Brecon Beacons races

Steep grass ridges and long moorland crossings in south Wales. The Beacons climb sharply and directly — Pen y Fan and Corn Du go up in a way that turns running into hiking quickly — and the ground between the ridges is open moor that drains badly and offers few landmarks.

Races here run from twelve kilometres to well over a hundred, based around Abergavenny and the Beacons Way, with ascent reaching seven thousand metres on the longest. Most expect you to navigate, and the moorland sections are where that gets tested: the paths are intermittent and the ridges look alike in cloud.

Grass is the surface that defines it. Fast and pleasant dry, greasy and slow wet, and steep enough on the descents that wet grass is genuinely technical. Weather comes in from the west and the tops sit in cloud for much of the winter. Kit lists here are worth reading properly rather than skimming.