Does a web forecast decline with accuracy in distance away from said forecast... but wind is the issue.. not rain...
Anyway forget welsh runners can't run in cloud...
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Ha!...as was proved at Cadair - where it was 30 deg C a 6 minute gap unfathomably developed, push it up to 35 degree I say....
Anyway more importantly - just spoken to Gilbo re: today's route - you'll love this.
So they took road to Ogwen and were going to head up Cwm Tryfan and down to Cwmffynnon and Pen Pass, anyway that was changed en-route and they ended heading up Bochlwyd and down to PenGwryd and up road to Pen Pass, so within first 18 mile there were around 15 of road - gutted I didn't do it.
Looks like I picked a good year for a sabbatical.
How did the weather compare to 2009?
enjoyed that
love to know where the RO got his forecast from, but it was spot on
Carneddau would've been miserable (esp for marshals)
a bonus "warm-up" race as far as Ogwen, which I took nice 'n' easy (admiring the astonishing amounts of water streaming off the hillsides)
then started catching a few people up (mostly in other classes) including a nice wade through Llyn Bochlwyd outflow, and a very wet (but fun) descent to PYG hotel
snapped by Pete Douglas in PYP car-park (photos are up already!)
like Karno's Picnic on the Pyg track with a surprisingly large number of walkers
freezing in the wind once the fingerpost was reached
Many Thanks to the lady marshal huddled in a tent on Garnedd Ugain
then finished!
quick cuppa in cafe
jog back down, slowly warming back up again, cloud down to about 600m even at 3pm
caught up fjell_guy & fjell_gal and had a good chat/walk down to the bottom
got to go from Aber to Snowdon, which is what appealed to me about the route in the first place, so put me down as a happy camper on this one :thumbup:
What a disappointment and let down.
If the committee had made an early call yesterday and I could have seen it on their website before leaving work around 1230 I would not have wasted my time or money travelling for such a farcical event.
Yes it was windy, yes it was raining, yes it was very wet under foot with high tribs but really changing the route ....... is the Welsh 1000m supposed to be a run in arduous countryside or what. And forget all that trying to place the guilt on you by saying 'in the interests of the CP staff' - they are best placed to have a fantastic day curled up in a tent in warm kit and sleeping bags.
Unfortunately I did not see any of the forumite numbers to have a chat with.
Hmm it was a tough call, and the weather was admittidly much worse than forecast. However, the wind had died down and I personally feel the race shouldn't have been altered. It was wet, granted, but I don't think that in itself should have meant the alteration that it did - the race is meant to be one of the toughest in the country after all.
Having said that, I completely understand that its easy for me to say that and I wholeheartedly respect the decision of the RO - it can't be easy making such decisions with such a responsibility. And anyway, I thouroughly enjoyed the race, as did everyone else I spoke to, so at the end of the day, does it matter if the route was a little different!? Already looking forward to next year!
Aye fair play, don't know that any of the whingers on here have ever organised a race.
More importantly news just filtering through - didn't realise this was a selector race for the Welsh team for the World Long Mountain running champs, looks as if Rich and Fortes are in again, who was 3rd today?...by looks of pictures was it Blakey?
Bloody hell.. watch it.. I received not one.. but two letters of reprimand by the Eryri committee for saying less than that...
Fact is at the moment 95% of races are non-profit ran by volunteers.. so basically all you can do is have your say, politely let the organiser know your thoughts, and then do or do not do the race again.. But with pro race organisers times are changing .. so that could change.. those races will then be paying their marshalls to be on the summits and the runners paying inflated fees so should have a subsequent say on the routes they want...
If I lived outside of North Wales I'd be wary of traveling to races I think likely to be shortened prematurely.
Says the man who has single handedly destroyed Eryri's British Championship hopes... under your tutor-age... we're now just a drinking club.. under my guidance we were 4th in the British fell relays.. well 3rd until you got the batton if I remember correctly... and 4th in the Championship before being ousted for a big name...
Aye Blakey's in.. Any news on the women? Did 3 run?
Assume you withdrew from the race and ran the full 1000's route then?
The time that you leave work has nothing to do with the organisers, nor does the distance you are travelling to get there. Its about safety and is their decision to make based solely on that, it sounds like they left it as late as possible in the hope of the forecast/weather improving.
Why not offer to organise it yourself next year?
What's with the snivelling? Looks like a bunch of happy campers to me!
I suppose if the decision had been made earlier then the race would have in fact gone ahead on the full route, as it wasn't until the evening that the forecast started getting worse. As I said anyway, although I think the full race should have gone ahead and it's a shame it didn't, I thoroughly enjoyed the alternative and definitely don't blame the RO for making what must be an incredibly tough decision.
Anyway, snivelling aside, does anyone know what time the winner did it in (A class)?
Rich Roberts won in 3:28:53, he pipped me by about 20 seconds- just couldnt quite hang on to him at the end!!
People like to talk about races.. same with people bleating on because they saw 1 gel wrapper... :-)
Anyway the proof is in race numbers.. which is normally woefully low in Snowdonia.. Tuesday evening races will get up to 120 runners.. the big classics, 50-70... in the lakes they'd be 4 times that number.. it means easy wins but it also means some races are barely feasible.
I think its fine for people to say they respect the call but wished the full route was ran.. if I'd not been in a winning position in the Peris when it was shortened I'd have ran the full route..
I'm actually a bit surprised, due to insurance regulations, we don't have formal or even informal guidelines on weather.. it could just be a simple graph with wind and temperature and below that line a race should be considered to be shortened.. that way runners would have far more idea if a full race will be ran..
I ran and had a bloody good day out.
re numbers
there were 171 on the A class entry list
there'd've been a few no-shows anyway, so say 155 expected to start
a few more will've changed their minds late on due to the way the weather looked (irrespective of what route was run)
then a few took the offer of doing the short race instead, rather than the altered long race
and there may've been a couple who decided to sack the whole thing off and do their own thing
but standing on the start-line I reckon there were still 100-120 ish starters
(of course a few of those may've been doing it "under protest")
I actually quite liked the excitement of being handed a slip of paper with the new checkpoint grid refs, marking up maps and getting head round new route, all stood in the start field with 30mins til the off!
Does anybody know if the results are on-line anywhere yet?
True actually, felt like a bit of an orienteering problem! On that note, did anyone find themselves without a map for the first section of the race? My paper printout didn't cover it at all and so I had to borrow my Dad's map and he took my paper one (him and my Mum were walking up Snowdon to meet me at the finish). I normally chuck in a full map just in case but completely forgot yesterday. Was a bit of a pain trying to navigate of a bulky laminated OS map though...
Wasn't on my map either but as it happened I had a Harveys in my backpack so reverted to that. Didn't need it, though. I ran the whole race without having one navigational thought enter my head. Even where I might have had one - coming off from the Miners track toward pen y pass I was told by a marshall - "just follow the wall down to the pub" - so I did.
I was disappointed that the race course was changed as I've never done it before and was looking forward to it and, because I'm doing Mont Blanc in 3 weeks wanted the ascent and distance, but, all in all, it was, although very, very wet, a good training day out with a 10 mile trail race preceding a 10 mile fell race (and a 5 mile jog back to my hotel) and I still clocked 6 feet short of 6,000 feet of ascent so, worth getting out of bed for.
Actually Chris I did not withdraw from the race - After registering at Aber I did tell them that I would do the short race starting at Ogwen as running 8 miles on roads was pointless in my eyes, its a fell race not a road race, it was an offer they were making and as far as I was concerned it was the better option for me - unfortunately when they said they would bus anyone there that wanted to do this, they forgot to tell the bus driver who left before all could make that decision. What I should have done in hind sight is hand my dibber back in and just run the course as a training run, I believe that at least 1 other did this and for me it would have been more of an accomplishment. The fact that I disagree with the ROs decision does not mean that I dont respect it and understand why they made the call - just in my opinion it was the wrong decision. Having chatted to several people that did the run as much as people enjoyed the run the general opinion of the few that I chatted to was that it should have been the full race or nothing as they also did not believe that the weather was an issue but there are many people who will have many differing opinions and that is the way life is. Hey never mind though, I will certainly consider my options more closely next year. Offer to organise the race myself, you say - if I had the time I would be more than happy to assist in organising races - unfortunately it is not practical due to my work commitments, certainly at the moment anyway. For me and the short time that I have been into fell running one of the attractions is the minimalist amount of rules of the sport and that I can only see that very extreme weather conditions should alter a course or result in the event being cancelled, people know the routes & weahter at the time so the emphasis is on them to dress appropriately and the simple rules adequately cover equipment to be carried, plus any extra that the RO may wish to impose on the entrants - I have seen that there have been several races this year that have had their routes altered due to poor weather and having read several discussions on here it makes me think that there is an element of 'risk adverseness' creeping in. But what do I know eh?
Provisional results are up: http://www.welsh1000m.org/Results%202012.pdf
30th for me, happy with that!
Blimey - cracking race between the front 2 - congratulations to everyone.
You make a good point. I'm definitely worried that more and more races will tend towards "best alter the route just in case". In the (relatively) short time I've been fell running, two races (this and the Peris HS last year) have been altered on days that I didn't think it necessary to. As you say, one of the main attractions of fell running is the simplicity and self-reliance of it all, and part of that is people being aware of the weather and bringing the right kit for those weather conditions - for example for yesterday, shove an extra layer and a thicker pair of gloves in your bag.
I agree Sam - Good result mate as well !! - I kept my eyes peeled for you and others from on here but could not see anyone - I think the river crossings were the best bit for me, up to mid thigh and having to lean up stream to the extent that my chest was in the water - I could honestly say it did not make me feel cold though (cos I already was) and I was the cleanest I have ever ended a race !!
This situation is nothing new. First time I did the race...1988 I think...exactly the same thing happened but we were only told about it as we assembled at aber. About 30 of us decided against the low level route, pulled out of the race and ran the course. Nearly got blown clean off the carneddau and arrived at pen y pass to find snowdon completely closed. Just as well, the wind was gusting up to 100 mph. In june! Crazy country!!!
Does anyone know the mileage of the revised route they went with on Saturday at all? I didn't bother with my Garmin so would be interested to know how the distance compared with the usual route.
Shame the route was changed but I still enjoyed the race immensely, and I can see why the organisers came to that decision. The marshals in particular deserve a big thank you, must have been a grim old day for them.
From the map, distance: 19.5 miles, ascent: 6,600ft. Yiannis
Believe it or not, distance the same but ascent around 9,500ft for full route. Yiannis
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/187152706
I was top of thigh deep in the Bochlwyd outflow too! Even deeper having to pass some of the walkers fannying around!
The weather on top of Snowdon justified the changes in my book, you have to remember the death in 2007 will still be in the RO's minds!
Someone did a Paddy at the same time, and he was from Singapore.. so conditions up high can't have been too difficult to maintain heat in.. its the carneddau which is the worst bit.. Snowdon is an up and into the cafe situation with little exposure.. the Gribin is a motorway.. there's some nav but most know that from the Peris to PyP, but on the Carneddau you're exposed for a good 2 hrs.. but Pete was out for 27 hrs and maintained heat no problem..
I think the 07 death is a massive factor, understandably, but that death had nothing to do with conditions, also they were very lucky to avoid deaths in 09?
I was in the 07 race and Harvey was in a mess afterwards so I can't imagine he's forgotton at all.