UltramarathonMike

When Matt and the crew at Likeys organise a race they do it properly and the second running of the Beacons Ultra was going to be no exception.

This year the course ran from Talybont-on-Usk at the Outdoor Recreation Centre. I had made it down to Wales in good time this year, and caught up with Matt for a kit check early evening and picked up some technical undercrackers from Martin. At the kit check I bumped into Alan Silcock who, despite talking about the MdS via the forum for almost three years, I have not yet met!

I was staying in the Bunk House with the likes of Graham, Rab, Perks, Rach, Steph, Graham, Mike, Sharky, Andy, Jeff, Kevin, Bill, Pete, Cookie, Steve, Kobus etc etc. Quite a crowd … many MdS vets and experienced ultra runners, and me!

The race started at 7am so after about 4 minutes sleep and a 5am wake up for breakfast (mmmmm porridge) I headed down in the dark with everyone else, over 100 people were gathered at the start line and we set off on the short stretch with a police escort. Last years winner female winner Jo Kilkenny was here defending her title and was looking keen on the start line, also back was Mark Palmer who last year put in an astonishing time.

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