Paddy Buckley Winter Unsupported FKT Attempt – Russell Bentley
"When Chris Smith died it woke me up. I remembered how short and fragile life is..."
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a mining town that sits in the Meirionethshire county, under the shadow of the Moelwynion mountain range. Visitors might see the town as grey and uninviting, although the residents, the people that decide to settle there, and the people that can see the layers of Blaenau Ffestiniog would disagree. Blaenau and the surrounding areas, up into Tan Y Grisiau and beyond have a quality steeped in history and feeling; a certain magic that you need to spend time understanding, to be able to witness. During the windswept winter months, through to the scorching hot summers days, the town, the rocks and the mountains here have a distinct, wild and unique quality.
Up above the streets and houses, in the bogs and the mist, up on the peaks of Moel Yr Hydd, Craig Ysgafn and Moelwyn Mawr, is where only the select have passed through, to experience both the joy and the pain that an FKT attempt on the desperate Paddy Buckley Round can provide. Russell Bentley is one of those elite few.
Ultrarunner Magazine’s Chris Davies had the privilege of talking and running with Russell about all things running, although in particular, his recent winter, unsupported FKT attempt on the Paddy.
‘I have been running competitively for 30 years. I was 9 when I won a race at sports day, beating a bully. From there I ran every junior race going, and it was a natural progression to track for me. I loved the 800m and that was my number one focus until about the age of 27, when I realised that I wasn’t going to make the Olympics in the 800m. I started focusing on 10K, then half marathons, and then, having sworn I’d never run a marathon distance, I gave Wrexham marathon a go in 2016. I loved it!
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