What is Castles?

Welsh Castles Relay is a 2 day, 20 stage, 211 mile staggered relay race, held mostly on road but with many hills and mountains on route from Caernarfon to Cardiff with an overnight stay in Newtown. It is organised by Les Croupiers Running Club Cardiff. Date of the next Welsh Castles Relay is 10-11 June 2023. Teams compete in one of four categories – Open, Ladies, Vets and Business House. Races within races are also a key feature as individuals try to bag individual stage wins and teams battle it out for both the overall category awards and the special mountain stage prizes. There are six mountain stages in all and three team mountain stages prizes: the Kings (Open), Queens (Ladies) and Monarchs (Vets). As well as running in some fantastic scenery, it's great fun!  Our history at Castles can be seen here.

Who's Running?

 

 

Stage No From To Distance Detail Runner
1 Caernarfon Castle Penygroes 9.1 Flat, rises a little 2nd half Ellie Wood
2 Penygroes Criccieth Castle 10.7 mainly flat Craig Tindal
3 Criccieth Castle Maentwrog 12.3 Mountain Stage (lump at the end) Chris Simons
4 Maentwrog Harlech Castle 9.5 Flat Alice Sullivan
5 Harlech Castle Barmouth 9.6 Lumpy at begining Chris Montenegro
6 Barmouth Dolgellau 9.1 Flat Mike Prasad
7 Dolgellau Dinas Mawddwy 10.1 Mountain Stage (nasty) Martin Bennett
8 Dinas Mawddwy Foel 10.8 Very tough (worthy of mnt stg) Gareth Parry
9 Foel Llanfair Caereinion 8.6 Mainly Flat Diane Ridgeway
10 Llanfair Caereinion Newtown 13.3 Mountain Stage Nigel Evans
11 Newtown Llanbadarn Fynydd 12.3 Mountain Stage (nasty) Rhys Doyle
12 Llanbadarn Fynydd Crossgates 11.2 Flat-ish Dewi West
13 Crossgates Builth Wells 10.6 Up n Down Ross Gribble
14 Builth Wells Drovers Arms 11 Mountain Stage (very nasty)) Si Vaughan
15 Epynt Visitor Centre Brecon 12.8 Little lumpy but mainly down Paul McNeill
16 Brecon Canal Basin Torpantau 12.5 Mountain Stage (not too steep) Lee Morris
17 Taf Fechan Railway Station, Torpantau Cyfarthfa Castle 8.7 Flat-ish, mainly down Dean Webster
18 Merthyr (Rhyd-y-Car) Abercynon (Navig Park) 9.1 Flat-ish John Sanderson
19 Abercynon (Nav Park) Nantgarw (Taff Trail) 7.7 Flat Charlie James
20 Caerphilly Castle Cardiff Castle 10.7 Flat-ish Linda Rees
Reserves: Dai Sulivan, Paul Rees, Viv Kavanagh