Friday 5 October 2018

GB Snowdon Ultra 100.

03.00am, Betws y Coed, Mile 53.

I was sitting in a green camping chair, with my head in my hands.  Inwardly, I was battling with the decision of whether to head back out and to carry on with the next 50 miles, or to call this quits.  I had my crew (Ellie, Adam and Tom) offering advice, options and food choices; none of which I could really take in or begin to process.  I was tired and confused, cold, nauseous and had no idea what to do.  I remember vividly a piece of pasta on a fork in my bowl, and remember wondering how I should go about eating it.  I found the same fork in the boot of my car, three days later.  The piece of pasta was still on it, although I had decided to move on.

...


It's always the same with my long runs.  I'm concerned all week, and then when I wake up on the day, I always feel very calm.  The first 18 miles went really well, chatting along the way and finding pace.  Enjoying the atmosphere and generally thinking about how strange it was to have other people to run alongside.  Usually I run long-distance solo (or with Tom), so this was bizarre.   After coming up and over Heather Terrace and getting a good, fast and fun decent down to PyG, with a busy time up on Snowdon, it was nice to make it to a far quieter section of the Miners Track, with just a few spread out runners dotting the trail, in-between downpours.

Someone at work asked me if this run was flat.  Here's a collection of maybe a third of the lumps that we ran over.


Its incredible how much you focus on the two meters in front of your feet.  Looking down as you run along tough terrain for hours at a time requires some concentration.  I'd had some news the previous day, and suddenly found myself letting a single thought creep in.  I was heading down to PyG from Pen y Pass at the time, and all of a sudden I caught my toe at speed, and found myself flying through the air, waiting for the inevitable impact on the rocky path below me.  The impact was as painful as I'd anticipated, with an instant deep pain to the knee, with white 'something' exposed through the skin.  I could also see blood under my waterproof to my elbow, and decided not to investigate.  Sitting in the stream that had formed down the path, I assessed the damage, as I was sure that I had shattered something.  All I had in my mind was 'No - this is to soon into the day to have to bail', so I got up, and tentatively began firstly weighting my knee, then walking, before carefully jogging to a run.  I was up and off, and onto the next section - the Glyderau to the Carneddau.  Sometimes, you just need to deal with it.

I took it easy up to the Glyders, hiking with two guys that I'd met earlier on the way up Snowdon (Jasper and Steph) along with another small team.  Its quite a slow section up to the top here, although I love this initial area.  Not much in the way of running to be had, although when you reach the tops, and then the decent to Llyn y Cwn, that's a pretty cool 'down'!  Running on loose scree and marbles, down to the top of Devils Kitchen is always a fun ride, made all the more enjoyable this time around by having Preet Johal with his chocolate balls to hand just before the decent (amazing impromptu aid station!).

A good run along the shores of Llyn Idwal led to the CP before the dreaded (although awesome) ascent up the SW face of Pen Yr Ole Wen to gain entry into the Carneddau.  I was met with amazing support from the crew here (Ellie, Adam and my Dad), with a foot dry-out, vaseline and a dry pair of socks (lush!).  A couple of Beef Tacos later, it was time to hit P yr Ole Wen.  I had my first dark moment around half way up the mountain side here.  This was the first time I began to feel a bit tired (maybe 30 miles in), and for some reason I let myself think about the second loop, before I'd even finished the 50.  I'd ran with quite a few 50 mile runners that day, and was starting to really feel the severity of the undertaking.  These guys would already be done, way before my real race had began.  I really had to have words with myself here, dig deep, stem the self pity, eat and move on.  I hadn't trained for so long, and for so hard, to give up now just because it was 'getting a bit difficult'.

On the way up PyG, shortly before coming back down with a painful crash!

The ascent was short lived, and once at the top, it was run time!  Moving quickly along and up Carnedd Dafydd with Steph ( a superb marathon runner), and then around the majestic rim of Ysgolion Duon, to the semi-ascent of Carnedd Llewleyn, before trending rightwards along the contour to hit the descent ridge to the peak of Pen Yr Helgi Di.  It was nice to get a bit of speed, as I was hoping to have beat the darkness before the scramble up to the final peak of the first 50.  Unfortunately, darkness came quite swiftly, along with thick mist and far colder conditions.  There was some confusion amongst quite a team of runners that had converged at the base of Yr Helgi Di, with the majority choosing to go lower, along the Braich trail.  I knew that this wasn't the course route, so lit with the headtorch, I opted to climb the 50 metres or so of scramble above the ridge to the peak (along with Jasper, Steph and Christian Maleedy).  Slightly gnarly (!), but good solid fun none the less!

Getting back to the road after a nice jog down, was where the first dry heave hit.  I made headway to the CP where the volunteers here amazing as always, and Ellie and Adam where there to sort me out once again.  I really needed hot food now, so at 21.30, chicken soup was a dream as was the pasta.  It took a long time before I could get any food down, so took it bit by bit, until things straightened out.   Moving off and leaving Ellie was tough, but once out of the CP (Gwern Gos Isaf), I finally hit pace, got some tunes on and began the run along the old A5 into Capel Curig and up towards the lakes.  It was here that I met Gareth.

Gareth was walking at this point with about 10 miles to go of the 50.  He had a proper speed-walking pace on, and we got talking.  He was unsure of the route to Crafnant, so I decided (as I was in no hurry really), team up to the first lake, via Crimpiau.  It was quite nice, as Gareth was fully focused on his own mental battle, so I carried on with music and just said to him to let me know if he wanted to talk.  After making it to the lake, I moved on as I'd visualised running along Crafnant solo, with Orbital on the headset.  I like sticking to a plan, so busted a 9' along the lakeside, enjoying the darkness, the wind and the light reflecting off the lake.  It was a full moon by this point, which was just amazing.  It's not very often that you are absolutely in the moment in life, although this was it - nothing at all, but moving.  No thoughts, no issues.  Just moving - plain and simple, and I was loving each and every second.

That didn't last long though, as  I had a bit of a moment after the CP here, and went the wrong way for 1.5 miles, as I just drifted off following another runner (who was ranting to himself in the night).

I clicked after a bit that I was off course, so cursed myself for my complacency, and ran back down hill for 1.5 miles, and finally to the entry point to the Geirionedd path, where once again, darkness surrounded me into the woods, before the the secondary lake appeared, along with Gareth, who had caught me up due to my additional miles issue!  It just made sense at the this point to walk it in, to enjoy the conversation and to see Gareth run across the finish line.  It was really cool to see his wife and kids' relief as he finally appeared after a proper long day out, after such a proud and hard effort on his behalf.

I had now lost a 4 hour lead time by now, and was on hour 21, mile 53.  I was pleased to be back in Betws and to see the crew, but the reality of the next 50 came seeping back in, to then hit me mentally full force.

After taking an hour here with Ellie and Adam getting me to eat, chatting with Tom, and grabbing 40 minutes sleep I woke up feeling clear, and focused.  I packed my running vest, topped up gels got my fresh trainers on and it was time to hit the trails.  I was feeling great as we ran into the new day rising, despite the cold rain. It was good to be moving again at a decent jog, and on making it to the CP at Trefriw, to have a chat with such a cool couple of volunteers was brilliant (Martin and Paul I think?) - peanut butter sndwiches for breakfast - wicked.  The climb up to Cowlyd Dam Road was a chore, but again - once you reach it, the run down is a cracker.  Cowlyd was as beautiful as always; with the sun filtering through the clouds, the rays seemed to stem hope for the day ahead and all of a sudden it was very clear to me I would finish this race for sure.

There's life out there Tom, but not as we know it.  Deep in thought at mile 60 something.

Arriving at Gwern Gos Isaf CP was great.  Despite my moment of clarity by the lake, it was great to see Ellie again for a hug, fresh coffee, and also - so glad that she had convinced me to let her pack my Hierro's just in case.  I'd pulled my flexor tendon and needed more mid-foot support.  I got these on, ate some foot, and then Tom and I (Tom was support running with me - awesome!) got our full winter kit on to bail into the mountains.  It was at this point that Adam (Gallimore) informed us of a route change due to fierce weather up on the tops. I was really mixed about this - both relieved and gutted at the same time.  I've ran up there in full winter conditions, so couldn't see the issue and had committed mentally, but also was grateful of a low level alternative.  To be honest, I find mountain running easier, and the thought of the long there and back stretch between Gwern Gos' and Bethesda didn't really thrill me (16 miles of slate trail and tarmac - grrrrrr!).

A nice break from the low level tarmac challenge on the Slate Trail from Ogwen Cottage to Gwen Gos Isaf,  Give me the high route any day of the week!


It was nice to see the other 100's along the way, with Ben and Craig having come down after completing the original Carneddau route (only four in total - I'm jealous guys!), and Dave, Christian, Matthew, Rodney and Marcus also along for the long ride to the distant finishing line.  It was only at this point did we (Tom and I) find out how many had dropped from the race, and that i was in  with a chance of doing quite well.  Wonders never cease.  There was a bit of confusion back at Gwern', where we where informed that we had to go back up towards Foel Goch to make up a couple of miles off the original route.  Mentally, after having prepared to run straight to Crafnant from here, I was kinda' destroyed by the news.  Beating a path to straight line it up was a killer psycholigically as I simply had not planned for this.  I had to really will myself to turn this around or lose the plot.  I took a second to reflect that i really lucky to be able to be doing this right now, and that despite it being a push to gain the 2000ft, it was actually a nice spot to be in for a bit.  Once I'd done that, I really enjoyed the run down, to rejoin the trail to Capel, and then onto the final loop of the lakes.

I found an incredible second wind on the way to Crafnant and much to Tom's suprise, burnt off into the distance (I was quite surprised myself).  Once past the final CP, we headed on to Geirinonedd, with which all of a sudden real fatigue kicked in. The last 7 miles over routes and stones, forestry roads and trails was just so difficult.  I think that as I was so close to finishing, mentally everything began to shut down, with my physical self following behind. I couldn't work out if I was running up hill, flat or down at one stage, and had to keep asking Tom if I should be working hard or not.  At mile 97, along the trails by the river into Betws, my mind was going haywire.  I've never been into hallucinogenics, and dabbles with Welsh mushrooms rarely went well in my youth.  I was seeing trees turning into witches, who began staring at me as I ran.  Smiling elfish faces on the stones under my feet, and my breath was freezing in front of my face and forming all sorts of weird shapes as I ran through the pines.  Tom was keeping me sane here, although also taking the piss big style!

Losing the plot in the woods.  Tommy taking the piss, and freaking me out did not help matters.  It was bit dark at this point.

The final mile, we ran.  Passed by Craig, Ben and Matthew despite trying to retain the pace (all way stronger than me!), we got in at bang on 40 hrs.  I had so many emotions, it was hard to recall how I felt.  Happiness, relief, pride, emptiness - so much going on in a head that had been so focused for so many hours.  On a basic level - it was overwhelming, although it was done - my first, brutal 100 mile ultra. Simply incredible.

I'd like to thank Ellie and Adam for the hours of dedicated support - best crew ever.  Tommy for running with me from half-way to the finish line (his first 50 mile run!!). My dad for his aid stationing on my solo, long training runs in the mountains and basically everyone for dealing with my obsessive nature over the last few months.  Thanks and respect to all of the volunteers throughout the event (most of  which must have been awake as long as the runners!), and to Wayne Drinkwater for organising such an incredible race.  GB Ultras (http://www.gbultras.com/) do such an incredible job. 

Also - a huge shout out to Graham and Nick at New Balance, for ensuring my feet where always well cared for along the countless training miles, and the race itself.  Shameless plug - grab yourself a pair of Summit Unknowns - 50 miles straight out of the box?  No problem!  Man - what a ride. What to do next??!!

The Buckle (sorry - THE BUCKLE!).