Over 500 runners, plus their families and friends, will descend on Rhayader for the annual Round the Lakes races.

Today - Saturday, March - runners will begin their races at Rhayader Rugby Club.

The 10km race will set of at 11:15 am and be followed by the 30km runners at 11:30am.

Both sets of runners will head out to the beautiful Elan valley - the 30km runners taking on the challenging mountain road climb whilst the shorter race will reach the Elan Village where the runners will then turn and head back to town.

Race organizers were quick to point out that the popular races (the 10k race entries reached the absolute limit) would not be possible without the scores of local volunteers required to make the races safe for the runners – who come from all over Wales and the English Midlands.

The Round the Lakes event began life in the early eighties and was then a 20-mile challenge. The need to make the race safer and reduce conflicts with traffic forced the organizers to devise a shorter 18-mile route and also introduce the 10km race which replaced the original 5 miler.

However, nothing dented the popularity of the event with many athletes returning year after year, with this year’s incarnation sure to be another packed spectacle.