My running all seems a bit odd at the moment with me seeming to find excuses not to go out & clock up the mileage since our success in the Oggie 8.
I’m hoping it’s just the bodies natural way of saying a bit of R & R is long overdue although in truth R & R (other than from running) has not exactly been the reality. Days are flying by with a mixture of External Painting at home (as briefly mentioned before this is quite a task), Gardening, Pot Washing & our 8:00 pm closing times have all combined to keep me a busy boy. Musn’t complain though as Gaby, Ady & Dorina are putting in even longer days than me, at least they have youth on their sides!
Despite the hours it is really pleasing to see the Cafe so busy this summer, think that can generally be said for Snowdonia as a whole although I do seem to be in the minority of people who believe the weather has been generally quite good! Could be a ‘runners’ don’t feel the rain thing’.
Despite the lack of runs (went 7 days without one) a week after the Oggie did see me get out for a 14 miler running down to Ogwen where I was very pleased to decide to run around the quiet Llyn Ogwen rather than Llyn Idwal. Llyn Idwal is a lovely lake to run around but with Saturday’s inevitable crowds it would lose some of it’s charms & the thought of a possible embarrassing trip steered me to Ogwen where I only passed one couple so ran in isolated bliss.
Last Tuesday brought two glorious evening loops of my Capel circuit, arguably my favourite route with a full mix of terrain & respectable height gain. First loop was at close to full throttle followed by more of a trot on the second, it doesn’t come much better than this after a day at the Cafe.
Wednesday evening it was over to Mynydd Llandegai for a 4.5 mile race which Brian & Hazel Robbins had persuaded Dorina to try. Both the race length & 700′ of ascent were new ground for Dorina so I ran with her to shepherd her round. There were a few looks of ‘don’t talk to me now, I can’t breath’ but I did at least get a thank you at the end! Really liked the route despite a bit too much tarmac, mental note to go back & try it alone a.s.a.p.
Thursday evening it was a light jog up to Coed y Brenin (no not from the Cafe, from home) to join Matt Ward for the final Handicap run of the summer series, this is not a race (as usual I didn’t understand that form of words) & saw 14 of us set off at 1 minute intervals with the slowest setting off first, you get the idea. I was 12th off, caught & passed 10 but was myself caught & passed by the 14th starter. Who was that you ask? none other than Dan our 4th recruit to our Oggie team. He showed me a clean pair of heels as he disappeared on the final descent, clearly he was very patient with me on the Oggie, a thoroughly nice guy all round.
Despite this come-uppance I was pleased to record the 2nd best time on the night with a new pb of 38:34 which also put me into 5th fastest of the 35 competitors (sorry I mean runners) who have taken part throughtout the Spring & Summer months. Un-fortunately results are measured by how much you’ve improved & this saw me finish in the lower half, still I am genuinely pleased with the two & a half minutes improvement this year. Keep an eye out for this next year it is great fun as well as being a way to motivate training (a.k.a. race).
With Kean doing some serious racing since his return from Europe (Brecon, Peris & of all things the Tryfan Downhill Dash) I must now ‘get of my ass’ turn up at Cnicht on Sunday & hope that my relative idleness does not prove my un-doing.
Cnicht is a fabulous short race with some real technical bits as well as a fast run-in just hope I can keep the big guy behind me if he dares to show up.
Hope you have something planned in Snowdonia this weekend, anyone wanting to cheer us on will be greeted with strained but smiley & appreciating faces.
