Surviving The MOST BRUTAL Race Of My Life: Ultra-Trail Snowdonia 100K!

thank you [Music] 100 kilometers of running over Seven Peaks with 6400 meters of elevation gain and very technical terrain all in one day this is ultra Trail snowdonia [Music] thank you but here I am at the start line of ultra Trail snowdonia considered one of the toughest within the ultra trail series Builders beautiful beyond belief Savage Beyond Reason Not for the faint hearted yikes when you say it like that and I've got well over 100k ahead of me and over 6000 meters of elevation gain yeah I got one of what I'm doing here but anyway there's more to this event than first meets the eye so let's rewind to some five months ago when James when I first entered the event and started training for it all right well if you're watching this and that means that future Mark has thrown to me or stood on the start line Clan Barris North Wales which is an author I know and pretty hard to imagine because that means that I've managed to prepare myself to run over 100 kilometers over a ridiculously hilly terrain which is mad especially considering I've just logged into my training Pizza account for the first time in a very long time which is where I've always logged all my training and it's continues to do so even though I'm not necessarily training as such and it's quite possibly got the lowest Fitness score I've ever seen on it almost in single digits so I've got a lot of work to do and what makes things worse is that I'm already a few weeks behind James who seems to be knocking out some impressive runs already so I've got a lot of catching up to do whoa hang on there Mark I'm not sure you need to catch up with me I mean I'm two years post retirement now and uh my fitness is at an all-time low literally I don't think I've ever seen my fitness numbers as low as they are on training Peaks and I've been tracking my Fitness on there for years uh I mean I retired two years ago I've moved house from sa to UK I have uh started a new career renovated a house had three kids in quick succession uh and yeah of course is the retirement thing from professional Triathlon too so all of those things come by and mean I am at an all-time low and the effects have been really unfit have actually been really real uh I've been feeling really lousy and uh well let's just call it what it is I've been depressed I have suffered with a bit of depression and struggle with it I've got professional help and I've changed a few things in my life but one of the main things I needed was to get some balance back in my life and get fit again um and to do that I needed a challenge [Music] another problem with writing all the time people don't talk about is the cloves pile I am washing clothes constantly [Music] [Applause] feeling mate hey Cody how's Fitness going yeah getting fit look at this done a pretty good job there look at that Fitness slime [Music] three big weeks of running consecutive days big runs now these things [Music] really hurt good few months into my training now and uh ramping it up I've got up to 75 K's running this week which is actually roughly my weekly mileage when I was a pro and I'm not doing any of the swimming or running or biking but still back on track feeling pretty fit I am really looking forward to the race now getting exciting now it's getting real [Music] just finishing off my last run of the week my first 100K run week in a very very very long time I actually feel pretty damn good look at this that is dry stuff little treat I am living on these things in the long run I'll chew from a Precision Fuel and hydration oh what's look at that Fitness look at it climb I thought I pause for a second to just run you through how I'm going about my training um which you can see here it there is a slight method to the madness although it may seem like I'm heading out just doing crazy runs all the time to get myself ready for this um I mean it does to me as well at times however it's really important I don't burn myself out because as I said I'm trying to do a lot in a short space of time here and that could be very easily done so whilst I am tracking this blue line my fitness which is very addictive what I'm also tracking are these pink lines and these yellow lines pink line being my fatigue yellow line being my form and you'll see a point where the fatigue goes right up through the roof where I'm doing tons of miles and the form drops down because of the fatigue but what's important is I then recover and allow that fatigue to come down the form to come back up and then push on again and that is how you overload and improve your Fitness [Music] right right well here we are the night before Ultra Trail snowdonia in the midst of um this madness uh it's organized Madness I'm trying to sort out all my kits um there is a lot of it there's a ton of mandatory kit understandably so it's gonna be Plumbing over a load of mountains tomorrow so let's run through some of it quickly so we've got a waterproof jacket waterproof trousers I've got a second warm layer I've got some tape I've got a fork I've got foreign I think that's everything now I just need to figure out how to uh get it all in there you will probably notice though that I'm here on my own and unfortunately yes James hasn't been able to come to snowdonia and that's because he's unfortunately injured his foot so whilst his training was going very well Sally's foot's giving in on him well that's not good sad face [Music] ouch yeah sadly he's not entirely sure what he's done to it obviously it's not okay to be running 100K on and obviously not over a bunch of mountains so yeah absolutely gutted for him and obviously I'm super bond to not be running with him tomorrow and have his company out there talking of which I should probably go grab some food and lay my head down and start dreaming of those mountains [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] how are you feeling then yeah let's just take a look knowing it's Gonna Hurt [Music] let's get ready to go [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] for now we're underway let's take a peek at the route I'm undertaking starts from Clan Baris with the climb up to the highest point in Wales Snowden I will then work my way up and over six more Mountains taking in countless stunning trails and Technical ridges there will be seven checkpoints combined with Aid stations on course which all come at the base of each climb then the real nail on the coffin comes at 68 kilometers as the route heads back up Snowden before taking on two more Mountains [Music] um cheers thank you [Music] oh I'm on the first big cent of the day down from Snowden so I'm a little over 10K in now 5K to Cent with some of the gradients kicking up to 30 percent this is where the damage can be done and I know that from previous experiences out here in slow down here on the mountains so I had to make sure I prepare as best as possible for this [Music] so to prepare myself for this crazy amount of elevation and the descents the Killer my plan was to head off into the mountains uh because sadly I don't live in the mountains or bit a very hilly area it is not snowdonia by any means uh great intentions but sadly life has just got in the way and time is slipping away from me I've been busy on weekends and just haven't been able to go so I've had to get a bit creative with my training um whether that creativity works or not I'm not too sure but I'm confident on putting some confidence into it so one is that obviously I'm just trying to get some good volume in and I'm doing some pretty big runs now I'm also trying to do them on consecutive days so I'm actually kind of condensing all the running into just a few days um so I may be doing 80 to 100K in a week but I'm doing it over the course of literally four days so I'm actually like 20K 20K 35k 15K or 20K um so a heck of a lot in a short space of time which obviously is pretty hard going not allowing my body much recovery time the other thing I'm doing is trying to obviously run all off-road and all hilly which means a lot longer on my feet and I'm also starting the week or some of the weeks by doing hill reps so I'm literally just running straight up and down a hill to try and create that fatigue get myself stronger but I'm also because I know I don't live in the mountains I'm running really hard downhill to create that muscle damage and fatigue which then I'm then carrying into some of the future runs so actually I'm running sort of an 80k to 100K week with serious muscle damage in my legs which I'm hoping is going to prepare me for some of this ascents at sodonia foreign [Music] that I have a little under 90 kilometers still to go I've tried to set out very conservatively I'm aware that rushing and racing early on can destroy your day so I'm taking this seriously so much so I was in fact one of the slowest through the first aid station a few seconds lost here could potentially save me minutes or hours later on now as I head up over the Glitters I found myself in a small group which is great for morale but I'm conscious it could affect my pacing if I don't pay attention [Music] the second checkpoint in aid station came after a very steep descent over loose screen but right ahead of us was another Almighty mountain with over 1 000 meters of elevation gain there might be a theme Here time to fuel up and get cracking [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] it's very fragile it's probably the least technical [Music] I'm here today um whoa I gotta be honest my legs take a bit of load a little weight [Music] 11 24. oh tender oh thank you there is [Music] this is a big milestone on course this checkpoint comes at around halfway and also serves as a bag drop area meaning I can access a personal bag I dropped off in the morning of the event in there I have spare clothes blister plasters electrolytes chews now this couldn't have come at a better time either since the first kilometer I've been struggling with a dodgy stomach feeling like I might vomit each time I eat or drink I've also been looking forward to Breaking the back of this thing taking a few minutes to compose myself and also escape the heat one of my poles is jammed it's really annoying I can't can't lock it out I really need it so I'm like using one pole on the clients at the moment it's not ideal I really think I'm gonna need the two from here on all right [Music] [Music] full time oh three to go say I'm in a bit of a battle today myself I don't know if it's just my mind but just everything seems to be going a little bit wrong like it's had a bit of an icky tummy all day I had to stop at the portly first one first aid station probably gonna have to again here which I don't normally really have to do and therefore not really eating as well as I should be and then I had a stumble trying to get the GoPro out to fill and avoid some uh other people climbing in there so I've twist my ankle it's really stupid literally in the first 10K and now it's kind of like it's all wobbly and obviously I'm going on loads of technical stuff so oh man I don't know if you can see that my goodness this is [Music] one hell of a view take my mind off the stomach issues anyway [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you to be honest my legs are really sort of descents no one was hoping it just suddenly came on uh I'm also just on my stomach still rubbish I'm not really eating as much as I should be head's kind of hurting as a result [Music] come on [Music] [Music] almost Snowden I'm not in a good way my stomach is today and very aware that I haven't eaten enough because of that I'm trying to but I feel like I'm going to vomit [Music] really really tough last 20 25k up here turn off and then we've got two more Primes [Music] I hit a serious low patch at the top of Snowden and cooled down the first section of Ranger's path from the summit man I could have done a James's company here instead I befriended Oscar from Sweden we barely said a word to one another but he knew the deal by sticking together we could help each other around power and numbers and length with two more big mountains to come and over 1500 meters of elevation I was aware that I needed to fuel but my stomach was having very different ideas if I'm honest I'm not entirely sure what my body wanted in this a station or what he was about to do episode [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] at this point I was thinking can I do this 23k to go that's a long way do I want to do this how steep will it get can my legs take another descent this is rough I tried to break the course up into manageable chunks in my head Snowden was the last big challenge but in reality I have two huge mountains to go it is heating up dipping my head in uh cat and everything you know each stream I come across down [Music] thank you oh a little over 15K to go I think I can do this sorry for all the Doom and Gloom and the moaning today has been a tough day on top of doing the Archer oh I'm getting there got myself in a little rhythm here and this is stunning oh come on let's get a tough Finish Line you feeling [Music] all right on the home stretch now he is smashing it this thing I might cry on this descent but I'll get it done means [Music] [Music] this is it final climb might actually make it out before sunset got an achievement I'll be honest I am wrecking about The Descent there [Music] an Agony but it's still going strong just good [Music] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so it's been a couple days since Mark's a success at UTS we'll call it success how's those legs [Laughter] probably went into survival modes for the 24 hours after um but actually surprisingly come out the other side feeling okay obviously a little bit tender walking down the stairs has been interesting but I'm all right lost a couple of toenails uh on the whole pretty chuffed um I made it round that was the main goal I did a lot better than I expected placing wise a place 18th overall and I kind of semi had a goal of trying to get in under 18 hours and I did it in 1654 44. it's very impressive yeah very important I mean I also when we started this I was like if we can get out get done before midnight we'll be doing great and that was the goal which is what an 18 19 hours a Mark's gone and done under 17 hours it's very important even a friend of mine that lives in snowdonia when I told him my kind of semi-goal he was like oh yeah wow that would be pretty impressive if you manage that mate I mean if you're anything under midnight and I did start to panic I'm gonna be honest I need to helping that but uh yeah so I did it well you did manage it you smashed it I was dot watching the whole day uh trying to trying to track you and I'm not gonna lie I was getting pretty frustrated uh watching you I actually went for a run way yeah a whole 5Ks uh first run in six weeks and 30 my foot and the foot is holding up so uh brilliant probably time to find a new goal unfortunately UTS is gone now but uh I will find another goal soon I missed you big time out there there was some serious low patches no I did I I needed you there just yeah even if we weren't talking to one another just pushing one another on um yeah did miss you seriously there um yeah it took off which mate what are we gonna do then what's the next event I don't know I have been trolling the internet and looking for a for the right challenge I mean this challenge took me a while to find because as I said I'm looking for something that's challenging but not a triathlon because I've been there done that and I don't want to run a fast Marathon because I've been there down there and also the training is just so specific for something like a marathon PB I kind of just want something that scares me and challenges me and this was it it was perfect uh and it's gone out the window so something similar probably an ultra trail run of some sort I just gotta find the right one now yeah I think I might go for something slightly shorter for a while well you're not going the next step up to UTMB I mean well there have been discussions maybe try and go to UTMB but for the short CCC but we'll see we'll see uh I'm not going to sound a dotted line just yet but you heard it's your first folks but I've got to say I'm absolutely like just loved this whole process of training for something new it was incredibly humbling as well being out there on course and kind of stepping into the ultra running World those guys are absolutely insane the speed at which some of them are descending even after 100K was mind-blowing and it's giving me this whole new motivation something that I want to go after and Target and that is why I'm thinking about things like UTMB in the future and I've got to say thanks to training Peaks as well for the help through this I mean I just tracking my fitness day in day out every run I came back from I was like oh yes I've been proved a bit well I've been tracking mine and it's back down to where it was when we started this whole video in pretty much single figures again so oh back to square one oh well thanks ever so much for tuning in and I hope you enjoyed the UTS Adventure yeah so is it Global trail running Network now what do you know I think I'm leaving man I'm off to do trail running yeah that's a global trail running Network or something

Channel: Global Triathlon Network

Views: 127,038

Keywords: utmb, ultra trail, mont blanc, trail running, epic challenge, snowdonia, wales, snowdon, challenge, best walks, eryri, snowdonia national park, climb snowdon, uts, results 2023, visit wales, hardest race, endurance sport, fell running, run trail, trail, best trail, trail run near me, GTN, Global Triathlon Network, triathlon, Triathlon (Sport), tri, ironman, Sports, swimbikerun, triathlon training, iron man, triathlete, swimming, cycling, running, training, skills, coaching, Ꮴ, ኟ, Ꮽ, Ᏺ, ψ, 𑃓, ዩ, ᠫ, К, ೊ, ፕ15

Id: VRg4uBClqGA

Length: 29min 2sec (1742 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023