Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

EVENT REPORTCLIF BAR 10 PEAKS - BRECON BEACONSPHOTOGRAPH | STEWART BONDI10 PEAKS - BRECON BEACONSBY PAUL SMITH, 10 PEAKSConditions were once again near perfect for thesecond running of the Clif Bar 10 Peaks BreconBeacons. The event attracted a strong field with10% overseas competitors as well as some of thebest UK ultra runners. These two factors combinedmeant that we were in for some very fast times.finished joint second, 1 hour 46 minutes behindErik-Sebastian who had pushed himself to a newrecord of 11:01:17 beating Mark Palmer's impressivetime from last year. He had eaten, showered andstarted his cycle home before anyone else arrived atthe finish!Erik-Sebastian Krogvig, who finished second in theLakes Long Course was confident of his abilities butnot completely sure about route choice. He startedat record breaking pace leaving the rest of the fieldbehind including last year's Short Course winner,Andrew Ind who trailed in second. By CP2 Eric-Sebastian was 35 minutes ahead of the record paceof last year. However on route to CP3 he made acouple of navigational mistakes deliberately cuttingoff the corner to Coed-y-Garreg then missing theBreacons Way meant he approached CP3 from thesouth rather than the east. By this point Eric-Sebastian's lead was cut to 17 minutes. He hadlearnt from his mistake and didn't stray too far fromthe suggested route on the inbound trip from PicwsDu increasing his lead as he went. Soon after CP4international athlete Teun Geurts-Schoenmakersjoined forced with Andrew Ind who eventuallyIn the woman's race Michelle Bowen lead the fieldto the top of Carn Pica but was passed by BethPascall on route to CP1. By the time Beth reachedFan Brycheiniog she had extended her lead by over16 minutes, Beth maintained her lead to finish in13.12.21 knocking 30 minutes off last year's recordand finishing 4th overall. Meanwhile there was abattle on for second as Laureda Tirepied caughtMichelle Bowen at CP5 and decided she was goingto fight for second. Laureda opened up a 3:46 leadover Michelle by the top of Corn Du and over 16minutes by Fan Y Big. Laureda went on to finishsecond in 14.21.27 with Michelle third in 14.35.19,with all three ladies finishing in the top 10 overall.The Short Course competitors started an hour afterthe Long at 6am with Alex van Tuyl the only personof the day to reach Carn Pica in under 48 minutes.172 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://