North Wales Road Runners battle course and weather at Snowdonia Marathon
Report by Don Hale
Ten members of North Wales Road Runners Club completed the gruelling Snowdonia Marathon despite battling a very tough course and some extremely challenging weather conditions that included driving rain and gusty winds.
Two other runners were forced to drop out through injuries and sheer exhaustion.
Ben Hudson was first club man home, finishing 263rd in 3.53.35, and John Dalzell also had an excellent run in 3 hours 56 minutes and 21 seconds.
He was closely followed by Karl Morris, 303rd in 3.57.56. This was Karl’s seventh running of this event.
Sarah Ferguson Hudson, another top endurance and ultra-distance athlete, was the 46th female finisher and 326th overall, in 4.00.31. Stuart Culverhouse placed 408th in 4.08.37, with Charlotte-Rose Wilton-Jones 107th female and 573rd overall in 4.24.32.
Hannah Griffith ran around the course with her sister Siwan Kalatzi and the pair finished strongly together. Siwan was 1,301st and 353rd female in 5.36.58, with Hannah 354th female and 1,302nd overall in 5.37.01.
Cai Roberts ran with his partner Kelly Alford and club colleague Vicky Taylor. Cai took 1,326th place in 5.38.25, with Kelly and Vicky sharing the same time and consecutive places.
Afterwards, although everyone praised the support and marshalling, the race attracted some mixed comments and reaction from the NWRRC participants.
John Dalzell said he was going well until the latter stages when he started to cramp-up from the very wet conditions just after the 23-mile marker and admitted he was exhausted and just glad to finish.
Sarah Ferguson Hudson confirmed: “I would be lying if I didn’t say there is a little part of me that is gutted that I couldn’t quite get under 4 hours – but I had nothing more. Mostly there is a huge part of me that is over the moon with that time on that course. To be honest I can’t quite believe it. Trouble is now you know I’m definitely going to have to do it again.”
And Stuart Culverhouse seemed disappointed with his efforts, saying: “A really poor run today. I was going well until about mile-18 and was just glad to finish. My 3rd time of running this race and my worst time. Time for a rest.”
Charlotte-Rose Wilton Jones explained: “That was a tough one. Snowdonia Marathon completed but my legs are killing me. A fantastic event, and glad I did it.”
Hannah Griffith said: “The race included the most stunning scenery, and the marshals were fantastic. We had support from our cycling hubbies, Steffan Andrew Griffith and Manolis Kalatzi, and lots of laughter and chat with some lovely runners we met along the way which made the miles fly by.
“We even had a proper cup of tea in proper China cups at mile 24! And we had an emotional finish outside the house where we grew up, and we must give a great shout out to Stephen Edwards and everyone involved in organising a truly brilliant event.”
Unfortunately, Jamie Tharme and Mandy Owen both had to drop out.
Jamie later said: “I had a really bad back coming into this, and I wasn’t even sure I’d be starting, so just said I would see how I got on. I’m shocked to have reached 27k but just couldn’t go any further.”
Mandy added: “This was my first ever DNF. I pulled out at mile 18. I felt sick and all the stopping and starting made my legs stop working, so a minibus took us back to the start and gave us some mini bars, so that cheered me up a bit.”
The Marathon was won by Daniel Kashi (Sale Harriers) in 2.39.52, with 2nd Rhodri Owen in 2.40.46 and 3rd place went to Michael Taylor (St Neots Riverside Runners) in 2.41.02.
The ladies race was won by Caroline Brock (Steel City Striders) in 3.13.51, with Clare Patterson 2nd in 3.19.16 and Llinos Jones (Swansea Harriers) 3rd in 3.21.52. The race had 1,658 finishers.
*This is the link to the provisional results at the Snowdonia Marathon Eryri 2022:
https://www.tdleventservices.co.uk/event-results/events?event=3838