Snowdonia Marathon 2011

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  • Having enjoyed reading Gobi’s report I thought I’d just post my report summary. Not the best pre race prep after car broke down just after leaving home (could have been worse – could have been well on the way!) and I leave my Garmin in my car! Collared by someone who I know from the TV production company and proceed to give a crap interview! Get to the start and I line up near the front with stonemonkey who I have liaised with over the past 4/5 years on the Snowdonia forums! He looks it good shape and having run 2h45m in London I was sure he would finally go sub 3hr (we talked/joked about it each year!!). I feel in good shape although I know that my averaging 30-40miles pw and not running for more than 2h25m in training may catch up with me. That said I was ready to give it a good crack this year and with my experience re the course, 9 previous marathons and the fact that I had really been enjoying my running the last couple of months I really thought this year I could go sub 3hr. Mile splits, courtesy of Stonemonkey who I ran with for the 1st few miles then was slightly ahead of me thereafter until Waunfawr: 1) 5:52 – Comfortable at back of lead group chatting to stonemonkey
    2) 6:02 – Still comfortable at back of pack
    3) 6:48 – To just after start of Pen Y Pass climb – decide to ease back
    4) 7:39 - Pen Y Pass – running on my own – don’t want to risk it pushing too hard/too early
    5) 7:09 - Pen Y Pass – running comfortable on own – sensible decision me thinks
    6) 5:15 - Pen Y Pass - PYG – very comfortable – not too far behind a couple of runners ahead7) 5:22 - Onto Gravel and big stones – concentrating on footing – descending well
    8) 5:48 – Still on own – keeping pace with runner ahead. Comfortable
    9-13)     - Running comfortably on own (averaging 6:12)– catching 2 runners ahead
    14)7:01 – Catch Iain R just before Beddgelert (déjà vu!) – great support – boost for climb!
    15)7:03 – Felt strong/comfortable up climb – drop Iain – dragging Altrincham AC runner up
    16-180   - Running with Altrincham AC runner, but feel pushing it too much for me (ave 6:15)19-21)   - I wish Altrincham runner all the best (he does 2h46m!) - ease back to 6m25s22)     - Into Waunfawr – catch up with stonemonkey – hope that we can help each other up!
    23)10:35 – Nothing in the legs - really struggling – walk/slow run strategy
    24)8:53 – Still struggling – trying to dig in/hang on – I know that sub 3hr on the cards
    25)7:31 – Glad to get to the top – ready to mince the legs on the descent
    26)5:48 – Descending well although almost end up on backside a couple of times
    27)1:12 – Nice to get back onto tarmac/the flat – beaming for the last 100meters given support and the realisation that I was going to clock sub 2h55m - end up clocking 2h54m44s Without doubt my best marathon – to run it at Snowdonia makes it that much more special – and for stonemonkey and me to finally go sub 3hr (and some) and finish 17th and 18th  respectively was something!! I really feel that I don’t think I could have run the race any better, which is something I don’t think I’ve said before after a marathon!! 

    Legs feel OK now. I’m still on a bit of a high after Saturday. I have had a lot of messages from other runners, which I have been made up with.  

  • GobiGobi ✭✭✭
    Nice one JB - you got the job done by mile 22 and finished very well.

    23 sound horrific but you showed a lot of balls through 24 and 25

    Reading your splits it supports my analysis of why I didn't do a sub 3.
  • Thank you Gobi

    Yep, the Waunfawr climb was pretty horrific, but, as of course you know, you have to respect the marathon and if you haven't done the training it can really come back and bite you back!! I am hoping with a bigger mileage in 2012 including some longer (& slower!)/timewise runs I would run the last 5miles a lot stronger (something which Iain R has discussed with me - he said I would probably have had the lowest weekly mileage of any other runner in the top 20 - Iain probably does double my mleage!!)

    As I've said before I was sorry that you could not approach this marathon 100% and give it your best shot - I recall you saying before that, having done it as part of the triple, in 2006 you wanted to come back and do it justice - it is a shame that you haven't had that oppotunity

  • GobiGobi ✭✭✭
    JB - it doesn't matter that much as I ran ok. I keep thinking the weather must have been great in 2006 for me to think the goat path was manageable. If I had jogged it in Saturdays conditions I would not have see the mountains and would not have come back.

    Did you notice how nice the weather was on Sunday ?
  • Yep - weather day before/after was, pretty much ideal!! Since you did it back in 2006 the weather has been "interesting/challenging" each year - I keep on saying that we are due a nice one next year. I thnk the weather conditons were a lot worse for the fantastic spectators marshalls etc than the runners. That said I would like a drier one - it would make the descent into Llanberis a lot quicker.

    I briefly spoke to you after you finished and got out of the finish area, but you were shooting off to get dry/warm (I was in my hi viz orange running jacket)

  • GobiGobi ✭✭✭
    JB - I noticed it was nice the day before as well. I did have 3 lovely days in Wales. Nothing would have got me down that hill any quicker with better grip I may have been even slower.

    Safe to say I really needed those dry clothes.
  • if you fancy another great race in Beautiful Wales, Matt (the commentator on Saturday) is organising Trail Marathon Wales. Have a look at www.trailmarathonwales.com entries went live this morning !!!
  • Well done to everyone who completed Snowdon this year.  Watching on the telly, reading the various reports here, has been inspirational and you all deserve a massive congrats.  Off to the 2012 thread to make sure I catch everyone.  Well done guys. image
  • Excellent report, Chimney. Good result too. Same goes for TR39, Stu and everybody else on here. SNOD 2011 seems to have excelled on the PB front. The success must taste really good if it prompts a 'welling up'. It is a sensation I have yet to experience after 15 years. I look forward to the day when I might put in a performance that might justify it. SNOD next year, perhaps?
  • You will BN, you will... image
    If reality matched intention I'd know I was dreaming
  • Chimney- great report

    JB- congratulations on a cracking and well deserved resultimage

    Stuart- still eating now!!imageimage

    Sub 3 SNOD sure sounds goodimage

    Signing off here now- thanks to everyone- it's been a blast as always! See you in 2012 and on 2012 threadimage

  • JB - your 5:48 26 mile split is simply incredible!! I simply can not comprehend how on something so steep and unrunnable you went at that speed! Sheer guts!!! Awesome.
  • Btw what the heck is going on with the 2011 and 2012 thread!!! I told TRex on Saturday night that this would happen!!! I'm going backwards and forwards between the two more often than PJL and his mate have coasters!!!

    Can someone please officially close 2011 in some kind of closing ceremony thingy. Surely Frodo should do the honours!!!??
  • UDS- How many coasters/ times is that?image
  • I've got six, so there. image

    Don't fret, Stu. This is normal. This year's discussions are normally exhausted on this year's 'Fred' before we drift in dribs and drabs over to next year's Frederick to discuss future matters appertaining to next year's SNOD. There's always a few weeks' blurring. We'll cope I'm sure. image

    I've just uploaded my story.

  • Brilliant report Brit Nick .....it bought it all flooding back image
  • 5:48 miles!  That's wore me out just considering it!  Think mine ended up just under 11minute miles image
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭

    jason - if you're still here - I think the # coasters is 40 + 68 = 108.  Well, I know 108 came into it somewhere ...

    Good coverage of you on S4C - at the finish and a shot of you earlier charging up a hill eating something.

    Rou -  you looked serene throughout - I think you need to pull some faces if you want to be #1 lady!

    I'm to be seen about mile 7 on the "gravel" section.

  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭

    Shame to see this thread languishing on page two, put it is now in its dying throes. 

    Anyone else like to report in on SNOD '11?

    Would be good to hear from bionic bt, Eric Davies (who wins the award for being closest to target time - just 4s under), or anyone else, really.

  • I had a disappointing 4 hrs 32 mins. Felt i ran ok too, didn't walk at any point till Waunfawr. Speed work beckons methinks. Had to do my shoe laces up 10 times en route which was mighty frustrating, and  didn't help.

    Really enjoyed it though, as usual.  Loved the new finish (didn't do last year), and the trail section too. Sorry i didn't see anyone from here either before or during the race.

    Will be back next year to do it properly, and see you on the new forum.

  • My next race will be Rhyader in March.

    First i have to get back to the track at Eirias Park and get some speed back.

    Currently i am running at 8minute pace but before i do Rhyader again i want to approach that race fully prepared and up for a sub 2.30 which i know i can do with the training.

    My 17th Snowdon was a total joke with little leg speed or endurance.

    The day after like last year i felt like i had not done the race and as the weather had improved (typical) i went up Foel Fras from Rowen.

    I knew at mile 2 to 3 that i would struggle over the distance but like Iorwerth pulling out of the race is not an option.

    In years to come people will ask how many Snowdon Marathons have you done and i will proudly tell them 17 so far.

    Few will ask what time you did because the majority of us do not take any form of excercise.

    All people want to know is how many times you have done the race.

    Winning the race is another matter but how many of us are good enough physically and mentally to win this incredible race.?  

  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭

    Sorry about that, sp.  C'mon - fellrunners knots are par for this course!  In fact I do my shoes up like that all the time. If you had been on a 26-mile offroad run you would have been delighted with 4:32!!  Looking at it like that might help.

  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    Liked the report, lowslice.  Hope all those niggles sort themselves out.
  • PJL - Not everyone wants to know how many times you have done this race but I'm sure you will tell them...

    it sounds like you are trying to convince yourself more than us that time doesn't matter. Seriously mate of course time matters. any serious runner including yourself knows fullwell that time is what drives us to train harder and perform... we all have bad days and just have to put them behind us and move on. But saying that the time is irrelevant and it only matters if you have a chance of actually winning the race is very short sighted.
  • sp- double knots pulled really tight- simples- until untying themimage. Never had a lace come loose since started doing this

    PJL- you live in a different world to me. Time is important to me- more so than how many times I've run a particular race. Time targets are individual, and if only the person who wins the race should worry about their time, then there are going to be a lot of disappointed runners out there- all but one by that logic. In my experience, more people ask me what time I did than how many times I've run the race. I'd suggest trying to get more training in next year and you might be a happier manimage

    Right that's it for me definitely- never look to the past, always the future.

    In the words of Mr Shakespeare, "The rest is silence". 

  • Dear jason

    Ive now been running close on 32 yrs and have run a fair few marathons but over the years i have realised now i am pushing 50 i have little chance of running 1-18 for a half as i did years ago and running sub 36 !0ks.

    I now enter races for sheer pleasure of it and times mean little to me.

    This years training went very well following the sub 3-30 Runners World training schedule ive used in the past.

    The problem this year was that just over four weeks ago i fell from a ladder whilst cleaning the guttering behind my house.

    I had intended just running a sub 4hr Snowdon which i know i can do because my training runs along the course were showing i could get to 20 miles well within the timelimit.

    Those people who ask me how many Snowdonia marathons i have done rarely ask me did i run under three, four or even five hours.

    To the average non runner the only marathon they have heard of is London and most people confuse the Snowdon marathon with the Snowdon race up and down in July.

    When you have run as many Snowdon Marathons as i have times mean little, i go there for the sheer pleasure of the race and scenery.

    Just about everyone this year on this Runners World Forum have not done many Snowdon Marathons.

    I think one or two may have done four or five but ive done everyone since 1995.

    When you have been running as long as i have times mean little, its the pure enjoyment of the race that i go for.

    So what if i ran 3,4, or a slow 5-25 like this year i got around and collected my coaster.

    If i can stay motivated i may try for a sub 3-30 in 2012 being the 30th anniversary race but if i have commitments throughout the summer then i will turn up and just enjoy the weather and challenging nature of the course.

    When you have been running as long as i have maybe you will just enjoy the pleasure of the race rather than being pleased or diappointed with a particular time.

  • Pjl you are pushing 50! you make it sound old behave yourself man you are a spring chicken!
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    How did you get on, Nurse G?
  • Right ok someone wanted an official closing ceremony thingy on this thread so here goes in my poshest voice

    I now declare this ere 2011 thread offically closed so bugger off over to the 2012 one and join the nwe party imageimage

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