Snowdonia Marathon 2017

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  • Hi gang, the deed is done! 200th marathon Saturday, 201 on Sunday and 202 today. Had a fantastic weekend..London madness next weekend! Will provide full report of madness when my brain has decided to function!
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    Would it be fair to say you've caught the running bug, brer?
  • I'm just getting the hang of it now :)
  • TrailRunner22TrailRunner22 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2017
    Think I'm supposed to be doing a relay in the MHU ultra T Rex.. Also would love to give the Snowdonia Trail Mara a go at some point. As well as doing something in CYB.. Love it up there. Currently tapering for London on Sunday and trying to decide what pace to go out at. All I've come up with so far is that I want to go out fast and try to hang on! haha.. Well done on the marathons brer.. I can only manage 2 a year.. Any more and i'd die I think....
  • Many congratulations Brer. Why I am not surprised that you immediately followed the 200th with 201st and 202nd!! 
  • 200 Marathons! Wow..... well done Brer.
    Good luck with London, bit of a change of scenery?!
    Any time ambitions or just enjoy the atmosphere?
  • John BachJohn Bach ✭✭✭

    Congratulations brer - that is some achievement, particularly given the times/positions you achieve!

    I am with TR22 in being only able to manage 2 a year, although that is mainly due to the desire to remain married!!

  • I can't blame the wife for only managing 2 marathons a year max as she runs as well, I will have to blame 2 creaky knees and being a full time taxi service for my 2 lads who both play football, so it's taking them to training twice a week and matches at weekends. Glad they are active kids though. My youngest is a good little runner and has twice ran the kids race at Snowdon, thoroughly recommend it if any one is bringing their kids on race weekend
  • John BachJohn Bach ✭✭✭
    lol RR, I know what you mean re being a taxi service & fitting things around, generally, with the kids. My daughter usually has a game every weekend - last weekend was spent at a football tournament in Manchester. Throw in studying for forthcoming GCSE, AS and A level exams and any thought re entering a race goes completely out of the window!!
  • That sounds a fairly hectic schedule JB, oh yes the Football tournaments there will be plenty of those in the summer months,my youngest boys manager lives and breaths football and enters every tournament going in our area. :)
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    edited April 2017
    Off tomorrow to Connemara, Co. Galway for their road ultramarathon (39.3 miles) on Sunday.  I am looking for a PB for the distance which will be anything under 6:13.  

    Looking to reach the marathon point in 4:00 and allowing up to 2:12 for the final half marathon, not so much because I will be tired but because that section has two monster hills, the first called The Devil's Mother and the second The Hell of the West.

    Only a miserable #114 marathon and ultra for me.  I only do about 9 or 10 a year.
  • All the best for Sunday TR. Look forward to the race report next week.
  • Looks like a very special race, enjoy...
    Only 8 marathons for me so far, hopefully many more to come.
    week1 of snowdon training yielded 48 miles. (6.3hrs)

    I would love to try an Ultra, sometime in the future i hope.
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    Oh oh, you're thinking about the dark side, Ralph d.  That's the trouble with posting on this thread - you get drawn into things you wouldn't normally consider.

    If it's road ultras you're interested in I can recommend the Dartmoor Discovery (32 miles), or this one I do in Ireland.

    But if it's trail we are all spoiled for choice ...
  • Sunday's little outing sounds superb Trex, all the best for that one. RR and John Bach, it sounds like you have your own individual marathons each weekend though not of the running kind :)

  • panadpanad ✭✭✭
    Well done Brer!  Hope #202 went ok, enjoy London!
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    I'm back from Republic of Ireland.  Well, it just shows that regardless of experience you have, or thought you had, things can go badly wrong in long distance running!
  • JoeyJoey ✭✭
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  • Come on Trex don't keep us in suspense any longer
  • Sounds like you have a tale to tell TR.

    How about you Brer, how was the London experience this year?

  • Oh dear TRex, are you ok?  London experience just as manic as ever-I find the whole weekend so exhausting due to the chaos and crowds. Shuffled my way around the discarded water bottles and dressed up rhinos to cross the line in 3.42. Arrive home at midnight to start a new job the next day!!! OMG, what a week! No doubt I will go again next year as have GFA place but I continue to have a real love/hate relationship with this marathon!
  • Well done Brer. That is a great time. Never an easy place to run with all the crowds to fight through. Not sure I would go back even if the paid me. Do they still have a drink station every mile? Caused chaos the last time I did it. Good luck with the new job, hope the first week went well.

  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    edited April 2017
    Connemara ultra, 23 April 2017.      A tale of three halves.

    As posted earlier I felt my training this year was indicating that a PB attempt at this 39.3-mile road race would be realistic, meaning 6:12, or faster.  With all the main hills in the third half my planned splits were 2:00, 2:00, and 2:12 for each half.  Seems doable, you would have thought?

    Half #1   The logistics to get to the start line went well with runners ferried out from Galway by coach (no cars permitted).  The HQ was an isolated hotel at Maam Cross from which you did a 38-mile loop out to the Inagh valley and back by a different (and hilly) route. To make the course exactly a marathon and a half runners were ferried again by coach to the point back up the course a mile from the finish.

    For a change I elected to jog this one mile to the start instead of messing about with coaches.  There was plenty of time.  This generated some amusement from the PA guy who announced that, for some people, 39 miles were not enough - they have to do one more!


  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    edited April 2017
    0900 and all 200 or so of us were off.  The early miles are fairly flat with the Maumturk Mountains on the right and completely flat boglands on the left.  It is very tempting to go off too fast along this stretch.  Many do and pay a great price later.

    Got into some good conversations and stuck to my pace well.  After 10 miles you turn up into the Inagh Valley with the attractive Derryclare Lough on the left and behind it the Twelve Pins of Connemara, stunningly beautiful mountains in my opinion.

    Another three miles of slightly harder going and I reached the marathon start with all its detritus of discarded clothes, bin bags, and banana skins.

    First half done - 2:00:16.  Come on!
  • So good so far Trex, hope the next instalment is coming soon, but I hope you are ok.
    Well done on another great time in London Brer. I know what you mean about the love hate relationship with it, I have done it 4 times and have said never again after each one but somehow get drawn back into it.
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    Half #2   Into the high teens and I was finding most of the vague group I'd been running with seemed to be dropping off except for one Irish lady about my age that I seemed to be getting on well with.  In fact I thought she was pushing the pace on this increasingly undulating section, but when I looked at my watch I found that, no, we were just about on the pace needed for a 4-hour marathon.

    At mile 17 I had a bit of a wobble and an uncharacteristic visit to the portaloo. I took one of my two gels to combat the rapidly appearing fatigue.  By mile 20 I needed one of my two bars as well.  They weren't my normal bars since I hadn't been able to get hold of them and this one disagreed with me a lot.

    Irish lady disappeared into the distance but I was still pushing as hard as I could and overtaking other runners.  
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    Lovely downhill stretch into Killary Harbour with Co. Mayo and the Mweelrea Mountains on the other side of the water.

    Even without the usual strong easterly headwind these downhill miles seemed to be very hard work and I wasn't gaining much of the time I had previously lost.  I was really pushing so as to not have too much of a deficit to make up on the last half.

    Into Leenaun village and the 26.2-mile timing mat.  What would it be?  Well, for the second half 2:03:29, total for the marathon 4:03:45.  Behind schedule, but not critically.

    Critical things did begin to happen next, though.
  • brer rabbitbrer rabbit ✭✭✭
    Well, you are clearly still alive. Cant wait to read the BUT..bit! My adventure yesterday was tame -Milton Keynes marathon, found it hard work due to road closures etc but imagine my joy when I heard 'Brer Rabbit' behind me...only Ultra Disco Boy!!!! Yeh !  Nothing else to report, did it in 3.48 and next one on Sunday!
    Hope everyone is well and training going good for whatever event coming up soon.
  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭
    edited May 2017
    Half #3    Very soon after the marathon point you take a sharp right and straight up a steep hill out of Leenaun village, in a valley with Devilsmother on your left and the the Maamturks on your right.

    It's a steep haul that I usually run up OK but not today.  I decide on a walking break and to get going again nearer the top.  Got to the top and found I couldn't run. Nothing left in the legs.  Tried to shuffle but nothing was happening.  Had to stride out as best I could and hope to improve later.

    I began to get blurred vision and that sensation where everything you look at is edged in fluorescent yellow.  What causes that?  Dehydration?  Hypoglycaemia?

    Mile 27 14:22; mile 28 13:31; mile 29 12:59.  Desperate.
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