I'm looking at doing this for my third ultra but am unlikely to make it down there to reccy any of the course beforehand. Does anyone know how easy / difficult it is to navigate the course? I have zero knowledge of the area.
It all depends on whether you will be the front runner.......in my opinion it is easy to navigate on the day as they put orange arrows on the floor & Ultra stickers at key places, plus for the first 20 miles you are likely to be amongst other runners. The rest is generally just a case of following the Taff trails signs & it only gets confusing near Merthyr but there are Taff trail signs as it is a cycle route. I know the route well so it is always easier to say that it is fine to follow a route when you are confident of the way to go.
Hi, i'm thinking about this one but i'm coming from the London area and don't have a car - is anyone driving to Brecon? i'm happy to pay petrol money for a lift there - then i'd get the train back to London from Cardiff. Jedwards - around 130 did it last year.
There were 125 finishers in 2012. You're following Cycle Route 8. The only difficulties with navigation are through Merthyr and especially Pontypridd, towns you have to go through which don't always seem to have enough Route 8 signposts. Fortunately organisers marked the ground with yellow arrows so in the end it was easy, but I don't know if that is normal practice. Would suggest either recceing those bits or even if you don't have the whole route on a map, be sure to have maps for those bits.
I'd leave it a day or two though to let all this white stuff melt. Merthyr was practically cut off on Friday.
Have entered this one sounds mad but useing it as a training run for the wall run ultra in June.am doing the born to run ultra in Feb is anyone else doing that one ?
Hi Nexus. I've entered as my first ultra (gulp!) not intending to recce as the organisers say it is well marked. I am staying at Brecon youth hostel the night before with my support crew (husband). Is anyone else doing the same?
Hi Vicky, I'm going to stay over in Cardiff the night before and get the race transport to the start on the morning of the race. Good luck with the training and don't worry, from the two ultras I've done so far they aren't as hard as marathons so if you've done some of those you'll be fine!
i believe you get picked up at Sophia Gardens - where the Welsh Sports centre is. This is close to town for all the major hotels but also a very short walk away is Cathedral Road which has a selection of B&B's
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I believe it follows the taff trail so is a major cycling route so fairly easy to follow...well signposted........
saying that a few of the guys from my running club went for a run on it the other week and missed the turn off near the beginning somehow
It all depends on whether you will be the front runner.......in my opinion it is easy to navigate on the day as they put orange arrows on the floor & Ultra stickers at key places, plus for the first 20 miles you are likely to be amongst other runners. The rest is generally just a case of following the Taff trails signs & it only gets confusing near Merthyr but there are Taff trail signs as it is a cycle route. I know the route well so it is always easier to say that it is fine to follow a route when you are confident of the way to go.
Ok, ignore me - just realised the organisers have a lift from cardiff to brecon in the morning that you can book when you enter.
There were 125 finishers in 2012. You're following Cycle Route 8. The only difficulties with navigation are through Merthyr and especially Pontypridd, towns you have to go through which don't always seem to have enough Route 8 signposts. Fortunately organisers marked the ground with yellow arrows so in the end it was easy, but I don't know if that is normal practice. Would suggest either recceing those bits or even if you don't have the whole route on a map, be sure to have maps for those bits.
I'd leave it a day or two though to let all this white stuff melt. Merthyr was practically cut off on Friday.
Thanks for the replies. I've entered now so I'll just have to chance it!
Hi Vicky, I'm going to stay over in Cardiff the night before and get the race transport to the start on the morning of the race. Good luck with the training and don't worry, from the two ultras I've done so far they aren't as hard as marathons so if you've done some of those you'll be fine!
i believe you get picked up at Sophia Gardens - where the Welsh Sports centre is. This is close to town for all the major hotels but also a very short walk away is Cathedral Road which has a selection of B&B's
Only 3 weeks away now guys and gals!!!