THE Welsh 1,000m Peaks race in Eryri is a race that is certainly as daunting as it sounds, but for Aberystwyth Athletic Club members Richard Anthony, Dave Powell and Molly Harvey, the challenge is there to be conquered.

The long course race which Richard and Dave competed in starts in Abergwyngregyn before heading up over the Carneddau, descending to Llyn Ogwen before scaling the Gribin ridge and crossing Glyder Fawr.

A steep descent to Pen y Pass follows before weaving in and out of the many walkers up the Snowdon Pyg track to Garnedd Ugain.

If that wasn’t enough, finally after 20.5 miles, five 1,000m plus mountains and over 10,000ft of climbing, the finish line at the summit of Yr Wyddfa is reached.

Richard and Dave swapped places regularly en route with Richard just pipping Dave at the finish in 5 hours and 37 minutes with Dave finishing two minutes later.

Dave secured an age category win, while also picking up the trophy for the V60 long Course Welsh Fell Running Championship, quite an achievement, considering he had raced all these mountains and more as part of the UTS Snowdonia 100 miler a couple of weeks previously.

The short course is not that much easier, taking in three 1,000m peaks over a distance of eight miles with over 1,500m of ascent.

Molly took on this course that starts at Llyn Ogwen and completed the course in 3 hours and 16 minutes.

A challenging day out, and the elements did note help said Richard: “The weather was very poor with 50mph winds, sub-zero temperatures on the peaks and limited visibility, but the race was still fun due to the encouraging nature of all the Eryri running club marshals across the course and general camaraderie of runners competing alongside.”