On October 26, I ran the Snowdonia Marathon in Llanberis,
Wales. This race goes through Snowdonia
National Park. The course goes around
Mt. Snowdon, which is the highest peak in Wales.
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| Photo credit: David Bayley |
Here’s a map of the marathon route.
This is a popular race.
It fills up about an hour after registration opens. Registration for this year’s race opened up
on the morning of December 1st. In my
time zone, it would have been 2 AM. My friend
David, who lives in England, offered to sign me up at the same time he was
signing up. The race filled in 45 minutes. Next year, they’re going to have a lottery.
The closest international airports were all in England. I got the best airfare by flying into
Manchester, which is about 100 miles from Llanberis. From there, it’s possible to get to Wales by
public transport, but it takes a combination of trains and buses, and the
journey takes between four and five hours.
If I rented a car, I could drive there in about two hours.
I don’t usually rent cars in other countries, although I’ve
done it on a few occasions. In England
and Wales, they drive on the left side of the road. I’ve done that before, in The Bahamas, but it
still makes me nervous. Reluctantly, I
decided to rent a car for this trip.
Thursday, October 24
I arrived at the Manchester airport in the early afternoon after
an overnight flight and a layover in Amsterdam.
I never sleep on overnight flights.
Knowing I would need to be alert enough to drive, I drank several cups
of tea on my flights.
Having a car gave me the opportunity to do some additional
sightseeing. I’ve never been to
Liverpool before, and it was kind of on the way, so I spent my first night
there.
The drive to Liverpool went OK until I was about half a mile
from my hotel. Then I missed my exit
from a roundabout. Of all placed to make
a wrong turn, I found myself entering the Queensway Tunnel, with no chance to
exit until two miles later, when I was on the other side of the river. Then I had to get turned around and take the
tunnel back, paying the toll both ways.
In Liverpool, I stayed at the Doubletree, which is in the
heart of downtown. From there, I could
walk to everything. After parking the
car in a nearby ramp, I was happy to be done driving for the day.
Liverpool was the birthplace of The Beatles. Before they were famous, they performed
frequently at the Cavern Club. The
Cavern Club was torn down in 1973, but it was rebuilt in its original location
11 years later. Today, it looks much as
it did when the Beatles played there.
Many of the regular performers at the Cavern Club are
Beatles tribune bands. While I was
there, Richard Batty was performing.
About half the songs he sang were Beatles songs. The rest were other well-known songs from the
60s and early 70s.
After hanging out at the Cavern Club for a while, I had
dinner at a pizzeria called Crust. Then
I went to the Philharmonic Dining Rooms to meet my guide for a tour of
Liverpool. By now, it was already
getting dark. I don’t usually do walking
tours after dark, but this was a walking and drinking tour. It including stopping for beers at three
different pubs.
When I arrived, I saw two guys talking outside. One asked me if I was David. Then he told me he was my guide and I was the
only one who signed up for the tour that night.
That made it possible for him to customize the tour. I’m a Beatles fan, so he made it a private
guided tour of the history of the Beatles.
We visited various sights with connections to the Beatles. Each of the pubs we stopped at was a place
where the Beatles used to go drinking. During
our drinking stops, my guide filled me in on some of the other details of the
Beatles early years, including their gigs in Hamburg.
I got back to the hotel after 9:00 and got to bed around
10:00. By now, I had been awake for
almost 36 hours. I had no trouble
getting to sleep that night.
Friday, October 25
During the night, I got up to go to the bathroom, and I
stubbed my little toe on a chair that was near the bed. It hurt quite a bit at first, but the pain
gradually subsided enough that I could get back to sleep. When I eventually got up, I could still feel
it. I don’t think I broke anything, but
there was some bleeding. That’s just
what you want the day before a race.
After breakfast, I left Liverpool to drive to
Llanberis. I thought I could get there
by noon, but the drive turned out to be an adventure. I was counting on my phone to give me turn by
turn directions. I set it up before
starting the car. It seemed to be working,
but as I started the car, it said, “GPS signal lost.” I was in a parking ramp, so I assumed it
would pick up the signal as soon as I got outside.
I knew how my route started.
I took the Queensway Tunnel to Birkenhead and got onto A41 going south
toward Ellesmere Port. I assumed my
phone would pick up the GPS signal once I was outside the tunnel.
I was expecting my phone to tell me where to exit from A41,
but it never did. I realized I had gone
too far south, when I started to get into Chester. I found a gas station where I could pull over,
and I checked my phone.
It was raining, and I had a spotty data connection. I couldn’t get navigation to work. I eventually got back onto A41 going north
and started watching for signs for North Wales.
I kept following them until I got unto A55 toward Conwy. I knew my route would take me through Conwy
and Bangor, so I followed A55 until I reached Bangor. Then I started seeing signs for Llanberis and
was able to follow those for the rest of the way.
It would have been a scenic drive if not for the
weather. I drove past rustic hillsides
and within sight of the Irish Sea. Rain
and low clouds, however, obstructed most of the views.
The last five miles were on narrow two lane roads. All the rain was causing large puddles to
encroach on the road, making that part of the drive unpleasant. When I finally got into Llanberis, I pulled
over to see if I could get my phone working for the last part of the
drive. Now that I was in town, it
worked.
In Llanberis, I stayed at Y Gwynedd Inn. They have their own parking area, but it’s
small, and I wasn’t scheduled to check in until 5:00. I found street parking about half a block
away, but I could only park there for 45 minutes. I parked the car and walked over to see if
there was room in their lot. There was. I went in to ask if it was OK to park there
even though I hadn’t checked in yet. Not
only was it OK to park there, but I was able to check in early.
My room was small, but the location couldn’t have been
better. The finish line was right in
front. By the time I moved the car and
unpacked my things, it was already 1:00.
Street parking in Llanberis is hard to find. Everything in town was within a mile, so now
that the car was parked, I left it there and just walked to everything.
My first order of business was lunch. There was a pizzeria I wanted to try, but it
was on the other end of town. I got my
umbrella and started walking. Even with
the umbrella, I got wet, particularly my shoes and pant legs. I was looking forward to getting indoors and
warming up. Then I discovered they
aren’t open for lunch. I had to walk
back into the center of town. I ended up
having fish & chips at Pete’s Eats, which is the most popular restaurant in
town.
After lunch, I walked over to the event village, which was
in the parking lot of Electric Mountain Visitor Center. I picked up my race packet and walked back to
the hotel. I changed into dry clothes,
but my only dry pair of shoes was the pair I was saving for the race.
I had planned to spend the afternoon sightseeing, but it
wasn’t a good day for it. It rained all
afternoon, and you couldn’t see the mountains.
Now that my shoes were wet, I didn’t feel like going back out until they
dried. In the meantime, I changed into
my race shoes and hung out at the bar, and eventually had dinner there
Later, David and some of his friends from England arrived. I met them at Pete’s Eats, where they were
having dinner, and I joined them for beers after dinner.
Saturday, October 26
Saturday was race day.
The race didn’t start until 10:30 AM, so I didn’t need to get up
early. I set my alarm for 7:30, but I
woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.
I made myself some tea and had a pastry that I bought at a convenience
store across the street.
I usually organize my race clothes the day before a race,
but this time I waited until morning, so I could see what the weather was like. It looked a lot like Friday. It was raining when I got up, and it looked
like the rain wouldn’t stop until mid-afternoon.
I didn’t know what the wind would be like, so I erred on the
side of being warm enough. Temperatures
were in the low 40s, but I dressed like I normally would for 30s. In addition, I wore a plastic rain
poncho. If the rain stopped, I would be
too hot, but I was willing to risk that.
The starting line was about a 15 minute walk from the inn where
I was staying. Because of the rain, I
waited until 10:00 before leaving the inn.
This is a hilly course.
It’s mostly on roads, but there are three tough climbs. There are also two steep descents. Here’s the elevation profile (in meters).
After David signed me up for this race, he challenged me to
try to break four hours. At the time, I
could barely do that on a flat course, but I’m in much better shape now. At first I didn’t know how much a hilly
course would slow me down. Then I
noticed something on the elevation profile above. In the upper right corner, it says this
course is equivalent to a flat course that’s 29.32 miles. I’m not sure how they arrived at that, but if
you take my time from the Chicago Marathon and scale it to 29.32 miles, it
works out to 3:45:40.
I took that with a grain of salt. First of all, the Chicago Marathon was my
best effort on a course that suits me well.
It’s the type of course I’ve trained for. I haven’t trained much for hills, so I
expected to be slow on the long climbs.
Also, this course has two sections on trails, and they’re both
downhill. I descend well on roads, but I
don’t descend well on trails. Finally, I
didn’t dress optimally for running fast.
I knew I was probably overdressed.
If the rain stopped, I’d probably overheat, and that would slow me down.
Breaking four hours was in the back of my mind as a goal,
but I was so sure I couldn’t do it that I brought a camera with me to take
pictures along the route.
For a race in a remote area that’s partially on trails, this
race is surprisingly large. I got some
sense of that at packet pickup, but I didn’t fully appreciate it until I got to
the start area. There were a lot of
runners.
I lined up a fair distance back from the starting line. The first two miles are relatively flat, so I
thought it would be reasonable to start at the same pace I would in a flat
race. With so many runners lined up in
front of me, I was surprised that they all went out as fast or faster.
We started out running through a valley. The first mile had a slight downhill trend,
but felt flat enough that I had a chance to find my rhythm. I ran that mile in 7:57. The second mile had a slight uphill trend to
it. I slowed to 8:25. On average, I was going a little bit slower
than I would on a flat course, but I knew what was coming.
In the third mile, we began the first of three long
climbs. This was the climb to
Pen-y-Pass. The climb started out
gradual. I was pleasantly surprised to
run that mile in roughly nine minutes.
That’s the pace I needed to average for a four hour finish. If I could do that in an uphill mile, I was
in good shape.
In the first two miles, I didn’t feel at all overdressed
with the rain poncho. That began to
change on the climb. In the first mile
of the climb, my hands were still cold, but under the poncho, I was warming up.
The fourth mile had a more noticeable grade. I wouldn’t call it steep, but it was
gradually wearing me down. Now I started
to feel hot under the poncho. In that
mile, I slowed to about 10 minutes. That
wasn’t too surprising. I expected the
climbs to be slow.
In the fifth mile, the climb got steep. I had to slow down, but I was determined to
run the whole way. Now I was getting uncomfortably
hot. My poncho had a hood, and I had to
take it off my head so heat could escape.
My hands were feeling warm now, but I kept my gloves on. I was working up a sweat on the climb, but
soon I would begin descending.
The summit of the first big climb was at Pen-y-Pass, which
came just before the five mile mark. At
the top, there was an aid station and some spectators. Up until now, I had resisted the urge to stop
and take pictures, but I had to get a photo of this couple. That's the Welsh flag.
The fifth mile took almost 11 minutes, but now I was done
climbing. As I began descending, I got
my first view of a different valley.
At first, the descent let me recover from the climb. Then I started to pick up speed. It was steep enough that I didn’t have to
work to run faster. I was actually
putting in so little effort that I wasn’t generating much heat. I cooled off nicely here.
At six miles, we left the road for a trail. We were still in the middle of a long
descent. Thankfully it wasn’t as steep
here. There were enough rocks in the
trail that I had to slow myself down and watch my footing carefully. Other runners started passing me. I made no effort to keep up. I just wanted to feel like I was under
control. I don’t descend well over
uneven footing, so I just let everybody go by.
Over the next two miles, I must have been passed by 100 runners. Even though I was going downhill, my pace
slowed to nine minutes per mile.
At eight miles, we went up a short hill to get back to the
road. On the trail, I was always
watching my footing, so I couldn’t take in the views. Now that I had sure footing again, I was able
to take in the views of my surroundings.
Over the next five miles, there was a gentle downhill
trend. My mile times varied, but they
ranged between eight and nine minutes.
It was somewhere around 10 miles that I realized it wasn’t
raining any more. I’m not exactly sure
when the rain stopped. I was too focused
on other things to notice. I regretted my
choice of rain ponchos. The one I was
wearing covered me from my head to my ankles.
I had another one that doesn’t cover as much of my arms and legs. I wished that I had chosen that one instead,
but I couldn’t do anything about it. I
was getting hot again, and I just had to hope it wouldn’t slow me down too
much. I’m sure that was the only reason
I couldn’t run eight minute miles on this section.
With a low cloud ceiling, we couldn’t see the mountain tops,
but there was plenty of scenery closer to the road. At different times, we ran by lakes on either
side of the road.
At 13 miles, we passed through the town of Beddgelert. This was the largest town we would see before
returning to Llanberis. The crowd
support here was great.
There wasn’t a marker for halfway, but based on my 13 mile
split, I ran the first half in less than 1:54.
Now I was cautiously optimistic.
I was easily on pace to break four hours, but it’s worth noting that the
second half has a tougher elevation profile.
Beddgelert was at the bottom of a valley. We weren’t even out of town yet before we
began climbing. This was the second of the
three tough climbs.
At first, the slope was gradual. Early in the climb, I paused to take a
picture of the fall colors. That brief
rest break energized me enough that I was ready to tackle the rest of the hill,
even as the grade got more challenging.
This hill wasn’t as long as the first one. I slowed down, but not as much. At 15 miles, the climb was over. I didn’t lose too much time there, so I
thought more about what it would take to break four hours.
In contrast to the first climb, this one wasn’t followed by
a steep descent. Instead, we had a
gentle downhill trend over the next six miles.
I realized this was my best chance to pick up my pace. I still had one tough climb remaining. I knew I would lose time there. I also knew the final descent would be mostly
on trails, so I couldn’t count on making up time there. My goal over the next six miles was to put
enough time in the bank that I could afford to be slow on the last big climb.
I wanted to run the next six miles with times between eight
and nine minutes. I succeeded at that
and even ran one of them in less than eight minutes. That boosted my confidence.
I was passing other runners somewhat regularly now. I wondered how many of them were the same
runners that passed me between six and eight miles, when we were descending on
trails.
On this part of the course we had a headwind. At times, it felt tiring, but it kept me from
overheating. My hands started to get
really cold here. I reminded myself that
I would warm up on the last climb.
As I passed the 21 mile mark, I was surprised that I wasn’t
to the big climb yet. With 5.2 miles to
go, I could afford an average pace of 11 minutes per mile. I was focused on breaking four hours, and I
liked my chances.
We were almost to 22 miles when the climb finally
started. The change in grade was
unmistakable. This one was steep from
the very start. I couldn’t run very
fast, but I was determined to run the whole thing.
As the grade got steeper, I started seeing more and more
people walking. I was one of the few
people still running. I got lots of
cheers of “good job, mate” from everyone I passed.
After 23 miles, the grade got even steeper. I looked ahead and saw what I thought might
be the top. As I got there, I realized
it was a false summit. The climb
continued. This happened a few
times. Looking at the hills around us,
it seemed like we were about to go over the top. Then I’d get closer, and I could see more
hills that went higher.
I finally had to take a walking break. I knew I could afford it if I didn’t walk for
too long. I walked for about a
minute. Then I forced myself to run the
rest of the way. Finally, at 24 miles, I
was at the top of the steep part of the climb.
I checked my watch. Did I succeed
in limiting the damage? That mile took
only 10 minutes, in spite of the walking break.
Now I had it in the bag.
Right at 24 miles, we left the road for a trail. We were descending now, but only
slightly. There were puddles all over
the trail. Some I could avoid; some I
couldn’t. My shoes were filling with
water. That’s just what I wanted before
a long steep descent. Insole problems
were almost inevitable.
The trail turned slightly uphill again. We had crossed one summit, but there was
still a second summit before the final steep descent. Now there was water all the way across the
trail. It was like running upstream
through a river.
Finally, at about 24.5 miles, I reached the highest
elevation on the course. It was less
than two miles to the finish, but it was treacherous. What’s worse than a steep descent over uneven
footing? How about adding mud to the
mix? It was steep, and it was
slick. I had to slow my pace and choose
my footing carefully. This is why I
wasn’t going to gain any time on this section.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to.
On one section of the trail, there was a long puddle running
down one side. Everyone else avoided
that side. One runner raced right
through it, splashing mud waist high on everyone she passed. I didn’t appreciate that.
The sky was clearing up, and I came to a spot with a nice
view overlooking the valley below. I
stopped to take a picture, but my camera’s viewfinder was completely
white. I didn’t know if it was moisture
on the lens of something else. My camera
was wet. I took a few pictures without
knowing if I was aiming it right. I had
no idea if they would even turn out. I
don’t think I got the angle I was trying for, but this is the one that was
closest.
Some sections were steeper than others. On one particularly steep section, I felt my
insoles slipping forward in both of my shoes.
That’s a common problem for me when I’m running down a steep hill with
water in my shoes. Usually, it’s just
uncomfortable. This time, it affected my
running. I could feel my feet slipping
back and forth inside my shoes with each step.
Not only was the trail surface slick and unstable, but the insides of my
shoes were as well.
I was right about not making up time on the downhill. Mile 25 actually took longer than mile 24,
which had been all uphill. Still, I had
more than 16 minutes for the last 1.2 miles to finish within four hours.
Next, I got onto a section of the trail that was paved. It was still uncomfortably steep, but at
least I had solid footing. I was coping
with the discomfort of having insoles that were bunched up under my toes. Then I reached a section that was even
steeper, and I felt something else going on in my shoe. This was something I had never felt
before. It was extremely
uncomfortable. I actually wondered if
the back of my foot had come out of my shoe.
Nope. As I tried to keep running,
I realized what it was. One of my
orthotics had slipped forward in my shoe.
That’s never happened before.
I couldn’t run that way.
The back edge of my orthotic, which normally stays behind my heel, was
cutting into the bottom of my foot. It
was painful, but more significantly, I was afraid it would cause an
injury. I had to stop and fix it. I took off the shoe, moved the orthotic back
to where it belonged, removed the insole, unfolded it and put it back in the
proper place, replaced the shoe, and tied it.
That took time.
I resumed running, and as soon as I hit another steep
section, the orthotic moved again. I
didn’t have time to keep doing this, but I also couldn’t run like that. My solution was to run on my toes, so the back
of my foot wouldn’t strike my orthotic.
Going downhill, that was uncomfortable, but I was in Llanberis now. I only had about half a mile to go.
After another minute or two, I finally got onto streets I
recognized. I knew the grade was going
to level out soon. When I made the last
turn onto High Street, it leveled out completely. Now I could run on my toes more comfortably
as I sprinted to the finish. Despite all the mishaps that cost me time, I
finished in 3:54:48. To say I’m pleased
with that time would be an understatement.
Instead of a finisher medal, the tradition at this race is
for each finisher to get one of these slate coasters. In case you're wondering, "Eryri" is the Welsh name for Snowdonia. We also each got a water bottle, which conveniently
was already filled with water.
After finishing, I had to go around the finish line fences,
but then I was only about 100 feet from the door to Y Gwynedd Inn. Getting to my room, however, was like an
obstacle course. First, I had to get through the crowd of spectators. Then I had to go through
about five doors, and the sleeve of my rain poncho got caught on every door
handle. It also got caught on a knob as
I rounded the top of the staircase. Needless to say, that was the first thing I
removed when I got to my room.
I was wearing multiple layers of clothes, and they were all
soaking wet. Some were wet from the
rain; others were wet from sweat. It
took time to peel them off and find places to hang them up to dry. I also had to clean the mud from my shoes.
After showering and changing clothes, I walked over to the
event village to attend the awards ceremony.
I was impressed with how fast some of the other runners ran this
course. The winner of my age group
finished in 3:07!
David invited me to join his running club for a post-race
dinner at the Royal Victoria Hotel. I
joined a few of them for beers in town, and then we walked to the hotel. Better late than never, I finally had pizza
in Wales. For those keeping score at
home, that makes 38 countries.
After dinner, I was tired enough that I could’ve fallen asleep
immediately. There was a band performing
at the inn, and my room was directly above their stage. The bass was so loud that it was making
things in my room vibrate. There wasn’t
any point going to sleep until they were done.
That was 11:00.
Remember that toe I stubbed? It never bothered me during the race, but
when I climbed into bed, it was the only thing that hurt. Nevertheless, I had no trouble getting to
sleep.
Sunday, October 27
I joined my friends for breakfast at Pete’s Eats. Then we watched a rugby match at a nearby inn
that had several large TVs. Wales was
playing in the semifinals of the World Cup, so it was a big deal for local rugby
fans. It was an exciting game, but
ultimately Wales lost to South Africa.
I had plans to visit Conwy Castle in the afternoon, but I
had another driving adventure. A few
minutes after I left Llanberis, I got a “check tire pressure” indicator. I stopped at a gas station and walked around
the car. One tire was dangerously low. The car had been parked for two days, so I
didn’t know how quickly it was losing air.
I added air, but I didn’t know how well the tire would hold air. I decided the safest course of action was to
drive straight to Manchester, without making any sightseeing stops. It was a nice sunny day, so at least I got to
enjoy a scenic drive through north Wales. Before returning the car, I stopped to fill the tank. The tire was still holding air, but better
safe than sorry.
I don’t fly home until tomorrow morning. For tonight, I’m staying at an airport hotel.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 3:54:48
Average Pace: 8:57
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
390
Countries: 38
