Mountain guide books are a run-away success for Penmeanmawr runner

Nov 4 2010 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

A SUPERMARKET worker with a passion for running has launched a series of mountain running guides just two years after taking up the sport.

Jim Kelly from Penmaenmawr works at Morrisons in Caernarfon.

He has always been into the outdoors and spends much of his spare time rock climbing, but after a chance encounter with a mountain runner just two years ago Jim became hooked on the extreme sport and joined Eryri Harriers.

“I now run 30 miles a week locally,” said Jim, 47.

“I’ve been a keen rock climber for over 25 years and only just took up mountain running two years ago after I followed a mountain runner down Snowdon.

“In February this year I realised there was no one book available for mountain runners coming to Snowdonia from places such as Liverpool or Shropshire, and so I decided to go about it,” he said.

“It’s amazing to think that my running guide will now be in book shops all over the UK!”

A Mountain Runner's Guide to Snowdonia is Jim’s first guide book.

“The book is the first ever dedicated running guide to the mountains and fells of our magnificent region,” added Jim.

“It is the result of seven months hard work and contains 25 lung-busting routes.”

The guide, published on October 30 by Trailguides Ltd was launched on Saturday at the Snowdonia marathon.

“It retails at £18.99 and so far, the shops in Llanberis have ordered almost 100 copies alone. It is then set to be distributed to all good running shops in the UK over the next few weeks. In addition to this, the foreword to this guide has been very kindly written by the running legend himself, Kenny Stuart.

“Kenny holds both the records for the Snowdon and Ben Nevis Races, both set in 1985 and both not beaten.”

He added: “With the ever increasing popularity of off-road and mountain running, this guide will provide both local and more importantly, visiting runners with 25 of the area's best routes varying from easy five-milers to full-on 17-mile routes requiring a high level of experience.”

Jim is following-up this guide with a further edition due out in Feb/March 2011 entitled Trail and Off-Road Running in North Wales for Beginners. This will be followed up later next year with four further running area guides to the Lake District.

A Mountain Runner's Guide to Snowdonia is available at Joe Brown's, Llanberis.