Ras Y Cnicht

Monday is hard, so hard. The walk from home to the car in the morning is nearly impossible. I have a headache, am trembling, stumbling, starving, and I am late for work. It is raining, and I have a tough day ahead of me, alone. I am so tired from yesterday (where I ran 18 miles fast, then moved heavy boxes all day, then 10 miles in the rain) that my body is in panic mode, it feels like it is eating itself. No matter how much I try, I can’t sate my hunger. Before noon I go through around 3000 calories…

• All day breakfast triple sandwich
• 2 boiled eggs
• can of redbull
• mug of coffee
• packet of crisps
• 4 x protein bars
• 5 chicken drumsticks
• bottle of lucozade

My stomach is a bottomless pit. Every 10 minutes seems to last a lifetime, I don’t know how I am going to get through the day. I have to call my missus and get her to bring me over a boost bar and a flapjack. I try and break the day into half hour segments. I am having to concentrate so hard to do simple things. I lean down to fill a bucket with water and I headbutt the wall.

This is where my performance in Berlin marathon, in 4 weeks, depends entirely on Nina. I get home absolutely helpless. She has seen me like this before. She knows exactly what to do. Pizza, Redbull and chocolate icecream. Feet up, Game of Thrones, early bed. All the while she entertains the kids, keeps them from jumping on me, reads them stories, puts them to bed, does the washing up, looks after me some more, and is the real Wonder Woman around here. I wake up the next morning a new man.

I am supposed to run Ellesmere 10km on Sunday, but I really want to do the Cnicht fell race. I see the beautiful mountain every day, and the race starts from the pretty little village of Croesor. My friend and training partner Gareth is doing it, and I just feel like 5 weeks of road running is getting a little boring, I need a change.

I really enjoy it, the day is warm and sunny, the views are glorious. I try to help Gareth on the ascent, but he is too strong. I manage to hang onto him to the summit, but he leaves me for dust on the descent. He takes a few leaps which I doubt I would be able to do even if I didn’t have Berlin marathon in the back of my mind. I do enough to keep 2nd place. At the finish our family go for a swim in the outdoor pool along with other runners and their kids. Perfect way to soothe legs after tricky descent. It is a really great Sunday, there is nowhere in the world I would rather be.