Im writing this having completed the Snowman Legend 2019, my second attempt at the Snowman Legend event. It was a great day and i’m going to try and summerise it as best as i can in the following blog.
My training started not long after completing the Snowman Legend 2018. I was happy with my time of 7h34m28s, however I felt that I could go back and do better, so thats what I decided to do.
Snowman 2018
I entered the 2019 event in October and got my B&B booked, so I was committed. Now for the hard part, training.
I got a training plan from the internet as I didn’t want to use the same one as the previous year. I mapped out my training on Training Peaks (which I love by the way) and it had me being much fitter in time for race day 2019. Over the winter I trained hard, particularly on the turbo in the kitchen as I felt that my bike section was my weakest part.
As part of my training, I had two events booked. First up was the London Landmarks Half Marathon, which took place in March. What a great event it was with great support and fantastic organisation. I was over the moon when I finished the 13.1miles with a new HM PB of 1:38:03.
London Landmarks 2019
Following the LLHM, I was entered on the Monster Mojito in Peterborough at the start of May. This is a local(ish) race to me and I had done it for the previous two years. On the day it was freezing and the air temperature was only 3oc. The swim was shortened due to the temperature of the water and this made me nervous. Once in the water it was cold! I managed to get through the swim and onto the bike. It took a good 30mins to feel my feet again and before I knew it I was onto the run. I had warmed up by this point and had a good run. Cant be a race PB as it was a shortened swim but my swim pace was a PB ,bike route was a PB and run was a PB for that event. I felt good and knew my training was starting to pay off. (Unfortunately no pictures as I raced alone and official ones had a HUGE watermark on)
Over the next few months, I continued to train hard and could see my metrics improving on Training Peaks and I was getting excited. Then a possible tragedy happened. I was 4 weeks out from the big day and on an interval training run. I was running on a usual trail and my foot went into a new rabbit hole. I ended up going over and felt immediate pain in my right foot. I managed to get home slowly and took my shoe off to see it was already bruised.
I woke up the next day and it really hurt to walk on it. I got through the day but it wasn’t good. A family member was a doctor so had a look and recommended that it was X-rayed as it could have broken one of my metatarsals. So the next day I was in the local hospital awaiting an X-ray. All kinds of thoughts were running through my head but I was just worried that the year of hard training was going to be in vain as if it was broken then that was race over. The X-ray luckily showed no break and was advised that it was some tendon damage. Lots of RICE and anti-inflammatory drugs were needed. For the next two weeks I did nothing but rest, ice and elevate. After two weeks I spent the next week starting to swim (mainly pull) and cycle gently on the turbo. I was still feeling a little pain in my foot and it was within two weeks of the race, my worry was that I would go and not get around. In the last 10 days before the big day, I slowly added a few gently runs, my furthest being 6k at a very gently pace of 5:25m/km.
The Big Day has arrived!
Finally the big day had arrived. For the last few days I had no pain in my foot so was feeling good, if not a little annoyed at the loss of fitness over the last month! My wife and I arrived at out B&B, Bron Eryri (excellent if your ever in the area) the night before the race as we had been to a wedding on the Saturday. The weather forecast for the morning was for heavy rain so I went to bed hoping it to be wrong! I had an early start as I had to register in the morning. I got up and had a tea and porridge, checked the weather and it showed that there would be drizzle, slightly better than the night before, and then set off at 5:15 with a gentle 2km ride to the event base at Plas Y Brenin.
My tea and porridge, a race tradition 
Outside B&B, with Moel Siabod, which I could climb later in the background
I arrived at Plas Y Brenin and register and got ready. Once in transition, the usual routine was followed and I was soon getting ready to get into the water. It was surprisingly warm and then nerves then kicked it. Once in the water, the strong wind coming up the valley could be felt and it was making the water more choppy than i’m used to. I got ready and the hooter went, the race had started.
Within 100m of the start, I had been punched, kicked, pulled and dunked. It took a good few minutes to find some clear water and get into my stroke. Once I did I felt good and powered along. After the end of the first lap, i started to feel my neck hurting. It then dawned on me that I had forgotten to put any Bodyglide on my neck and I knew that once I finished I was going to have a nice bit of chaffing on my neck! I got out the water having swum 2100m, according to my Garmin, which was longer than last year and longer than the 1900m it was meant to be. I didn’t realise this at the time and looked at my swim time and was a little disappointed that I was slower than the previous year.
I spent more time in T1 than last year and this was fine. I knew that with the chance of rain, I needed to be warm. I put a jersey on and some arm warmers, packed a rain jacket into my pocket and set off. I turned left out of transition and headed up Pen Y Pass towards Llanberis. There was a strong head wind all the way up the pass and down the decent into Llanberis. I had put my previous years time on my tri-bars as a guide to how I was going and at 15km I was around 5 minutes slower than the previous year.
Over then next 50km of so I managed to claw that time back and even get ahead of last years time. What I had learnt from the previous year, was that I was exhausted at the end of the bike. I made a real conscious effort to drink more and eat more this time around. This meant that I stopped at the feed station to fill one of my bottles up and doing this put me back a little on time. There were not bottles to swap so had to unscrew and fill from a canteen, losing me around 90 seconds. Then came the Crimia pass. This is a 7.5km drag with an average of 5% (according to Strava) with sections at 8%. Last year when climbing this, I went all out and tried to get up as quickly as possible. This broke me! So this year, I took it a bit easier and got into a nice rhythm and just tapped my way up it. It took an extra 1m14s but I felt good at the top. It did however, start to rain just as I got to the top. Not being the most confident descender, and in the wet, I made sure that I went down without going as fast as I may of. The road then went downhill most of the way to Betws-y-Coed. It was here that I felt drained the previous year, really struggling to get back. This year I felt great and rode strongly back to T2.
I got into T2 and made the decision to put on my calf guards, something I hadn’t done the previous year. I had to carry all the compulsory gear (waterproof top and bottoms, water, food, hat, gloves, phone and foil blanket) so put my hydration pack on and off I went. The run is a 6.5k out and back before tackling Moel Siabod. The first 6.5k were hard. It took awhile for my legs to come and it was a head wind with rain all the way. Once I turned it was a little easier as there was no wind and the rain eased and I started running and chatting to a guy called Will. This took my mind off the now painful legs and my pace and mood lifted. We arrived back at Plas Y Brenin together and said goodbye as he stopped to say hi to his wife.
This is where I made the decision to try and get close to last years time. I knew I was a little behind and knew the mountain would be tough as it was windy and the clouds were down on the mountain. I started up through the woods and tried to keep a fast walk / slow run making sure my heart rate didn’t go into the red. It was hard going but I felt good. I stopped half way up to put my jacket on as I was getting cold and then carried on to the summit. I got to the top around 7 minutes faster then the year before! There was no photographer this year at the summit so I got my phone out and someone took a photo at the top. Now for the down..
Half way up 
Summit of Moel Siabod – 872m
Going down hurt. My legs were burning, my left knee hurt and my toes were being bashed into the front of my trainers. I stopped to help someone who had fallen and to put my jacket away again and kept up a reasonable pace. About half way down I changed my watch to total time. It said 7h4m. I know a PB was on. I kept working hard and eventually got to the flatter final 2km on the gravel track. I pushed and managed to get to 5:30m/km and powered on to the finish. I crossed the line in 7h24m09s. A PB of 8m17s. I was over the moon!
| 2018 | 2019 | Difference | Total difference | |
| Swim | 34m48s | 36m28s | 1m39s | +1m39 |
| T1 | 3m41s | 4m50s | 1m09s | +2m48s |
| Top of Pen Y Pass | 20m33s | 23m08s | 2m35s | +5m03s |
| Mountain Centre – Llanberis | 37m25s | 41m52s | 4m27s | +7m14s |
| Waunfawr | 56m24s | 1h00m27s | 4m03s | +6m51s |
| Rhyd Ddu | 1h16m52s | 1h17m41s | 49s | +3m37s |
| Beddgelert | 1h26m09s | 1h26m22s | 13s | +3m01s |
| Garreg | 1h43m54s | 1h44m11s | 17s | +3m05s |
| Tanygrisiau | 2h22m59s | 2h22m58s | -1s | +2m47s |
| Top of Crimea Pass | 2h42m00s | 2h43m25s | 1m25 | +4m13s |
| Turn into Betws-y-Coed | 3h03m00s | 3h05m54s | 2m54s | +5m42s |
| Finish | 3h32m09s | 3h34m36s | 2m27s | +5m15s |
| T2 | 1m57s | 2m31s | 34s | +5m49s |
| Run turn | 41m25s | 43m12s | 1m47s | +7m36s |
| Start of Moel Siabod | 1h22m05 | 1h21m40s | -25s | +5m24s |
| Summit | 2h30m53s | 2h23m34s | -7m19s | -1m30s |
| Finish | 3h21m52s | 3h07m46s | -14m06s | -8m17s |
| Total | 7m34m26s | 7h26m09s | -8m17s | -8m17s |
Looking at my times against each other, I can see how important it was to fuel better on the bike. I know that my bike was slower, mainly due to the wind and rain. I ate much more and drank more, including my stop for extra water. This allowed me to be stronger later on into the run. The turn of the 1st part of the run was where my times were the furthest apart at 7m36s but the extra fuel paid coming into the end of the race where I blew up the previous year. I still cant believe that my run was 14m06s faster, amazing!
In summary, an amazing race and a great experience again. Despite the wind and rain, I really enjoyed it, even more than last year. As a result i’m already thinking about a 3rd year and trying to go faster again.
Thanks for reading
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