 |
| Coasteering in a sea cave at the Love Trails Festival – pic by Kev Taylor |
In July I spent a brilliant weekend at a Trail Running Festival in the Gower Peninsula of Wales called ‘Love Trails‘ and managed to do no running all. Instead I relax, enjoy some talks, try coasteering and jump off cliffs surrounded by some incredible countryside and superb pubs.
And I saw the largest penis on earth (relative to size).
On paper the concept of a festival for runners held in Wales seems like utter lunacy. Most Brits have the impression of Wales being constantly raining and desolate. Instead I arrived on the Friday evening to a beautiful sunset during a heatwave with a well organised camp and music already blaring from the event village. I could already tell from the landscape this was going to be something special.
 |
| Lee-Stuart Evans testing Houghwood gaiters on the Love Trails Festival |
I had been asked to give a talk about some of my adventures on the Saturday morning which meant I missed the chance to be at the start of many of the structured events for running that day. This turned out to be absolutely fine as I was able to find out where the Blue Pool was that some people were running to and take a very leisurely walk down to it along the Welsh Coastal Path that was being used like a superhighway by the Love Trails festival goers all weekend.
 |
| Love Trails Session IPA beer |
The Blue pool turned out to be a tidal pool about 3m deep on the shoreline that you could jump into from the cliffs above. The landscape along the beach was jawdropping and I got the chance to test out some new material for Houghwood gaiters too while I walked ( and ran for about 20 m) through the sand dunes. On the way back from the Blue Pool I found a pub to have a leisurely lunch in, all the time watching various runners on various runs zipping past. There was even an organised boozy pub run that was a bit like a Hash House Harriers run.
 |
| The Wales Coast Path on the Love Trails Festival |
Back at the camp from an early start each day there was the chance to enjoy sunrise Yoga, hot tubs and various workshops throughout the day on running technique. There were many different types of runs organised from short to ultra distance as well as inspirational talks from runners throughout the day. By the evening you could enjoy decent food from various vendors along with their own labelled session IPA. Salomon were there with a huge stand allowing people to borrow their trainers for the weekend to try out which was a nice touch.
 |
| A long pub lunch on the Love Trails Festival |
The main stage in the evening hosted DJs and The Correspondents on the Saturday so it really did feel like a ‘Lycra Glastonbury’ . I took the time to have a nap in the afternoon sun, meet up with friends and enjoy the scenery with a few beers as the sun went down.
I particularly enjoyed the ‘people watching’. With runners their clothing and demeanor quickly told you what kind of runner they most likely were and I was often right when guessing. Many of Danny Boy Bents ‘Project Awesome‘ were there bringing their incredible positive energy, whilst more cliquey groups like the Midnight Runners were also there. I was surprised at how many European and Overseas visitors there were too. I met loads of new friends, had my face covered in glitter and exchanged stories and laughter all weekend. I also spotted a lot of the City Hashers there too. The whole thing reminded me of being a diver on a colourful reef and watching various schools of different fish swim by.
 |
| One of the organised starts of a run from the Love Trails Festival |
On day two I was booked to try a Coasteering experience with a run back to the camp afterwards. We had a superb 3 hours with a team that started our group with small jumps and clambering along rocks and leading up to a very high jump of about 12 metres from a cliff into the sea. Although we only travelled about 300 metres along the coast in our 3 hours we got to enter and rest inside a sea cave, learn about the local wildlife (we were told that relative to size the barnacle has the largest penis on earth) and generally enjoy the sunny day. The plan was then to run back to the camp but instead I opted to relax at a local cafe for lunch and hitch a ride back to camp.
A few hours relaxing by the food and bars on the Sunday afternoon and I was ready for a shower before a long drive back home. I often train hard in the winter ready for big running adventures in the summer so often spend much of the summer recovering from long runs so this was the perfect weekend to relax and surround myself with running and fun, try new things and not feel any guilt at all about not actually doing any running.
 |
| Lee-Stuart Evans jumping in to Blue Pool on the Love Trails Festival |
This festival is still in its infancy ( second year) and I suspect some of the gripes about the festival layout or facilities may well be a result of rules imposed by the local council granting the permits. I’d say this Festival will grow and grow and there is easily scope for double the number of people and an even better vibe next year. Showers and toilet facilities are easily remedied, but a ‘vibe’ or positive feel for a festival is hard to nail and yet Theo and Sarah got this part absolutely bang on, the rest will easily follow.
 |
| Coasteering at the Love Trails Festival – pic by Kev Taylor |
If you think this festival is about just running you’ve missed the point, its about broadening your experience, learning from others, trying new things in a superb backdrop and having loads of fun. I did this in the bucketloads without doing any running at all.
My advice is book early for next year as this will sell out fast.
find out more here
