Paddy Buckley Round - Sat 30th

Whilst we were all lazing around enjoying the sunshine contemplating a nice little road run in the rack raid and wondering how hot it was going to be one of our club members had other things to be doing………

Tom Gibbs writes…..

On Saturday 30th May I had a crack at the Paddy Buckley Round, for those who don’t know it’s a ultra fell running route around Snowdonia, taking in 47 peaks and involving over 60 miles and 29000 feet of ascent. It’s the North Wales version of the Bob Graham Round.  I had drawn up a schedule to have a go at the record of 18 hrs 10 minutes.

I started off at 4.20am from Capel Curig and it was shorts and short sleeve weather from the start, one of my big concerns was keeping out of the sun and hydrated.  It was a stunning day, not a cloud in the sky, but not the best for fast attempts on long runs !  

By 8am the weather was already hot and I knew that a fast time would be tricky.  By 9:30 I was on my 2nd leg and due to some confusion and puncture ended up having to do most of the leg by myself with no food.

By Llanberis I was 2/3rds of the way round, up on the record and bang on my schedule with (only) the Glyders and Carneddau to go.  Here the weather caught up with me and I struggled in the heat going up the near 3000ft climb onto Elidir Fawr.  Bit by bit the record disappeared from my sights and I refocussed on finishing.

So it was that I descended in the dark off the last top to record 18 hrs 55 minutes, the 3rd fastest Paddy Buckley of all-time, with the knowledge that on a cooler day it would of been a lot closer. 

Now I am just looking forward to being able to walk again !

Tom

Well done Tom - great attempt - next time with easier weather maybe 

This entry was posted on 02/06/2009 at 07:55 am and is filed under Fell Running, Club News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.