With the half term week following on from the Bank Holiday weekend we continued to be busy, in addition we were delighted to welcome Holland Park School to the Cafe from Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning. Staying at the Plas Curig Hostel next door Ian’s & Greg’s group of 37 children (I’m not good with ages so let’s say 13.ish year olds) together with 6 Teachers/Prefects were well behaved, polite & just a little bit cheeky! We served them with Breakfasts & Packed Lunches delivered to the Hostel before 07:30 am. & then served evening meals at the Cafe after 18:00.
Despite the busy week I did manage to put in some very good training for both the Welsh 1,000 Metre Peak Race (6th June) & Liverpool Marathon (14th June). For the Welsh 1,000’s I did a full recce of the Glyders & Snowdon (2nd half section) on Friday, conditions very wet underfoot but my boots grip is excellent despite clearly not being designed to keep water out during a knee deep river crossing one hour in. They were still wet on Saturday when I headed off to Aber to recce the Carneddau (1st Half Section). Pleased to have done the whole route over back to back days as well as the run back down the Pyg Track & the 8K run back to Capel on the respective days too. Only two hick-ups, day 1 passed a group of four blokes resting in Cwm Tryfan, later they followed ‘MY’ line, had I given the game away? Day 2, fell a cropper once reaching the SAFETY of the Old road, thankfully gloves stopped me from ripping my right hand to shreads but it b….. hurt!
Either side of these excursions I got in 3 good ‘flatter’ runs in prep for the Marathon. On Tuesday a pb 10 miler down the old road to Tryfan & back, Wednesday a 16 miler on the pancake flat Mawdach Trail at almost target pace (4:38 per K, still looks a little like wishful thinking) & then Sunday a more relaxed 10 miler to Betws & back.
So over 8 days that’s 75 miles with 17,500′ of height gain & some good speedwork to boot, pretty good by my standards but no match for many. Now all I need to do is Taper back on the mileage & wine, carbo load & relax knowing I’ve prepared pretty well, but of course the pressure to want to perform at the top of my ability means relaxing is far easier said than done!
We also had a good meeting at the Cafe on Thursday to set the agenda for Reach Out for Nepal to be held at the Cafe on Saturday 27th June. Please help us in anyway you can, full details are now on our Facebook page, my thanks to John for doing this as well as to Mike & Corin for their support & contributions. Hopefully it will be a great day, free entry to all, deep pockets preferred. I am particularly hoping for some company on Siabod, they are threatening to photograph my steady decline each time I return to the Cafe. My plan is to get the Children’s face painter to make me up before the camera clicks!
Gaby & Dorina are now searching for Dal Bhat recipe’s to revive me & to add to our specials board on the day, anyone wishing to sample it can do so knowing that by filling their stomachs they’ll be helping to fill the Nepal appeal coffers.
The aim for Reach Out for Nepal is to help fund the re-building & ongoing equipping of a specific School in the Yolmo region so that we can track exactly where the money raised is being spent, again more details of the School are on the Facebook page.
