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| Down we go - don't fall over! |
Ok it's a picture of a hillside with a few tiny coloured dots on it. However if you look closely (or even blow the photo up a bit) you will see two separate streams of dots descending on either side of the picture - these are some of the downhill dashers plunging the 2 miles towards the Golden Lion pub in Llangynhafal, Denbighshire. The race starts by the Jubilee Tower which sits at the top of the hill - what you see is a ruin of a much bigger tower at the highest point on the Clwydian Hills. And every year between Christmas and New Year a posse of foolhardy runners assemble - this year I was the race starter and having instructed the competitors that they can take any line they wish - I counted them off (giving myself a two second start of course!)
And of course the interesting bit is that every year some runners find a new way of getting down - normally the majority of the field take the line on the left of the photo by the wall for this first steep section. However you'll notice a guy in a grey vest (bottom right) who took the Offa's Dyke path line and went on to win the race - this rockier line tends to be avoided but maybe next year more will follow this route. Back at the Goldie the bar was packed and the organiser, Tony B, orchestrated a noisy presentation with cheers all round (with prize for Vicky who was first in her age group!).
