Brecon hills 20mile Welsh champs

After an almighty week of shock and anger the only way back to reality was to find a race somewhere, the dad suggested I find one just to keep me busy. What better way to blow the cobwebs than a 20 mile run over the Brecon Beacons. Decided the night before to race so me and dad jumped in the van and headed down to a 11 start. The weather looking very mild we headed off from talybont dam up towards the bica and further on to Cronyn and penyfan. I had a good pacer in gancho in front of me who was of similar pace but would have him down as a long distance specialist so I was happy to stay on toe with him. Taking a few wrong turns in route. None of us knowing the route it was lucky the low cloud had lifted. Coming up to penyfan in mile 9 I still felt god and grabbed what food was on offer from the marshals. Cake and jelly babies and grabbed a bottle of water. I was lying in 3rd at this point with gancho few sec behind and the 2 mynydd du runners gone ahead on their own. I put in a good few miles of effort at this point but was having stop to often to check I had company as I had left my map in the van and with no sign posts was asking walkers if they had seen any runners going past. 🙈. On mile 12 coming off the mountain to the damn I saw the old man on his bike, and he knew the road for the next few miles. A big relief as I felt god but struggled with the navigation. After a flat 2 mile section we climbed once again and I caught glimpse of the 2nd place runner for the first time. Th next leg was over the ridge following the lake and finishing on the peak of tan yr foel. Was getting tired at this point but was easily holding on to 3rd and had a large gap to 4th but close enough to be able to see him. Coming off the mountain to the finish I thought I knew the route but took a wrong turn and headed down hill away from the finish. I realised to late what I had done and turned around to see that the runner behind had passed me. Still no wiser of the way to the finish I went through some fields before finally catching the finish line in the dam. 4th place. A fantastic day considering and giving me that belief that the long run was not beyond the legs. Not to far behind leaders with the wrong turns and navigational.