Brecon Fans Races

Having successfully organised the Fan y Big Horseshoe Race five times since 2017, Emma Bayliss has had to pass on the baton for 2023. And since we've always been involved behind the scenes, Naomi and I have stepped in for this year, and we'll see how it goes. It's not as much work as it used to be, now we're using Fabian 4 for entries and timing, but there's still plenty to do, so we're very open to offers for future years!

Here's a table of those who have entered at least four times, noting of course that we have no information for 1993-2003. Count of Pen y Fan Race entries per person First Name Last Name Entries Kevin Hagley 15 Simon Blease 15 William... read more

Kevin Hagley, then of Dark Peak FR, leading the pack up to Pen y Fan summit, with Corn Du screes in the background. Kevin, who may possibly lay claim to having raced Pen y Fan more times than anyone else (*analysis needed!), is closely followed Don Ashton, who had already won the English V50 Champs just before that race and won the V50 category at Pen y Fan that day, leading to his British V50 title a few months later. Photo by Ken Price - on the cover of 1992 June/July issue of "Up and... read more

We were contacted today by the grandson of Don Ashton of Blackburn Harriers. He spotted that the results on this website didn't match those in The Fellrunner.This is what we had, i.e. the original results sheet, with Don as a Senior M and Roger Bell winning 1st V50:And this is what Calvin was able to send me, from the Fellrunner, with Don correctly identified as 1st V50.Calvin says Don was born on 3rd December 1938, so he would’ve been 53 on race day in 1992, which tallies with the Fellrunner... read more

Many will be aware that there used to be an "overall record" prize for Pen y Fan that had risen by £100 per year for the past 12 years and was standing at £1200 in 2018 (in similar manner to the way the "Man vs Horse" winner's prize was raised each year). The original reasoning for this was that Keith Anderson's 30-minute record was said to be unbeatable, so it seemed a bit of fun to try to entice top class runners with a growing prize. The ladies record being 27.5% slower was said to be... read more

I just found some photos from the Fan y Big Horseshoe from 2008 and 2009, enjoy!

I've upgraded the site to the latest version of mojoPortal CMS, and switched the comments systems to use Disqus, which is nowadays pretty ubiquitous and behaves better than the previous Facebook comments thing.

I'm hoping to find time to update the look and feel of the site soon, but that's always surprisingly time-consuming! Watch this space.

 

Mark Palmer, Emma Bayliss and I have taken on (from the one and only John Darby) the organisation of the Black Mountains Race. This is Mark on the way to victory some years ago... We've added online entry this year, through the Brecon Fans website as this already had all the ecommerce facilities established. If you've ever entered Pen y Fan or Fan y Big online, then entering the Black Mountains Race is now a gentle wind - just sign in with your usual account and visit the Enter... read more

Of course the Brecon Fans website should run under https encryption, because people can log in and pre-enter! But encryption for home/hobby websites has always been a problem as it has required significant payments and/or complicated configuration. I should say.. it's not as if we have ever been putting people at risk, as payment for our race entries is taken by PayPal, which has its own security, but it did mean usernames and passwords for this site were travelling over the wire... read more

Weather and Kit @ Pen y Fan The forecast is mixed, with a good chance of rain, high winds on the high ground, and severely reduced visibility on the hill. Or it might be a sunny spell, but we all must plan for the worst. Therefore we will be requiring full kit at Pen y Fan, that is: Bumbag or rucksack Full windproof body cover (i.e. jacket and long trousers) Compass Map of the route (can be picked up at registration) Whistle For the up-to-date mountain weather forecast... read more