A challenge of bad weather, surprises fencing, cheese toasties and an urgent need for the toilet all for a cause close to trail runner Lizzie’s heart
Many people like to run to get fit but for Lizzie Gatherer an outdoor session is a more challenging experience. Over the years she has built up her experience and endurance to tackle many miles and many mountains and valleys to become an accomplished trail runner, someone running trail distances longer than a marathon.
But on Saturday, February 21 2026 a cold, wet and windy Bannau Brechioniog National Park and its rough terrain was the enemy to conquer with a trail run of over 70 miles waiting for Lizzie.
But this most epic of challenges came with a serious objective, raising money for Prostate Cancer UK and to raise awareness but with an element of fun too, with the route across the mountains, when plotted out on exercise app Strava, resembling the shape of a man’s penis and balls.
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The route has recently become a well-known way to add interest to a session in the area but Terry Rosoman, age 38, took it to the next level and ran the largest GPS drawing of a penis on the Strava app, raising money for Movember in 2025. Ensure our latest news and sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
Lizzie contacted Terry to see if doing the same was appropriate and he was very pleased to give her support and encouragement – so then the planning and the training could begin.
The idea to follow in Terry’s footsteps came out of a personal reason for Lizzie after she found out that her father-in-law had been diagnosed and a number of her male running friends were also affected.
According to Prostate Cancer UK one in eight men will be diagnosed, and for black men the risk is double. The charity’s core mission is to create a future where “no man dies from prostate cancer” and to also encourage men to go to their GP to get checked which begins with a blood test.
Of course such a gruelling challenge takes planning, a support team, scenario testing, route planning and checking and many hours of training, even for an experienced runner like Lizzie, so just deciding to go for a walk in the national park without any knowledge, experience or equipment is very dangerous.
Lizzie also says it is very important that other people know when you are going, the route you are taking and the estimated time of arrival, because the weather suddenly deteriorating or getting lost and encountering dangerous terrain can get you in trouble and needing to be rescued, end up in an injury, or worse.
But even experienced terrain runners can get caught out and for Lizzie and the team it was an unforeseen change in fencing by a local farmer just within the last month that threw them off track and ended in them running through thick bracken and foliage before finding their route again thanks to their phone navigation, with map and compass as a back up.
The weather wasn’t their biggest supporter either. The day began dry and sunny but as the hours of gruelling running passed so did the fine weather and driving rain and a substantial dip in temperatures followed, making the conditions almost unbearable.
Lizzie says: “The wind hurt our faces and it was horizontal ice cold rain and it was tough especially as there’s no shelter on the ridge line, you are totally exposed to the elements, you can’t get away from it.”
But when there were tough times Lizzie was carrying in her pocket a rather intriguing source of support – a stone. A stranger had donated a noticeable sum to Lizzie’s go fund me campaign and when she reached out he explained his father had died of prostate cancer and was there any way she could take a memory stone with her and place it on the route.
She says: “The highest point on the route is Waun Fach, about 40 miles into the run, and it was pretty bad conditions and all three of us were borderline not warm enough, and I was just beginning to think that this was miserable.
“As I got an extra layer of clothes out of my bag I saw the stone in there and the next climb was the mountain and I saw that stone and I thought ‘what are you complaining about!’ – it was then like I had an extra burst of energy going up that mountain.
“It was quite emotional placing the rock there, I did have a cry, and had a moment of thought, I’ve sent the video to the son and he is so grateful.”
Lizzie began the challenge at 5.00am and finished at 11.54pm which she is very happy with, her aim was to do it in one day. She says: “Sometimes my face hurt but not from the weather but from smiling, I literally smiled the whole time.”
But Lizzie is very keen to share the joy, saying without her friends it wouldn’t have happened. For the majority of the run Lizzie had some company with friends joining her in shifts and that included helping her with food requirements.
There was a pit stop in Hay-on-Wye consisting of a cheese toasty and hot chocolate with cream marshmallows, and every hour while still on the move a snack such as hula hoops, cocktail sausages, and a smack’d bar and 250ml of fluid with electrolytes.
Lizzie says: “Even my friend Jules’ husband found us on the route to drop off a cheese and pickle sandwich and swig of coffee when in the last five miles I was starting to get hungry, and that gave me a bit of extra energy!”
Of all the questions that Lizzie is asked, not just about this challenge but about running for many miles in general, is not about training or nutrition but about the toilet.
In Crickhowell, after a stop for cheesy chips and a swig of coffee, the inevitable happened and she needed the toilet. Luckily there was a pub nearby called The Bridge Inn but there was no time to stop for a pint.
Lizzie says: “I walked in and it was at that time empty, with two bar staff at the time, so I couldn’t just sneak in so I said ‘hello I’m 50 miles running into a route shaped like a giant penis for prostate cancer and I really need a poo, can I use your toilet?! And they were lovely and said yes.”
There was also a moment at the pub that helped Lizzie when the section of the route she was dreading the most, one and half miles on the road with no pavement no-one running with her.
She explains: “Their dog Teddy was all over me, cuddling into me, giving his poor and the lady said he’s never like this with anybody. It was just before the section on the road I was dreading and I left the pub with a spring in my step thanks to Teddy.”
Backed up by a friend in his car driving slowly behind her with his hazard lights on, Lizzie conquered this section of the challenge and even managed to make up the time lost on the mountain due to the bad weather conditions.
After the thrill of the achievement shared with her friends Lizzie had to drive home. She says: “I got stuck in traffic for over three hours, when I got out of the car my legs were so stiff and I almost had to crab walk to the house! My legs know they have worked hard but I was so excited about the day that I couldn’t sleep at all that night!”
Next year Lizzie intends to challenge herself again, this time raising money and awareness for a woman’s health charity, no doubt with the route resembling a woman’s personal bits, she adds :”It’s really important to me to try and help raise awareness for health related causes.” You can find Lizzie’s go fund me page here.
