“I absolutely loved the 2019 Dragon’s Back Race® - I met lots of cool and crazy people and had one hell of an adventure. Many lessons were learnt in 2019, and I will see if I can put said lessons to good use for 2021”

The Dragon’s Back Race and it’s sister event, the Cape Wrath Ultra, are both tough but spectacular multi-stage ultrarunning expedition races that will take you on incredible mountain journeys here in the UK. Alan Li has completed both races and here gives us the lowdown on his experiences and what to expect from each event…  

It’s been 6 months since I last wrote in this blog. As is the way of life, a lot has happened in those 6 months but the constant theme, always there in my daily thoughts,  has been the Dragon’s Back Race.  At times it has loomed like an insurmountable challenge, at other times it has kept me focused, giving me a reason to make conscious, positive steps forwards in so many areas of my life.

A wonderful arena, rich in the history of bravery and the warrior spirit (and no doubt dodgier things besides but we’ll ignore those for present purposes!) and of course very fitting for yours truly, a Knight, before I set forth on my quest to slay the dragon! A stirring speech from a past winner about daring greatly, a rousing Welsh male voice choir, a countdown, and we were off. Along the town walls, out into the fields and soon to our first hill, Conwy Mountain, the first and probably lowest of our many peaks to come in the next week as we traversed the whole of Wales to Llandeilo in the South.

It has nearly been three months since Lisa and I finished the infamous Dragon’s Back race. We trained for a whole year for this challenge and I am sitting here, still not fully realising this thing actually happened. But it is definitely time to tell you about it!

The Dragon’s Back Race has been on my radar since it was resurrected in 2012, twenty years after the one and only previous edition. The concept of traversing the country of Wales along its spine, climbing almost all its summits, as fast as possible intrigued me. Claire was planning on doubling down on her trans-Scotland race from 2018 (Cape Wrath Ultra) and I decided to sign up and join her. It was all good in theory, but it's been a while since I've done a multi-day, body-trashing, ultra-endurance event, and to be honest, I wasn't sure it was still in me to run 315 km, mostly off-trail, in just five days.

It was exactly one year after I stood on the start line of the Cape Wrath Ultra and here I was again under the start banner, but this time it was for the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race, a race I always thought was too hard for me.