British Champs on Home Turf - Why Bethan is so chuffed with no medal Monday

At 12 noon on Saturday 11th July a collection of the finest fell runners from across the land charged up Pen y Fan in the sweltering heat to contest for the title of UKA British Short Distance Fell Running Champion. Who knew, maybe that day would be the day that finally saw Keith Anderson and Claire Crofts' 34-year-old course records broken?!

Side note - The two legends were both there to set off the race and Claire is still running, in fact coached by Keith himself, so watch out for the come back tour everyone!!

I lined up with local teammates and fell running legends from Engerland I have admired from afar. The mountain doesn't discriminate. But we do know the best lines to plummet down the sheer glacial face of Pen y Fan so that does help a bit. My race went well, thanks for asking! The first 5mins were filled with the usual 'why am I doing this?!' thoughts as I quickly went into the red - uphill from the off, classic. But then I settled in, I could see a plait bouncing about up ahead, Nichola Jackson was the only woman I'd spotted in the start melee ahead of me, but I was sure there were more. I focused on my own climb, watching enviously as teammate Tom Mollekin tapped off into the distance.

New secret weapon of caffeine gum deployed for the final climb up Corn Du and I don't know where it came from but I even bounced up the last steep ascent and kept it going to gain a few places from Corn Du to Pen y Fan. Before the race, I'd said 30 minutes to the top would be a very good day, bettering my PB from 2023 by over 2mins. I checked my watch, just over 30, but fear not, the best was yet to come.

If anyone ever asks what my favourite style of downhill running is, (and you'd be surprised how often they do, mostly prompted...), I always think of this part of the course. Grass. Steep. Mmm. When I say steep, I mean, if you fall over you can just bounce back up again because your bum was never more than a few inches from the ground anyway. When we lose all the snow, maybe gallopy, tussock hopping steep descending will become a Winter Olympic sport and I will finally find my niche! Quads on fire I galloped past a few blokes and felt like the pied piper until it started to flatten off and they all steamed past me again.

Never mind, I glanced at my watch, still under 40 mins, this was good...I had even found the mythical sheep trod which led straight to the path where we all hurtled back down to the finish. I crossed the line in 44.17 - that's over 2mins off my previous time, and in the heat, I'll take that! No records fallen either, so I think the weather did factor in.

I saw Nichola at the finish, she had won in a great come back race and after congratulating her I sheepishly asked, any idea where I came? 4th!! 4th in a British Championship race! That had made my day so much I didn't hold it against her she'd asked if I was a vet (and I barely mentioned it at all afterwards!). Ok, so being 13 months older would have earnt me a nice shiny Gold V40 medal but this Monday, I am glowing to not be holding a medal but knowing I came 4th in a British Champs race and most importantly, as teammate Ian said, I had the most fun. (It's not a competition of course, we can all have the most fun!)

A fantastically organised race, great to catch up with some people especially coach Dan and Eleanor. Great result for Tom Wood too in 3rd and some great age cat medals for Mynydd Du - oh and a team win for us women! Also great to watch the juniors. Love the fell running family!!