From Petra Bijsterveld…
Photo credit Nick Preston…
It was meant to be my 4th Snowdonia Marathon on Saturday, but the event has been postponed until 2022 by the organisers. I had hung on to my 2-night accommodation just outside Bangor with the vague idea of still having a weekend away. A few weeks ago I went online on the off-chance that there might be a race somewhere nearby on the same weekend, to find that the Bangor Half Marathon (and a 10K) was taking place on the Sunday. It was just meant to be! I sharpened my legs on Saturday morning by running Conwy parkrun just down the coast, which was a lovely, friendly and scenic event, and I spent a nice sunny afternoon exploring Caernarfon Castle. Returning to my Travelodge room and checking the forecast for the morning again I did actually consider calling it a day and driving home, heavy rain and 40 to 50 mph gales were forecast just for the time I would be running. Thankfully I did not go home, as the weather turned out to be much better than that. We started at 09:30 and it was actually mainly dry and sunny, with intermittent showers and a bit of a breeze, but certainly no gale. In fact with a temperature of 10 degrees conditions were pretty perfect. The heavens did not properly open until about midday by which time I was dry in my car. The route was fairly scenic, the highlight for me was running on Garth Pier, a classic Victorian listed pier, which came early in the race, and where we were treated to a beautiful rainbow. Whilst described as a road race, I found the route stretched the definition of ‘road’ a bit for quite a few miles. Yes it was tarmac, but much of it was on small paths through the woods, covered in leaves, twigs and standing water. Pretty and definitely nicer than running on a dual carriageway, but combined with the significant undulation it meant that this was never going to be PB course. My Saucony racing flats (don’t laugh! I wear them as they suit my feet, not my speed) felt a little inappropriate on the wet autumn leaves but they were actually OK, and I was super grateful that I had decided against my ON’s which would definitely have had me sliding all over the place. Having not done any road racing for what feels like a century I had felt a bit daunted by the prospect of 13 miles of keeping going at an ‘acceptable’ speed, but I was fairly happy with my pacing, though uneven due to the ups and downs (why can you never regain on the downs what you lose on the ups!?), and I overtook a few people in the final miles which gave me a bit of a boost. The last 2 miles were less pleasant due to cramp in one calf as well as a stitch, but I gritted my teeth and kept pushing even when a marshal said it was downhill all the way and it was actually uphill to the finish!
(1 1:15:35 Ryan Roberts, Cybi Striders)
126 2:05:52 Petra Bijsterveld
198 ran