Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

I'm just back from 3 days of running in Snowdonia - the first 2 with Snowdonia Running Guides (Iain and Sarah Ridgway), and the 3rd, racing the Moelwyn 3 Peaks hill race. The idea was to get some quality running accomplished in the mountains and brush up on some navigation skills, ready for the meat of the hill running season. We travelled down to Leek on Wednesday and I left Becky and the girls with Pat and John on Thursday, driving over to the campsite at Nant Peris, near Llanberis. Thursday afternoon, I met Iain and we run over the Glyders from Llanberis to Ogwen, over one of the legs of the Paddy Buckley Round. I had been hoping that I'd be in possession of a bit more endurance but after my 3 week layoff, I was a bit behind where I should be. Still, I knew I could run over the hills, albeit a little slower than I might have wished. We pushed on up through the slate quarries to gain the ridge over Elider Fawr where we headed into the clouds. It had been warm and sunny in the valley but in the clag it was a bit grim. The idea was for me to navigate but it didn't take much more than holding the map, since I knew the route reasonably well. Over Y Garn and down to the steep pull onto Glyder Fawr, which is never pleasant. We were making good time up to this point but the plateau over to Fach is very rocky and I'm not a huge fan of running over this sort of terrain. Turns out I'm far too clumsy and nearing the second summit, I caught my right foot whilst moving at speed and went headlong into a rock, taking the full brunt on my left shoulder. I was very lucky - no broken bones. It bloody hurt though - my left arm was completely dead for a full minute and it still hurts now, 3 days later. So, we slowed down a bit after that. It took a while to find the descent to the col below Tryfan and it was a bit tricky to negotiate with my useless arm dangling by my side. My legs were tired on the pull up to the final summit and then the descent, which should be relatively simple in the dry was a pain in the neck and very slow going, even on the final steps down to the road, since my shoes wouldn't grip them at all. We were back at the car after 4 and a half hours, which wasn't too bad, particularly since I had 2 more hard days to come. Iain is one of the best hill runners in Wales and his knowledge of the mountains in the area is excellent. If you are looking to get to know Snowdonia, want to brush up on your navigation or are taking part in one of the many mountain-based challenges, then I can recommend you give Snowdonia Running Guides a call. Lovely, friendly people too.