Most of the western World was probably sitting on the sofa, sleeping off the excesses of Christmas today. Except, of course, the Dragon's Back Race™ competitors who would have been out running, clocking up the miles in preparation for most epic mountain race of 2012.

Having spent Christmas in South Wales our Race Director, Shane Ohly (pictured above), couldn’t miss the opportunity to spend some time in the fabulous Black Mountain area, fine tuning the route for Day 5 and confirming the suitability of each checkpoint.

As an insight to what the course planning involves, we had become aware that there are two potential obstacles to the optimum route in this area. One is newly dug gas pipeline that is still fenced off and the second is a large walled enclosure that supposedly does not having any crossing points. Both of these needed to be investigated and although Google Earth is a brilliant planning tool, nothing beats time on the ground. No more clues about the optimum route!