6-11th September 2011
Overview
This race blog has not been easy. I am really writing it for myself – as a record of how I felt about this race – rather than for wider circulation to friends and family. If you find it interesting then great, but I warn you what follows is mostly introspection.
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| Sunset over Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) |
Having allowed a few weeks to pass, I can now look back on the Dragon’s Back with a little more perspective than I felt in the immediate aftermath. Editing the photos, creating the video and writing this blog have allowed me to reflect on the experience, and process it a little. The disappointment of the DNF is still there, but maybe it is now a little less raw.
If you’re not inclined to read the lengthy detail that follows, the summary is that I failed to meet the cut-off time (“timed out”) two thirds of the way through the second day, ridiculously early in a 6-day race. If I am honest it could have been even worse. There was considerable doubt whether I would make the cut-off half way through the first day, and I only made the overnight camp on that first day with seven minutes to spare. To have DNF’d on the first day would have been really embarrassing.
Having been timed-out, effectively I become “non-competitive” which meant I would not be a ‘finisher” and there would be no Dragon trophy waiting for me in Cardiff. After 18 months of preparation and massive emotional investment in this race, that still stings. Rather than just heading home, my two informal team members (James and Andy) and I decided to carry on and treat the rest of the week as a supported running camp. I hesitate to call it a holiday, but having paid our money…
So we did get to run into Cardiff Castle at the end of the sixth day, and that was pretty cool, but it didn’t feel the same to me. I found it really hard to accept gracefully the applause from the spectators in the Castle, and the subsequent congratulations from friends and family. Yes, of course I know we still did a mountain marathon/ultra every day for 6 days, travelled the length of Wales, and climbed countless stunning mountains on the way. And yes, I know that the heat wiped out 75% of starters in the first two days – but the fact remains I was a DNF.
With time for reflection I can now see some of the positives. The following are James’ words, but he expresses my own feelings perfectly: “I am very privileged to have two mates to share such an experience with. Thank you so much. There is absolutely no way I could even consider doing that on my own. Not one moment of doubt that we should have been giving it a go, even when we knew how hard it was. We weren’t expecting an easy ride, and it didn’t disappoint! Hats off to all those who completed, and also to the rest of us who pushed on through anyway.”
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| The team at Cardiff Castle |
Maybe this time I had just bitten off more than I could chew – frankly it was just too hard, and too hot for me. Would I have completed it with more normal weather on the first three days? Possibly, but I am not convinced, and now I will never know. The reason I do these challenges is to push myself to the limit, and over the years I have progressed to longer and harder races as I try to find out where that limit is. Maybe I have now answered that question, and found it. I guess that is the point of it all, and my lesson from the Dragon’s Back 2021.
Results and stats
According to the official race results page, there were 367 starters at Conwy Castle. This was considerably fewer than the 402 names on the entry list sent out a week prior to the event. Last minute injuries often cause a number of non-starters, but I sense that this year Covid (and Covid-related travel restrictions for non-UK based entrants) meant the number of starters was considerably lower than the organisers expected.
Only 90 of the 367 starters completed every day within cut-off and entered Cardiff Castle as heroic Dragon slayers. This 24% finisher rate is the lowest of any race that I have participated in, and significantly lower than the last Dragon’s Back Race in 2019 when there were 251 finishers from 404 starters (62%).
We all knew that the 2021 edition was going to be tougher to complete than the 2019 race. There had been much discussion about the extra sixth day, representing an additional 65km and 2,000m of climbing, and turning the fifth day into an absolute monster. Less publicised, but just as critical, was that the cut-off times for each day had been reduced by an hour in response to expectations of a much larger field of entries and to increase participant safety.
But it was not the extra day, or the new monster day 5 that caused so many to DNF. Day one accounted for 119 starters, with nearly a third of the field being timed out or failing to finish. Day 2 saw off another 130 meaning that just 118, less than one third of starters, were still in the race as they set of on start of Day 3. Of the 100 still competitive at the start of Day 4, the majority (90) made it to Cardiff as finishers. The previous edition in 2019 had seen just 11% DNF on Day 1 and a further 12% fail on Day 2. These stats show clearly the enormous impact that exogenous factors such as weather can have.
With such a large percentage of DNF’s and with so many of them coming so early in the week, it is interesting to look at the response of those who were timed-out or DNF’d. Obviously some were injured, and many, quite understandably, felt the disappointment too great or lacked the motivation to continue. However, as well as the 90 finishers, 73 other non-competitive runners like us arrived in Cardiff Castle having running half or full days for the remainder of the week.
The day-by-day results for our “team” were as follows:
Day 1: Conwy Castle to Nant Gwynant
- Full course = 49km (30.5 miles) & 3,800m (12,500ft)
- James & Andy finished in 14h00m (40 minutes within cut-off); 208th out of 248 finishers
- Paul finished in 14h34m (7 minutes within cut-off at 10pm); 237th out of 248 finishers
Day 2: Nant Gwynant to Dolgellau
- Full course = 59km (36.5 miles) & 3,400m (11,100ft)
- All timed out at Support Point at Cwm Bychan 37km and 1900m climb
- Andy reached Cwm Bychan in 8h35m at 2:49pm missing the cut-off by just 4 minutes!
- Paul & James reached Cwm Bychan in 9h25m missing the cut-off by 55 minutes
Day 3: Dolgellau to Ceredigion
- Full course = 70km (43.5 miles) & 3,400m (11,200ft)
- Andy finished in 13h44m; 61st out of 120 finishers for that day
- Paul & James stopped at Machynlleth Support Point after 45km and 2,500m climb in 9h20m (48 minutes within cut-off but having made the decision not to continue)
Day 4: Through the Elan Valley
- Full course = 69km (43 miles) & 2,300m (7,500ft)
- All finished in 12h15m; 69th out of 144 finishers for that day
Day 5: Into the Brecon Beacons National Park
- Full course = 70km (43.5 miles) & 3,200m (10,500ft)
- All started from the Support Point at the Usk Reservoir completing just the more “interesting” last two thirds of the day
- 47km and 2,600m completed in 10h02m
Day 6: To Cardiff Castle
- Full course = 63km (39 miles) & 1,300m (4,300ft)
- All finished in 10h23m; 68th out of 138 finishers for that day
Total for the week
- Full course = 380km (236 miles) & 17,400m (57,100ft)
- Andy: 335km & 15,300m (88% of total) in 69hrs
- James: 310km & 14,400m (82% of total) in 65hr25m
- Paul: 310km & 14,400m (82% of total) in 66hrs
Weather conditions
The morning of Monday 6th September felt warm, but the mist covering the hills above Conwy hid the truth of the weather that lay ahead for the next three days. By midday on Monday the sun had burned off the mist, and the extremely steep 600m climb and scramble up Tryfan came in the full glare of the sun at the hottest time of the day, with absolutely no breeze, shade or cooling streams. The weather archives record a high of 21 degrees in Snowdonia for that day – all I can say is that it felt at least 10 degrees hotter on that Tryfan ascent.
Worse was to come on Tuesday. I had expected Day 2 to be the toughest: we were all suffering with heat stress, dehydration and from not having eaten enough during the previous day, and then the perverse weather gods gave us the hottest September day in Wales since records began. The official high for the day was 27 degrees, but again with virtually no breeze and a strong sun shining in cloudless skies, it felt considerably hotter. Wednesday brought similar high temperatures, but offered a little respite in the form of a wonderfully cooling morning breeze on Cadair Idris. However, the wind died as the day progressed, and in the valleys the heat remained oppressive, making Day 3 another hot and humid one.
Never has Welsh cloud and rain been more welcome than when we looked outside the tent on Thursday morning. This was the weather we had trained for and experienced in all of our recce trips to Wales. These cooler conditions continued for the remainder of the week and were close to perfect for mountain running, but by then the damage had been done to us, and the majority of the field.
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| More typical Welsh weather in the Brecon Beacons |
Training and preparation
My training and preparation had been pretty close to ideal. With Covid killing off the 2019/20 ski season in March 2020, I had started running earlier in 2020 then I would have in previous years. This training was initially aimed at 2020 races that ended up being cancelled, but I found running a great distraction from the pandemic so kept my fitness up through 2020. Deciding with James and Andy to sign up for the 2021 Dragon’s Back gave me an extra incentive to maintain my fitness, and my legs felt really strong when hiking the Tour de Mont Blanc with Sarah in September 2020. Covid cancelled the 2020/21 ski season, and for the first time I trained all the way through that winter. James, Andy and I managed three weekend trips to Wales to recce various parts of the route, all of which went well, including our baptism on Grib Goch. I had two excellent warm up races in June (60k) and July (100k), in which I performed at or beyond my expectations. In August the Covid travel restrictions eased in time for me to fit in my usual week’s training in Chamonix to put some serious vertical into my legs. With the exception of shin splints in May following one of the weekends in Wales, I also stayed free of injury during this whole period.
In summary, under Neil Bryant’s expert guidance, I had put together an unprecedented 18-months of training from March 2020 to September 2021, running on average between 5 or 6 days a week, for a total of 627 hours, covering 5,700km (an average of 75km per week) and climbing over 90,000m. As I started my taper in September, all of my stats showed that I was as strong as I had even been, and on a par with my fitness leading up to the UTMB in 2019, what I still consider my strongest ultra performance. The Dragon’s Back Race requires significant investment – not just the financial cost of entering and the mandatory kit, but the emotional and time commitment to train and prepare properly over a considerable period.
Physical impact during and after
Having read reports from participants in previous years who measured their recovery in months rather than days or weeks, I fully expected my body to be a complete wreck at the end of the race. I was also resigned to getting serious blisters: the mandatory comprehensive blister kit was a tell-take sign, reinforced by the Race Director’s warning at his briefing that 70% of participants suffer from blisters, even those like me who never normally get them.
Remarkably none of this came to pass. My feet got very wet on a couple of days, but a change of socks and an application of Gurney Goo at the support points prevented the damage escalating into anything serious. Even the sore spot of the outside of my little toe – something that had been a problem for some weeks and was really worrying me pre-race – just calmed down and disappeared. Maybe I was lucky, but using trusted, well broken-in shoes and pre-empting emerging foot problems with early treatment probably also have played a part.
The rest of my body also recovered exceptionally well, overnight during the event, and in the days and weeks that followed. I wouldn’t say I felt fresh as a daisy in Cardiff, but I got through the week without any form of injury and was walking without pain or stiffness the morning afterwards. I did suffer from quad cramps on the first day due the steep gradients and very hot weather, but no worse than I had experienced in some previous big races. My legs actually felt stronger as the week progressed, maybe as a result of improving weather conditions. I think this confirms that my preparation had been good, and that I had arrived at the race in great shape.
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| Feeling stronger at Day 4 high point, Drygarn Fawr |
I suffered a serious calorie deficit during those first two days when I was not able to take in sufficient energy – a reoccurrence of an old failing in not being able to eat or keep food down when it is hot. This improved as my appetite returned from day 3 onwards. Despite all the pre-race fears about the vegetarian menus, the food at the camps was tasty, varied and plentiful, and for the remainder of the week I ate like the proverbial horse. Weighing myself on my return home I discovered that I had not lost weight during the week, which in itself is quite remarkable.
So that leaves an obvious paradox: given my near perfect preparation, lack of injury during the race, and generally strong physical condition post race, why didn’t I finish? Why was I not strong enough to beat those cut-offs on day two? Could I have pushed myself harder, did I quit too easily? Looking back, it is a tempting thought, but one that is quickly dispelled by the memory of just how totally cooked and completely done in I felt in the heat of that second day.
What next?
After a couple of weeks of reflection, I have decided to leave the retirement email that I had composed in my head in my brain’s drafts folder. I am not quite ready to send it yet. As James and Andy’s chat moved on to the races they were thinking about next, I found myself Googling those and other races – a telltale sign! The Dragon’s Back has made me think hard about what I want to do next, what elements of a race or challenge I really enjoy, and which parts of the experience did not work so well for me. I think there will be another challenge – but it will need to be one that really inspires me, and one that promises a little more enjoyment, where I can compete with more of a smile on my face.
Links:
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| Cardiff Castle |
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