The Dragon’s Back Race is a multi day running race that’s spread across the length of Wales. It’s by no means for the faint hearted. 380km in length, with approximately 17,400 metres of ascent over the space of 6 days - it takes real nerve, courage and a whole heap of stamina to complete. So when The Great Outdoors Magazine asked me to follow along with writer Lucy Thraves and 2021 winner Simon Roberts, my heart raced as I began to wonder how on earth I’d be able to keep up!
Fortunately as it turns out, Lucy and Simon would only be running a single day as part of Simon’s training regime as he prepares for the 2022 event. As it turns out, Lucy is more used to road running so the pace wouldn’t be so bad thankfully. I am by no means a trail runner. I certainly enjoy photographing runners, but with gear in tow, there’s very little chance of being able to keep up along with my combination of flat feet and shin splints!
This certainly didn’t stop me from arranging some plans to rendezvous with Lucy and Simon in certain locations to capture their progress.
The idea, to meet at 3 different points as well as summit Pen-y-fan to try and capture some of the gorgeous Brecon scenery.
The weather on the hand decided to have plans of its own. Foggy, dreary and seemingly pretty miserable. A normal day for Simon apparently. I knew this would be a challenge to try and capture given the lack of scenery.
Heading up in to the fog to capture the pair coming uphill, given the short time frame I had, was certainly pretty breathtaking - literally. At least I could ‘cheat’ somewhat given that I would head back down to my car after that had disappeared in to the abyss to meet them at the next location, so Lucy can really experience what it’d be like to train like a Dragon’s Back runner.
Eery is certainly a word I don’t use very often. Waiting at the top of Fan Fawr was certainly that. You can barely see 100 feet in front of you. Fog all around with barely a breath of wind. I could only follow their rough location via location pings and a radio I had given Simon, so he could radio through as they were getting closer. Still, standing next to a trig point with nothing but my camera for company, certainly gave me some time to think. The way down at least, gave me a small chance to capture some scenery as the fog lifted allowing some views of the surrounding fields around the Brecons. It’ll certainly help with the edit selection rather than the same dreary look.
Have you got what it takes?
Running the Dragon Back takes some serious preparation.
Endurance and stamina are key.
The next plan of action was to head down to the road and follow them up Pen-y-fan. The weather unfortunately closed in again, along with numerous other hikers who also wanted to enjoy the ‘views’. This proved to be a bit more problematic in terms of capturing Lucy and Simon, so we made a bee-line for the summit instead with relatively little breaks. By the time the summit had been reached, we were in full on horizontal foggy rain. The perfect time to get the camera out and see how both Lucy and Simon handle these conditions. It also gave them the chance to really test out some new Montane gear that they had been given for this assignment.
After the last few shots I needed had been taken, I again headed back down to my car and drove off to the final location where we’d call it a day. The scenery here couldn’t be more different. Lush green ferns and bracken, waterfalls with a nice calm stillness. Clouds were still covering the entire sky, leaving very flat conditions, but this is actually more useful to shoot through trees and bushes - it doesn’t give such huge exposure ranges which can be hard to edit with. But still, capturing Simon and Lucy as they came past was fun! Lucy was certainly tired - you can see it in her face, even in the photos. Simon on the other hand - this was a simple day for him. I’m sure he could have run twice the distance in a normal outing! But this assignment certainly gave Lucy a run for her money - literally!
Have a look at the gallery below for some more images from the day. Suffice to say, some of it was in pretty grim weather!
