Terrex to Dragon's Back ....

OK, 'Terrex to Dragon's Back' ... just one long transition.

Twenty year's I was lucky enough to be part of the original Dragon's Back race and now, in thirty minutes, I leave to drive to North Wales to start part two - DBR 2012.  It's got to be done, if only because there was unfinished business twenty year's ago; my partner, Steve 'Dubie' put his foot down a rabbit's hole on the last afternoon of racing and he had to hobble and hop the last few miles to the finish at Carreg Castle. This was not quite the finish either of us deserved and we missed the Saturday morning presentation at The Castle, as well as losing a few places in the overall standings. Still, the majority of it had been wonderful.

This time one week ago, I was eating copious amounts of food in a post-Terrex recovery and two weeks ago, I was busy packing and preparing for the five day Terrex adventure race, with my three team mates. That required the packing of 4x personal bags, one team bag, one team paddle bag, a 'sixth' canyoning bag, and 4x  bike boxes and suss out which of these items would be going to nine transitions over five days of continous racing.  Now I just have one relatively small overnight bag, one small day rucsac and one even smaller lunchtime  'drop' bag (with my sandwiches in it) and it's me against the mountains.

Less is More .... Dragon's Back Race is no less of an adventure than Terrex; it will be different, just me and the mountains of Wales ... oh and some other 'athletes'  (I just 'love' that word!) .  Sure, some will be racing  but the majority of us will just be looking to finish at Carreg Castle and enjoy the journey down the spine of Wales.   I'm glad it's only ever twenty year's.

Apart from being a little jaded from Terrex I'm really looking forward to putting one foot in front of the other, travelling over some tremendous mountains and getting to the finish line having had some fun. There are no short route options at DBR, no controls you can drop and take a penalty; it has to be completed.

I doubt I'll be able to update facebook or twitter or even phone home.... hmn, remarkable.

Joe