Coed y Brenin Enduro – The Kids Version

by Alan Cole · Published Saturday, October 5th, 2013 · Updated Saturday, October 5th, 2013

I’m doing the Coed y Brenin Enduro again this year, along with my brothers Jay and Brad. I did it a couple of years ago and had a good time, so thought that as the triathlon season would be over by now it would be a fun event to do not as a race, but just a ride around the hills of North Wales on my Mountain Bike.

This year, they had a kids event on the Saturday and the main event on the Sunday. The kids event had various options, with an easy 5km loop, a more technical 10km loop and a much more technical 15km loop. Morgan being only 8 decided to do the 10km loop this time. Kids had to be accompanied by an adult and I thought it would be a good excuse to test my legs out after my crash last week to make sure I’d be up for a proper ride tomorrow.

We all went up to Coed y Brenin and arrived there at about 10am, just in time for the start. We got Morgan’s race number, attached it to his bike and waited for the start. We let a few of the older kids go first, and then a few other people before we set off with Morgan leading the way and me following along behind. Morgan was soon overtaking people though and riding well along the well-groomed trails. We did do the 10km route in the end and Morgan had to get off and push a couple of times on the climbs but rode most of it easily.

In just under an hour we were back at the finish line. It wasn’t a race and apparently only one person had crossed the line before us and they probably did the 5km route so we made good time. Morgan was presented with a finishers mug and a voucher for a hot chocolate in the cafe – we cashed in the voucher and sat in the sunshine eating lunch.

My knee felt OK so I guess it’s my turn to try to get a finishers mug tomorrow.