Race thoughts: Whoever designed this course is a swine. Actually that's probably a bit harsh, maybe not. Starts off relatively straight forward through the first couple of miles before punching you in the face with a whipsawing final three miles. My recce was in the wet in inappropriate shoes which probably has skewed my perspective (see shoe choice) so don't let this put you off! It's a brutally tough but great 5 miles taking in the toughest of Conwy mountain!

Overview of route: The race starts with a nice long climb up the Conwy Mountain track route up before steepening up to Alltwen. All good so far. You then drop steeply down to just above the woods that lie below Alltwen. In the wet wearing my (well worn) La Sportiva Mutants I was slip and sliding all over the place. You then climb back up steeply and across the scree to Penmaenbach. This section is often overgrown by heather and gorse, especially in summer so bear that in mind with your recces. The section leading from this path onto the summit of Penmaenback is definitely worth recceing. If you just follow the marked path on a map you get funnelled up through a very heathery gulley up to the summit. This is both very slow but also painful. The fastest route is to cut up to the loose rocks on your right before the gulley which brings you out onto the summit. The next section down and up to Conwy mountain is good running, nothing too steep or too technical, again a bit overgrown on Penmaenbach. It may be marshalled in the race, but if not, it's definitely worth recceing the left turn as you descend Conwy Mountain ridge as it's very very easy to miss. This takes you down a super steep a grassy descent down towards the holiday park, big grip required again here, lesson learned! You then loop round and back up an even steeper route back up, here I questioned whether my heart was really in the recce, there is no easy way up, it's just a brutally steep, not far off a scramble near the top! I think the organiser cuts the path speciallly for the race so likely not viable to recce for most the year. Finally a short descent down the traverse to the finish.

Shoe Choice: The grippiest shoe you have if wet. I'm a bad descender at the best of times but my La Sportiva Mutants were totally inadequate, I ended up going down the hills just as slowly as I was going up them, I was crying out for my inov8 X-Talons as I was just ice-skating down the grassy descents. 

Race website: https://www.facebook.com/Conwy-Fell-Race-973479662785559/ 

Cost: £5