Ultra Trail Snowdonia, Eryri 100km race report.

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 Alex8584 17 May 2023

A forum member asked me on a previous thread asked if I could write a race report on the UTS100, so after a few days letting the experience sink in, here it is.

I stayed at a great little Airbnb just outside of Caernarfon so only had a 10 minute drive to the event, the only issue was parking. The event organisers offered the uts100 and 165 runners parking near the venue for 55 pounds, which I missed out on, the alternative offered at 35 was almost 2 miles away. I instead parked at the Electric Mountain car park which is 10 pounds for 24 hours and is about half a mile away.

I started the race quite near the front as I didn't want to get caught up in traffic going up the llanberis path. A lot of runners started off at an incredible pace, but I plodded along at 9 min a mile until I hit the first climb. The route went as far as bwlch glas, then decended via the pyg track to the first aid station at Pen Y Pass. Even though it wasn't seven yet it was already starting to get warm, so I took off my coat and set off up to Glyder Fach. 

The accent is very steep, boggy in places and has some easy scrambling. On the summit we decended down to llyn idwal via the devil's kitchen. This is a very technical decent and unfortunately someone seriously lacerated their leg on the way down. The route then climbed up to bwlch tryfan and then decended to the A5 to the second aid station. Very little of the course so far had been runnable and it was starting to get very hot. 

The next section climbs up to the carneddau via Pen yr ole Wen. There are some sections of scrambling where the poles had to go away climbing up to the summit. There was also no wind and many people started to cramp. I had to refill my bottles from a stream halfway up. The top of the carneddau is runnable, which made a change although the down scramble onto Pen Yr Helgi Du definitely wasn't. A lot of people seemed to find this section quite challenging as it was poorly marked and had two route options. In the wet one could have been a bit spicy the other had a five foot down climb.

The next aid station was grim, there was hardly any shade and lots of people were withdrawing from the race. The next section was described as runnable and would have been if I wasn't so exhausted from the heat, so I decided to power hike to the halfway point at Capel curig and take stock when I arrived. The route on the map showed at least a mile of forest, unfortunately it had been felled so it was really muddy and I disappeared up to my shorts a couple of times. I had also run out of water and still had 5km to go.

The 50km point at Capel Curig was where you could get your drop bag, I had packed fresh shoes, socks and lucasade sport, I was seriously considering pulling out. Because I was over 4 hours ahead of the cutoff I decided to stay as long as I needed to sort myself out and after an hour and 45 I decided I'd continue. I later found out that almost 200 people had withdrawn by this point, a large proportion of the field. I changed my shoes from inov8 mudclaws to Hoka Speedgoats, although I enjoyed the extra comfort they were useless on the very muddy sections later on, in retrospect I'd have done it the other way round.

The climb up moel Siabod is boring but not too taxing and had a lovely grassy decent down to the next aid station. I met up with a lovely guy called Steve, who I ended up running most of the remaining race with. The next aid station was seriously depleted, having already been used by the 50km runners during the day, but all of the volunteers were brilliant and really encouraging. It was starting to get dark, but was still very warm so I decided to keep on my short sleeve top.

The next section is arguably the toughest in the race. The first section follows llyn gwynant and the takes you up the first part of the Watkins path. You then leave the Watkins path and climb up towards the rhyd ddu path. From the bottom of the climb you could see a line of torches snaking up the mountain. The climb itself took almost 2 hours and had really technical bits of scrambling, which combined with sleep deprivation made it really difficult. There was also a very exposed section, which was like a mini crib goch that could have been avoided it the course marking had taken us to the path to the left instead of the ridge. Even on the top of Yr Wyddfa it still wasn't cold, although part of that might of been due to my own failing body. At the top you could see a huge line of torches stretching down to the base. Only the run down the rangers path to get to the next check point.

The next section I had ran before in reverse on the uts50 last year so I knew what to expect. The climb to mynydd Mawr was shrouded in thick mist which gave the impression of tunnel vision with the head torch. As I hadn't been able to sleep the night before due to prerace nerves I was starting to have minor hallucinations and kept on having to close my eyes on the climb to try and reset my eyes. The decent is really steep and had a massive bog at the bottom, which you can miss if you stay to the right. Again this wasn't marked and a few people disappeared upto their chests. The dawn chorus in Snowdonia was amazing though, hearing cuckoos and grasshopper warblers at four in the morning was brilliant.

The last section was one of the longest at around 10 miles and for me was a bit of a death march. The woods as you approach moel Eilio are confusing at the best of times, they now felt like a cross between a tough mudder and orienteering. My shoes had been soaked for hours so I was past caring, but several people had to be rescued from the various bogs that lined the scant and disappearing paths. It was now light enough to turn off the head torches and tackle the final three climbs. The decent to Llanberis is via telegraph valley and the the final section of the llanberis path. At the finish I was give my medal a an after race beer which I took but didn't open. You could then get a free hot meal. Speaking to the 100 mile finishers was really interesting as their course also featured the nantlle ridge and the moelwnions.

I don't really have much to compare this event to as it was my first 100km race. Someone who I ran with said they found it far harder than the Lakeland 100 and another person who had completed several Ironman's said it was the hardest thing they'd ever done. It is very technical with only short runnable sections for mere mortals like myself, but it does have really generous cutoffs so shouldn't be beyond most ultra runners. I do think the CCC will be a breeze in comparison though. In the end I finished 284 out of 680 odd starters. There were a lot of DNFs although most of those would have been due to the weather.

1
 stubbed 17 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Wow - sounds really hard - but well done

 Tom Guitarist 17 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Passed a few hundred of you as we were walking in to Idwal Slabs. Warm old day for it..... top effort! 

 Levy_danny 17 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Incredible effort. What sort of time did you get in the end? Rough estimate what % of it was runnable do you think?

OP Alex8584 17 May 2023
In reply to Levy_danny:

I finished in 27h 20m and I was carrying a quad niggle before hand that affected my decending quite a bit. I'm not exactly a great runner, around 20 minute 5k time, so obviously if you're fitter it would alter the percentage of what's runnable, but I'd estimate about 35 percent is runnable, but if you're a skilled fell runner whose confident on difficult decents then it would be higher. If it wasn't for the heat I feel I would have been back in around 23 hours. In the end with many wrong turns I ran 67.3 miles and 21600 feet, so five and a half thousand feet shy of a Bob Graham round, but on more technical terrain. 

 Forest Dump 17 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

I saw someone saying it was 27c at the the summit, which is ridiculous for May if true!!

Post edited at 18:56
 greg_may_ 17 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Good work! I've done chunks of that route, but not all in one pop. Though I've done the UTS50.

See you at CCC... well probably not as there are several hundred other people there too! 

 mountainbagger 17 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Wow, well done!

In reply to Alex8584:

https://ogwen-rescue.org.uk/incident-details/

Details on OVMRO site of two of the incidents which occurred during the race, involving Mountain Rescue and helicopter evacuations. 

OP Alex8584 17 May 2023
In reply to greg_may_:

Judging by your super fast 50km time Greg you'll ace the CCC.

 ben b 18 May 2023
In reply to Ron Rees Davies:

Anyone else feel the MRTs liberal use of "informant" has a slightly Stasi vibe to it?

To the OP - great effort, that's a hell of a day out.

b

 BusyLizzie 18 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Wow, epic and awesome! Very well done.

 Levy_danny 18 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Im similar to you what a great time well done.  I’ve read a few grumbles online about the terrain I can’t believe people didn’t expect such tough terrain. 

OP Alex8584 18 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

I think it's fair enough to moan if you're from the continent as mountain trails are so different to those in Wales and Scotland, but for anyone based in the UK it a bit weird. I spoke to a guy who'd finished the 100 mile race afterwards and he said every route choice seemed to be the hardest option. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone seeking a good challenge.

 magma 18 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

"disappeared up to their chests"

 greg_may_ 18 May 2023
In reply to Alex8584:

Hah! I was fitter and less fat then, so we will see


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