Race report by Natalie Covil
After hearing the sad news about Snowdon Marathon being cancelled – bad luck to all of you who trained so hard for it – I was very pleased that mine went ahead, mostly due to all the sponsorship currently around £1200.
I set off between the 2 storms with an earlier start time of 8 am.
It was so exhilarating racing in the wind and rain, literally at times being blown along up the hills. Definitely a wind assisted final 4-5 miles.
I tried so hard to heed the advice to start slowly, but I ended up covering the ground faster than anticipated since it was flat or downhill, but I did my best, walked the uphills, even gentle ones to save energy for the end.
Before I knew it the half way point arrived, with a head-wind and rain too. Then came the best, long muddy downhill, followed by a glorious lush grassy expanse of downhill of the route – all the Croft training sessions and winter xc races came into play here as I flew past people less comfortable on mud 
. (Thanks to all our Coaches 
)
Even the 2 sets of steps, totalling 300, between mile 17-18 accompanied by the Piper weren’t as bad as expected. The infamous Seven Sisters and Beachy Head climbs didn’t seem as bad as I anticipated either since I was being carried by the wind running up hill. It was a real blast.
My fastest mile was my 26th, level or downhill and 100%wind assisted, I stormed past a bunch of people at a strong 10k pace 
, this was followed by an unexpected slide on my bum down a short bank within the last 100m of the race and then my customary sprint finish to steal a final couple of places and I finished in a time of 5.27:28 which I’m elated about.
I can genuinely say I loved every minute of it and plan to enter again next year. If you like a hilly, challenging trail Marathon I’d definitely recommend it.
