Calder Valley Fell Runner Karl Gray sets new personal best in Paddy Buckley Round event

In doing so he made it a CVFR first and second in the all time list with team mate Math Roberts holding the fastest time.

The Paddy Buckley Round, also known as ‘Welsh Classical Round’ is a long distance fell running challenge in Snowdonia, Wales.

The route is a circuit of just over 100 km long taking in some 47 summits.

It has the reputation of being somewhat tough with very varied and hard terrain to encounter.

Karl started his challenge in Llanberis at 4pm on Sunday morning in near perfect weather conditions. The going was good with fairly dry conditions underfoot after last week’s settled weather.

Moving well at his own pace he tackled The Glyders and then onto the very rocky and steep Tryfan mountain.

Losing a little bit of time on his schedule he was soon on his way from Lyn Ogwen to Capel Curig and held a constant pace over Moelywyns to Betsw y Coed.

A master at pacing he picked up time on the next grassier section to the bottom of the ranger path before tackling the highest summit Snowdon.

With lots of climbing still to do and darkness setting in on this last tough leg he was only 10 minutes behind schedule.

Karl tackled Moel Eilio and had a strong back run back to Llanberis to completed his PB in a time of 17 hours 28 minutes.