There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Poem by George Byron (Lord Byron)
And there was pleasure in the pathless woods……………………..and a whole load of pain too! 🤣🤣🤣
So this poem…………………one of my favourites by the British poet George Byron (1788 – 1824). I like it because for me it rings true, I can relate to it. At the moment while all the world is in turmoil, things challenge us, we lose loved ones, have a nightmare day at work, fall out with our other half……………no matter what card life deals us, on any particular day, there will always be pleasure in the pathless woods. And it’s important to remember that and remember all those people that love us who are always sending a virtual squeeze.
The poem can mean anything you want it to. It’s an ode to solitude. It’s an ode to nature. It’s not saying you don’t love people…………I love people………but I perhaps love nature equally…….and animals too! But to me it’s saying that you don’t have to be a follower and do what everyone else is doing. There is pleasure in the ‘pathless’ woods, meaning those where you wander, plough your own path, do your own thing, travel the path that no-one else or very few do. Do what makes you happy!
So this weekend I’ve been playing out, in nature, off the path, because goodness did I need it after reading the news every day………..which I’m trying not to do because it upsets me! And I’ve found great pleasure……………………and also a huge amount of pain. 😆 But I am so very, very proud of me and I’ll explain why!
You may remember that for Christmas I got the very unwelcome present of a Eryri 25km race entry. 🤣 Well I hadn’t, and still haven’t, decided if I’m running it as I have a bit of imposter syndrome………………I think it’s way out of my league. So Mr Fitness has been going on and on for weeks and weeks, trying to find out if I’m doing it or whether he’s wasted his money!😆 We sort of reached an agreement when we saw yesterday’s weather forecast that we would drive to Wales and have a little recce.
Now this race is 16.5 miles (26 and a bit km) long. It does not sound a lot, but it goes to the summit of the highest mountain in Wales and England…………………Snowdon (or Yr Wddfa in Welsh). Snowdon is in Snowdonia (Eryri in Welsh) which translates roughly as ‘land of the eagles’. If you like your mountains it’s a stunningly beautiful area, but there’s no easy way up, even the easy way is not easy! The summit is miles and miles from the closest road. As a UK citizen, Wales also happens to be one of the very few places I can get into without having to wait for hours in an immigration queue post Brexit. 😂 But don’t get me started on that one!
So the challenge of this race is to run all the way to the summit of mount Snowdon from the bottom, up the easy path that’s not easy! It’s well over 1,000 metres high. You then have to run all the way down the Rhyd Ddu path, which is nothing short of a rocky ridge without much of a path. You end up on the opposite side of the mountain to which you began and then have to run up and down all around the bottom of the mountain, through bogs and disused slate mines, through a mountain pass, all the way back to Llanberis where you started.
I didn’t really want to go……………….but I was persuaded that it would be an excellent idea. Mr F said it would give me chance to check my pack, poles, clothing, equipment, nutrition……………………it was a much longer list than that but I switched off half way through the list. 😆
I’ll tell you a little bit about how it went but this post is really just to share some photographs of beautiful Snowdon (Yr Wddfa), in case you’ve never walked up it…………………just to prove there is pleasure in the pathless woods in this world of doom and gloom.
It’s only 2.5 hours from home, but wanting to make an early start and be on the mountain for 9 am we went down the night before and stayed in an annexe of a Welsh stone cottage. It was cheap and cheerful. It was a bit like a Youth Hostel but a lot nicer………….three rooms (two of which were occupied) sharing a bathroom, kitchen and living space with an help yourself breakfast. We were only there to sleep and have breakfast so it was fine, I’d use it again.
Mr F had already pre-warned me that he would be doing lots of ‘coaching’! ………….And we all know how I love being coached. 😂I promised to listen, not have a tantrum, but we agreed that he had to listen to me too! Now, I know I moan about him and his coaching, but I would not be the runner I am without his coaching! He has lots and lots of experience and knows an awful lot, so as much as I can be a madam……….I am also very grateful, once my tantrum has passed!😂
So after the first argument, which was about whether I needed to carry a lipstick for 16.5 miles in my pack (I lost the argument)………….we set off minus the lipstick. We also had a little argument about what we were doing. Mr F said half the route was enough for me, and then he’d run on, get the car and come and collect me. However, I naively declared I was running the full 25k route! 😆 My argument was this would possibly be my only recce so I wanted to see it all, in order to decide whether it was doable. He reluctantly agreed but told me I must say if I changed my mind as he did not think it was doable for me at this stage in my training.
It was a glorious route. The so called ‘easy’ Llanberis path up the mountain was made not so easy by the presence of a cap of snow and ice on the mountain, not so bad that the crampons had to come out, but bad enough to make me a little uneasy, and over cautious, on the edges.
It was a bright blue sky day and the navigation, which he was leaving up to me as I’ll be unassisted in May, was relatively easy. I power walked the steep bits and ran the sections that I could run extremely slowly. He did keep interjecting on my posture, reminding me when to eat, telling me to slow down, reminding me when I might need my windproof jacket……………………..but all in all I think I was a really well behaved student! 😆 We reached the top in just short of 2 hours which I felt really pleased with.
We crested the summit and started our descent which is when the fun began a little bit for me. There is no clear path as such in some places on the Rhyd Ddu descent. There is lots of loose slate, quite a bit of rocky scrambling, a ridge with a steep drop off and lots of things that really I’m not too keen on. I tried to just focus on putting one foot in front of the other, not look down and tried my best not to trip, fall down or stumble. There were lots of shouts of encouragement from walkers, and although my quads were starting to burn I was still feeling positive.
The bottom of the Rhyd Ddu path was reached after a total of just less than 3.5 hours of running.
The next bit was really tricky from a motivation point of view. There are still 7 miles to go at this point but you are very, very tired after having run up and down the highest mountain in England and Wales. The final section of the race is very up and down with another 400m of climb to the end. In order to get to the mountain pass where the descent into Llanberis starts you have pathless fields of bog and disused slate mines………………….it is really energy sapping and is really hard to keep going. Mr F can sense when I’m loosing my motivation and he was trying to say all the right things but I was starting to get tetchy.
We reached the mountain pass and started the descent which is a 3.5 mile slate track, off the mountain, and into the town. The final 300 metres of descent before the main road is so steep, and my legs, hips and back were screaming at me. About half a mile from the end I could feel the tears welling up inside me, I just wanted it to be over. I held it all together and just kept trotting it out until we reached the start point when surprise, surprise..I cried like a baby. Mr F, full of surprise, could not quite work out what was wrong with me and I don’t really know myself. I think it was relief I’d done it, pain, adrenaline…………….the whole lot………it just hit me like a wall. So I sat on a wall and had a good cry and then I heard him utter the word ice cream.
Now just like a small child, bawling it’s eyes out………..somehow, at 54 years old the word ‘ice-cream’ can still solve most of my upsets!😂 So I had my ice cream and off we went to the café for my de-brief. This is the bit I hate …………………… he’s obsessed with stats! I sit there not taking it seriously and he is peering at his phone reeling off all my data and what I need to work on.
Anyway, the summary is I need to work on my descending, particularly my posture. Apparently my ascending is fine but I lose time on over cautious descents. He did actually point out that on the way up, which was very busy with runners and walkers, not one person passed me.
I”ve got a bit of imposter syndrome because this is a UTMB race with a cut off at the bottom of Snowdon, and again at the race finish. It’s 3.5 hours to the bottom of Snowdon and 5.5 hours to the end. It does not matter whether you are 18 or 54, male or female, world famous or the girl from Yorkshire who plays at running…………..the cut off is the same. All I wanted to know is how far out I was and how much work I need to do if I decide to go for it.
Beaming widely, for the first time ever, Mr F said “You did amazing……………be proud of yourself!” Now he might just be saying that so as not to waste his £100 race entry fee and use it as a psychological lever to get me to press on and turn up on the day. The conditions were perfect, and there is always the possibility they may not be in May………………poor visibility or a wet surface would make it a lot harder. However, I managed to finish, still running, 5 hours and 20 minutes later and was just 10 minutes inside what would have been the cut off at the bottom of Snowdon. I was consistently slow. 😂But I was consistent and just inside the cut off with 2 months of training to go.
So I’m feeling quite proud of me and wondering whether I should just go for it. I won’t do another road marathon again………….I don’t like road running, I don’t like racing, and I know I can do one………..so there’s not really a challenge. But there is something quite motivational for me in entering something that I know I might not be able to finish within a tight cutoff………….my first DNF! How far do you know you can go if you don’t push yourself to the limit?!
So there you are…………….Mount Snowdon…………………and a few pictures of me trotting around it courtesy of Mr F. The downside was everyone had to get their own dinner ready! I got home, had a shower and just thought I’d have a little lie down and a ‘Nana nap’, on a towel, with my wet hair, on my bed. My ‘Nana nap’ lasted 14 hours until 9am this morning and after discovering me one hour into it they very kindly let me be! And today Snowdon would not be an option……….the house stairs are enough of a challenge!😆
So, do I, don’t I? That’s the question! I think quite possibly I do……. I’m 60% yes, 40% no. Who knows! Anyway, enjoy the Snowdon pictures and just remember there is pleasure in the pathless woods even when the world is falling apart.