HOWLING winds and swaying trees is what greeted runners competing at this year’s Nant Yr Arian Silver Trail Half Marathon and 10K races.

Set in the heart on Mid Wales in the stunning Cambrian Mountains the challenging route saw runners having to navigate streams, hills and muddy bog land on their way to the finish line.

This was another day of celebrations for Sarn Helen Running Club as the overall winner was Dylan Lewis in a superb time of 1hr 38mins 32secs with Becky Atkinson, Sarn Helen’s newest member claiming 1st Lady and 7th overall in a cracking time of 1hr 53mins 52secs.

A new addition to this year’s race were Strava Segments for the fastest individuals and suffice to say that Dylan and Becky claimed those awards as well to receive additional goodie bags for their achievements.

Great performances were also had by Steven Holmes in 1hr 59mins 10secs, Geraint Thomas 2hrs 25mins 27secs and Pamela Carter in 2hrs 42mins 39secs.

The 10K race was in its maiden year and five of Sarn Helen’s  veteran ladies took to the starting line achieving admirable results in the F50 category.

Liz Pugh, this year’s ladies captain, was first of the bunch home to claim 1st in the category in a time of 1hr 6mins 18secs closely followed by Shelley Enders in 2nd place with a time of 1hr 8mins, in 3rd place was Michelle Billing in 1hr 9mins 42secs, Kerry-Irwin Hall was 4th in 1hr 14mins 46 secs and Jane Holmes in 9th in 1hr 20mins 49 secs.

It was refreshing to see Sarn Helen’s Junior runners also competing, again not phased by the inclement weather conditions they achieved amazing results, Ben Hall 2nd, Jacob Hall 3rd and Erin Jones came 3rd in their respective age categories. Connor Billing was also a happy young man having ran 5 seconds faster than last year.

Carwyn Davies, as part of his marathon training, travelled to Berkeley in Gloucestershire to take part in the Fission 20 mile race, a fast, flat course ran on scenic countryside lanes close to the River Severn. Carwyn ran a spectacular race in a time of 2hrs 16mins 47secs which earned him 52nd position out of 455 runners.

Dawn Kenwright, one of Sarn Helen’s founder members and prolific runners, took part in Colwyn Bay’s Metric Half Marathon, a distance of 8.13 miles that took runners on an out and back route along the promenade and extended coastline, a predominantly flat race with a few short hills.

Having not competed for a while Dawn had an amazing race to finish in 1hr 21mins and was 2nd lady home in the F65-69 category.