Oh, and Jules how did you get on with your Snowdonia challenge?
I gave it my very best shot but sadly we retired as a team at 12.5 miles out of the 22mile course.
The weather was truely horrendous, 50+mph winds and horizontal rain on the peaks, very slippery rocks all the way down the miners track from Snowdon and it was arduous all the way. Conditions were so bad that the organisers actually extended the time limits by 30mins to give people a fighting chance.
Half the problem is the pace, we had to do the 8.5miles or so from Llanberis over Snowdon and crib-y-dygsyl and down the other side to pen-y-pass in 3hrs. On the flat that pace is easy but up, over and down a 3500 foot mountain in foul weather is a different thing entirely. We did manage 22minute miles up mountain but it was really draining.
We did make that checkpoint but I was suffering by then and the 2000 foot climb up the other side of the valley to Glyder Fach was just too much, literally I got to the point of stumbling and getting blurryness to the outer edges of my vision so it was time to call it a day.
I was bitterly dissapointed with myself as, whilst I knew it would be hard, I did not expect to find it quite so difficult.
We will go back for another attempt, possibly next year, but I need to up my level of training to a whole new level of pain having seen just how tough it is.
I must say, there were plenty of times when I wished I was sitting in Chugs field chewing the fat and drinking cider. Glad you all had a really good time, the hydroforming experiments look paticularly good fun.
I hope the heated pool was good, I just spent an hour in mine with a couple of beers getting over the weekend and the 360 mile drive home.
