On the morning of day 3 of the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race the cumulative effect of two hard days of mountain running is evident.

The medical tent is busy (it always is) and runners are up and about well ahead of their start time to be sure of setting off as early as possible for the long day ahead ... or they are having a lie in having decided their body can take no more punishment and it is time for a rest day.

During event week, it’s fair to say that the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race exists in a bubble. The runners are focused on the major challenge of completing the course, while the organisers and volunteers are equally focused on staging an efficient, safe and exciting race. All of that, combined with the often remote terrain and poor connectivity, means that those involved in the event are a little removed from the world ‘outside’. However, some news does penetrate that bubble, so competitors and the race team shared the horror of everyone else when word of events in Manchester emerged overnight.

Jim Mann built on his advantage on the second day of the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race, completing a 58km route across the Moelwyn and Rhinog hills in a time of 7 hours 52 minutes. The defending champion set off last at 9am and in the course of the day passed everyone except Marcus Scotney, who just managed to finish ahead of him.

At 14.50 at Cwm Brychan, the support and cut-off point on day 2 of the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race there were almost 20 people resting in the shade around the race tent. Others were coming down the rocky hillside and there were still 32 kit bags laid out on the grass, which meant those runners had still to arrive. The cut-off for the day was at 15.00, and everyone had to have handed in their kit bag and left by that time

There is a fine line between providing a first class race service and still allowing competitors to remain self reliant, and this was in evidence at the first camp on the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race.

As expected, day one of the 2017 Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race took its toll on the 223 starters. Faced with a distance of 52km, with 3,800m of climbing, including Tryfan, the Glyders and Snowdon via Crib Goch, just 25 competitors either failed to reach checkpoints by the cut-off times or retired from the race for other reasons. Even the most experienced runners in the field had their fare share of troubles in North Wales, with the event leader suffering a time penalty for a technical infringement of the rules.

It may have been a fine morning for running at the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race, but the afternoon could have been better. So could the timing as dense low cloud and stronger winds blew across the Snowdon range and Crib Goch ridge just as the runners were passing through.

In most races the lead contenders will most likely know each other and have raced against their rivals before, but that is not quite so true of the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race. Some here will know each other by reputation and results, the British mountain runners will have raced against each other, but even so the first morning is a chance to settle into a pace and then look to see who is around you.

A stream of runners ran along the turreted town walls of the North Wales coastal town of Conwy this morning, setting out on the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race 2017. They were starting the first of 5 days of extreme mountain running, following a route down the mountain spine of Wales and the start released the pre-race tension. The 223 international runners face a daunting challenge and now , at last, they were underway!