Relay running

Looking good so far!

The FRA Relays - this is the annual coming together of fell runners where nearly 200 teams of six runners from Wales, England and Scotland (and occasionally Ireland) compete with the best. This year Denbigh Harriers put together a mixed team and a men's team and this is me on the first leg starting off for the mixed team up the road towards the Welsh mountain Moel Eilio (nearly 2200 feet of climbing!) On my left in the blue is sister Mary - whereas I've been coming to the relays since 2000, and just missed two events, this was Mary's first running for Glossopdale Dahlings. My preferred option is to get the first leg over and done with and then I can relax and watch the rest of day's events unfold secure in the knowledge that I've got things of to a brilliant start! And after my modest placing after the first leg our team spotted round and went home - very surprised to find out later on that we'd finished in 3rd place in the mixed category!

Here's the map of the course - Moel Eilio is actually only around 1600 feet high but the extra climbing comes from a nasty sting in the tail which took many competitors unawares. You'll spot this from the profile of the route in the box at the bottom. So those runners who had nothing left in the tank were in trouble!

You can't get beer from a stone - or can you?

Well here's a bit of a beer story. Stone's was a very traditional Sheffield based brewery which made a lovely bitter. This was very popular with the steel workers - it sold in buckets! I can remember the taste to this day - it was hoppy but sweet with a definite hint of tangerine citrus and at less than 4% it was very quaffable. And what happened - Bass Charrington bought the brewery, closed it down and started manufacturing an inferior version elsewhere. It's gone - the Stones beer of the 1970's is no more.

Escondido to Berlin

Stone Brewery on the other hand, is a wonderful Californian based microbrewery that's no longer micro sized. It's been voted the 'All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth' and we came across some rather hoppy strong IPA's on our travels in the US - very tasty! So where did we get these little tinnies from ? Why Asda of course, Stone has opened a brewery in Germany and ships it's beer around Europe - aren't we lucky?

Es ist ein gas!

Here's a photo of the Stone Brewery in a converted gas works in Berlin - quite a building eh? Not sure if they've got round to brewing some of the more esoteric beers that emerge from the Escondido brewery such as Arrogant Bastard and Punk in Drubblic, but they do brew their famous 7.7 percent Ruination - not sure if Asda will get round to stocking this one yet!

Ruined again!

Parkrun Cafes

Before the run - would look a bit different after!

Here's a right pair of parkrunners. This was taken just before Wepre Parkrun near Connah's Quay which is one of the hilliest Parkruns in the UK (457th out of 458) it's off road as well so it just about qualifies as a fell race. And Vicky got a PB thanks to Skip the valiant running dog. Vicky has her red 50 Parkrun t-shirt on and she's well on her way to getting her black 100 Parkrun t-shirt (ooh look who's got one of those?) Our other closest Parkrun is at Conwy but we tend to avoid that in the winter because a) it's by the sea and is usually windy and b) it's on tarmac all the way (and flat) but they do have a nice RSPB cafe. Talking of post Parkrun cafes the best has to be at Dolgellau.

Welsh Cakes anyone?

TH Roberts is in the middle of town opposite the Royal Ship Hotel and has the best cakes going. We had mixed fruit slices to go with our tea/coffee and sat with other park runners waiting for our results to appear on our mobiles. In fact the very friendly organisers were in the far corner using their laptops to compile results! We've only been down there for this Parkrun once cos it's quite an early start but I'm sure we'll go again. In fact all the Welsh Parkruns we've been to are associated with nice post run cafes, another one to recommend is the cafe that's actually right by the start in the castle at Penrhyn!