Switching it up for 2024

Eagled-eyed fell-runners will spot that we've switched the races around for 2024, with Pen y Fan on the Saturday, and Fan y Big on the Sunday. And, in 2024 the Fan y Big race will be in the opposite direction from previous years, i.e. clockwise instead of anti-clockwise. Having Pen y Fan first is actually reverting to the original pattern from 2008 to 2016; in 2017 we moved Fan y Big to the Saturday to coincide with the Llanfrynach Village Fete. But since Covid times that relationship no... read more
 

New organisers for Fan y Big Horseshoe 2023

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!

How many times have you run the Pen y Fan Race?

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
 

Pen y Fan Race 1992 ascent photo showing Kevin Hagley and Don Ashton

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
 

Correction to 1992 results: a new v50 winner

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
 

Equalising the Pen y Fan record prizes

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
 

Photos from Fan y Big 2008-9

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

Comments system switched to Disqus

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.

 

Online entry for the Black Mountains Race!

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
 

Now fully encrypted!

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
 
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