Glad I Cut My Toenails

I have always said that I could wake up any day of the week and churn out a marathon. How I finish the distance is another matter completely and that is dependent on a number of things, not least the amount of training put in. Yesterday pretty much proved that statement to the letter.

The Snowdonia marathon is widely acknowledged as one of the toughest around. It's not the sort of race where you can just turn up with next to no training under your belt and nail it. However, having taken an overdose of MTFU, I turned up at the start with next to no training under my belt and nailed it!! Well, I didn't exactly nail it but I got round and even managed a sprint finish with a smile on my face.

Before the Pain

The weather forecast did not promise that conditions would be great with showers and winds all day. But, with forecasters generally being the sort of people who would struggle to know what the weather was doing if they looked out of the window, the race passed with very little in the way of precipitation and winds only really getting up on the high ground. I was actually grateful for a decent tail wind almost all the way from Beddgelert to Waunfawr.

The lack of training became apparent quite early as I could feel the burn in my quads and calves on the descent to Llyn Gwynant at only 7 miles and I did start to think about an early exit but a combination of the aforementioned MTFU coupled with some amazing scenery meant the miles ticked off with a decent regularity and I only really began to hurt properly after the steep ascent from Waunfawr to Bwlch Y Groes.

As the ground levelled off I tried to break into a jog again, which proved exceedingly difficult as everything had seized up. No matter, it was a mere 3 miles to the finish line and the sun had started to break through the clouds. All was well.

Almost Home :)

There was one last twist, which led to the title of this post. For the uninitiated the constant pounding of toes into shoes across 26.2 miles can have quite a severe effect, as I had discovered during MdS last year when I lost 5 toenails. This effect of the pounding is exacerbated on downhill runs when trying to slow the descent. And, just as the climb from Waunfawr had been cheekily steep, the descent to Llanberis was equally so. Had I not trimmed the old tootsies, I would have been pulling a nail or two off in a couple of days. You just can't beat experience.

4:47 is the slowest time I have done for the marathon without any weight on my back ( I don't really count the 4kg or so I had with my Camelbak and goretex) but it was possibly one of the more satisfying of the 30 I have now completed, mainly due to the challenge faced and conquered. I now have 3 weeks to push on with some quality training on the back of this and be ready for the Beacons Ultra. More suffering awaits but isn't that why we run?

As a post script, I found one more thing to be thankful for on the drive home. Cruise control, enough said.