At the race briefing the organizers (Chris and Ross of Accelerace – an easy going couple of guys who were prepared to miss 3 days of sleep so that a dozen triathletes could race) announced a 6 am start rather than the previously advertised time of 5am. This was on the grounds that ‘it seemed at bit cold and gloomy at that time this morning….’ and the realization that 10 degrees really was a bit too cold to send these mugs into for a 4 mile swim, no matter how willing they all were to give it a go, began to set in. So it was that at 6am the following morning it was announced that the swim would be 2 laps of an out and back course set out about 30m parallel to the shore. This news was met by unanimous relief from the assembled field of neoprene bound competitors, since it really was pretty cold and gloomy, with a fierce wind adding to general atmosphere of fear. Alex was shivering violently and he was not even wet. All of a sudden the day ahead looked a lot more like one I’d be seeing the end of.
The water was cold, but having spent a few mornings the previous week in the Gospel Oak Lido, I was ready for the initial shock, face freeze, and inability to feet my feet. I also knew that it was a race against time before my hands would cramp into Vulcan Claw – even more ineffective on the ‘catch’ than my usual swimming style – so it was worth getting a shift on. Whether it was this or simply the fact that the majority of the rest of the competitors had opted to impair their swim by wearing gloves and booties I don’t know, but I was very pleased to find myself in 2nd position - by no means on Steven’s toes, but within sight of him. Alex, Steven and I all wore green caps, so we could all see each other –unusual for an open water swim! Alex was not far behind me in 4th position. It was fun being so close to the shore as we could clearly see and hear our supporters as we made the turn at the end of the first lap – and even shout back.
Heading back after the final turn I started to feel really too cold, and was glad to know I was soon finishing. But despite this, part of me was disappointed not to have had to face the monstrous challenge of the 4mile swim that I’d committed to – as this really was the aspect of the race that I’d been most concerned about, and would have felt like the greatest achievement to have completed.
Exiting the water was quite a challenge over the rocks with completely numb toes! My sister (support crew) was there with a towel and shoes but I just made what I thought was a bee-line, for the warmth of the car. Steven was already there of course and as we set about the difficult business of getting out of wetsuits in very cramped conditions, whilst eating flapjack and drinking hot chocolate, Alex jumped in the back too – his support crew had expected to have a couple of hours and were engaged in dismantling the tent and no where in sight!
We became aware that, despite being first and second out of the water, we were amongst the very last still in transition – time to get out of the car. I was pretty cross with myself over this…and rode determinedly up the first hill. It’s a weird and pleasant feeling to work the legs hard on the bike whilst they are still so cold, as you just don’t feel a thing. After half an hour or so, most of which was ascent, warmth seeps into the limbs, reaches the feet and the jaw relaxes…the ride begins.
The 170mile bike course cuts back and forth across the hills of mid Wales, touching the coast near Barmouth and back inland again, across the moors to Bala, snaking north all the way from Llanryhstud towards Llanberis. We had identified 5 points along this route where it crosses the main roads where our support team (Lotte and marc) would find a good stopping point to meet us with our food, a supply of hot drinks and waterproof clothing to see us through the terrible Welsh weather that had been forecast. Our estimated arrival times based on what I felt was a pretty optimistic, given the terrain, an average speed of 15 mph.
At the first stop ( 30 miles or so) the terrible weather was doing a pretty good impersonation of quite nice weather, and I’d fully defrosted I shed some layers, picked up a fresh bottle of water, and excited by the news that we’d made it up to 2nd place and only 20 min behind the leader, we headed on. A few minutes up the road I realized I was only wearing one glove and had an amusing time trying to signal this to Marc as they drove past toward the next stop destination, and even more so trying to grab it from him a little further up the road. He really can’t run at 15 mph - must be his Achilles playing up that day ;o)
After a full week off the bike and running due to a sprain in my foot, my legs were feeling great, and I was enjoying being able to push along these beautiful roads without any fatigue in my legs. Though it was early in a long ride, I was pleased that we’d been maintaining well over our estimated average speed, despite feed-back from my Powertap that the riding conditions had been hard. I told Steven that my average wattage was up at 167watts (note for non- geeks: that’s high – a long ride usually averages around 110 watt, whilst a good Regents Park session maybe 150-160). He warned me to ensure that I wasn’t overcooking it. Actually, I was aware that he’d been hanging back a bit; he’d been sick all of the previous week and I was concerned that he was suffering. I asked if he was ok – on a scale of 1-10, he said he felt about 4 or 5. Well, I reckoned he’d be man enough to say if he wants to ease off - generally Steven starts a ride much easier than I tend to, and gets stronger through the day. After out second stop at 65 miles (the 2/5th point!) where we stopped a little longer, for public loos, sandwich and a coffee (and were informed that we’d closed the gap on the leader), we hit some great terrain and he really started to get into the swing of the ride. Steadily inching away from me on the long, almost imperceptible climb and carving out of sight on the sweeping descent that followed. An hour had passed and I was enjoying the road, the scenery and the great weather so much that I was stunned to find Steven parked up at the support crew again so soon. The guys were rapidly becoming very proficient as rider support, spotting great pull-in spots, having our kit and food readily to hand – they even picked up cokes for us which were really well appreciated!
The ride went on, much like one of our long training rides – riding within sight of each other, Steven usually 50-100m ahead or around the next bend, with me catching occasionally, riding alongside for a bit of a chat and then we’ll gradually separate on the next incline or with a headwind. We were both really enjoying it, though riding at quite different relative intensities – I was consciously pushing to maintain a high power output whilst Steven was just out enjoying a good paced training ride on some fun roads!
It certainly did not seem as if 10 hours had passed when we pulled into our final stop at Betws – y- Coed – though after 150 miles, we really were in ‘long ride' territory! Ate our final sandwich and got ready for the ascent over Pen-y-pass. We’d finish the ride in daylight and with a ride time of 10 hours – average speed 16.5mph! Yes, mathematicians, the ride was slightly short – in fact we were a bit concerned that Lotte and Marc might not have gone directly to T2 with our gear, thinking that they had more time before we arrived.
Of course they were there though, we changed kit – still lovely and warm so just shorts for now, and decided not to bother with back pack until we’d been over Pen-y Pass (having a support crew is such a bonus!). Legs felt pretty stiff – my ankle had been a bit of a concern since I’d not been able to run on it all of the previous week, and it had been aching for the final 50miles of the ride. I warned Steven that I’d need to start very easy until it warmed up, which he was understanding about, of course – his legs were probably feeling a bit stiff too! We got into a nice pace out for town and began the long steady ascent over the pass. The top came remarkably quickly – we had been running well. At the top we’d planned to up our bags with Camelback, waterproof, head torch and compass in – when Steven suggested that we shared his. We’d be meeting our supplies regularly, it was good weather and would not be dark for at least an hour. Of course, I knew exactly what etiquette demands in such a situation and graciously accepted his chivalrous offer.
The run route is an adaptation of the Snowdon Marathon route – the adaptation being an add-on of approximately 10k round some pretty and very undulating minor lanes, which we reached after about 90 min of running. At this support stop, I took a big gulp of an energy drink that Lotte had made up out of an old sachet that I’d picked up in some race goodness knows in what year, and it tasted seriously off. I didn’t feel I could stomach anything more solid – until Marc offered me a dried apricot from the packet that he’d just opened for his supper. Pretty good, so I ran off with the lot – luckily he did not give chase, as I’m not convinced I’d have out-run him at that point!
So, I had something to keep me going, but very soon my stomach started to cramp quite nastily. I slowed down a bit to try and ease it…felt ok…ran on to catch Steven. Felt bad again….then much worse …and had to make a very hasty retreat behind a hedge.
Lucky I made it to a discrete spot, as whilst I was hiding a terrible sound of a large vehicle driving on a flat tyre passed down the lane. This turned out to be the support vehicle for another competitor in the race, who’d got lost on his way into Llanberis (with the run kit for T2) wound up on the off-road section of the run course in his van, frightened a sheep, swerved to avoid it and in doing so punctured two tyres. Lost, without any phone signal, Steven offered what help we could - that our crew come and collect the race gear and deliver it to T2 for them. We’d be left to finish without support, but at least his guys would have a chance of finishing at all. However, it transpired that their team had a second support vehicle, so we left him to it. At least he had managed to get a signal on his phone and contact the AA.
I was really beginning to run out of steam by this point and the distraction wasn’t particularly welcome. I was finding it harder and harder to start running again after each stop. I was also conscious that if I didn’t concentrate, my pace would seem to slow to little more than a jog –a-ha! The Ironman shuffle- and a gap would open up between Steven, who was running comfortably, and I. This was good enough motivation for me to continue trying to pick it up, since he was carrying all our gear, but did quite change the nature of the run for me. As it became dark we collected out head torches from the crew car, who were still in good spirits and providing excellent motivation, and despite their increasing concern about us managed to prevent us from sitting down in the car, or spending too long wandering around and talking gibberish at each stop. We continued to progress in this fashion, Steven running comfortably at his steady pace and me at my not-especially-comfortable-and-certainly-not-quick pace, until the beam from my head torch could no longer pick out the reflective patches on his bag, and I’d shout for him to wait up. I tried using my mp3 player, but soon became irritated by the fact that I could not keep pace with the music that I usually like to run with.
Either the energy or the motivation to speed up had left me, the dark was playing tricks on my eyes, and I had little energy to think about much aside from keeping Steven’s back in sight, and wondering how far round the course we were. I’d really lost track of time, but I suppose that we’d been running for about 5 hours. Our next stop was to be our penultimate, Marc having suggested that we skipped one in between, having observed that we were not really in need of nutrition or water, and the stops were really just breaking our rhythm and we were increasingly reluctant to depart each one. They even had resorted to standing, with cokes, away from the car in order to encourage us to pass quickly through! There was some confusion as to our location at that point (I exclude myself as I said – I was not keeping track very well and still believed us to be little more than half way!) and Steven was convinced that we had all managed to miss the agreed location and driven/run on to the last stop point, from where the vehicle would not be able to accompany us as the course went off road up and over the ridge in Llanberis. A few yards down the road, he was proven right, much joy, as we only had a further hour of running max.
This was the hardest hour for me though – despite knowing that the end really was in sight, to get there meant first tackling a very steep ascent of 3km before the steep off road descent into town. I was totally physically depleted and unable to do more than just keep moving. Steven was quite amused, and asked if I’d ever been in this state before – I don’t think that I had. I’d blown up during the Jungfrau but that was a quite different experience, associated with lack of nutrition and the altitude. In this case I just had nothing left in me at all. Walking breaks became increasingly frequent. I wondered if the head torch of a chasing competitor had appeared behind us, would I have been able to pick it up – probably not. Maybe for a pack of angry dogs! But, it wasn’t unpleasant…I was up a mountain on a starry night, with Steven, having enjoyed a fantastic day and finally looking down onto the street lights of Llanberis – where we’d soon be able to celebrate the completion of the most challenging race I’d ever signed up for.
The final descent was a real challenge – legs so tired it was impossible to control my foot placement to protect the ankle and Achilles; it seemed to go on for ever –certainly longer than the climb. By the end I really was in considerable pain. But reaching the smooth back roads of town, with people stood outside the pubs admiring our dedication (‘they don’t know the half of it’ I joked to Steven –‘they don’t know the 20th of it…, he replied) and knowing that we’d done it lifted my spirits. We joked on about ‘race you to the line’ …we also enjoyed the joke that the organizers had played on us – tying the finish tape so tight that we bounced straight back off it when we ran into it together!
