My series “Frodo in Wales” takes a look at running and travelling on a budget. Part 1 took me from Chester, across to Conway along the coast, then down to Betws-y-Coed and finally to the summit of Moel Siobod and back.

View getting down again

Summit of Moel Siobod

Just so we’re clear, I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing. Part 1 taught me a lot of safety elements, and as a result, part 2 will be a lot more safety orientated; certainly when it comes to the mountain ranges. These deserve at least a little bit of respect and I don’t really want to get the mountain rescue involved if at all possible.

Retracing my steps from LEJOG. I remember stopping for a coffee here one evening before the final 15 miles to Exeter.

This weekend I was at a best mate’s wedding, down in Exeter; an event I certainly wasn’t going to miss after all the great times from our school years. It would have cost a small fortune to travel by train, and flying wouldn’t have been a lot cheaper. In the end, I elected to rent a car. The beauty of renting a car is that it can double up as accommodation if you’re not too bothered about a comfortable nights sleep, so when I woke up at 6:30am in the middle of Dartmoor, along the very road I ran up earlier in the year for LEJOG, it seemed remiss of me if I didn’t go out for a run on the moors again, in a county that happened to very good to me.

What do you do when you find out you don’t get PB’s from just simply running anymore?

I started running in 2010; labouring through 10k’s and struggling through injuries all the way up to marathon distance by 2011. All the while however, if I was fit and uninjured, I would ALWAYS run a PB. That went without saying.

Oh, is that a PB? Yeah, sounds about right.

Absolutely no training plan attached to this run. I ran fast when I felt like it; if I felt like stopping to take a few photographs, I did that instead.

Not a great idea to do this all the time, but every now and then, especially if you’re trying to get a little bit of motivation back, this feels great to do.

This was an off-road and country lane route through Macclesfield Forest, Shutlingsloe and Wildboarclough in Cheshire. A pleasant Autumn day, and possibly the last we’ll get for a while. Can’t miss this sort of opportunity.

Earlier in the year, some of you may remember when I ran to North Wales and then with no planning, or thought attached, proceeded to run all through Wales, including one mountain, just using directions from locals I met on the way.

Mountain Lake

Summit of Moel Siobod

Well Part II is going to be more of the same, but bigger, better, colder and more mountains hopefully. Starting from Pembrokeshire in South Wales; I plan to run up through Snowdonia, into North Wales and back home again in Cheshire.

For everyone that competes on a semi-regular basis; that first DNF (did not finish) is always on the cards; it is waiting in the wind like an inevitable pride killer.

As the old saying goes: ‘Finishing dead last is better than DNF, and DNF is better than DNS’. I think this is a great expression, which gives an order of merit to these otherwise difficult outcomes, but surely sometimes there are reasonable scenarios where DNF and DNS are actually the more sensible options…

It’s psychological turmoil, running in a race and having to come to terms with the idea of pulling out, and one which I have now experienced twice inside three weeks.

Frodo’s Advice:

I’ve been asked before now, what do you need to take with you on trail races, or long ultras? – An excellent question, as these events tend to be predominantly off-road and weather conditions in this country can vary greatly and not always predictably.

Firstly, I find it quite funny when people choose to ask ME about all this stuff, mostly because of my well documented and solidly proven status as a complete moron.

However, it did dawn on me that by making every mistake in the book along the way, I will have surely inadvertently picked up a few things. So here it is! My take on what equipment and nutrition is needed for those long, off-road races…

We definitely took it on the chin, but I still optimistic. It a looooong season so get ready for the ups and downs. Do not doubt for a second that we don deserve to be in first place. Landry SC Cheap Jerseys free shipping, McKean KA, Hubley Kozey CL, Stanish WD, Deluzio KJ (2009) Gender Differences Exist In Neuromuscular Control Patterns During The Pre Contact And Early Stance Phase Of An Unanticipated Side Cut And Cross Cut Maneuver In 15 18 Years Old Adolescent Soccer Players. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology. V19(5): 370 379..

Not sure why this took me so long to put together. Was actually fairly tough looking back at some of it, as I’d forgotten what a complete state I got myself into in parts.

I didn’t actually film the worst parts. Filming and documenting was the absolute LAST thing on my mind; particularly in the latter stages in Scotland, but this gives an overall idea of what it was like to run for the 27 days without a break, and carrying what I’d describe as ‘not a lightweight’ rucksack on my back the entire way…

12 months ago, I ran in my first ever ultra (you can read about it here. It’s good, I promise!). So enamoured with the course and the race, I decided that I wanted to have another go at it this year. Seemed like a simple, and good enough idea.

A change to the schedule at the start of the year meant that this race was now only one week after my 100 mile debut at the North Downs Way 100.