This was a multi-purpose run, to meet a few aims…

1. Get back into long runs, 3 months after the Northern Traverse and a period of much lighter training due to an Achilles problem.
2. Spend some time in the Bannau Brycheniog (Brecon Beacons). My only visits have been on the Dragons Back Race. The original route (I ran in 2019) turned west from Fan Brycheniog to cover the Black Mountain hills, but it was murky and I was too spanked to appreciate it. I was in a much better state in the 2021 race, where the new route turned east to traverse the Fans and Beacons, but it was misty and wet.
3. Undertake a public transport adventure. There is a recognised challenge in the area, the South Wales Traverse, which needs road support for a remote start and finish. I’ll save the logistics and being tied to a date for other things. Instead, I used this as a greener option, since both ends of the national park can be accessed by train.

The journey down involved changing at Shrewsbury to access the “Heart of Wales” line to Swansea, via a lot of small towns and tiny villages. The scenery was beautiful, dozens of hills I will almost certainly never visit. The train itself was like my local stopping service, which I’ve never particularly wanted to spend 3 hours on.

The passengers were mostly Welsh-speaking, with a handful of people like me looking like they were walking, camping, or similar. At one point, a man with a guitar and a psychedelic backpack boarded, and strummed pleasantly for about an hour before getting off again to play some folk venues in a different part of Powys. We stopped for about 30 minutes at Llandrindod, because the train heading north was late, and there is only a single line. Later we were delayed again – sheep on the line. I promise I am not making this up.

About 4 hours after leaving Shrewsbury, I arrived at Ammanford, the start of the route, almost an hour later than scheduled. This wasn’t a bad thing, I had decided the ideal time to leave would be 6-7pm, as I wanted to see the Beacons section in the light. The late train solved the problem of whether there was a satisfactory way to kill and hour or so in Ammanford (didnt look like it). Off I go.

The route started with a very gradual ascent up onto the western edge of the Black Mountain. Note that the “Black Mountain” is the name for the western expanse of hills, different from the “Black Mountains” which are a range at the eastern end of the national park. The Black Mountains also contain a hill called Mynydd Du (Black Mountain). I mean, come on guys.

Views opened up southwards to the sea, and to the north I could see Carreg Cennen castle, the original finish of the Dragons Back Race. At some point permission to use the castle itself was withdrawn, meaning some editions went close to the castle but finished, anticlimactically, at a somewhat run down sports centre in Llandeilo. (I can also now confirm that Llandeilo’s station code is “LLL” which feels iconic in a Welsh kind of way.) The new race finish at Cardiff Castle is so much better, as is the route to get there.

I passed some dog walkers on the way up to Tair Carn Isaf, the first summit, and wouldn’t see any more people for hours. There followed about 5 miles across fairly bleak moorland – the kind of empty miles I remember finding so tiring in 2019. Then a road crossing, which marks the start of the higher hills, stronger paths, and is the beginning of the South Wales traverse.

The long rocky ridge of Garreg Las was a highlight of this section, with intermittent sections of limestone pavement and clear enough trods in between. The summit is marked by two huge Iron Age cairns, and I was here about sunset. This was earlier than I had expected, and meant I’d get the see the huge escarpment to the north of the range in the fading light.

The very last rays of sunlight followed me up onto Waun Lefrith, the first top on this short plateau. There were stunning views down from the very steep escarpment to Llyn y Fan Fach, which has a legendary tale of the “Lady of the Lake”. (No, not that one. This is a somewhat grim tale of a beautiful and magical woman who emerges from the lake and offers to marry a daydreaming farm boy, and make him rich, on condition that he doesn’t strike her three times. It’s not clear what’s in it for her. You can probably guess the rest. There is a version of the legend in which he doesn’t hit her, but a tap on the shoulder counts as a strike, which feels artificially sanitised. Either way, the marriage ends, and all their farm animals follow her back into the lake.)

Picws Du was a new top for me (not a checkpoint on the Dragons Back, so I had cut beneath it), and then there was a stream for water and on up to Fan Brycheniog. A steep initial descent led to Llyn y Fan Fawr, and the marshier area leading to the eastern Carmarthenshire Fans.

This was the only section where water was plentiful, boggy in places, with numerous streams. This group of hills are generally grassy and rolling, but with some very steep aspects. I crossed the shoulder of Cefn Cul – here the Dragons Back Race trod was less clear than i had hoped, particularly downhill, and then Fan Gyhirych reared up above the next road.

Arguably it’s better not to be able to see Fan Gyhirych. In the dark, you can see the summit looming high above, but can’t make out the detail. It starts steep, finishes steeper, and has some steep bits in the middle. The last section is getting quite eroded, as footsteps wear rather inadequate pockets into the hillside.

Once at the top, the character of the hill changes abruptly. A lovely runnable descent follows along a grassy ridge, which meets a gravel track. Fan Nedd is the other way round, and amenable grassy ascent, followed by a very steep (and harder to follow than expected) drop down to the next road).

The next batch of Fans was a bit more consistent, a less brutal ascent to Fan Llia, and easy ridge to Fan Dringarth, and then a steady descent and reascent around the head of a valley, to Fan Fawr. It was now about 2.30am, and here I saw a group of soldiers, presumably on a training exercise, near the summit. There is one very steep section on the way down to the Storey Arms, after which the route feels a lot less remote.

It’s a pull up the main path to the ridge, but then the crest along the high summits of the Beacons is spectacular. In the main, this route feels like a crossing of moorland, but this is a mountain section, with dramatic profiles, especially on the northern side. Early morning mist was floating around Pen Y Fan and there was a cold wind, but I stopped to eat some more substantial food and take in the views.

The mountain feel continues down the steep ridge, back up to Cribyn, and along to Fan y Big (stop it). It’s over fairly briefly, replaced by rolling moorland on the south side, and the impressive sandstone escarpment to the north. I remembered being pretty knackered around here on the 2021 Dragon’s Back, having run the steep grassy Fans section with Katie Mills, who finished first lady, and then having to drop off her pace over these hills. I was getting weary now too, but along the flatter section stowed my poles and found this made it a little easier to tick along with a light jog. At Carn Pica, I deviated from the Dragon’s Back route, dropping down to the northern end of Tal-y-Bont reservoir.

On the way down, I thought about the route ahead. There were options about how much of the eastern Black Mountains to cover. My most ambitious options left me with about 30 miles still to do, taking a big dogleg up to Waun Fach, the highest point in the range. I probably just about had time to do that, at an easy enough pace, but I was tired and lack of water was a concern. The shortest option was to follow the Usk Valley to Abergavenny, which felt a bit of a cop out. I settled on an intermediate option, which took in some of the mountains around the Usk Valley, but was fairly direct. I started with the summit of Tor y Foel, which also meant I’d use up some time and arrive at the village of Llangynidr once its village shop opened at 8am.

The ascent of Tor y Foel was a stinker. The path was overgrown with brambles and nettles, and ferns higher up. I was bashing vegetation aside my my poles, and at one point intercepted a tick crawling along my leg before it could settle into a meal. If anyone repeats this route, don’t ascent direct but take a more circuituous route. I arrived on the summit with a bit of time to spare, so sat for a while, and aired my feet. The east ridge was a delight, contrasting with the fairly disgusting steep ascent, and the shop (Walnut stores) was excellent, with some homemade cake as well as the essential water. The stream on Tor Y Foel had been dry, and there weren’t any decent streams ahead.

There was a valley interlude now, over Llangynidr bridge, and along minor roads (with one short and unsatisfactory section of A40) to the tiny village of Cwmdu. From here, I trudged up the slopes of Pen Cerrig-Calch, a 600m ascent which definitely took a toll. I looked back towards the more ambitious route, quite pleased with my fatigue levels to be taking a shorter option. The hills I was missing out also didn’t look hugely inspiring – they’d give good quick running when feeling fresher, but I think I saved myself a long difficult plod.

The summit was the first time I’d seen many people for a while, and a major path led down the other side to Table Mountain, an Iron-Age fort. Then a fiddly section weaving through lanes and paths around Llanbedr, to access Sugar Loaf, another somewhat unwelcome 450m ascent.

Sugar Loaf was the first place on the whole route that actually felt busy. It’s a good little mountain, overlooking Abergavenny, and it was now a sensible time of day. I plodded steadily up to the summit, gave myself a little break, and then plodded steadily down the other side. By this stage, I wasn’t even really running downhill, just using that ultra shuffle which has often come out at the very end of a big undertaking. It had come on sooner on this one, but then it was my first big run in a while, after 3 months recovering from that Achilles problem, and training a lot less than usual. Amazingly, the Achilles had barely complained on this run, which had been about 90km and 5,000m ascent on the route taken. The low intensity had made a huge difference, and in the days after, it shockingly felt better than it had before.

It was getting hot in the valley, and I could have done with a corner shop on the approach to the down centre. Some lovely houses and a bowling green didn’t do anything for me. The first shop I reached was Tesco Metro, where I picked up a meal deal and some extra water, and sat on a bench in the shade, getting some funny looks from the townsfolk. The run had felt an unusual mix of positive and negative – on the one hand I was a little disappointed with my overall pace and the feeling of fatigue which really hit around Tor y Foel. On the other, it had been a really big run, solo, overnight, in an unfamiliar area, relatively untrained and with a bit of injury doubt. I had missed out some of the Black Mountains I might have incorporated, but I had crossed the Bannau Brycheniog National Park from west to east. It had similar stats to Leventon’s Line in southern Eryri, completed last year, which had taken around 4 hours less, but had been my longest run of 2024 (rather than coming 3 months after my longest run ever and a relative lay off). So in conclusion, it was a good adventure, and a platform to build back from.

One really surprising thing over the next few days was that my dodgy Achilles actually felt better after the run than before. The slower pace had kept any strain off it, but I imagined that steady wear and tear might make it sore for a few days afterwards. But it felt great, and after this run I was able to start doing single-leg heel lifts, to really strengthen it up. Now, I am absolutely not suggesting that the solution to an injury is more running, but it’s a good reminder that backing off is not always the answer. I’ll do a post about Achilles rehab soon.