At 7.30am, me and Jetpack Jason arrived in darkness at registration after a half mile jog from the car park. It was already raining and the ground was sodden and heavy. Waterproof jacket on then, plus a pair of thin latex gloves under my regular gloves.
Within 20 metres of starting, we splashed straight into a stretch of ankle deep water, so 34 miles of wet feet was guaranteed. If only I had known what else lay in store ahead of us, this was nothing! I had opted for Hokas instead of the Inov-8s, in the hope that they would save my feet from a battering and not slide around too much. Hmmm.
The first section around North Stack is great (if you can lift your head up and enjoy the view). Up to the summit of the mountain for the first time, a quick hello to the excellent mountain rescue guys who spent all day up in the howling wind and rain, then down towards the lighthouse, making decent pace and trying not to overdo it. The ground water levels were pretty bad and all attempts to avoid ominous looking stretches of water were abandoned. Down to the first CP at South Stack lighthouse and across the approach road, but it’s flooded over its entire width. Sod it, I’m already wet so I ploughed through it only to plunge waist deep in freezing water!! As I dibbed in, the guy at the CP who had watched all of this just says “yeah a few people have done that already”. Cheers for the shout my friend, not.
Now I am soaked and freezing from the waist down after 4 miles. Hey ho, positive attitude man, and so I ploughed down the track to get some blood flowing back into my quads. From here it was a steady relentless recipe of mud and floods to Trearddur Bay, where the girls stood in the rain to cheer me on, lifting my spirits in the process. Along the promenade, playing dodgems with the waves crashing right over the sea wall, then up the road out of the village and back onto the coastal trail, hunting down a couple of bodies in the distance. At Rhoscolyn, the tide was in so it was a madcap scramble through the shallows followed by a section of pebbly beach to CP3.
From here the route loops back north and I was out on my own, meandering through muddy sections with the odd boardwalk to bridge the deeper water. I felt good and the pace was comfortable, all the way back to join the coast and retrace the road section through Trearddur Bay again. I had guesstimated my times for the family to see me come by and was looking forward to some jaffa cakes! As I went by, there was no sign of them. It was not surprising that they were not just hanging around in the rain, plus I must have been about 15 mins ahead of schedule. Up the hill to CP4 where the marshal tells me that I am 12th, which felt great as I had no concept of who was in front.
A quick word about my nutrition here, as I recall the marshal handed me a bag of crisps from which I ate one and then carried the rest of the bag to the finish. I was carrying 500ml of water and 500ml of coke and didn’t refill. Afterwards I found I had only drunk 200ml of water and 300 ml of coke. Not good, but cold wet weather doesn’t provoke my thirst very much. I also had 4 gel flasks each holding 2 gels. One I had in the first 10 miles and one I had in the second 10 miles. The other 4 gels just went for a long day out in my pack. My hands were so cold that I lost the ability or will to try and get anything from my pack. I had also made some flapjack and only ate one small piece after an hour and that was it. I had a growing feeling of sickness from about 20 miles onwards and though I should know better, it stopped me forcing food in when I needed it the most. The only other food I had was a few jelly babies at CP3 and 3 jaffa cakes as I passed the kids at the finish line for the last lap.
At around 24 miles I really started to feel the effects of the heavy ground in my legs and approaching the mountain I knew I was in for a hard slog to the finish. My quads felt dead and by now the marathon front runners were passing me. The climb up the mountain was a mostly narrow and rocky gorse lined singletrack, down which a steady flow of ankle deep water was pouring. My pace reached an all time low, not helped by being passed by other runners from the different events. I was freezing cold and forcing myself to keep moving. Knowing I had all this to do again was also becoming a real issue in my mind.
Down the tricky first part of the descent off the summit I stumbled a couple of times with cramp twinges, then opened it up a little towards the finish area. Listening to the cheers and seeing runners completing their race really hit me harder than I had anticipated. Seeing my girls perked me up a bit and I tried to look happy as I headed back out onto the trail, with the marathon course completed in just under 4hrs 40 mins. As I plodded on, I saw another ultra competitor call it a day on the first loop of the last lap and that made me strangely more determined to suck it up and plough on. That could so easily have been me.
As I approached South Stack, I climbed on the seawall to avoid the waist deep flood this time and then began the homeward stretch, with the mountain staring me in the face as a final freezing rain shower blasted across me from the south.
The climb back up to the summit took forever, the water still flowed relentlessly down the track and so I just kept my head down until the Trig point loomed. The encouragement of the marshals acknowledged my second lap summit and it fired me up for the drop to the finish. 6hrs 22 mins and 20th place. Not impressive considering how long the last lap took me. However 15 people did not finish out of 70 and nearly all of those were in the last section.
Lessons; this was definitely not the toughest race in elevation terms, but the combination of extremely heavy going ground conditions and the mental battle of that last 10k loop combined to make me feel satisfied enough with the days work. Nutrition started well but went out of the window when the queasiness kicked in and when my hands stopped working and made simple tasks impossible.
With some warm clothes on and 2 cups of hot tea in me the shivering subsided and I almost felt human. Before long, Jetpack came down the hill, not bouncing for once but happy to see the finish!
Note; the tough bit is all at the end!
This was my first Endurancelife event and it was pretty well organised. The course was well marked. I just don’t like the recipe of using one basic course to make up different event distances, although I guess this is only an issue for the Ultra folk and though I knew that would be a test beforehand, it still hurt like hell when I was at a low ebb.
Warming up again with one of my little princesses!