. I will do more big days on the course when (when my wife, Jen, asks, it’s ‘if’) I go back.
·Poles are amazing if you use them well, they kept me moving many times.
·Train the downhill endurance – this was my biggest error. Due to work commitments half my training was on the treadmill. This was fine for uphill, but didn’t do anything for my downhills.
