Darth Mannion 2015 Part 2, Join the Darkside.

The first post in this set of three was just a taste of the Darth Mannion Beach & Swamp Run Challenge. This second post goes from the full sea immersions and into the deep river run at Pwll Du Bay.  The runners looked like ants as they ran into Pwll Du Bay having quite a trek to the sea on the low tide.

The warm weather was no escape from the punishingly cold sea and the joint sapping chest deep river wading. Now with the sea dip complete the runners had to climb up the massive pebble storm beach and into the river to make their way to the ford.

The water was cold and very muddy. It came up to upper chest height…

…on the taller runners.

Charles Phillips was looking a bit more chipper.

Robin Benton was looking a bit more course weary.

While Clyne Riders was represented by a very wet Dom, without his mountain-bike for once.

I was pleased to see Chris Kent turn up at Pwll Du. Swansea Running / Fitness Guru and general twitter nuisance (@itsakentthing). we adopted him as the official DimExcuses team runner. Chris has been in the blog before, running a much more hospitable Swansea Bay 10k.

The river corner in Pwll Du was a real wading challenge with one or two opting to swim.

It was a bit easier going towards the ford.

With all the runners through the river it was a run around the cliff path to Brandy Cove and then a final climb up onto Pwll Du Head, but that is in the last blog entry: Darth Mannion 2015 Part 3, ‘Return of the Jedi’.  There is a gallery of all the images from the darkside river run below, and Part 1 can be read here, DimExcuses.