Day 3 - Cadair Idris and Pumlumon Fawr

Tough conditions again for the soaking runners and soggy artist on day 3 of the Dragon's Back Race 2025.

Wet! Wet! Wet! Poor visibility on Cadair Idris at the start of the day and impossible to paint anything but managed to see some runners through and soaked up the atmosphere, took some shots to use later and then ran back down.

Drying off back in the van, warming myself with a tea, I deliberated for some time about whether to also go up Pumlumon Fawr. Would the weather be a bit better up there later on? I'm here to get out onto the route and paint what the runners see and feel as they race, so I put a few extra layers on and headed off.

Why do we do it? Why do we run these things and today why am I up there as an artist? There something extra that drives us and maybe we love to push ourselves, to suffer and to feel alive. Huge respect to those runners still out there, continuing their battle with nature and also to the event team having to set up a new camp each day.

I was cold and wet but I got up there and saw some gnarly runners fighting their way through. It was a bit of a washout in terms of painting but there was a lot to inspire me and to feed the art.

So, a run back down to the van and off to the next camp to get some painting done.

Day 3 work in progress (finished painting below)

Below: Dragon's Back 2025 paintings done so far.

What will tomorrow bring. Probably more rain and more pain. Bring it on!

See you on the tops

Elaine.