WAAT4 (WORK AS A TEAM 4)
Saturday 20th June 2015
Brecon Beacons
The results are in and they are not too shabby…
Welsh Guards 100 fielded three teams for this grueling navigation event over either 30k or 40k of the Brecon Beacons – the first official marathon of the Welsh leg of WG100. The course includes the infamous Pen y Fan, the highest peak in South Wales and the curse of many a soldier training in the Beacons. The race demands huge reserves of stamina, determination and sheer grit which, of course, are the hallmarks of every Welsh Guardsman. The required map-reading skills presumably came as second nature to a team of soldiers…..
The men’s team covered the 40k distance in a time of 7 hours 16 minutes and the two ladies’ teams did 30k in 9 hours 45 minutes.
On the day of the race itself, the teams woke in the campsite to discover that a silver service breakfast had been laid on for them by the Welsh Guards catering team. An army, as we know, marches on its stomach, so it was very important to make sure that they got off to a good start and in good heart. After a blessing from the Regimental Chaplain, Rev Catherine Gillham, who had gone down to Brecon specifically to cheer them on their way, the teams set off and in spite of blisters, a serious footwear malfunction and an early injury, completed the course in a respectable time. The weather doesn’t look as though it was particularly good but at least the competitors avoided the heat wave promised for the following week.
The Commanding Officer, who took part in the race, has let it be known that his legs were quite sore afterwards but his feet are fine. He was secretly quite impressed that the ladies were able to rouse themselves in time on the morning of the race, since they could be heard from a distance on the campsite chatting away into the small wee hours the night before. All the more credit to them!