I am feeling deflated!

Knowing that my new Salomon road shoes would not be delivered prior to yesterday’s Wrexham Marathon things were still otherwise on track after calling in at Coed y Brenin on Friday & buying a new & very light Salomon S Lab pack, 3 litres capacity plus one litre of fluid & a very snug fit. It felt so good on I had to taunt Kean with it on Saturday at the Cafe as our conversations meandered around the upcoming Arran, Moelwyn & races beyond.

However Saturday also started by me awakening to feel some shivers & the dread of ‘am I going down with something’. As the day marched on so did my decline, bed-ridden above the Cafe by 4:00pm, surely not going to miss the Marathon, but reality kept on increasing as did my fever, to those who were patient to my grumpyness, thank you!

The offer of a bed at Kean’s within striking distance of the start was warmly welcomed, then accepted & then rejected as the inevitable decision not to run had to be made. Well thank god I was sensible for once, the streets of Wrexham would not have been a pleasant sight (need I say more).

In 5 years this is the third time I’ve entered & pulled out of a race before the start. The first was the Peris Horseshoe in 2011, at that time this awesome race was going to be a big step up for me but the weather on race day was appalling, my lack of knowledge of the descent line off Glyder Fawr in those conditions simply led me to bottling it, well I have returned to do it 3 years back to back since, so can we excuse me?

The second was simply a choice between 4 weeks in the Himalaya’s in 2012 or the Snowdon Marathon. Now the Snowdon Marathon is a great race as I eventually found out in 2014 but I have yet to meet anyone who says I made the wrong call on this one.

Third one feels the most frustrating because although in essence it was still my decision, this time I had no real choice & that was extremely bloody frustrating!

Hope the day went well for all those who did take part, if history is anything to go by I will be back.

Thanks to Kean for his sympathetic e-mails even though he was left with no one to heckle!