DRAGON BACK RACE | September

This is a 200mile race across the mountainous spine of Wales from Conway castle to Carreg Cennen castle.

The course follows the original route closely; starting at Conwy Castle in the north and tracing the mountainous spine of Wales southwards, over 5 days with the optimum route being approximately 200 miles with 45,000 feet of ascent, to finish at Carreg Cennen Castle. It’s an incredible journey.
There have been some changes made to the original 1992 route. Namely, there is less road running and a few more summits. Although this gives the overall route a more adventurous feel, it also means that there is slightly more height gain and some tougher terrain to contend with than in 1992. Overall, the 2012 route will be marginally harder to complete than the 1992 route.

Day 1 Carneddau, Glyders and Snowdon area Straight line distance and height gain: 30 miles (48 km) / 19,700 ft (6,000m)
Day 2 Moelwyns and Rhinogs area Straight line distance and height gain: 27 miles (43 km) / 14,700 ft (4,500m)
Day 3 Cadair Idris and Plynlimon area Straight line distance and height gain: 34 miles (54 km) / 16,400 ft (5,000m)
Day 4 Elan Valley area Straight line distance and height gain: 37 miles (59 km) / 11,500 ft (3,500m)
Day 5 Black Mountain area Straight line distance and height gain: 34 miles (54 km) / 11,100 ft (3,400m)
Totals = 162 miles (260 km) / 58,730 ft (17,900m)
Of course, we all know that you don’t run in straight lines in mountainous terrain and the optimum course as been calculated as exactly 200 miles (322 km) with 45,600 ft (13,900m) of ascent.
We expect the fastest competitors to be out for approximately 8 hours each day and the slowest competitors to be out for approximately 16+ hours each day.

Inevitably some competitors will want to train in Wales and a combination of the following OS 1;25,000 Active Maps cover the entire course: 213, OL17, OL23, OL18, 200, OL12, 187, 214, 215… and that is the last clue we will reveal! Remember that the race maps will be Harvey 1:40,000 scale.

Category: RACEdirectory, Ultras