Snowdonia marathon

Found yesterday's Snowdonia marathon considerably tougher and less enjoyable than last year. I took 26 minutes off last year's time, which might have something to do with it - but think it more likely that I am still recovering from Cardiff two weeks ago, and had a tough training session with Buckley on Thursday. My tapering was not as thorough as usual. The weather was perfect, unlike last year, and I went over Pen y Pass comfortably within the first 100 runners. Glorious running down to Beddgelert, although unlike Cardiff I never felt entirely comfortable. Kept it going until I met with the family and Dave in Waunfawr, and then suffered on the final climb to Bwlch y Groes, although passed quite a few runners on the fell race decent and had a dreadful time after finishing, throwing up and very cold. Finished in 3:44 in 194th place, out of a big field - supposedly 1500 entrants, but there can't have been that many on the day. No more marathons for me until next spring at the earliest, after my triptych of great events over the last 7 weeks: Jungfrau, Cardiff, Snowdonia - a memorable trio. I intend to concentrate on shorter, faster stuff this winter, with maybe a few fell races, until I up the mileage in the New Year.