Trail Marathon Wales 2022

June 18th 2022

26 miles - forest tracks and trail

Trail Marathon Wales - a very general name for a race in Coed y Brenin forest park. First brought to my attention by a fellow runner on the track, who had entered for last year but unfortunately the race had not gone ahead (he didn't seem to know why....).

So, on the list it went, positioned in the season as a training run before I tackle a 50km race in a couple of weeks. Just labelling it this way, in the knowledge that, yes I can walk the hills, and yes, it's OK to eat / carry a bit too much, made me feel pretty relaxed coming into it. Straining my intercostal muscles doing strength work on Tuesday morning however, did not. It was therefore with mixed feelings I went into this race - the previous night's musings including "should I take ibruprofen or paracetamol before or during the race if the rib pain is unbearable?" and "have I set enough alarms to guarantee I wake up?".

Luckily I managed to go painkiller-free, after scaring myself reading stories of the side effects (gastric distress? no thank you). I also woke up well in time, my 2 year old home grown alarm clock having instilled an unnecessary 5.35 body clock wake-up. For the latter reason, the start of 9am felt pretty late, but thankfully all on time and before I knew it I was off! As so often is the case, the run started with a climb, which I decided it would be a great idea to jog up, in order not to lose position or impede the throngs of people on a fairly narrow track.

Once up, I jogged off and recovered, but took a more measured approach to the next climb at about 5 miles, walking some sections whilst munching on some Clif Bloks. The trail was quite busy still, but I was actually enjoying the terrain, alternating between large forest tracks, twisty woodland trails, and even a mild bog (thankfully pretty dry).

The halfway point / half marathon finish came surprisingly quickly, preceded by one of those downhills where you know the only way is up (and up, and up). I achieved my target of not being overtaken by a half marathoner (normally a close thing when they start an hour behind) and set off under the main road and up the next hill. This started steep so I did a spot of walking, but then turned out to be entirely runnable. A protracted but pretty climb, it took me right to 17 miles, and by the time I was down, 19 miles had really flown by.

Feeling strong (yet remembering this was just a training run, with the aim of a fast recovery ready for the next race) I pushed on, now overtaking a fair few people, including a large huddle of ladies at the checkpoint. At about 21 miles there was a hill that was definitely to be hiked, but from 24 miles the paths were wide, friendly and largely downhill. Back under the road I went, having run out of water (as usual!) but not caring, and along past the finish. The last half mile really did seem an unnecessary tour right past the finish (ugh) and along the river, then up a hill, which had me in guaranteed grunt mode for that all important finishers photo - never mind!

I'd started well back in the female field, but as it turns out I finished 8th and not too far behind 7th. I think the times of the ladies above were well beyond my means (especially as a training run) but there were some incredible women running, and the men's field seemed pretty strong too. Overall pleased with that run and here's to a speedy recovery into the next taper....