Snowdonia Marathon

I took part in the Snowdonia Marathon at the weekend, it was its 25th Anniversary.

The start was in Nant Peris and the finish was in Llanberis and was a clockwise route on road around the mountain and then a bit over it near the end which was off road.

The first couple of miles there was a step hill up to about 1,200 feet (365m) which was then followed by the same amount of downhill. This was just as hard as the uphill due to the pressure put on your back when running down at a faster pace. There was also a slight breeze through the valley.

At about 8 miles I noticed I was on to beat my marathon PB which was on a relatively flat course so I thought I would be harder near the end. A bit after then it started to rain lightly and a bit more wind. So at this point I decided instead of getting wet and cold I would put on the green bin liner which I had for the start line and decided to keep with me on the run and ended up keeping on until about the last mile.

Some of the water stops had mars bars which had been cut up in to sections these would good to have as something different to Gels and sports drinks.

There was a few more smaller undulations until near the end where there was another big hill to go over. By this time I was walking up it with my heart rate was still increasing due to its length and steepness.

Even in the last half mile there was 2 more inclines which where only 50 to 100 ft but felt massive at that point due to my legs muscles being exhausted.

Below is an image of the course profile from another runners GPS.



The race was harder then I expected but it also had some great scenery.

Included is a link to another person's photos of the race, the majority of which are taken near the top of the first hill.

Some more photos of the area can be found on Flickr. The route was from Nant Peris south east along the A4086 then south west on the A498 and then north west on the A4085 towards Waunfawr which was then across off road to Llanberis.

I really enjoyed the race despite the conditions and the hillier route.

I ended up with a time of 4 hours 48 minutes which I was pleased with.

Highlights of this years race are available on line at the S4C (welsh tv) web site. You will need to click on the link under available programmes called Marathon Eryri 2007.