Claire House Excalibur Marathon

Myself and my best mate have decided to take the challenge and run the Claire House Excalibur Marathon at the end of March.

We have both just started to train for it which obviously doesn't give us much time, but we are in it for the experience rather than finishing time.  After all, its hardly a PB opportunity anyway   We have signed up as a team so we will help each other get over the finishing line.  I have ran a couple of marathons so I know what it takes to run one on roads, but not in the hills with over 4600 feet of ascent.

 Anybody else on here going to be taking part in this?  They describe it as the UK's toughest off-road marathon.  Whether thats the case or not i'm not sure.  I live nearby and love the hills and scenery in the area and think it will be an amazing thing to do.

I'll be there. I set myself the goal of running a marathon this year and since this one comes within a few miles of my front door it seems it has to be the one. I don't run on road in any case so I had to find an off-road event.

I had planned to run one of two other marathon distance fell races at the end of the summer until a friend pointed this one out to me so my training time got a bit compressed too. Comparing this event with the others I've looked at I think it justifies the title of the toughest.

Since I live so close, I've been covering sections of the route in training for the last few weeks There are some stiff climbs along the route and most of them come in the second half of the race. The only section I'm not looking forward to is the road from Llangwyfan down to Llandyrnog then back up towards Moel y Parc.

Pre-race drinks??? Exactly how are you training? ;o)

 Whereabouts are you going to be staying?

The Raven Inn at Llanarmon yn Ial is a community run freehouse and worth a visit. But then so are lots of pubs around the Llanferres / Loggerheads area. "We Three Loggerheads" is probably the busiest and closest but not necessarily the best. I can't think of one that doesn't do real ale.

I always think real ale tastes like something strained through old mens socks so I'm not  very knowledgable on the subject. Probably best if you do your own research on villages in the area.

Llanferres, Loggerheads, Maeshafen, Gwernymynnydd, Cilcain, Llanarmon yn Ial

Let me know if you need any other information - I'm better on other subjects.

I've had a look around for you - and not done very well.

Really close to the start is brynbowlio but they don't seem to accommodate tents. If you asked nicely, you might get a cheap night in one of the static caravans they rent out.

The only site I can find that takes tents and isn't in the middle of nowhere is in Denbigh - just under thirty minutes drive from the start  - which at least has the advantage of being in easy walking distance of half a dozen pubs.  tynyreithin

Good luck with the training. I've run all the tracks on the route a couple of times now and it's going to be a great day out.

 Let me know if there's anything else I can fail to help you with.

there is a great pub in the village of Cilcain (the route goes through here) which serves a selection of good real ales and food, a bigger and slightly more accomodating venue is the Pant-Yr-Ochain pub on the road out of Mold near Theatre Clwyd (about 4 miles away) - they do superb food and a big selection of well kept ales

There's also The Druid pub at Llanferres which is a couple of miles up the road from the start on the main road. One of the local summer fell races starts from there and they are a great local venue with, again, excellent food and good choice of ales.

Not sure re campsites I must admit as I've never camped here being relatively local.

Right, I'm off to do a recce of the first half of the route!!

Am very very tempted by this....am about to try to plot the map...

Is there already one out there before I waste my time.... 

Steve Mack 7 wrote (see)

Am very very tempted by this....am about to try to plot the map...

Is there already one out there before I waste my time.... 

Hi,

GPX would be brilliant thanks....

Should be able to be PM'd...let if know if there are any problems

(or email address is stma@talk21.com)

Thanks again

Steve

I've e-mailed in gpx route format.

 Have fun.

I am 4 hour marathoner on the "flat" so this should take about 6 hours.   Do we need to navigate?

spen71 wrote (see)

 Do we need to navigate?

That usually depends on where you are in the field and the number of runners.

There are definitely marshalls at checkpoints and the first track is waymarked bike track but the organiser hasn't said how many other marshalls / how much signage might actually be out on the course.

The walkers set off 90 minutes before the runners so they are going to be useful once the running field has thinned.

Navigation is generally quite straightforward between the checkpoints and the few trickier areas should be easy enough to sign, so I wouldn't worry too much about it but it's always worth being familiar withthe map.