Apologies for a belated thank you to those of you who turned out to cheer us on in the Snowdon Marathon the Saturday before last, it really was greatly appreciated by all of us ‘runners’, especially when some of us chose to walk for a bit!
As for myself I was really quite proud that I managed to subdue the red mist on the descent from Pen-y-Gwryd & onwards to Beddgelert whilst numerous runners tore past me. For once I was being sensible & holding back for the second half because I knew I didn’t have the training miles under my belt.
It paid off as I was able to run the Rhyd-Ddu climb recovering a number of places despite stopping for my first pee ever in a Marathon, maybe I usually sweat the urine out instead? Not a pleasant thought so let’s move on.
For once Waunfawr came as a pleasant relief as I’d already decided to walk as much of that final climb as I wanted, well after all I wasn’t chasing a time, simply looking to secure my 8th completion. Here I had a brief chat with Emlyn Roberts (not racing this year) as he took my photograph whilst commenting ‘what are you doing this far back, last time you were flying here’, well he did ask, so I told him:)
As ever with the help of my trail shoes I really enjoyed the final descent picking up another 40 places or so, felt like a great end to a job well done. Massive thanks to Stephen Edwards for his commentary at the end & running over the line with me at the same time. & too, to Matt Ward for almost bankrupting us by his commentary after I’d crossed the line ‘Paul says free scones for anyone who can get to the Cafe in the next hour’, come on Matt, you really should know me better than that!
My time of 4:17 was 46 minutes down on my pb but what does that matter, I ran to simply take part, chat to some familiar ‘rivals’ at the start (whilst making a typical runner’s pre-race excuses, for once I was genuine) & soak up the great atmosphere which this race has in abundance.
Massive thanks to Jayne Lloyd & all her team & particularly to Daffyd Roberts for seeing that I needed an extra cup of water at the last feed station thereby setting me up for that final spurt on that descent.
Well done to Alwyn Oliver for completing yet another Eryri Marathon too, a true shing light & inspiration to all of us ‘young-uns’.
This year the Snowdon Marathon had an additional trick up its’ sleeve for me, it gave me a focus to move on from Gasherbrum II, that may be far from complete but the Marathon was 49,000 steps in the right direction.
Yesterday the next 40,000 plus steps were put in the diary as I entered myself & Dorina into the Copenhagen Marathon next May, it will be Dorina’s first Marathon. As she chased me around the Kitchen when she got home, I should have been quick enough to say, ‘that’s my girl, in training already’.
