Capers on The Carneddau

Some of you may be amused to find out that my nick name is 'Ddrwg'....this in fact means bad in Welsh. I was given this name by Andy Walling my coach about two years ago. It pretty much stems from the fact that I sometimes choose to manipulate the orders he gives me to suit myself and then adjust accordingly to my own benefit. I/E if he says run 20-25 minutes I will always run the upper end of what he said, ,maybe 30 minutes etc etc. Well, of late I don't feel that I deserve the Ddrwg nick-name because I feel that I have been good in listening to what I have been told! As I mentioned previously I have been a little unlucky with stress fractures over the past two years and it appeared that I may be going down that route once again. So two weeks ago saw me adopt a cross training regime in an attempt to stave off another fracture. And yes I managed to do as I was told, laying off the roads and mountains for nearly two weeks and then building back up last week and enjoying a run out with the Sunday gang. A slightly smaller group this week, of Andy, Gary, Leo and Myself had planned quite a strenuous three hour plus run, starting at Llyn Ogwen, taking in the peaks of Pen yr Ole Wen. Carnedd Llewellyn and Dafydd and along via Yr Elen, Wnion over to Drum and back to the cafe at Abergwyngregyn via Berw Mawr.....Well, that was the plan anyway! Neale and Ritchie the brown dog, kindly dropped us at the start of the run prior to their walk in the foothills. A short while into our run, Leo received a call from work asking him to go in urgently, and he was forced to bail out at Pen yr Ole Wen and make his way back to Bethesda. We then carried on but almost immediately were greeted by the worst weather that the Carneddau could offer, high, winds, freezing temperatures and even snow at one stage. Despite the onslaught we managed to persevere, but not until such time as we got so cold that Gary was unable to speak, Andy was almost suicidal and I was looking for suitable sheltering points! However, I am glad to report that we managed the 13 mile route albeit somewhat shorter than we had planned and lived to run another day....Andy though was not quite as complimentary saying that it was the worst birthday he had ever had.....I am sure he was kidding though........See you soon guys!