Snowdon 100k done – I’ve had time to think and reflect. Here are my thoughts now, the day after. The day started well, sensible climbing up first climb. Got towards top and in cloud, so some rain, but no wind and manageable, similar sensible effort coming down off the first descent, no pushing.
2nd climb was first indication of poor weather. Up towards the top of the climb driving cold wind + rain. Visibility dropped down to 50m, so runners would drift in and out of view. Coming off the back of this climb I felt strong and enjoyed descending, notably as we dropepd down from the top and back into calmer weather. There was a great runnable part for the bottom 3k. I was really pleased to see Jen at Aid 2, reset and head back out.
The 3rd climb / section was when the weather became awful, strong driving cold wind + sleet, bad visibility. I considered getting my cold weather goggles out, but didn’t want to take off my pack in the conditions. I had taken my waterproof trousers off base of Aid 1, as I had warmed and wanted the freedom to run. However now was in a position with exposed lower legs. Didn’t feel too bad, but did end up putting trousers back on when out of worst of weather, as really didn’t want to stop in such awful conditions.
Got to 4th aid station and reset, had lunch and looking at a postrace picture of myself I took, I could see I looked slightly shellshocked. The base of my right hamstring was aching/sore at this point, but not preventing decent running. Leaving Aid 4 was a short & sharp climb up Cnicht which was were the weather had begun to slow me up a little and time begun to ebb away. I was still in an OK place mentally at this point. Then things unravelled. Conditions underfoot where poor, lots of either spongy bog, or water deep bog. Mixture of wind / rain, but importantly the parts that could have been runnable weren’t. I found myself alone for large stretches of this, as I slowed up and finding the path was tricky at times. I had begun to dwell on the 6th to 7th section, with potential scrambles up wet slate, in the dark, alone and cold and was genuinely scared of doing this, alongside with the challenge in following the course decided to pull out @ 80k.
Over the next hour getting to aid 5 seemed to go on for far longer than I had envisaged – mainly due to me moving a lot slower. This sapped my spirit as it was a long hike in a bog. I begun to consider that what was due to be a runnable section next, probably wasn’t and was most likely bog, shifting my withdraw point. Alongside which it was pretty much endlessly undulating. I fell twice, once hard on my sit bone & once into a bog and broke a pole, which reinforced my desire to stop at aid 5. I got to the aid station, declared “I’m done” with a smile. The volunteer chief very kindly tried to talk me round, I was not for turning.
Looking back I definitely felt the fatigue / right hamstring more and more once my mind had gone to pulling out. It was the right decision, but was definitely a case of discomfort being more evident once I wasn’t going to carry on. The other 2 things that would have helped – but I honestly doubt would have changed the outcome were moving mountain clothing to Aid 6 with my wife. On reflection I should have started in the Beta jacket and had the down jacket to put on. Secondly was not travelling in a group. I did have points when I was with some guys, but didn’t either manage to stay with them, or wait at an aid station for someone I had been with to go on with. I saw one of these runners finished at 4:30am, which I wouldn’t have done. But I do know being alone for a long time between 4 & 5 played into my sense of safety.
In terms of fuelling this worked well – every 20 mins my alarm went off and I had some home made gel & water. Hours 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 a caff gel. An innocent Smoothie and Snickers bar at Aid 2 and an some Chilli (which was excellent) for lunch with another Innocent smoothie. Whilst I am happy with my home made fuel, I was quite pleased to stop taking after 12 hours when I had decided to drop at the next aid station.
Shoes worked well – On Cloud Ultra Pro’s. Considering just how wet & slippery the weather made the ground I was on my feet a lot more than I expected, which was very pleasing. Today my feet feel fine and any soreness is in my quads / hamstring / sitbone.
I’ve also gone back to cross reference my times with the plan ChatGPT drew up:
This proved to be a good tool – and in dry/ better conditions I have no doubt I’d have been able to follow the expected time bands. Post race I went back to ask ChatGPT to extrapolate out what it saw my finish time to be – anything from 4:30am if with other runners, to 5:15am / 6:30am if alone.
I loved the training and got to the start fit, healthy and strong. I just wasn’t properly prepared for a wild, wet weather mountain ultra – which is what I got on the day. And I’m absolutely fine with that. I knew post Arc25 that boggy conditions are not for me – I love to be able to run, and yesterday this simply wasn’t possible, for a part of the race that I hoped it would be for. What this helped clarify is my desire to run in mountains / trails – in better conditions. I loved PDA at Val D’Aran last year and think 50-60k / 10 hours is a ceiling I am more suited to & what appeals. Not being able to see Snowdon yesterday, as it was shrouded in cloud reduced the majesty of the environment and it is an incredible environment.
BreatheToMove 