20th January: Snow

After looking forward all week to the CTS Anglesey, Friday arrived and I was all prepared and ready for the off… Then the forecast snow made its appearance.

At least as the flakes fell I was able to skip-out of work early - the couple whose kitchen Si and I are fitting insisted that we pack our tools and go before we ended-up snowed-in at theirs seeing as they lived at the end of a dead-end street at the bottom of a hill!

When I returned in an unusual attempt at being organised I put all my stuff together ready for the run and loaded it into the car. Having looked at the map previously, the event base was in the middle of nowhere so into the car also went the camping stove, kettle and utensils, plus bacon and eggs so I could do myself a hearty post-race fry-up and get some warmth in to me.

I checked on the website and Facebook at 4pm for an update on the situation and they were stating that the race was still on.

The forecast was for just above freezing temperature-wise through the night, some snow but not too much and during the day it would be around 5 degrees, so it was going to be a cold sleep in a sleeping bag covered in a duvet on the back seat of the motor and a cold run, with no way of warming up afterwards except wrapping up very well.

I'd planned on leaving at around 6 to get there in plenty of time, but what with faffing around it was nearly 7:30 when I was ready to hit the road… I thought one last time I'd check on the event, just in-case it was cancelled… And just as well; Endurancelife posted on Facebook and emailed at just after 7:15 that after a dump of snow it was off :(

All that adrenaline and excitement built-up and nothing to do but curl-up in a warm bed rather than on a cold car-seat. Mentally seeing as I was prepared to run a marathon I thought I would jump on a train and do the canal again in the morning.

Saturday came and I woke-up feeling like I had a hangover from hell, without even having touched any of the sauce the night before. The snow had continued through the night and settled to a decent blanket of about 4 inches. Feeling like shit on a stick (I don't normally get ill) I canned the idea of the canal marathon seeing as I only managed to crawl out of bed at 11am, although I did decide to go-out on my normal 10k route down the canal as a compromise and to prove to myself that I could run whilst under the weather… Plus it would be a good chance to see my normal running route shrouded in snow for a change.

Putting on my trail shoes they made it through the snow and the mud that lay beneath with no problems, and to the bemusement of people out with their wellies slipping and sliding around walking very slowly to be passed by some whackadoodle in shorts jogging past them!

The run did not blast the cold away, so I was left to cough and sniffle with a massively blocked nose.