As part of the Golden Trail National Series, the Trail Half Hanner attracts some of the highest calibre athletes on the off-road running scene. It is one of six races where runners compete for a place in the Golden Trail World Series where they will line up against the best in the world. With only two qualification places at stake for men and women along with one under 23 place for each, the competition is fierce. Therefore, in any of those six designated National Series races, the stakes are high, as is the standard.

Being one of Bournemouth AC‘s very best runners, Jacek Cieluszecki loves to test himself against the very best out there and it gives him great motivation. He certainly had his work cut out to finish anywhere near the front in a race of this type though with the opposition he was facing.

The Trail Half Hanner is held alongside the Trail Marathon Wales on the tracks and trails of Coed y Brenin in the Eryri National Park. Now in its 12th year, the event is deemed to be one of the finest forest trail races in Wales and its a real mecca for runners and cyclists, with its stunning surroundings.

It was a very hilly route but still quite fast, over gravel surfaces with a few technical bits. Jacek’s training had been fairly light, mostly consisting of short commutes to and from work and occasional longer runs when he can fit them in. Since he mostly works nightshifts, it’s difficult for JC to commit to any races over the weekends as he needs to rest at that time. He still ran a very good London Marathon time of 2 hours 29 minutes though with a lot lower mileage than he was doing previously.

His strategy for the Trail Half Hanner was to go out hard from the start and see how it goes. He felt okay to being with but his legs were tired after a long journey and he wasn’t feeling fully fresh after a busy day at work. As soon as the race started, a lead group was formed consisting of some very strong runners and they imposed a very healthy pace that was too fast for JC.

These guys were mostly proper trail/mountain runners who represented a higher level of running than JC so it wasn’t really a surprise that he wasn’t able to keep to their pace. That was what the challenge was though and it was inspiring him to put in the best performance that he could.

The first mile contained 232ft of elevation and Jacek still got through it in 6:29. That gives a good indicator of the sort of standards these athletes are at. The next mile contained 131ft of elevation and Jacek got through that in 6:09 before heading back down the slope on the third and fourth miles. For those, he registered a 5:29 and a 5:21.

There was a smaller climb on the fifth mile which you then came down again and Jacek got through that in 7:01 before embarking on the longest climb of the race which went on for pretty much the next two miles. The sixth mile contained 386ft of elevation and Jacek got up that in 8:04. The seventh contained a further 131ft of climbing, with JC registering a 6:54 for that split.

After that it was a very steep slope back down, with Jacek posting a 6:26, followed by a 6:25 for his ninth mile. The next kilometre was downhill as well before Jacek began another steady climb back up. Registering a 7:13 for his tenth mile and a 6:18 for his eleventh. The twelfth mile contained the infamous ‘Sting in the Tail’ section, with a super steep climb putting the elevation up to 390ft for that split.

Powering up it in 8:54, it was then onto the final full mile which had a little bit of incline followed by a half mile descent. Getting through that in 6:59, it was then just the remaining 0.18 of a mile left before he reached the finish line.

Recording a time of 1:28:56, Jacek had done amazingly well to finish in 10th place, considering the calibre of athlete he was up against. He’d also come in 2nd placed M40+ behind Mark Jenkin of Bideford who was 9th in 1:26:33. There 43 runners in the age group and 260 in the race in total.

The race was won by Pablo van Hoorn in a time of 1:19:47 with Dan Connolly taking second place in exactly 1 hour 20 minutes. Felix McGrath of Bristol & West took third in 1:20:06 with Chris Richards taking fourth in 1:20:26.

With the Trail Half Hanner being the fifth race of the Golden Trail National Series, that meant Pablo van Hoorn and Daniel Connolly were at the top of the standings going into the final race. They’d both won two races each. Chris Richards is currently 3rd in the series.

Weirdly, the Golden Trail National Series is made up of a combination of Dutch and British races, which is why there are some Dutch runners in the rankings. Huub van Noorden is now in 4th with Mark Jenkin, the guy who finished just in front of JC, 7th overall.

Jacek beat both Joseph Turner of Cambridge & Coleridge and Jordan Eastwood and they finished 11th and 12th place in the Golden Trail National Series. That just goes to show, even though he doesn’t consider himself to be on the level of some of the other top runners in the race, he wasn’t out of place in this sort of company.

Betty Bergstrand was first female and 16th overall in 1:32:11 and that put her in the lead going into the final race of the series. Chelsea Creak was second female in 1:34:29. She finished third in the series overall for the ladies.

Bethan Logan of Mynydd du Mountain Runners clocked a time of 1:42:04. She was 6th in the series after the first five races so may have just missed out on qualification.

With an average pace of 6:45 over the 13.18 miles with 2,142ft of elevation, it was a very strong display from JC. As great as it sounds though, Jacek wasn’t 100% happy with it but he’d describe it as a solid performance.