The Snowdonia Marathon, which took place last Saturday, 25th October, is always a tough run, though conditions this year were near-perfect, cold but sunny with only a light breeze to add a bit of edge to the last few miles. Devotees of the Snowdonia will be relieved to know that the course has changed slightly in recent years. The new start is closer to Llanberis, avoiding both the one-mile jog to the start, and the intensley frustrating tour of Llanberis at the end, which took the race within a few hundred yards of the finish before turning the wrong way for a final turn round the town. The new course starts closer to the Electric Mountain buildings and finishes with a straight run into the old High Street, which is closed for the event. It is now a very professional and well-organised race.
The race organisation has thus been much improved, but not my performance, as I went well up to 20 miles and then hit the wall in classic fashion, being forced to walk up the final hill, and coming down the other side even more slowly as the cramp set it. The same could not be said of Adam, who judging by his time had a blazing run.
Adam Neale 3:22:10 91st place
Andy Watts 3:42:08 253rd place
The winner was Rob Samuel in a time of 2:35:42, first lady was Emily Gelder in 3:06:26, and 1,481 runners finished.
Andy
Well done Andy. I can’t believe you then did Passing Clouds as a recovery run – Amazing.