Snow Patrol

After a week getting back into the swing of things at home and work I decided that there were to be 2 more big runs and then it was to be a period of winding down with the odd short run to keep the legs moving. The first of these was to be in the mountains on Sat 17th and then Tues 20th whilst my car was in for a service.

Left hand peak is RV1!

I set off from home at 06:10 on Saturday morning laden down with a 7kg pack mainly containing water and standard hill walking kit. Normally I would have driven to Abergwyngregyn, parked up and then gone straight up the hills but this time wanted to mix things up a bit so decided to run the 5 miles or so to a point and then turn right and south up the hills.

Had I looked at the map properly before setting out I would have been able to negotiate the footpaths to my right turn point but having decided that I couldn't be bothered I ended up running about a mile and a half along the A55! Fortunately traffic was not too heavy at that time in the morning so I didn't have to jump to the grass verge too often.

Shelter!!

The first part of the uphill climb was pretty steep, which was only alleviated by the fact that it was on tarmac.  This alleviation only lasted for about 1km however and then it was onto the serious business of grinding up the trails towards Carneddau. I quickly became very aware of a massive amount of thick, dark grey clouds, which with the prevalent wind direction were heading my way with a vengeance. I worked out that I may just make it to the mountain refuge hut at Foel Grach before the clouds dumped whatever contents they had all over me. My mental calculation was almost spot on but I was still caught up in a horizontal snow storm 200mtrs short of the hut.

Even after the 3 minutes or so that it took me to get into the hut, my sorely inadequate London Marathon ripstop jacket was drenched. This was immediately discarded and, after a quick dry off replaced by a fleece. I further warmed up with a couple of flask cups of tea and then, seeing that the snow seemed to have stopped, decided to set off back down the hill once more. I donned my Gore-Tex coat in case of further storms and tentatively made my way out of the hut.

God is back in His Heaven!!

The fear of more snow couldn't have been more unfounded as, a mere 20 minutes after setting off on the return journey, the sun well and truly had his hat back on again. With the words of Adrian, the masters student fresh in my mind, I decided to keep the fleece and Gore-Tex on to create a simulated acclimation experience.

I arrived home 21 tough miles and 6 hours later in a decent enough state although my right shin was smarting a bit and would not recover for a couple of days. It seems that I will now have no choice but have a daily dose of MTFU during the race but with 3 years of preparation behind me it's a price I'm willing to pay.