Snowdon Trial and R'adys Swiss MM 2010

Last week was a bit busy, with some terrex prep and the world championships mountain running trial followed by a road trip to the swiss alps!
On Saturday 7th August I (along with Rob Little) spent the day on ulswater with Kim, perfecting paddling and ropework ready for the terrex. I now have 2 star kayak under the new rules which will come in very helpful for adventure racing!
That night me and Rob headed down to Llanberis for the world champs trial the following day. I wasn't sure what to expect of myself here but having had endless PBs this year and feeling really strong uphill since riding in Portugal I was hoping I might be running well enough to make the U23 team going to Smarna Gora. The trial went from Llanberis up the tourist track to the summit of Garnedd Ugain, 4.5miles with over 900m climb! I set off well, not pushing it too hard on the steep start section and settled into a rhythm. My X-talons were perfect for this race, giving grip when needed but being fine for the less technical running. I could see Emma Clayton, Zanthe Wray and Ali Lavender (U23 team 2009) ahead but wasn't gaining any ground on them! I had a bit of a battle with a welsh girl as it got steep towards the top and suddenly I was past Ali and gaining on Zanthe. As it levelled off again the welsh girl pushed for the top and disappeared into the mist. Ali then came charging back past, running with her boyfriend for support. Thankfully the top had another steep section in store and I made it back past Ali in the last 200m. I finished 2mins 30 down on the 1st U23, this put me in 4th U23 position and an amazing 16minutes faster than in the 2008 trial! I think this means 1 place and 30s out of selection, which is very disappointing but I will be back next year to try again! This is the best performance in a race I've had this year so I couldn't ask for more than that.
The following Wednesday I set off with Wil on a road trip to Pontresina in Switzerland. A long drive later and a stop over night we arrived and set up camp for a bit of aclimatization before the r'adys Mountain Marathon which started on Saturday 14th August. Thursday we spent walking around and on Friday we ran up to the morteratsch Glacia (above). On Thursday I felt like I wouldn't be able to run anywhere, but by Friday evening, having registered I was feeling a lot more ready!
Now, I thought we were on holiday, but according to Wil we were going to win! So on Saturday morning I set off in the mass start with that target!
The weather was looking a bit threatening but it was dry when we started (if not a little cold).
We set off at a good pace and were racing with the leading group on the short mixed class. After a few. We quickly found our navigation experience to be of great benefit and meant we took some good lines that kept us in contention. At about 10km of running wil started to suffer a bit and sadly this was one section we couldn't rely on navigation for. Over an hour of track running with little nav option meant we lost a lot of time to the other teams, that we couldn't catch back even when it got rocky towards the end. A slight nav error (we were looking for a pond that turned out to be a marsh, with marsh that looked like a pond 100m from it) lost us a few more minutes and we made it to overnight camp in 3hrs33, half an hour down on the winners in 7th position!
We put the tent up and then it started raining.....and didn't stop....but got harder....a bit like the OMM....
It was nice to be inside a dry tent at this point, I didn't envy those who were coming in after 8hrs, drenched!
After a wet night in a tent it was difficult to prise ourselves out of sleeping bags at 6am, it was COLD! and WET! After making it out of the tent though it wasn't all that bad. We set off in the chasing start and caught the first pairing by the 1st control (although these were in the female pairs catagory). The major climb of the day came all at once (about 800m of it) heading to control 4. This was where we started to get caught, but wil was adamant we should be going slow, so I sat behind him in order to not get excited and follow teams passing us up the hill. One team looked set on destruction, with the woman trying desperately to hang onto the guy who was pushing hard up the hill. We emerged at the top and found lots of loose slate like rock to negotiate. Perfect! We moved quickly over this taking direct lines where others were taking slightly easier routes around. By the 5th control we had caught everyone we had been overtaken by and at 6 we caught a team that started 10mins ahead of us!
We were flying...then I fell over giving myself an impressive dead leg! And a lapse in concentration meant a mess up on the nav front losing us vital minutes and a position or 3...
We ran as fast and direct as possible to control 8 and then hammered it down the hill (this hurt a lot as my leg wanted to collapse underneath me and I insisted it didn't!). We caught one of the pairs that had overtaken us but finished just behind the team that had started 10mins ahead of us. We finished 7th again (very consistent) and 8th overall! Not bad for a holiday but not entirely winning :-)!
The first day we had run 19km with 900m climb, starting at 2000m, the second day 17km with 900m climb with a max height on 2800m.
Lesson learnt for next time is: 1) stay a bit longer at altitude beforehand and 2) buy a second map to avoid nav mistakes!
Now it's a bit of a rest before the Terrex on bank holiday weekend!