By Barry McIntyre
Location: Llanberis, Gwynedd LL55, Wales (where the train leaves for the summit of Mount Snowden, highest peak in UK south of Scotland).
.Website: http://snowdoniaslateman.com
Last year I got 10 people from work to do a triathlon. No bribery, no trickery just the promise of something different. I selected the sprint in DCT but as I was helping out and the date didn’t suit three of them the four of us took a trip to Fermoy for the Blackwater Sprint Triathlon. (actually a Duathlon as the river was flooding and dangerous).
All enjoyed their days out and there was a general enthusiasm afterwards. One of the Fermoy folks was caught boasting that he had done a triathlon to his friends and he was brought to earth with a big poster in the office Kitchen with pictures of the two triathlons but the Blackwater one said TriDUathlon and plenty of banter just to rub it in that he hadn’t actually completed a triathlon. Well pissed of he retorted ‘I did do a triathlon, but that he will do another just to prove that it was god and not him that changed the race. I’m not changing my mind but I’m a gonna prove it again.’
This year I sent around a link to the Snowdonia Slateman. Looked exciting and different and all agreed that this would be good. I sent a few emails describing Snowdonia as a mountainous region and that there were climbs on the bike and run. I mentioned that I thought that the lake swim would be cold and also up hill. Training would be important folks.
So Logistics:
Drive to Dublin docklands
Ferry to Hollyhead €80 a head return.
Drive to Lanbrisas was about 60min and about 45miles. Llambrisas is a serious centre for outdoor pursuits , hiking and mountaineering and rock climbing being the main ones. Doesn’t matter where you stay you will be within 5 min of the start of the Slateman.
Accommodation: Quite a touristy glacial valley so no shortage of accommodation. In the middle of May so the prices for accommodation are reasonable. We stayed in two places:
Padwin Lake Hotel http://www.padarnlakehotel.com (cheap family rooms centre of village) €210 each for two family rooms for two nights (two adults and three kids in each). If it looks like Faulty Towers then it is. People in hotel were most friendly. Décor average. Breakfast excellent and a talking Parrot in the lounge pure quality. Smokers in the adjoining pub out till 12 at night singing outside the hotel. Some rooms are over a neighbouring night club so noise till 2am get in early and get the rooms at the lake side. There is parking in hotel and also on road outside.
Galt Y Glynn http://www.gallt-y-glyn.co.uk/ bar and restaurant in their Bunkhouse. Two rooms, clean hostel dorm type accommodation, with 4 beds in each. Cost 100 per room per night. Parking available
Parking: Was advised to make sure we parked in a proper parking as they will come and ticket your car if parked illegally (good to know). The paring gnomes target events in Llanbrisas in order to make up their ticketing targets. Be warned.
Eating: we ate on mass 16 people in the Galyt Y Glynn (how can you refuse a place that includes a free Beer with your meal) average cost was about £10 including free pint. About a 8 min walk from centre of village.
Saturday spent up Mount Snowdon in the clouds with a fantastic 360 view of about 10 foot in front of you. Walk down by 3 adults and 5 pixies took3.5 hours and then a 10 min bus ride back to Llanbrisas.
Registeration: very straight forward for all on the Saturday 12noon – 5pm. One of us didn’t arrive till Saturday night so he registered in the morning no problems.
Free get your bike tuned up by our northern friends Chainreactioncycles. 3 of our group took advantage of this and a good job was done.
Triathlon: 800 competitors in the Olympic and 200 in the sprint.
Organisation: Exceptionally well organised triathlon. Really good atmosphere. Register day before and also that morning. Number transfers for arms and wrist bands ensured that the bike was matched to the person taking it out and bringing it in. no access to transition unless you had a wristband that was put on at registration.
Swim: Temp about 10C (fairly cold, a lot of people not used to swimming in these temps panicked and struggled. I would suggest a few cold dips into the Irish sea before heading over), Triangular course, 4 waves of about 200 doing the Olympic triathlon 1000m.
Got into the water quickly. Immediately went for the ‘mind over matter’ and submerged fully. Best to get the freezing over before the start. It was cold and I never fully warmed up in the swim. Swim took about 21min and then run to transition on Grass was 1 min. Exited in top 25% of my wave. I was mad Dizzzy on exit of water although I didn’t feel like this in the water. I felt ok while swimming. Looking back I very obviously pushed too hard on the swim as I am a mid pack swimmer.
T1: the transition is very well setup with lots of room. They seem to add about 300 participants each year so don’t know if this will stay spacious going forward. About 150m run on grass from lake to beeping machine at start of T1, Transition is about the size of DCT and bike mount position is immediately you leave the grass. Whole of Transition is Grass so no issues with running on stones or hard surfaces. Heart rate 175 Z5 or so (my max on bike is 175 and my biking LT is 150) so way to high. I was as wobbly as it gets taking off my wetsuit. Kinda like magic mushrooms reinvading. Didn’t feel well. Musta pushed the swim too much and then ran to fast into T1. Coulda been the Free beer with dinner.
T1 Time: 3:15
Cycle: 51Km with one good climb after 5Km. (see picture from the top of the Pass with the Swim lake and transition in the background) The climb is gradual but lasts for about 3 or 4 Km. I would practice doing a bit a climbing before going over for sure. A few people walking at the end and a
good few others that were cycling slower than walking, kinda like those slowest cyclist races we useta do as kids. Really enjoyed the cycle. Amazing setting. The wind picked up for last 20K but very well marshalled and spectacular views for all the cycle. Not really a technical technical course. Most turns are Left hand turns. Some at speed downhill. Very well marshalled. It is not a closed road cycle so you are always sharing the road with traffic throughout the whole triathlon (after the Llanberis Pass the traffic quietens down to very little traffic at all). This is not an issue though as there are not to many technical parts to the course. It is worth driving the first 15Km as there are some high speed turns. Lad collided with a Motorbike seconds before I arrived at scene. He took a downhill corner to fast and ended up on wrong side of the road and smashed into a motorbike. Bits of both bikes all over the road and cyclist not moving. I cycled on and got marshal at bottom of the decent to move 200m and stop cars going up and then headed back onto course. The scenery is very amazing with Glacial valleys all around the whole cycle. With 15Km to go I had to have a long stop for wazz. And a very scenic wazz it was to.
Cycle was 51Km Time: 1:46, Average heart rate was 160 and could not get it down below 150
T2: Quick kiss on way into T2, then a change of feet and off I goes. Time 2.19
Run: My feet, always, irrelevant of Temperature, go numb on the bike. From about midfoot to the toes. It takes about 4 Km into the run to get toe sensation and foot sensation back. Anyone know what this is about please do get in touch as it means the start of every run is like running on stumps and can be tricky and unbalanced and sore. It doesn’t affect my bike riding although after 20Km I’m not feeling my feet. So now a 11Km run. They mentioned a quarry and then a trail. That sounded nice and interesting. The hard Hill climb on cycle was over. Let the run begin. I told the folks doing it from work that it was a hilly run and I musta convinced myself that this was the case as I wasn’t prepared at all for what was to come.
Llanbrisas has a huge slate quarry sculpted out of the side of the Mountain overlooking the lake. Running up a large mountain that has been sculpted into Zig Zag roads is near impossible. I ran up the first road took the hairpin bend and then realised that I could walk faster. So did everyone else. The whole field in my sight was only walking. I’m sure the fast young bucks in the first wave ran up it. This is not a Hill it’s a climb. 2.5Km of 8% climb to be exact. To compete effectively in this race you need to train for Fell running. The downhill is worse as there are multiple and consistent ankle twisting opportunities at every step of the way. The concentration required on the downhill’s on the trails is very tiring. Mentally exhausting. I had read about running downhill that you should have your arms out like your doing the Duck Flap. Started to do this and felt much better ballanced. Don’t know how that works but it does. In this run there is little flat running. You are either running up a steep gradient or down a steep gradient. I would estimate that there is possibly 3K of flat running and the rest is Directly up or Directly down. Very technicle running course. Be prepared. You will also be running in streams and wet rock, tree roots everywhere, loose slate underfoot as well as the usuail Grass tarmac and concrete. There are only two water stations on the run (this is the only weekness that I could see in the whole race). More were required. Again we were told there would be one station and we got an extra one. I think that most of the run would not be accessable to get water to so maybe that’s the reason.
(Picture of lake from the top of the Slate Quarry looking down to lake and transition. If you like that unbalanced dizzy feeling at high Heights then run here and stop and walk towards the edge of the Track. This is not a great place for folks afraid of heights, makes you feel unbalanced when you veer close to the edge.)
Time for 11K run was 1:05
Finish line with Quarry in the distance behind:
After event:
All the usual massage and a slate inscribed beer coaster for those that complete. A tee-shirt for an extra €10 in the goddie bag. There are 4 bands playing during the race to keep family and friends fully occupied. Many many food stalls and also bouncy castles and plenty of kids entertainment. It is one of those days out for the family. Most people travelled some distance and with family’s and there was a good buzz around the area.
This is a triathlon worth doing and the travel is very short for the level of enjoyment. Very well organised and nicely different.
My work colleagues all did the sprint (400m Swim, 20K bike, 5K run) bar one of them. They all found it really really tough. They focused on the coldness of the swim and the painful and very hard run. They all really enjoyed the achievement due to the difficulty of the course. There were many big smiles. Our Duathlete is now a Triathlete with sore legs.
Or other colleague he had completed a few sprints in years gone by. He decided to do the Olympic because he was not getting the training in and did not want to be in competition with the others who were actually getting some training in for the sprint. He wanted to avoid the comparison. He froze in the swim, couldn’t get his head in the water and breast stroked the whole 1Km. This took him 50min. The bike was ok but his legs were tired after his breast stroke swim. At the start of the run he was saying to himself, I should have paid more attention to Barry’s email about the Hills. (He thought I was taking the piss in my emails and ignored them). Towards the middle of the run he had completely changed over to cursing the day he met me and calling me all types of unmentionable names. Called to question my humanity, my private parts, my children, sisters, mother and even my dog (I don’t have one). Being aggressively unpleasant to me was what got him to the end. His time was 4hours and 50min. He was sore. I dropped him to the train in Bangor and he got a flight three hours later from Manchester to Inverness and he said that rigamortis had set in on arrival in the highlands of Scotland. He has forgiven me but still walks around the office as if he just got off a horse he had ridden from Galway.
Looking at my times in my age group 40-49:
I am of slightly above average age being 45 and 11/12ths = AVERAGE
I was 1% faster than average in my swim time in my age group = AVERAGE
I was bang on average in my cycle = AVERAGE
And my run was 1% above average = AVERAGE
Transitions were only slightly above the average time as well = AVERAGE.
All in all An Average performance from an Average lad in a great great triathlon. Fully recommend it to anyone and hope there is useful info here for anyone that’s gonna give it a go.
Leave a Reply
Please LOG IN to post a comment.
COMMENTS