Recently our very own Susan Wilson took on the small matter of a 50k Ultra down in North Wales… she’s shared the tales the trails with us.

Ultra Trail Snowdonia: Not for the faint hearted! Or gingers as it turned out, soooo hot!

Rewind 12 months and you get two rabbits in the headlights on the 100k route with me affected by the heat, seeing a man with two heads around 25 miles this resulted in a did not flourish and Jamie went onto achieve 42 miles but again did not flourish that day.

Fast forward one year, Jamie stood on the 100k start line following hip surgery and me standing the 50k start line after a tiny fracture to my tibia so I returned to have another go… Best decision ever doing the 50K!! Snowdon mountain range is exactly what it says on the tin, a blooming big mountainous area of ups, downs and stretches requiring four points of contact. It’s is breathtaking, brutal and beautiful with what some say without a path to follow!

Jamie and I arrived Thursday evening to Bangor and as a true romantic we spent the night in a trade car park nestled between a skip and a waterfall. Up Friday morning we headed to Llanberis with a drop off to a kennels for Lusky… me tearing up and him trotting off never looking back, the cheek of it! Arriving in Llanberris registration was priority, Jamie first and me later, atmosphere was building, expo village buzzing and 100 milers getting last minute prep done.

I chatted to a lovely lady from Sweden taking on the challenge asking how her training had gone “oh good but where I live is very flat so I’m hoping the hills are not too hilly“ I smiled and said good luck, in my head the voice said “ee god love yer!!”

Bits and bobs purchased as you do wandering in the expo village which was really well organised and relaxed with deck chairs set out and creating a festival feel without the festival fun. Jamie all registered and wrist strap secure we wandered and repeated the process for my registration. Which involved carrying the weight of a weeks food shop into a hot marquee to put two items on a huge tray, balance the given map, tee shirt and receive a wrist strap as a reward all part of the run experience listening to excited people around you, inhaling the muscle rub and catching snippets of conversation such as “first time ? How you feeling“ “oh I need the toilet… again“

We returned to the van and proceeded to spend the remainder of the Friday evening packing packs unpacking packs on repeat, as you do. As a lovely partner when the alarm goes off at 3am I obviously rolled over and asked the light to be turned off as you go please and just after 4am Jamie left the van for his adventure. What seemed like 5 minutes later and I was up and standing on the same start line at 7:30am, surrounded by the Welsh version of an UTMB race start line with Welsh drummers getting the mood going and waking everyone up.

The route is undulating with a capital U… straight up to Snowdon via the tourist path, turning left to descend down the pig track which basically is a boulder track involving traversing slabs of rock in parts, dodging the increasing number of people going in the opposite direction (often tutting and mumbling more ruddy runners). The route then turned to thankfully onto a little trail hurray… heading to check point 1 and water… relief!

The heat was building, the ginger was melting, but reapplied factor 50 and off I trotted through lovely woods and a flapping marshal jump the fence now” there was a huge ten tonne Bull happily enjoying freedom from his private field and can report that was not the worst climb of my day… up and onward then up a bit more. Woodlands lead to the Watkins path and hurtling downward were many triathletes moving far too fast, definitely not at chat pace.

The supply of water that would have been appreciated was absent so filter bottles to the ready and streams at this point was fast becoming a watering hole for most runners as we then headed back up to Snowdon aka Kings Cross Station, via what felt like a vertical challenge where the path had not been factored in. This section went on and on and up and up without any horizon to be seen, it was like clambering up an escalator when someone at the top was hoying down all the rubble from a building site… uneven under foot, hands and elbows… my thoughts wandered to Jamie as I looked over the one of many edges, this would be in the dark for him so when I saw a way marker laying down I stood it back up thinking that will be helpful!

On finally reaching the top of Snowdon, I saw many things that are not on the usual ultra including a woman on a rowing machine, many charity raising groups all very well but how way move over a runner coming through! My goodness this bit was dreadful and I ended up delicately screeching “coming through, a lady with poles, not afraid to use them “ this did seem to separate and make ways through to turn left and start a descent that was zigzagging, steep and the ground seemed to be moving underneath you (probably was to be fair with the amount of poles tapping on it) this lead to boggy, ankle splodging into CP2 and water thank goodness.

The route in the brochure clearly stated two big lumps followed by two lesser lumps so now I faced the two lesser lumps… do not believe brochures my friends! The remaining route included never ending on the edge sort of paths, woods with many trees to duck and dive also a red velvet chair… random but truly there and towards the end I passed many a vomiting man, many an exposed buttocks as no private wild wee opportunities so as we all know… what occurs on the trail stays on the trail, always [unless it’s on the DVRC website!]. After an age I could see glimpses of the finish only to take a turn up hill to fit in a final twirl to be reunited with the street I had ran up what felt like three weeks ago, and onto the finishing stretch, running nonstop to the finish and what a finish! Music, clapping, bell ringing and utter relief that my knee although puffing up nicely had survived and 35.5 miles, 11,000 feet of elevation had been achieved, cups of tea awaited and a sit down. I felt joy, relief and happiness, job done… now to refuel, drink tea and refresh to follow Jamie on his ongoing adventure.