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5 Things New Year Resolutions

By Dave Roberts   

on January 1, 2012    No ratings yet.

5 Things New Year Resolutions

Why not get yourself motivated in the new year with some of these ideas

1 Run a race you’ve never done before. The Snowdonia Marathon entries for 2012 open today so why not take up the challenge? Or if you’ve never run, why not challenge yourself to do a 5 or 10k this year?

3.5 / 5  Nice and steady and you’re there.

2 Start fell running – Fed up of running on the flat, take it one step further. Choose a fell run`that appeals and train for it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a race, you could aim to run your favourite summit and then look at a race?

2 / 5 Too much like hard work, I’m going to need to lose the extra stone from Christmas first!


3 Up your mtb level – Take on that black or downhill course you’ve always chickened out of! Maybe the Beast of Brenin, or even better to devise a wilderness route and complete it as a bikepack.

4 / 5 This sounds like the most fun, and you can always bypass the tricky bits, right?!

4 – Take a few weeks off work and do a proper long distance path. My choices would be the Cambrian Way, Pennine Way or the Cape Wrath Trail. Though the idea of Offa’s Dyke along with a cosy pub each evening doesn’t sound too unpleasant!

3 / 5 Ok if you’ve got more than the usual 20 day’s annual leave, are retired or single.

5 – Choose a long distance Cycling challenge – Maybe Lands End to John o’ Groats? My choice would be Cardiff to Caernarfon. The usual is fromCardiff to Holyhead, but that’s just strange and leaves me with the problem of returning home. When they decide that the Lands End to John o’ Groats route starts in the Scilly Isles and ends in the far north of the Shetlands, I’ll cycle to Holyhead. Until then, I’ll do my own South-North challenge. Another reason for doing it this way is that you need to book a train space for the bike and I’d rather have an awkward guard this end where I’m a 15km cycle from home than in Cardiff where a return 300km trip may not be quite as straightforward.

4/5  This should get me going out on the bike this spring!

6 – Enter a Mountain Marathon – There’s the Saunders in the Lakes in July, or the OMM just about anywhere at the end of October for the hard nuts. If you’re reasonably fit and can navigate, then it’s worth entering just for the craic. Unless you’re elite though, you have to compete with a partner.

2.5/ 5 It’s hard enough to organise people for a day walk, let alone get them training for this!

7 – Choose a map and walk all the summits on it! Quite a challenge, but check your map first. The Lake District BMC map covers about all the summits in the lakes so if you can complete that one in a year, you’ll be doing well. Other options are the OS Fort William map that contains The Ben, Grey Corries and Mamores. I’ve only got to bag the Mamores and the Aonach peaks, so maybe a little easy? For me, the Snowdonia South BMC map has to be the choice as there are still enough peaks to keep me interested, and it means more lovely routes for Walk Eryri!

4.5 / 5  This sounds like the sort of challenge that’ll get you out and about!  

So it looks like I’ll be completing all the South Snowdonia summits, Cycling from Cardiff To Caernarfon, re-entering the Snowdonia Marathon and tackling some harder MTB routes this year!

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Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

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