Sleepwalker 20 Race Report - Saturday 24th November 6pm - Talybont-On-Usk.
A miserable day of rain, rain and er, more rain. Travelling up in the car was interesting enough, with the single road across the top from Ebbw Vale to Llangynidr having visibility down to about 20 feet, low cloud not helping on a road full of sharp bends with steep drops and no guard rails 
On arriving at Henderson Hall I was greeted, as in the 2011 event, by a room full of serious looking runners. At registration I was asked to go for a random kit check but Duncan said that he wasn't doing any more and it was on my own cognisance. I'm a good boy though, so had all the mandatory kit, plus some extra bits that I though might come in handy, most notably an Edge 800 GPS with full OS mapping and route data stored.
Pre race briefing described very wet conditions (not surprising really) and an enforced detour at Taf Fechan forestry due to Larch Fungal disease. This meant a roughly 10 minute addition to course time. We were told to abide by the forestry commission wishes and follow the diversion which was one of the few places with tape to mark the way. Other than that they had reduced the amount of course markers to major decision points only. I'm quite glad I know the area fairly well or I'd have been filled with trepidation...
At 5:50 we all trooped over to the canalside towpath for the start. Headtorches flickering in to life mine didn't want to play ball. Bugger. I didn't want to have to 'DNF' this early 
. Fortunately, undoing the battery pack and fiddling randomly in the dim light got it working - I did pray that it would last though and it was in the back of my mind for most of the run. There isn't much light in the Brecon Beacons without one!
The first half mile or so was fairly easy going, a small crowd of participants partners and children cheering us over the canal bridge and off into the darkness of the first 3 mile climb up the Brinore Tramroad. This is usually a well surfaced track but was, essentially, a stream. No chance of keeping feet dry for a reasonable distance and I was regretting wearing GoreTex trainers as mine were doing a damn fine job of keeping the water in! After passing CP1 a rough, rocky descent led to the best off road surface of the evening, a 3 mile fireroad climb to Torpantau. The next few miles were a mix of forestry track and singletrack road, best described as gently undulating which led to CP2 below the Neuadd Reservoirs. Crossing the dam I missed the (not so) obvious path and ended up on the grass dam wall, the outflow to my left and glancing back, other runners about 100ft above and behind me. A diagonal goat-style trot brought me back on track the far side of the dam.
The next section is best described as a bog. Up over the knees at point, crossing fast flowing streams and with little way of knowing what would happen to each footfall it was a relief to reach a more stable forestry track alongside Pentwyn Reservoir. Crossing between Pentwyn and Pontsticill Reservoir CP3 loomed out of the darkness. A warm tea and Eat Natural bar being the reward of the previous 12.5 miles efforts.
The steepest, most technical climb up Dolygaer pops out onto the track at the far end of Brinau Gleisson. The moorland was misty and fairly disorientating with the light of the headtorches reflecting back and further limiting any ability to distinguish your position. The Edge 800 proved it's worth a couple of times, most importantly a quick glance telling me and several runners to turn left when we reached a point with no obvious choice [it's a good event for cameraderie].
Edited: 29/11/2012 at 23:15
