Race Date: Monday January 1st 2018

The Llydaw race is a short blast part-way up Snowdon to start the new year. It’s based at Pen Y Pas Youth Hostel, and your £2 entry fee gets you electronic timing, soup and a roll, and access to the hostel showers. It used to be run as a handicap, but is now a straight time-trial: you turn up, register, and set off whenever you’re ready.

Once you’ve found your way through the car park, you run up the Miner’s Track for a couple of kilometres to the green hut at Llyn Llydaw. There you leave the runable path, and embark on a rough traverse around the lake, picking your way through bogs, over rocks and across the occasional stream: all good fun. About 5k later you return to the green hut, legs sapped of all strength by the terrain, and celebrate being on firm ground again by legging it back down the Miner’s Track to the hostel.

The race was won by unattached M20 Thomas Webb in 44:47. First lady was Eryri’s Jennifer Charlton in 55:01. There were 66 finishers.

Tim Holt was the lone Strider, once again failing to break the magic 50 minute mark. Perhaps next year.