Beast Bach on Sunday 8th August ’21.

So, after thinking very long and hard, discussing it with my family and key people, being in consultation with my local community, Finally, the Beast Bach(only) will go ahead, on Sunday 8th August…..this year! Yes folks, it’s back on. 😛
Before you ask too many questions. Entries aren’t open!!! I’ll be emailing all those that entered in 2019 first to see if they want or can take part. This option will be given to all those that entered either race. We’ll then see how many runners want to run. I’ll consider opening entires after that.
There will be some covid guidelines, one of which is that we will not be using the village hall. Runners will register from the village green, and runners will start between eg, 11.30am and 12pm. So there will be no mass start.
The route will be marked. At the only water station there will be no plastic(or any) cups. You’ll have to provide your own if you want water here.
Tea and cawl will be served from the green, or from the local caffi’r sgwar. However you will need to bring your own mug, bowl and spoon for this.
I’m saying this as I’m preparing to go away for a week!!! LOL 😛 However, I wanted to give previously entered runners the chance to think about it and get some trianing in. An email will be coming at some point.
If previously entered runners can’t run, or don’t want too, then I’ll carry your entry to 2022 unless you inform me otherwise.
I’m hoping to get slate coaster done, but there will be no Tshirts this year sorry.
Diolch. 😊

Cerrig Las race ’21.

Cerrig Las write up ’21! (Click above to open the results PDF. )
Quick summary- The marshals were amazing, 66 Runners came, and ran on staggered starts, they returned, they ate cake and had tea, remained socially distanced in the open air in the middle of nowhere,, there were no hugs(), and then they…….. buggered off! Bang tidy.
A longer update.
There was lots more pre race admin and online entries to sort out, but in the end it was fine.
The kind farmer had given us permission for runners to park in his field, as I usually only have 15 to 30 entrants.Diolch Dyfed.
The weather stayed dry, apart from a brief sun shower during the race itself. Cloud base remained high, and there was a brisk breeze in the runners faces from the turnaround point at Foel Drygarn.
More marshals came in case there was an issue with runners out on the course.
No one got lost or injured.
There were an amazing amount of pre packed cakeage. Some of which was consumed by my good self on our drive afterwards…..to Hampshire!
Ok, the race itself.
Runners had been allocated a starting time, some 30 second between each one and this had been emailed out prior to race day. Tim did an amazing job of doing the electronic timing wristbands, and it worked a treat.Thanks.
By pre looking at the entrants starting list, I could envisage some close racing and fast times. I wasnt wrong. There were 6 runners under the hour, and local lad(if you can call Texas as being local!!!) Finn Thompson took overall victory and set a new overall record in 55m 36 secs. Rhys Harries was very close behind him in 56m 24s, and would have brokenCerrig Las ’21 results the record too. Alan Latter was first M40 in 1hr 1m 37s, followed closely by Alec Williams M50 in 1hr 1m 52s. First M60 was Glen Davies 1h 09m 58s.
In the ladies section, I wasnt sure which of the three ladies i believed to be the favourites would take victory. Kitty wanted to set off early as she had to leave earlier. Not sure if this was wise, and she was soon way out in front with nobody to chase after! Tasha Sexton, who holds the female record was back, and Dee Jolly was making her first appearance at the race. It was going to be anyone’s race?!
The good or bad thing about a time trial is that you never know who’s in front until everyone is back in! It was Dee’s first outing on this route, but she obviously ran it well as she took first OF spot in 1hr 04m 29s. Kitty took second OF in 1hr 06m 20s, whilst Tasha took 1st F40 in 1hr 06m 35s. So pretty close racing, well done.
1st F50 was Sian William’s 1hr 25m 25s.
The female record will have to wait until next year.
I take my hat off to everyone who ran, and I thank everyone who read through my very lengthy email prior to attending the race to mame sure all the rules were being adhered too. Diolch.
Yes, everyone did really well, but I have to say a huge well done to my prodigy Carz( Carolyn Watkins in doing so well in her second only race, and finishing in 1hrs 15m 43s. She’d been quite nervous for days bless her. Well done Carz.
And lastly, but certainly not less important(in fact, impossible for the race to happen without!), are all the marshals and helpers.
Gareth for being there before me to help with car parking duties.
My Rachel, for admin, tea making, and being 2nd hand in command. Sisters Eirlyn and Lynwen, and Carz for extra wonderful pre-wrapped cakeage.❤Nomnomnom.
Julia, Wendy, Bruce and Rhyds for getting the runners in order at start and helping at the finish.
Tim for the brilliant timing system and ‘live’ yes, Live, online race results!!!
HOLD PRESS!!! Previously, my race results consisted off writing runners names, categories, and finishing times onto sticky labels, and sticking these onto a sheet of 4ft by 3ft mdf board in finishing order. So to go from that to live results is like writing a letter, and posting it to somewhere across the other side of the world, before emails came to being
The hill marshals! Luckily it didn’t rain. I’ve marshalled on events many times, and theres nothing worse than being stuck on a hill for an hour or two in cold freezing rain. Thankfully, they didnt have to suffer too long. Thank you Martin, Sanna @Carn Alw. Sanna had last week set a new FKT for the whole 186m Pembs coastal path in 51hrs 30mins, and so proceeded to run behind chasing/hounding the last runner picking up the markers on the way!
Domi and Chris who had placed a large welsh flag @ Foel Drygarn.
The lonely John Rees(cant tag you for some reason) @The Saddle.
And finally Carol(not on fb, but Megan is), and Rhydian Watkins who’d been shouting at runners near the start line if they were late!@ the last CP, Carn Sian.
Thanks peeps for everything, inc your comments, fb posts, photos, and pre race sharing within your clubs about the event.
I’ve put on all the photos I’ve got, but let me know if you want me to take a photo down.
Btw, money raised from yesterday will be given to the Mynachlog-ddu and Maenclochog kiddies playparks.
Lastly, the Preselu Dip-Dab. At present I havent got many entries. So if you are thinking of entering, can you do so sooner rather than later as I need to order the pre marked waterproof maps. What the worse that can happen, you get a bit lost!!! Even if you do get a little lost, head north or south, and you’ll soon hit a road!
And here’s the race results. https://cerriglas.realtimeracing.co.uk/ It’ll be here for a while, but not for long.  
Or click below to open up the results PDF.

Preseli Dip-dab.

Sorry for the short notice, but this is now cancelled. 🙁 I haven’t decided on whether this will be re-scheduled for later on this year, or leave until 2021.

Sorry, and please take care.

Caz the hat.

Beast 2020- Cancelled due to corona-virus

I bring sad news, in that I have no choice but to cancel this years Beast races for the time being. This cv outbreak is hitting many events and many have already rescheduled for later in the year. At present I’m not sure whether to try and fit it in later in the year, or cancel until 2021. I’m sure most of you who had already entered, or those who were going to enter fully understand the reasons for cancelling. If it weren’t based in the village, or that many of you weren’t travelling from far and wide then the race might still go ahead. There are far too many risks involved to many at the moment, and I wouldn’t want someone getting this virus because of the Beast.

For those already entered, then please let me know if you’d like a refund or postpone to the next outing(when ever that will be). There might be some charge for refunds as paypal take a percentage for transactions. Email me what you’d like to happen- [email protected]

At present time I have no intention of cancelling the other smaller races I organise-Cerrig Glas(6th June), Carn Ingli killer(currently Tues 21st July, but I might change the date and route of this one!) and the Dip Dab(1st Aug), but I’ll be monitoring the situation as time goes by. If these races do go ahead then registration, paying, refreshments, and prizegiving will be different. Please keep an eye out for updates.

Thanks, and sorry to be bringing such sad news.

So, moving on! Has all your training been in vain? Heck no. Consider doing your own challenge! This could be something small, or huge. Run the Beast on your own and stick it on Strava, create your own challenging route, Train for the Bob Graham/PBR, do the welsh 3 peaks, or even the Welsh 3000’s. Whatever you do, do something. We all need to get out running, but be mindful about hugging afterwards. Oh, too late.

Keep safe peeps. (virtual hugs to you all).

 

Beastly entries for 2020 have…….OPENED!

Oh yeah, it’s what you’ve all been waiting for I know. Time to book in for more cake!!! Race day is Saturday 2nd May, and most things are the same as last year. I’m limiting numbers on Beast Bach entries to 250; Preseli Beast and UltrabeasT to 200 in total.

Beast Bach route will be fully marked, whereas both the other two races will be semi marked. There will be a new section at approx. 13-14miles, but this will be marked. I’ll be producing a waterproof map with the two routes on it, and these will be available to buy at cost on the day. Happy days.

T-shirt orders will cease mid April!

Will there be cawl and cake? Absolutely!

Will you be there? Depends if you like cawl and cake!

Cheers.

Thanks Tim for your help. 😉

Charge of the Beast Tamers(as written by the Martin/Boorman family).

1
Half a mile, half a mile
Half a mile onward.
Into the beast’s lair
Ran the fell runners
“Forward the beast tamers
Run for the cakes and cawl.”
Into the beast’s lair
Ran the beast tamers.

2
Forward the Beast Tamers
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the entrants knew
Someone had floundered.
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and smile
Into the Beast’s lair
Ran the beast tamers.

3
Bogs to the right of them
Hills to the left of them
Valleys ahead of them
Onward and Upward
Hill followed by rocky hill
Boldly they ran and well
Into the Gwaun Valley
Onto Carn Ingli’s rocks
Ran the beast tamers.

4
Flashed all those lily white legs
Flashed as they did their best
Dripping with mud and sweat
Encouraged by volunteers
Checking their numbers
Plunged into mist and fog
Up to their necks in bog
Smile for the camera then
Reel at the steepest of slopes
Staggered and wondered
Then they ran onwards, over
over and upwards.

5
Bogs to the right of them
Hills to the left of them
Valleys ahead of them
Onward and Upward
Exhausted by mile upon mile
Even the fittest fell
They all had run so well
Back past the jaws of the Beast
Back from the Hills of Hell
All that was left of them
Left of the fell runners.

6
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All of Maenclochog wondered.
Honor the volunteers
Honor the runners
Noble Beast Tamers.

Beastly races for 2020.

Sat 2nd May – Preseli Beast and UltrabeasT 10am; Beast Bach 12.30pm. Entries might open mid December 2019

Sat 6th June – Cerrig Glas. 12pm. Kids races from 11am. Entry on day.

Tues 21st July – Carn Ingli killer. 7pm. Entry on day.

Sat 1st Aug – The Preseli Dibdab mountain trial. Staggered starts from 10am. 3 different length courses. Approx 7 miles, 12 miles, and 20 miles. Start to be announced early July. Pre entry only from May 2020.

 

Ras Cwmcerwyn race cancelled

Hi.

Due to an unforeseen accident, I’ve had to cancel the Cwmcerwyn race which was due to be held on Sunday 28th July. Sorry for the inconvienience.

Caz

Ras Y Cerrig Glas race results.

Well, what can I say. I half expected no runners to turn up today given the weather! It was very wet, and very claggy when we turned up at 10.30 to get things ready. There was already one runner there who’d camped there the night before in her van. “Is the race going to go ahead?” She asked. “Of course…..if somebody else turns up!”  All of a sudden cars turned up left, right and centre. We had 5 kiddlies run in the 0.6mile race, which was ran in slighty wet conditions. Nowt like hardening these youngsters up! Some speedy runners to watch out for in the future I think! Maya WELTON(U10) won overall in 2:49, Jacob TEBBITT(U8) 2:53; Hari-Jac WATKINS(U8) 3:31; Isobel TEBBITT(U5) 3:40; Deian WATKINS(U5) 4:02. They all enjoyed their well deserved Jelly babies and certificates, Thanks.

In the main race we ended up having 28 turn out at the start line! Incredible really, and Thank you. Most were worried about getting lost and how well the course was marked. Thankfully the markers were still there from last night, and no one got lost! David WARREN stormed it round and was well clear of second. Amazing when you think he’s a M50!!! Tasha SEXTON was also storming and was 3rd overall! She’s having a good season after winning overall female in the 24 mile Beast, and she’s a F40!!! She’s also blitzed the female record(set by her in 2016) by some 5minutes to take it to 1hr 00mins 40seconds! Oof!

Sorry to the two that turned up late. One was late due to the tractor run(400 tractors!!!0 was going on locally, the second one was late to seeing the wrong start time somewhere and thought it was a 14.00hrs start. Sorry. Hope you still got a run in.

Huge THANKS must go to the hill marshals Sanna and Martin(CP1), Mike the Machine who’d just run the St Clears 10miler an hour before!(CP2), Shan on the saddle(CP3); and finally Carol and Rhyds on the last summit(CP4), Carn Sian.  Eirlyn on cake and tea duties. Rachel for helping out this morning, registration, results, and putting up with me. Carolyn on timing duties. Thank you all. These races wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for these lovely helpers. Thanks too for those who helped clear stuff away.

The results. – Ras y Cerrig Glas results 2019 

Huge Big Thanks to Domi KIMBER, aka Mantle brewery for kindly donating the winners prizes of ‘proper ale’. Thank you.

The runners enjoyed their rewards of tea/coffee, cake and biscuits. Thanks too for some of your comments. ‘Amazingly lovely and tough course, brilliant marshals, and even the weather turned out!’

Next race(of mine) is the 3.3mile Carn Ingli Killer, Newport(Pembs) on Tues 23rd July at 19.00hrs. Registration near Long street car park.

Then it’s the 4.5mile Ras Cwmcerwyn on Sunday 28th at 2pm/14.00hrs. Registration in playground car park behind the Old Post office bistro/ behind Tafarn Sinc(not Tafarn sinc car park!).

See ya soon, Caz the Hat.

Ras Y Cerrig Glas……….2nd June!

As if I haven’t enough going on! Next Sunday June 2nd sees the next local Preselis fell race fixture which is also in the South Wales fell running champs series. It’s a 7 mile marked race starting at 12pm from the side of the unclassified road between Rosebush and Mynachlog-ddu. Grid ref- SN127 307. There will also be some short friendly(1/2mile and 1 mile) kiddies races from approx 11am. Entries will be £5 on the day, which includes tea/coffee and cake. Beers as category prizes(sweets for the kids!).  Please share amongst others or within your clubs. If you don’t fancy running, but fancy marshalling, then please get in touch. Cheers, and hopefully see you there. 😉

2019 post Beastly write-up.

So, where do I start? Do I start by saying thanks to the amazing army of volunteers; the runners and running clubs; the cake bakers; the local trophy and goody bag sponsors; family and friends; the village hall committee and kitchen staff; Sarah from Shop Sarah for her Beastly buggy escort, support and goody bag items; the drummers and the top of town band; the amazing  Maenclochog community; Wynnie Cliff for not only being a rock, but also for the 2no 17″ pizzas the night before as well as the other feasts(I didn’t eat them both!); Mr and Mrs Roberts from the North who are just amazing;  the fancy dressed; the violinist in the gwaun(whom I didn’t know anything about); the land owners; the weather gods; Caffi’r Sgwar; Safe 2 storage; The Aelwyd and Adran youth groups for decorating the green; the Globe; Cotswolds outdoors Carmarthen; Princess Gate water; Aldi’s; Morrisons; Co-op; helpers and friends who were fetching pre-race ‘stuff’; Mr G (Huw George)the finish line compare who has been suffering with pneumonia(!); Roland and Pat for even contemplating coming to do the race results when Roland has literally come out of hospital after a major hip operation(thanks for lending us the PA system btw); Etts electrical; and the local constabulary for nearly giving me a heart attack when we’d heard that they’d closed off Rosebush quarries to the public literally as the runners started running off up through the village!!! Oh how we laughed too! The people I bundled into the car and dragged up there must have thought what on earth was going on!??? To name them in order would pay disrespect to others.

 

Like the amazing Little Dave said in his fb post, there isn’t any one thing that makes this event different or special, It’s the whole lot put together that makes runners and volunteers come back for more each year. Yes, it’s a long way to come for some, but is it worth it? Well most of you seem to think so and, and that must say something in its self. I’ve been very, very lucky to have such positive feedback either on social media or by messages, and I’ve still yet to read through it all. To be honest I scared to look! Diolch yn fawr/Thank you very much. It seems as if most of everything has been cleared away quicker than most years, although the Beast room does look very full. Which leaves me wondering why it’s taken me a while to write this post. To be honest, it generally does. It’s probably because my head’s been full of ‘stuff’, pre race and on the day. Is everything in place? Have I left someone’s name of the list because they messaged me and not entered online? Have I got enough of everything? Are all the volunteers happy? Do they know what they’re doing, and where they need to be? And so on, and so on.

I say at my marshals briefing the night before that they the marshals, and not the runners, are my main priorty. Ourea events made me realise this even more. Without happy marshals the race would not be the same. Happy marshals equals happier runners. The marshals are out standing on some remote locations and they need to stay warm, happy, and safe. Runners can keep warm by running(unless that is they injure themselves!) Some time( as a runner), it might be worth volunteering for a race to make you appreciate what it’s like standing there for a few hours. I love marshalling myself, and although it can be cold, very cold, it’s very rewarding. Making someone smile is priceless, and keeping them motivated and to encourage them to keep going is a great feeling.

 

On a sadder note, I write this on a day that our Northern friend Andy is being buried after losing his battle to cancer recently.  One of the first times I met Andy was on the side of the road at Ogwen, North Wales at 5.30am. He and his wife Pam were in their campervan making bacon butties for me and the support team of runners and supporters during my first Big challenge, the Paddy Buckley round in 2010. Last year he and Pam(as well as a few from the North) travelled the many hours to come down just to marshal on the Preseli Beast as they do for many. Thanks Andy.

 

Now none of this would even get off the ground if it were not for some even more closer to home help. Mrs P- for putting up with my madness, for her artistic and IT skills, for managing the results for the first time and even getting them onto the website that evening, and for your muchios support. Also to our daughter Carolyn, aka Carz the plait race helper, for her admin support in doing the entries and answering emails, fetching ‘stuff’ and generally keeping things in order………including me!

 

I can’t believe that some of you have already asked what the date will be in 2020!!! I can’t even work out what I’m doing in a month, let alone next year! Some have already worked it out to be the 9th May! So, I guess that’s the date then! Same time, same place, same cake?

 

Now, apparently there’s a Welsh Dragon that needs taming??? Grrrr! The Beast v Dragon revenge match!

 

Hugs, The Hat.