The ultramarathon runner behind one of Wales’ toughest endurance challenges has revealed the secret to his success – a diet fuelled by Dragon cheese made on the Llyn Peninsula.

Huw Williams has run thousands of miles including the world’s toughest ultramarathon, the gruelling 250km Marathon de Sables in the Sahara desert, and now organises the Pen Llyn Ultras which pushes endurance athletes to their limit running up to 100km in a day.

The 46-year-old dad-of-two from Pwllheli, credits his endurance running ability with munching on Dragon cheese from his local dairy South Caernarfon Creameries. 

Huw is sharing his unusual diet tips in order to help other runners get prepared for this year’s Pen Llyn Ultras event, which will see up to 200 endurance athletes running distances of 50, 75 and 100 miles around the Ll?n Peninsula, on 29 June.

He will even be holding a cheese and pasta party the night before to get participants fuelled up, with the crucial ingredient served up by South Caernarfon Creameries.

An ultramarathon is anything over the distance of a marathon, which is 26.2 miles or 42.195 kilometres, so those taking part in the 100 miles Pen Llyn Ultras will be running almost four times the distance of a marathon.

Huw first started eating a ‘fat adapted’ diet fuelled by Dragon cheese two years ago, when he was training for the 2017 Marathon de Sables, having hit a “wall” running his first ever ultramarathon, the 2016 Snowdonia 50.

Huw said: “I hit an almighty wall at 30 miles on the Snowdonia 50, and it made me realise how crucial diet was if I was going to run these great distances

“I started training with a high fat, high protein keto diet, and the results were phenomenal.

“Without the cheese from SCC I wouldn’t have finished in the top half of all the runners in the world in the Marathon de Sables.

“I’m no top athlete but it shows if you have the right balance of nutrients then you can generate the power you need.”

He explained that by eating a diet rich in good fats and protein, the body enters a ‘fat-adapted’ state known as ketosis, enabling athletes to burn fuel highly efficiently while avoiding the sugar highs and energy crashes that can be associated with a high carb diet.”

The Pen Llyn Ultra marathon is now in its fourth year having been launched in 2016 with distances of 75 miles and 50 miles, and last year a 100 mile distance was added.

More than 180 runners have so far entered the 2019 Pen Llyn Ultras event with up to 200 expected to take part from all over the UK and beyond, including international participants from Kansas, Morocco, France, Belgium, Israel and Ireland.