LLYS Y FRAN  - TROTS DAMBUSTER 10K

Sunday 7th June

Report by Ian Hipkins

 

It was a good day for excuses. The weather was so good it was not hard to think of things to do other than racing in a 10K even if it was around a cool shimmering lake. Four of us, David Astins, Richard & Val Brown and I passed up the alternatives and made up the field of 66 runners for what is, I was told, the shortest of the Llys y Fran races. That didn’t mean we weren’t going to pull out a few excuses before, during and after the race. David had a really good one – he cycled to the race. If only I had done the same. Val simply said she just wasn’t fit – always a goods one and have used it many times myself. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask Richard what his was – I’m sure he had one!

This “shorter” round  Llys y Fran race is the one that starts above the dam and runs clockwise finishing on a slight incline just below the tourist centre and therefore lower than the start. That doesn’t mean that it is all down hill. In fact, it is quite hard going from about half way until the trail turns back from the northern tongue of the lake. Those short sharp hills on the north western side can cause a temporary loss of the will and had me asking myself why I hadn’t thought of something else to do on such a nice day. At one point I even gave serious consideration to jumping into the lake and swimming to the other bank and so cutting off that long un-necessary part of the circuit – totally appropriate behaviour for a triathlete I would have thought.

As to how the race played out, David must have had a very hard battle with the front runners with only seconds between 3rd and his 4th place. I didn’t catch how Richard’s race developed but he did finish in the top third of the field in 21st place. Early in the race I could see a bit of a battle taking place between Val and Rowland Sherwood, but unfortunately I was not able to maintain my vantage point into the second half.  Roland won the battle on the day, hence Val’s reference to fitness.  I finished in 44th place, only two places behind Val, but posed absolutely no threat to her.

The TROTS club were obviously very conscious of it being a hot day for a running race and provided a very welcome water station just before half way. They also sent a runner back around the course to see if any of the tail-enders were struggling with the conditions.

Club Results:

Place	Name	Time
4	David Astins	35.36
21	Richard Brown	39.43
43	Val Brown	47.05
44	Ian Hipkins	48.24

Full results available from the CSA website.