After Chicago and Langdale Marathons in the last two weeks I'd tried pretty much everything to encourage Sarah to talk me out of running Marathon Eryi, I'd dropped hints such as "legs are feeling it" and "hope this doesn't make me poorly". I'd even gone as far as not booking any accommodation, so as not to waste any money in the event I didn't run. But nothing, she's been here before you see, and just said, "it's up to you" with a caveat of "you'll be disappointed if you don't do it" Which I knew was true. Also, Marathon Eryi is an iconic race, so much so it's own popularity has meant next year will be a ballot entry system, so this could well be my last chance given my record in race ballots is worse than United's form this season.
So off I set to Llanberis at 4am in the pouring rain, I stopped for coffee a couple of miles away, and noted it was raining really heavy now and looked to be settling as snow on the higher summits of the Snowdonia National Park. I arrived at race registration at just after 6am, the race didn't start until 10:30am, but wanted to get parked and registered, so I headed back to my car and went to sleep for an hour or so, listening to the rain crashing on the roof of my car. About 8:30am I fired up my stove and boiled some water to make my porridge, also went and bought a coffee and had some breakfast, it was still cold and horrible.
I bumped into a few friends, Joni, Gary were there along with Graham from the Brathay 10in10 in 2018, I also met up with Darren Jenness, it was good to see him actually as I knew he ran Langdale also, so I wasn't the only one who was going to feel it today. It was still raining and cold.
We headed up to the start line for just before 10:30, I decided to race in the vest despite the cold wet conditions, I've never been too cold running, so just suffered in the cold a bit waiting around. I passed an additional layer I was wearing to Darren's wife who held onto until after the run. Always good to have friends about at races.
10:30 and we were off, the race starts fast I was moving along pretty well, the race then quickly starts to climb up Pen-Y-Pass for a couple of miles, if you want to chase time on this course you have to push up here, it's far too long to walk, and too cold this morning. It's a tough climb, but I ran well up to the pass summit and it was down hill for a good few miles from here to Nant Gwynant.
Once through Nant Gwynant I formed a group with another 3 runners, really helped to work with some other lads and we ticked along nicely all the way to Beddgelert, the support in Beddgelert was unbelievable , really surprised me and felt great to be running in this strong group. The TV crews were back and forth past us for miles, the woman's race was taking place behind us and a real battle was also developing up the road in the men's race, so I was certain we'd be on TV so tried not to look to knackered.
The group broke up a little by the time we hit the bottom of the rapid climb of Waunfawr, it's here where wheels generally fall off and mine came astray about a third of the way up the biggest and steepest climb of the race, there was only about 3 miles to go, but I could only walk sections of this.
I was working with another runner going up, we kept pushing each other on every time one of us broke into a walk, this really helped, up until the point where I thought I wish he's just fuck off now and let me walk. See the brutal profile below...
The support at the top was immense, it was a horrible day for spectators, yet they were all there with fancy dress, bells, flags and ,music in the middle of nowhere, unbelievable. This fired me all the way down the treacherous downhill to the finish and my quads were suffering big time, I had a couple of slips and trips down here but came through unscathed but knackered in 3 hours and 6 minutes and 1 sec.
I finished 50 mins quicker than last year and 36th overall, which shows how much progress I've made since joining Hyde RC and making a few other changes, but I am knackered now and need a rest, it's been an amazing year and Marathon Eryi is the final Marathon of 2019 for me, a few weeks of reduced miles now before we look ahead to 2020. I have the Conway Half Marathon in November and the Langdale Road Races Christmas Pudding 10k in December to look forward too, especially as Sarah and my Brother Rick are running the 10k as their first 10k run!
The Ballot for 2020 Marathon Eryi opens December 1st, I'd highly recommend this race, only problem being it lands on the same day as Langdale Marathon in October 2020. So next year I'll have to miss Eryi, Langdale just edges it for me, just because of my connections with Brathay, love of the Lake District and of course winning this years race.
(We never did make the cut for TV...)
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