The Snowdonia marathon was one that had been on our Must Do list for quite some time. With the inaugural running of our local city half marathon falling on the same weekend, we'd felt that supporting the local event had to take precedence this year.
That was until we were accepted for the 10 in 10, of course!!
So very late in the day, we were able to procure numbers for the Snowdonia event with a plan to run it at our own paces and then just see how we felt in terms of a goal on Sunday.
The story of Snowdonia
...was one of wind rain - and wind, and more rain - and not wearing enough clothes to keep my legs warm!
The first climb up the Llanberis Pass was brilliant. A slight head/side wind that was swirling about and a fair bit of precipitation - but I made steady progress through the bit of the field I was in.
Over the top of the Pass and the wind was in our backs. What fun it was hopping off the ground and being blown along approaching 6min/miles on occasion down the first section of descent!
Turned the corner and the head wind down hill was fabulous - strong enough to stop you running too fast - not too strong to slow you up. This was good!
And running nicely.
reaching the bottom of the valley where the route gently undulated was also nice.
Sheltered initially.
Then we came to Beddgelert and the 2 mile Updulate.
Fabulous - really enjoyed this bit - did start to notice that as the terrain became more exposed to the elements, and the breeze was in our backs, that my legs were getting a little cold.
I was REALLY looking forward to the climb at Waunfawr, but as the exposed miles ticked past, I felt the ominous signs of my calves turning to stone. Not an "I've been working too hard" threatened cramp - an "I've got so cold that no matter what you do, I'm just going to hurt more and more" pain.
And because I had to stop and couple of times to stretch them out, I cooled off even more
Come Waunfawr, come the climb. And I *couldn't* run. Gutted
So I walked up much of it with someone I knew from the Fetch Forum, and once it started to even off on the gravel track, I cautiously started running again. Was OK, not great and the pace was turgidly slow.....
Until we went over the top of the hill.
It was quite breezy here, and a few people were getting knocked about by the unpredictability of the wind. But it was Off-Road
So I put on my Fell-running head...
Relaxed...
and flew!
I LOVED this bit
The rough ground was just what I needed, and I started to pick of countless runners who found this bit "tough on tired legs"
For me it was just the tonic my legs needed.
Picking the flat grassy bits to run on (because it's easier!!!!!)
Splashing through the muddy bits and the puddles while people tippy-toed around them,
And hammering down the descent, everything well with the world again
It was AWESOME
Warmed me back up again too, so the last slightly contrived mile around the back of Llanberis wasn't so bad!
And in the last 0.2 mile has a great duel with a young fella who showed a decent turn of pace - but not quite decent enough!!!!
It wasn't the race I had planned and as a result of a Schoolboy error I missed out on the section of the race I was most looking forward to.
Finished in 3:50 which was quite a bit slower than I wanted - but given the conditions and the mistakes I made, I was very happy with having made it across to North Wales to do this!!
We had friends coming to to stay with us to run the Birmingham Half the next day, so we had to shoot off after the end of the race to get back in time to greet them, and as a result missed out on what was certainly an excellent social gathering afterwards.
The story of the Birmingham Half Marathon
...necessitated another early start on Sunday morning
The race began at 9:30, and we had to get the car parked at the finish to catch a Shuttle Bus to the start by 8:15.
The rain was just stopping as we arrived at the start.....
Being - as I was - not entirely sure how I was going to run the Birmingham Half Marathon, and having seen on a thread on Fetch that 'N' (who I'd not met before) looking to run about 1:40, I thought
I know... I'll see if we can meet up and run together for as long as my legs last.
So I dis-robed as far as my "I'm a Fetchie" kit -
which included long X-socks - I was taking no chances with cold calves today - and ambled about a bit slightly nearer the front than where Lorna and the group that she was going to be running with were congregated...
And sure enough I was rewarded with a tap on the shoulder from 'N'
RESULT!
We introduced ourselves properly and had a chat, and we agreed that we'd run together for as long as we could, and see how it went!
Brilliant. It gave me a specific target to aim for AND someone to run with!!!
I was glad that it was a nice early start too, because my legs were still asleep, and hadn't had time to complain about having run around North Wales yesterday
I was really pleased to find that I was suffering no ill-effects from yesterday, and we were bounding along at slightly under the 7:30 target pace that had been set.
I liked this course.
It undulated.
The updulates were soft enough not to have to work too hard at, and the downdulates were that perfect angle to let gravity do the work and speed down without having to apply the brakes
Ideal!
At some point I said "I'm REALLY enjoying this"
'N' replied with "Ask me if I am after 13 miles...!!!"
The only mile split that was disappointing was mile 9 where I think we relaxed a bit too much.
Having reached mile 10, however, 'N' had done some maths, and realised that he was actually on for a really decent time and was going to be pretty close to a pb, and "Wouldn't forgive myself for not at least trying for it"
So at the turn on Hagley Road with the fast slightly downhill 2-and-some-small-pennies mile run in, we kicked for home
HARD!
Mile 10 7:38 Fine - but here the thoughts of a decent time kicked in
And from mile 10¾ the ¼ mile splits went like this:
7:16
7:04
6:55
6:40
6:48
6:44
6:45
6:43
Then we could see the Finish gantry about 500m away
6:01
5:38
It was phenomenal.
I'd be lying if I said it was an easy run - it wasn't! But it was a run that I was able to churn out comfortably at a decent pace that was very pleasing after the rigours of Saturday.
And it was very pleasing to realise that I had more in the tank to pick the pace up over the last 2 miles to that extent.
And 'N'...??
PB by 6 seconds.
Now THAT was priceless!!!!
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