Race review: #35 The Celtic Trail Marathon

The Great Celtic Trail Half Marathon. Saturday July 15 2017 

This looked like a fantastic run and I'd really fancied going round a good trail run in South Wales. It was the inaugural Great Celtic Trail Marathon (I have a habit of picking inaugural races, so it seems). I'd not been back to Wales since a school trip in 1986, so well overdue. The route itself was partially in Margam country park and the hilly Afan forest area nearby, and promised wonderful views over the countryside over to Port Talbot and the Bristol Channel.

The family came with me so I could make a weekend of it and we'd stayed in the Holiday Inn Express in Cardiff. This was a short walk to both the city and the bay. 

It was a really nice hotel and a very good base. We wandered up to the bay the night before, where we went past the Welsh assembly and sampled the food festival, best shish kebab ever.

The organisation to this race got off to a dodgy start. I thought it mildly amusing that the race bib numbers got posted out to the wrong people. My number was originally 171 and I was going to be "Linzi" for the weekend. 

Fortunately the mix-up got spotted pretty quickly, and the correct numbers were sent out, with a few days to spare. It was a bit unusual to have numbers posted out. With most of these sort of smaller low key events you pick your number up at the event itself.  Also, annoyingly the start time had been put back from 10 o'clock to 10.30, with the half marathon starting first half an hour earlier. I'd rather get started early and get it over and done with, and avoid hanging around.

It was about half an hour drive to Margam Country Park from Cardiff. Pretty much as soon as I got the M4 and headed West, it started spotting with rain - getting heavier and heavier as I approached the park. A sign of things to come! Finding the park was very easy. There was no charge to get into the car park. As I parked up at East Lodge, I could see a large field next to me with the 'Challenge Wales events' signs up, and the start/finish area. It was really good to be so close. There was also a van selling tea and coffee, some poortaloos and mountain rescue base (I really, really, hoped I wasn't going to need that!)  There was no baggage drop though, which seemed a bit odd. Luckily I had the car and my usual running bag so I had somewhere to stash my keys but for the faster runners who don't want to carry anything, this would have been a pain.

Vicky and Jayne, we were waiting for the start.

As I got out my car to go and do a recce, I spotted my running buddy Jayne. This was a local-ish event to her. It was good to have a catch up and a moan about the weather!

Jayne and I wandered over to the start area and took shelter from the poring rain under some trees.

I got chatting to a fellow runners, a lady who I found out was called Vicky, and we'd exchanged messages on facebook about the cut-off times for this race. None had been advertised in advance. Turns out we are a similar pace, and Vicky already knew much of the route (result!) so we agreed to try and run together. This turned out to be an excellent decision (well, for me anyway!), more of that later.

We watched the half marathon runners go out before waiting a while, a chap was playing the bagpipes to see them off. By now it was absolutely tipping it down with rain and I was feeling cold. I just wanted to get going. I was cursing myself for not bringing a waterproof layer, this was despite the temperature being a pleasant 25C back in Cardiff where I thought it wouldn't be needed.

Eventually after 10 minutes delay, the race director signaled for us to line up in front of the start line. I did my usual trick and positioned myself towards the back (I'm slow and know my place!). The race director started a briefing, I couldn't hear a word he was saying. Oh well I thought, that's pretty usual.  Eventually we all surged forward and we were finally off, crossing the timing mat and hearing the reassuring beeps from the timing equipment. It felt great to finally be moving and I was looking forward to warming up a bit.

As we got going, Vicky was joined by her running buddy Tim, so there was a little group of three of us crazy runners.  The faster runners were able to get into their stride almost immediately, and the course although very soggy was firm. Very runnable, really. The first couple of miles whizzed by in a sort of rainy blur. It was fairly flat and quite easy running, so we were able to get chatting.

Rebel, Rebel...

As we went along we soon spotted why the race had been late starting. There was Land Rover at the bottom of a steep embankment, perhaps 20 to 30 feet below us. I later found out that the race director had been driving a group of marshals (teenagers) and somehow despite it being a 4x4, managed to skid off the road and tumble down the side to the bottom. This was quite a drop.

One of the teenagers ended up in hospital with a broken back. Shockingly, the race director decided to abandon the vehicle and run back to the start to get the race started. He later received an absolute panning from the runners and the family of those injured for leaving them on their own, injured. Personally, I wish he had put the injured first. I would prefer to delay the race or even abandon it. The news even made the local paper.

This did have a big knock on effect to the race, in that there were hardly any marshals around. Although the route was signed, there were quite a few points where it was just not obvious which way to go.  Luckily, I was with Vicky and Tim, and Vicky knew much of the route so kept us on the right road. Thank heavens for friendly fellow runners!

A very soggy selfie!

On we plodded, following the zig-zags up towards an area known as Cwm Philip. We had left Margam park and now in Afan forest park. By now the rest of the field were way ahead of us. A few stragglers came past - the race director had changed the start time of the half marathon twice in the preceding couple of weeks, and some didn't know it was due to start earlier than the original time of 11 o'clock.  We had also caught up some of the slower half runners.  It was a long old way to the first checkpoint which wasn't until nearly 10K point, and just after a little out-and-back section. I was shocked to discover they had completely run out of supplies! No water, and nothing to eat. There were plenty of discarded bottles and cups on the floor, so it was just a case the organisers had not bought enough.  Lucky we all had camelbaks with us, and it was chilly in the rain so none of us were too thirsty. Had it been a hot day, it could have been a real problem. I also had my usual stock of mini-cheddars and mars bars to keep me fueled, but I was very glad I had not relied on the organisers for provisions.

After a few more miles of plodding, the full and half routes split off.  It was such a shame about the weather, I could barely see my hand in front of my face at times it was raining so hard. The much anticipated views over the hills and forest and down towards Port Talbot were sadly missing. But, this is Wales after all, you have to expect a bit of rain!

There were a few twists and turns on the route, and many hills, but I found it actually very runnable. The hills were not too bad, nothing like a White Star event, and some lengthy gentle downhill sections where it was possible to get some decent running in. We had decided to walk the inclines and save our energy for the flats and downhill sections, which is my usual strategy anyway.
Allegedly their was a golf course nearby this part of the route, but I never saw it!

We got to our next checkpoint just before the 10 mile mark, where they gave us some cups of water and some sweets were on offer. Shame they hadn't covered them up though, soggy jelly babies aren't too great to handle and not very nice to eat. Still any port in a storm, I managed to get quite a few down and thanked the marshals for standing out in the rain, it must have been miserable for them.

We joined with another runner, he explained that he had been injured recently and he was struggling big time. After a couple of miles he dropped back and we eventually found he had dropped out. It was worrying for a while though, we hoped he was OK and wasn't stuck on his own.

It was alarming for such a tough course like this on a cold rainy day, that there was no tail runner at all. The marshals kept asking us if we were the last (like we'd know?!) and weren't noting down race numbers or checking us in. This made me feel even more glad I was in a group.

By now we were getting the miles in, despite the rain and lack of marshals and signage, and lack of aid stations, we were in good spirits. Vicky even threatened to start singing! We had lost the plot I think. The miles just ticked by, and before I knew it we had got through the half way point at 13 miles. The tracks were still nice and wide and we were doing quite well.

Little did I know that the second half was going to be much tougher. The track turned a lot muddier with some huge puddles to navigate around, my feet were absolutely soaked through. We kept going and finally got to the 15 mile aid station. A lovely couple of marshals enthusiastically cheered us in and offered us some soggy jelly babies, as well as taking a great picture. They must have been soaked through to the skin themselves. We thanked the marshals and they seemed happy enough. This was by far the best aid station on the course and it really lifted our spirits.

Mile 15 check point selfie :-)

On we plodded, now the trail was narrowing significantly and the track turned into a rocky nightmare which needed to be navigated quite gingerly. Around the 18 mile point we got to a point where the course split, but there was no signs or any tape up telling us where to go! After some detective work looking for footprints (which had been washed away) we guessed which way to go. Fortunately we got lucky and chose the right away, after maybe a mile we saw a sign for the course so we knew we had gone the right way. Seriously though, in these conditions we didn't need to be adding on extra mileage by going the wrong way. 

It was a relief to know we were OK. We had gone through the 20 mile point but there was no sign of an aid station, finally we reached one which had been completely abandoned. The marshals must have assumed the final runner had been through and got fed up with waiting and left - understandable I suppose, but indicative of the poor communication and organisation. There were cups strewn around and a couple of half empty bottles.  Pretty poor for a marathon, really.

Tim was having a much better race than me and Vicky, so he pushed on ahead to try and get a sub 6 hour finish.

On the two of us plodded, there was now a significant climb for a couple of miles which felt a real slog. This had been described in the pre-event comms as 'the sting in the tail', and it did live up to its name! My legs were really feeling it now, all the mud on the second half as well as the climbing were making me pretty tired. At last it topped out, but there was now yet another course split. 

We chose what looked like quite a narrow trail, after maybe quarter of a mile we were really doubting if this was the right way. It was very overgrown not to mention slippy, and we debated whether we should turn back or not. Lucky though, Vicky has a great sense of direction and pointed that we were heading in roughly the right way, even if we had strayed off course. So we stuck to our guns and kept going.  The hill got quite steep and very narrow, which made it really hard to negotiate downwards. There in the distance was a course arrow! We had gone the right way after all. What a relief.

The course now widened again and Vicky told me we were retracing those first few miles, so thankfully we were now going downhill and able to get some speed back up, despite our legs being very tired. We were still in good spirits and really looking forward to finishing.  The mountain rescue 4x4 had come past a couple of times to check if we were OK. I was very pleased that they were looking after us. Some banterous exchange reassured them that everything was OK.

Finally we left the trail and went past Margam castle. I can imagine this would have looked stunning in the sunshine, unfortunately it was still tipping it down and everything was damp! We took a left turn, and went past the final marshal. He was very enthusiastic and cheerfully told us we had less than a mile to go.  

Vicky and I decided to make a final push and we ran the last mile with no walk break. At the finish Tim was waiting for us and cheered us in.  We finally crossed the timing mat, and we were finished!  The race director was waiting for us, he shook our hands and gave us our finishers medal and invited us to go collect our t-shirt.  I had to walk across the car park to a small building where a very friendly lady handed us a t-shirt, and to help ourselves to bananas and other assorted (dry!) sweeties.  They had loads of t-shirts left over so gave us a couple of t-shirts each. She told us that a large number of runners had dropped out as DNS (did not start) at the very last second due to the dreadful weather.

As we left that little building and come outside, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking out behind the clouds. Unbelievable! It was torrential rain the entire way round, now we finished it was fine.

So, I had finally finished and also was the last person. That was a first for me, but I didn't mind as we'd got round in just over six hours which I though respectable given the weather and distance.

I returned to my car and drove back to Cardiff, where the family were waiting for me. I was tired but happy, and we celebrated by demolishing the asian all-you-can-eat buffet back at Cardiff Bay!  I mentioned to Mel about the weather and she was surprised, turns out it had been a lovely warm day back in Cardiff with no rain! Talk about sods law.

The next day we visited the brilliant Doctor Who experience in the bay, sadly now permanently closed. I also visited Cardiff Castle with the children and we went round the fantastic shopping centre in Cardiff as well as visiting the local museum.  All really good.

I was disappointed with the organisational short falls in this race. They didn't look after the marshals (both the accident with the 4x4, and cover for those poor folks stuck out for 6+ hours in the rain), the lack of tail runner, botched communications, lack of water, soggy food and incorrect race numbers. I hope they can sort this out, as I'd like to run this again when it's not raining so I can actually get to see the scenery!