Snowdonia marathon

Mark had been a proper gentleman and offered to drive up to Snowdonia, thus sparing me a really difficult journey plus the expense of two nights in a shonky hotel or B&B plus affording the opportunity to stop off in Crewe to see my sister who you may remember was my lead cheerleader and tea and jam sandwich provider at the 10 in 10. Hence I got to stay in the car and out of the drizzle as long as possible before the start, so didn't spot many familiar faces other than a couple of 100 Clubbers either there or on the route.
 It was actually quite nice to set off at a very pedestrian pace with the meagre aims of a sub 5 finish and not too much of a drenching from the local weather. Only one of those was in my control. After a gentle few miles to warm up came the first hill. Now, reports had suggested this race was harder than the Langdale mara so I was very happy to find that the first was quite easily runnable and knew there would be some fabulous views and a delightful downhill reward to follow. Turning onto a shaley track wasn't ideal, didn't like that bit. Once back on the road there was plenty of pretty much flat to half way and, having seen on the route profile that the second hill was shorter than the first, it was easy enough to run up it. Around this point, Gail from Watford Joggers caught up with me and we had a nice chat until we passed Mark who recognised his clubmate well before he recognised me...
 Thanks to my steady start, it felt quite comfortable over the last 10 and I passed quite a lot of soggy, miserable looking runners. On reaching the last hill, I knew I ought to break 4'30 and if I kept about 10 minute miles going it would be 4'20, not so easy with the notorious Waun Fawr (sp?) in the way. I really didn't want to walk the hill, not just because of losing time but also because it was already wet and looking to get wetter and I'd just freeze. So I managed a nice steady trot all the way to the top, had a bit of a laugh to myself at all those people who'd said Langdale is harder, I could barely walk the hills in Langdale let alone run them, witnessed a big lightening flash and rumble of thunder, thought I ought to get in before that lands on our heads, then hit trail. For heaven's sake. This is a "road marathon", I can tolerate a bit of low-fat track but this turned into full-fat, extra lard, uneven stony path before deteriorating into muddy, churned up, slippy grass awash with puddles. Not so bad on the flat but the descent was quite dangerous in road shoes. Thankfully the last 2/3rds of a mile were back on road, though now in torrential rain with a good inch or two of water running off the hills, I've never seen anything so heavy outside of Asia. Cleaned my shoes up a bit.

Came over the line in 4'18, only 8 minutes slower than Abingdon, quite pleased with that. Was presented with a cup of cold water (just what I need) and a slate coaster, got gathered up by Mark, had a brief chat to Yin Hai, Fu and Gail and made straight for the car. I like that the organisers are trying to make this an ethical event, including giving you a carbon neutral t-shirt, but it's pissing in the wind when virtually everyone has to drive a blinking long way to get to your race. Overall however, an excellent event, loads of well-stocked water stations, slick start and finish and a grand sense of occasion. Hardly saw any marshals away from the water stations and the traffic could have done with more management but otherwise it was top drawer. I might be back next year, if I can be bothered with the epic journey.