← All eventsDragon's Back Race
~380km / ~17,400m over 6 days down the mountainous spine of Wales, largely unmarked and self-navigated. One of the world's toughest mountain stage races. Next-date approximate (early September).
Six days down the full mountainous spine of Wales, Conwy Castle to Cardiff Castle. Largely unmarked. You find your own way between checkpoints with map and compass, across open, cloud-covered mountain.
~380km and ~17,400m of climbing over six consecutive stages, decided on cumulative time. Snowdonia, the pathless Rhinogydd, Cadair Idris, the lonely Elenydd, then the Brecon Beacons and the run-in to Cardiff.
One of the world's toughest mountain stage races, and honest about it. Entry is resume-based, daily cutoffs are enforced, and a single navigation error in the cloud can cost more than any fitness gap.
Is Dragon's Back Race for you?
- Experienced mountain runners with proven map-and-compass skill. Entry is resume-based, so you arrive with mountain-ultra miles and real navigation already behind you.
- Runners who back up day after day. Six consecutive mountain stages reward nightly recovery and camp discipline as much as raw speed.
- Strong, durable descenders. A quarter of the route is rocky scramble and technical descent, and quads that survive rough ground keep you in the race.
- Anyone calm in bad Welsh weather. Low cloud and wet feet are the norm, and holding your nerve when navigation gets hard is the real test.
Training plan for Dragon's Back Race
A training plan for Dragon's Back Race isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- Self-navigation across pathless bog and cloud-bound mountain, where a fast wrong line costs hours
- ~17,400m of climbing over six days: relentless steep ascent and rough technical descent
- Six consecutive stages scored on cumulative time, so multi-day durability decides it
- Wet feet for a week, exposed cold tops, and an enforced cutoff to beat every day
- Map-and-compass nav runs on real hills, progressing to pathless and poor-visibility legs
- Back-to-back weekends that grow into 3 to 5 day mountain blocks with camp-style recovery
- Big-vert days of 4 to 7h targeting 1,500 to 3,000m, plus weekly downhill repeats for the quads
- Pole power-hike repeats on steep ground, and some night running with a headtorch
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
