Snowdonia is not only a notoriously tough course but also has very unpredictable weather ranging from mini heatwaves to driving rain. Luckily we stayed overnight so I had the advantage of being able to bring everything including the proverbial kitchen sink as far as my running kit was concerned. Come race day I met up with fellow Striders Paul, Grant and Mik we had a quick chat about our plans and split up to sort ourselves out. I observed my preference for sitting listening to music for a couple of minutes while still mulling over if I should take a waterproof, eventually deciding not to bother. As soon as I left the car and made my way to the start, it started raining!!
Thankfully the rain stopped before the start and I once again managed to track down Grant and Paul at the start, after posing for a selfie it wasn't long till we were off.
After a couple of kilometres the hard work started with the run up Pen Y Pas, a long steep climb which I'd tried to prepare for by incorporating early morning runs up Mow Cop which I'm glad to say seemed to have helped. It's at this point it's worth stating the obvious that running round Snowdonia means some fantastic views, especially from the top of Pen Y Pas and also from the top of Bwlch Y Groes (but more of that later). Once I was over the top of the Pen Y Pas it was time to really go for it as it's primarily downhill till the 21k mark round Beddgelert.
The town of Beddgelert was fanatastic last year and didn't dissapoint this year, people line the streets with cow bells yelling runners names as they run past and has a great atmosphere, the only problem is the long, slow, drawn out climb that starts at the town and ends at Pont Cae Gros. The problem I always find with this climb is that compared to the rest of the course it's not that steep, but just seems to go on forever, to add insult to injury it's reasonably flat until you hit the bottom of Bwlch Y Groes which is also disturbingly known as the 'Hellfire Pass'.
I guess this is where I should confess that based on my previous experience I knew how bad the climb up Bwlch Y Groes was and had basically planned to run a 35k race and then just try and get up Bwlch Y Groes as fast as I could. I think mentally this had given me a bit of a blocker as at 35k I ground to a halt and was reduced to walking. Previously I had walked the whole of this climb, but this time I started trying to run in spurts, picking something like a telegraph pole to run to, walking to the next and then running again. I carried on in this fashion for the whole of the climb, pausing only to take on a quick drink at the top. From then on it was an steep, off road descent littered with large rocks, I ran whenever I could, but every time I did my legs, especially my left calf which had been hurting since about 30k were in agony. I finally made it to the tarmac section, knowing I was near the end I gave everything I had, rounding the last corner my left calf cramped up, I felt like I'd been shot, but refused to stop running. Hobbling down the final stretch it was great hearing people cheering me on, I finally crossed the line in 3:52 according to my Garmin, taking 9 minutes out of my previous time and acheiving what I'd set out to do, run a sub 4 at Snowdonia. It's fair to say that this is a pretty brutal marathon, but then that's half the fun of it, knowing that when you've finished, you've acheived something special, add to that the fantastic support and views and you can see why this is one of my favourite races!
For more information visit the Snowdonia marathon website.
Steve F