“The route is just amazing and a beautiful way to see Wales. There were many “wow” moments like the sunset from the Snowdon horseshoe on day one or the beautiful sunrise while climbing Cadair Idris on day 3. I was blown away by the remoteness of day 4 but my favourite stage was day 5. I did not know the route at all and I loved it”

“I absolutely loved the 2019 Dragon’s Back Race® - I met lots of cool and crazy people and had one hell of an adventure. Many lessons were learnt in 2019, and I will see if I can put said lessons to good use for 2021”

“From the moment I watched Conquering the Dragon, I was captivated. I was completely taken by the possibility of doing the race but didn’t think I was good enough. I couldn’t stop thinking about it; I kept revisiting the website and race videos and over time somehow convinced myself that with the right training and my own specific brand of stubbornness, I could get one of those coveted baby dragons”

The Dragon’s Back Race and it’s sister event, the Cape Wrath Ultra, are both tough but spectacular multi-stage ultrarunning expedition races that will take you on incredible mountain journeys here in the UK. Alan Li has completed both races and here gives us the lowdown on his experiences and what to expect from each event…  

I kept reminding myself to take it day by day, and knowing I could do day one due to recently having run the Welsh 3000’s was reassuring. The race briefing was entertaining with Shane, the race organiser, setting out his rules for week, an inspirational talk from Helene Whitaker followed with Shane and Helene both reiterating that they expected about half of us assembled not to finish. The enormity of the challenge finally hit when you look around the room and see so many good, strong runners from all over the world and I started to wonder if I, born and raised in inner London, only discovering the joy of fell running by chance at university was really good enough to finish. 

In 2012 I raced the Dragon and everything that could go wrong went wrong. So why go back? I could do better - I knew I could and it was eating away at me. I was fit and procrastinating about entering but Shane had promised to hold a place for as long as it took me to decide. 10 days before I finally cracked. The email said all that was required: "Room for a little one??" 

It’s been 6 months since I last wrote in this blog. As is the way of life, a lot has happened in those 6 months but the constant theme, always there in my daily thoughts,  has been the Dragon’s Back Race.  At times it has loomed like an insurmountable challenge, at other times it has kept me focused, giving me a reason to make conscious, positive steps forwards in so many areas of my life.

A wonderful arena, rich in the history of bravery and the warrior spirit (and no doubt dodgier things besides but we’ll ignore those for present purposes!) and of course very fitting for yours truly, a Knight, before I set forth on my quest to slay the dragon! A stirring speech from a past winner about daring greatly, a rousing Welsh male voice choir, a countdown, and we were off. Along the town walls, out into the fields and soon to our first hill, Conwy Mountain, the first and probably lowest of our many peaks to come in the next week as we traversed the whole of Wales to Llandeilo in the South.

It has nearly been three months since Lisa and I finished the infamous Dragon’s Back race. We trained for a whole year for this challenge and I am sitting here, still not fully realising this thing actually happened. But it is definitely time to tell you about it!

The Dragon’s Back Race has been on my radar since it was resurrected in 2012, twenty years after the one and only previous edition. The concept of traversing the country of Wales along its spine, climbing almost all its summits, as fast as possible intrigued me. Claire was planning on doubling down on her trans-Scotland race from 2018 (Cape Wrath Ultra) and I decided to sign up and join her. It was all good in theory, but it's been a while since I've done a multi-day, body-trashing, ultra-endurance event, and to be honest, I wasn't sure it was still in me to run 315 km, mostly off-trail, in just five days.

It was exactly one year after I stood on the start line of the Cape Wrath Ultra and here I was again under the start banner, but this time it was for the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race, a race I always thought was too hard for me.

I lined up on the start line (with long time friend Ash, we were taking on this challenge together) of this infamous race with these words from the official website spinning around my head! This was to be the toughest challenge of my life, and without sounding like a showboating bragger, I've done some pretty tough stuff in the past!

I was quietly confident that I had what it takes to complete this race, a race that has previously only seen roughly 50% of it's starters even make it to the finish line! I know I was fit enough, but there were some fierce cut-offs that were dominating my mind, would I be quick enough over the unforgiving terrain to stay in the race?

There was a hushed silence over the field as we were given our last short briefing before the maps were to be handed out. The male voice choir were poised to sing. And the race was about to begin. Nervous energy was palpable. Whilst there had been cheers the night before when Shane Ohly, the race organiser, had announced that the first day would take in all 15 of the Welsh 3,000 peaks, the enormity of the task was now starting to sink in.

In the lead after two stages was strangely enough a mixed team consisting of Helene Diamantides and Martin Stone. A woman in the lead of this macho race! The phenomenon required a closer study so I decided to follow Helene and Martin for a while. As long as we ran the roads in the beginning I found the pace very comfortable. But then we were going up to the top of Cader Idris almost 900m higher than the point we started from.

In the PDF download available below Helene Diamantides, the 1992 winner of the Dragon’s Back Race™ alongside Martin Stone, gives her perspective on the race and some useful hints for success. “Don’t win the first day. Especially if you are female as this enrages the opposition and spurs them on. It also upsets the paras who set up the showers (I thought they were SUPPOSED to be mixed?).

Fifty miles a day, day after day, with the Parachute Regiment carrying the tent: this, we must suppose, is a foretaste of what awaits the dedicated hillrunner in the afterlife. Enter Wales at the top end. Sleep all night, eat large military meals, and run all day, following roughly John Gillham’s ‘Snowdonia to Gower’ long-distance route. Emerge five days later somewhere near Swansea. There would be the cream of British fell running, as well as eminent guests from abroad.