The Skirrid

Race Reports
On Saturday 16th December the 5th round of the South Wales Winter Hill Series was held at the Skirrid mountain just north of Abergavenny. GaryG and TomD were the only Croft runners to make the trip to this interesting 3.6 mile fell race. Fortunately most of the recent snow had disappeared but conditions were very slippery particularly on the descent.
A gentle mostly uphill run across fields lead to the open fellside, the path then became increasingly steeper until descending over a ridge to a section of bumps and dips amongst the rocks, a steep climb (hands and knees for some!) then lead to the summit before a headlong dash down the north face onto the fields and back to the finish.
Gary passed some 20 runners on the descent gaining 1st over 70 in the process, TomD followed some time later finding the downhill as challenging as Gary had found it exhilarating.
Results and presentations were quickly done at the Skirrid Inn, reputed to be the oldest pub in Wales and well worth a visit – the free chips provided after the race were excellent!
146 runners completed the course, Gary finishing 111th in 49mins 32 seconds, Tom 135th in 55:04. The race was won by Kit Grierson in 31:04, Helen Brown was first lady in 36:21.
       

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