23 October: The warm-up!

The weather is still bright, cold and clear, with very still air. The bad news is that the outlook for the weekend has suddenly changed: warmer, wet, and windy is now the latest forecast for Saturday. Still, as it helpfully says inside my new running jacket (from the wonderful Howies) - "Rain is not the enemy". Although it can get on your nerves a bit after 3 hours or so.

Today's phantom injuries and afflictions include my ongoing mock-cold, a pain in my right foot and a sore finger - both of these seem to have been acquired during the night and if it goes on like this I'll start believing that Fungus the Bogeman is real.

Having not run at all over the weekend, it's time to go and find my mojo again. Tonight's club session is intervals at Gadbrook Park, 5x1500m, which at first glance doesn't seem all that suitable with only 4 days to go before the race, but I want to do something reasonably sharp and it's so much easier to run with the group than to plod out into the darkness alone.

I run the first rep on the watch keeping strictly at half-marathon pace, and as it turns out Sophie is running at the exact same pace. She does a really good session, each rep at the same steady pace - although I do forget how much work she is putting on and start talking to her at one point. It turns out to be a really good boost to my confidence, as this pace feels very easy indeed compared to the intervals I have been running, and I won't even need to put in this much effort in the early stages on Saturday (it will be harder later on!). Mary kindly presents me with half a dozen eggs afterwards - I love omelettes so I'll definitely have those cooked up for tea on Saturday night!

I now have to confront the part of the race which is going to be the crux of the thing on Saturday. The 9 miles from Beddgelert to Waunfawr are going to be tough. It'll be about Concentrating on the Job. It will also mean being ready for the climb out of Beddgelert. It's hardly steep, in fact nowhere is it a climb you'd look at and think "hill" with just about 500' in just over 2 miles. But it will come as a shock to the system.

After mile 14, the road undulates again, losing a couple of hundred feet altogether, and the landscape opens up - we're between the southern slopes of Snowdon and the long ridge of Nantlle, with Mynydd Mawr a big separate hump on our left, past Lyn Cwellyn. Leading up to it, we have the Rhydd Du railway to keep us company on the other side of the road, and pass the carparks for the popular routes up the gentler western slopes of Snowdon. Miles tick by slowly here, and strength of will is the only thing that will keep me positive. The big test is yet to come, but it would be so easy to lose heart and slow on these endless, back-of-beyond miles. The aim is to arrive at the bottom of the big hill with something left, but not too much, as it really is only one hill to run before the finish, and while places are cheap within the last six miles, time isn't.