http://snowdoniatrailmarathon.com/
So far in my short amateur running career I have completed 22 half
marathons and the Snowdonia Trail half marathon was probably toughest but most
enjoyable half marathon of all of them. I originally signed up to do the full marathon but due to a busy schedule of
races especially competing in NSRRA. I decided to be
sensible and only do the half marathon.
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| Left to Right: Fred, Me and Sam |
I was running this race along with a couple of good friends
Fred who also opted to do the half following a recovery from a recent illness and Sam who decided to still the run the full marathon distance.
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| Wet and windy conditions outside race HQ |
In the few days before the race, I stayed at my parent’s caravan
on the Llŷn Peninsula which is a 45 minute drive away from
the start of the race. The weather forecast for the
race was windy, cold with persistent heavy rain. On
the day of the race the weather forecast was correct, I arrived in Llanberis to absolutely
horrendous weather conditions. I immediately got
kitted up (waterproofs were definitely required) applied plenty of vasoline (runners know why) and I caught up with Fred and Sam. One of the worst parts of race was the 10 – 15 minutes before the race. All the runners were crammed in the starting
pen located in the field next to Electric Mountain to listen to pre-race safety
briefing. There was a small tent to
shelter 100’s of runners so most people were already cold and wet before the
race had even began.
Fred and Sam had located themselves nearer to the front
of the pen whilst I stayed towards the back.
The race had started we left the field crossed over the road then headed
along the high street before heading up Capel-Coch road and onto Ceunant street. The road steepens before passing the YMCA
located part of the way. When the road
had steepened loads of people stopped running and started to power walk up the
hill. I found it really difficult to
overtake due to the volume of runners at this stage of the race. Weaving in and out I managed to continue
running as the road became telegraph road. The
best way to describe telegraph road is a farmer’s track with lots of loose
materials, definitely unsuitable for anything other than a tractor or an off-road
4 x 4. It was still very cold and wet, I
was feeling despite the cold conditions despite wearing water proof
layers. I managed to still overtake a
few people who had started to walk.
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| Telegraph road climb |
At top of telegraph road we were greeted with marshals at
Cwm Brwynog. This point marks the first bit of descent in the race after 5 miles of climbing, I stop for a quick toilet break before
pegging downhill across boggy terrain with extensive cover of Juncus. At the bottom of this descent is the Snowdon ranger’s
path and the point where marathon runners separate from the half marathon
runners. Marathon veered right to do the
additional miles before Snowdon whilst half marathon runners veered left up the
Snowdon rangers path to the summit of Snowdon.
At this point, I had warmed up
from the quick run-down hill and descent strip off the waterproof jacket. Also after the split the number of runner
were stretched as majority of runners were running the full distance marathon. I continued running along the rangers track until
I reached the steep zigzags. It was this
point I decided to put on my water proofs back on and join the masses that were power
walking towards the summit. The weather
was quite bad at this stage with wind and rain not mention very poor
visibility. I glance down at my watch to
find it read 25 m/m so it was definitely a slow final ascent towards the
summit.
Once I reached or the finger stone which is technically not
quite the summit, I gotten quite cold. Now
that I am starting to descend again I tried to start running again. A few paces was required for me to get going
again. I briefly spoke to a fellow
runner on the top as I gradually built up speed on the descent of the Llanberis
path. The first part of is really steep
and I lacked to the confidence to run down at speed and I found myself clambering
down periodically using the fence for support.
Once I had gotten pass this section I had the confidence to hammer the quads and run down
at speed. I glance down at my watch to
see that on average I was 7:00 m/m downhill and even sneaked under 7 a couple of
times basically my pace was 4 times faster down hill than the final stages of
the up hill. Just before the halfway café
I had caught up with 4 runners I ran with them for a moment before flying pass them. Just a bit further on I had a brief chat with
another runner from Ireland before shooting off.
At this point many hikers had realised that there was a race going
on. Most of them moved to the side and
cheered as I went past. At the bottom
of the Llanberis path is a tarmac section, this was probably the worse bit as
running on tarmac in trail shoes is not very comfortable. Any the tarmac section was shortened as the
route was diverted through a forest trail just after the Penceunant
Tea Rooms. This trail was
quite boggy corresponding to the volume of rain and numerous exposed roots
provided plenty of trip hazards.
The final 3 miles
was a bit of a nasty surprise. At 10
miles I had arrived back into Llanberis but to make it up to half marathon
distance there was a loop of the Dinorwig slate quarries. The ascent was sharp and steep, once again I was
reduced power walking in parts. Some of
the exposed slate was also quite slippy due to the wet weather conditions. The route zig zag past some of the old
historic workings during the ascent 3 or 4 people passed me. However once I had reached the top I was
able to descend again at speed overtaking the runners that had passed on the
way up and also passing a couple more people. At the bottom of the quarries a friend of
mine was marshalling and gave me a shout.
I know that I was home and dry (not really that dry), I was able to
conjure up a sprint finish overtaking one final runner before crossing the
finishing line in a gun time of
2:38:14 and a chip time of
2:37:29. I finished in 40th
place out of 278 runners which was quite satisfying. Fred had finished in 4th place and
a good 30 mins before me. I went to see the
sport therapist and got massage, I also got myself a pizza and cheered the others that crossed the finishing line.
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| finishing medal |
The Snowdonia trail
half marathon was the most gruelling half marathon I have ever ran. The weather was absolutely shocking and I
loved every second of it. Even though as
I write this blog post 4 days on I find the stairs to be a painful experience, I
really looking forward to running it again next year.
Things that I have learnt:
Things that I have learnt:
- Fell running is more technically challenging than road running
- Fell running is more fun than road running
- Fell running is better than road running
- I want to run more fell and less road in the future
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| Race split times for each mile |
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