A shuffle around Snowdonia

Snowdonia — I admit that I’m only here because a running mate from
Auckland entered, and invited me to join him. Mind you, if you ever
fancy a run along a road, this is not a bad spot to choose. The
scenery is pretty throughout, and the event is enthusiastically
supported by the locals. There seems to be someone at every corner
offering a bowl of jelly babies and cheers of encourgement. The
weather starts out as it means to continue, with showers turning to
heavy rain and then hail. Well, you wouldn’t come to Wales expecting
anything different. At least the wind has dropped and it’s not too
cold.

Road runners are a different breed from hill runners. I fall behind
steadily on the inclines, only to catch up and more on the descent. By
the last climb my steady shuffle is enough to pick up a few more
places, and the prospect of a sub-4 hour finish is all the incentive I
need to turn on all the pace I can muster for the last, glorious down
hill stretch. My watch records 3:57 at the finish — neither a PB or a
PW, and a much better time than I had expected.

The extended highlights (in Welsh) can be seen on
www.s4c.co.uk