Well it was fairly grim in places but overall not as bad I was thinking it might be on Friday, when my phone and email were busy with those abandoning. On Thursday I had 22 starters. By 9pm on Friday it was down to 10.
So it was a fairly select band who gathered in the car park in Wellington to a grey and drizzly morning. The rain soon intensified and with the cloud base low the climbs of the Long Mynd and Stiperstones were distinctly short on scenery. The actual rain had pretty much stopped by the first control though, to be replaced by general wetness and we made a small lake on the floor of the cafe in Rhayader when we arrived.
Things got much better after that though. The cloud lifted off the tops of the hills, the Elan reservoirs were moody and atmospheric and there was even enough sun on the mountain road to cast our shadows. Plus the wind, which had started behind us was shifting round to the south to continue to blow us towards the coast. I even ventured so far as to take my waterproof off at the top of the reservoirs and this bit was almost pleasant.
The cafe at Borth was deserted (a wet afternoon in Borth is pretty low on most people's list of things to do) but the food was welcome. The rain started to return though by the time I got to Machynlleth and the endless climb over to Dylife was done in the drizzle. A couple of heavy showers on the run into Newtown (those behind us were not so lucky and got drenched on the Dylife road). The wind had continued to swing round as the day went on and was now a strong south westerly to blow us home on the last leg.
All 11 who started finished - with the last three (all on their first 300 - quite an achievement) putting in a sterling effort to finish at 02:55am. Well done to everyone for finishing a tough event on a fairly horrible day.
