At the end of last year’s Marathon Eryri race report, I
wondered whether I’d be fit and fresh enough to break 5 hours in 2012. With the marathon being only 6 weeks after
the slogfest of Ironman Wales, I really did worry this was a step too far.
In the six weeks between both events, I’d rested for a week
then I’d swim twice a week, did some bits of core work here and there, rode my
bike once and ran two or three times
a week, the longest run being the traditional “Rhedeg i Mamgu” (Run to my
Gran’s), a 16 mile hilly route, followed the next day by the 7 mile Twin Peaks
race in Aberystwyth. My runs had felt ok
but my heart rate hadn’t been as low as I would’ve liked but I accepted it as
being part of post Ironman fatigue.
In the two weeks before the marathon however, I hadn’t
felt right. Not ill, but tired and
spaced out. I did some short runs which
felt fine but my running legs felt somewhat detached. Despite this, I was really looking forward to
the race and nothing would stop me turning up at the start line.
After a car journey which took forever and a quick stop off in Llanberis to register, we checked
into our hotel and promptly walked across town to eat at the Italian restaurant
I’d eaten at the last two years. A large
pasta dish was devoured before heading back to the hotel to settle down for the
night.
There was no not being able to sleep nonsense this
time. I slept quite soundly and woke up
feeling ready for the day. I took full
advantage of the all-you-can-eat hotel breakfast (although didn’t go overboard,
which could’ve easily happened), relaxed in our room for a while before heading
to Llanberis, a 6 mile drive away.
Unlike the last two years, the pre race ‘hanging around’
was rain free and bright, although pretty damn cold. I queued for the loo twice, chatted to
familiar faces and tweaked then re-tweaked my kit. Soon I was down at the start line with Dan,
who was trying to pick his way through the mass of runners with his bike so
that he could ride up to the top of the pass.
He failed and decided to head back to Llanberis to warm up with a cup of
tea and the papers.
The hooter sounded and we were off. The first two or so miles are either downhill
or flat so it’s a nice gentle introduction.
I clocked my first mile at around 9 minutes 20 seconds which impressed
me and I felt fairly comfortable. The
incline starts just after mile two and winds its way through the beautiful valley,
giving you views of Snowdon. However, my
focus was mainly on the tarmac in front of me, concentrating on making it up
the 3 mile steady incline. It was half
way up that an old school friend Aled caught me up. We had a brief, breathless chat, before he
slowly edged away. Finally at the top, I
took a drink and started on the decent.
The views on the decent are stunning
and I took it all in whilst getting my breath back and striding down the
hill.
The off road section at mile 6 was odd this year. It was very crowded and we all ended up
almost marching down the track like a military regiment. It was as if everyone’s feet were running in
unison and there wasn’t much space to overtake.
By the time we got back to the road, I was still feeling ok (and
surprisingly hot in the sunshine). Over
the next few flat miles, I started to feel a little uncomfortable. Even though
I tried to slow down, my body seemed to want to run at that pace, so I just
persevered with it. I got to the half
way mark in 2 hours 7 minutes, which I recalled was 8 minutes faster than last
year, so again, I was impressed.
The hill out of Beddgelert was tough. It’s a 2 mile, winding steady hill that gets
steeper towards the top. You keep
thinking you’re at the top, but you turn the corner and there’s more hill. I suffered up this hill but kept shuffling, overtaking
Aled in the process.
The next bit of ‘flat’ between the top of this hill and
Waunfawr seemed to go by really quickly.
I was ticking off the miles, still feeling like I ought to slow down,
but physically not able to. You can’t
help but be distracted by the surroundings which may have helped with keeping
my pace steady.
The hill wall at Waunfawr is more like a natural
conventional marathon ‘wall’ that hits you like a train. Only the double hard bastards can run up it,
and although I’m pretty robust, there’s no way of getting me up there other
than nose to the grindstone, hands on knees type marching. Whereas everyone seems to dread this bit, I
was looking forward, in a weird way, to getting here so that I could start
walking, albeit up an average of about 20%, climbing from 116 metres to 376
metres in just under 3 miles. I kept up
a good pace and looking at my watch, was starting to think that sub 5 hours was
probably doable, as long as I kept this up.
I didn’t want to think I’d got it in the bag. I felt tired but motivated and once I got
over the worst of the steepness, I started little bursts of running inbetween
determined marching.
Finally, the mile 25 sign and pretty little village of
Llanberis were in view. What you climb
in just under 3 miles on the way up, you descend within a mile on the way down,
which as you can imagine, is fun if not agony.
I don’t think I ran down this bit as fast this year as last, probably
because I was by now confident that I would reach my goal time. This last downhill ensures that every last
square millimetre in your muscles are pumped full of lactic acid although,
luckily, given the end was in sight, it was quite easy to block the pain
out.
Finally I was on Llanberis High Street which was lined
with cheering supporters. I crossed the
line and pumped my fists, finishing in 4 hours 47 minutes 45 seconds. I was so pleased. This was a 14 minute
improvement on last year but then I realised I was only a minute and half from
getting my marathon pb, which is 4 hours 46.
I didn’t particularly feel in prime condition on the day
so I was pleased with how I’d fought against the constant desire to stop
running. I was worried about being too
tired after IM Wales but the combination of solid endurance training over the
last year, a slight change in my running form and being a stone lighter in
weight certainly contributed to being able to run faster.
The sub 2 hour Llanelli half marathon and 14 minute
Marathon Eryri pb have bookended my race season nicely, however, I’m at a loss
to explain why my runs in triathlon were not so successful and pretty miserable this year. Improving my triathlon running is my main goal
for 2013. I’m currently a week and half
into a 5 week running hiatus, aiming to give my legs a break so that I’m fresh
and raring to go for the start of Base training come January. In the meantime, I’m concentrating on
swimming and strength work with a little bit of turbo or cycling thrown in but
November and December are mainly about relaxing, birthdays, Christmas and most
importantly, eating.
