Paddy Buckley Round - Iain's report

Written by Iain Ridgway who successfully completed the round, finishing yesterday in a time of 21 hours 30 min (and 46 seconds).

Leg 1: Hebog and Nantlle Ridge
Time: 3:20
Support: Mathew Roberts and Bill Williamson

I started where the track off Cnicht hits the road before the mile-long hilly road run to Nant Mor. This section is a easy 10 minute jog when fresh, but I knew after 20+ hours of running those hills would take on a very different feel.

At Nant Mor Mathew Roberts and Bill Williamson were waiting to run as support - carrying food drink and clothing, and navigating. The climb from Aberglaslyn to Bryn Banog is rough, boggy and steep, but we got up there in around 35 minutes. The weather was good - low winds and no rain, but the clag was in so we had to be careful not to make any silly errors on the navigation. Luckily this was home terrain for Math so we covered the ground with no mishaps.

The climb to Hebog up a steep grassy gully is again hard going but after that it's quite runnable - that is until the steep knee deep heathery section over Gyrn. Good terrain reappears as we continue onto Nantlle Ridge. Here the clouds finally broke and we had some glorious views. The decsent from Y Garn to Beddgelert forest I'd not done previously, but luckily Math knew the route as it follows the race, so again we took a great line.

On each stage through this section we were stealing a few minutes so were comfortably up on time, and more importantly I felt very fresh on entering the forest. I was due to hit the forest boundary at dusk but arrived in day light. Although happy to be up on time I was concerned that I was pushing the darkstage further back into the round, meaning I had the roughest and rockiest part of the round, Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach, to negotiate in the dark.

On arrival at Pont Car Gors we were met by Sarah and the dogs which was a relief. Some home made Leek and Potato soup, a Sandwich and a tub of rice pudding later and Bill and I were ready to set off for Snowdon. We stopped here for about 5 minutes, but the midges were evil and that was all we could tolerate.

Leg 2: Snowdon
Time: 4:40
Support: Bill Williamson

Like the last leg, this leg starts with a rough and steep climb up to Craig Wen. Without Math to share the provisions with, Bill was loaded up with litres of water and food and so soon found the going hard, but managed a steady pace. On almost every leg we were at least hitting the scheduled time or gaining a few minutes.

By Craig Wen summit the light had finally gone, and with almost no moon it was a dark night. This didn't bother us - on the Snowdon leg the ground is quite easy going - just steep. On the ascent from Bwlch Cwm llan to Cribau Tregalan it started raining but we plodded on and made the summit soon enough. Soon after the Watkins Path finger stone the wind was getting strong and you could hear it whistling through the scaffolding of the Cafe building site. A nice signal that the summit was approaching. Strangely enough we met 3 people on top, and a quick 'alright' to each other, as though it was perfectly normal to be out on the hills at midnight, and we got running again.

This is a great stage to do at night as the paths are generally good and the descents runnable. Steep rocky descents are where time is lost in the evenings and thankfully Snowdon has few. Bill seemed to get stronger as we hit the summit and it was great to have company over the night stage. With a view the evenings are great, but when shrouded in cloud and visibility restricted to just a few metres they can get quite oppressive.

The descent from Carnedd Ugain to the Snowdon Ranger is a choice of either following the paths via a time and distance-consuming dog leg, or striking off on a bearing across the Llanberis path and crossing the railway before finally hitting the rubbly Ranger Path - a welcome sight in such poor visibility. Despite having time in the bank I was keen not to waste any and opted to run on the bearing. On descending the Ranger we finally dropped out of the cloud and then we struck off down the grassy nose to Bwlch Cwm Brynog for the steep ascent of Moel Cynghorien. This section of hills to Moel Eilio is composed of steep hills but short grass underfoot. The trails are faint trodden grass but even in cloud we managed to keep on route and on time.

At Moel Eilio the water ran out so on the descent into Llanberis we stopped to pour a few litres down our throats. I'm sure I swallowed a slug in one bottle of water and there was literaly hundreds on the grass and rocks around the river. I'd reccied the section through the estate the night before and soon enough we were trotting through to the quarries to be met by Noel, Rob and Sarah.

My feet were getting sore here so I changed my socks and put some compeed on. I scoffed down some soup, a sandwich and a tub of rice pudding as before. I was pleased to get through this section - almost half the night section - as well as having claimed another 10 minutes. More importantly after 8 hours of running I was feeling very fresh. After 3 hrs in the West Highland Way Race, only 7 weeks earlier, I was already toiling after this time. I was also keen to actually enjoy this run - and had done so far.

Leg 3: Glyders
Time: 4:05
Support: Noel Craine and Rob Greenwood

From Llanberis it's a steep 2000ft ascent up to Elidir Fach through the quarries. This route follows zizags at first (all the way from the start, avoid the path) and then from an iron bridge follows inclines up the public by way through the quarry. Here the route gets very steep up a paved incline. We missed one set of steps but soon got back on track and arrived at the summit 2 minutes ahead.

Noel had had a heavy week, and a long drive back from Scotland that day and struggled early on, but soon after Foel Goch seemed to get stronger. Noel and Rob had obviously been under orders from Her re my eating, so soon after leaving Llanberis, the offers of food, then later orders to eat were beginning.

As I had feared, being up on schedule meant I had a long night stage over the Glyders. The initial section through the quarries and along to Llyn y Cwn is fine in the dark but the next section is a very different story. Despite having already done over 4000m of ascent I was still ascending well but my feet were a bit sore on the descents. Rob had all the bearings sorted so we were moving through this section comfortably, mostly on schedule and occassionally grabbing a minute or two.

At Llyn y Cwm we should have seen the first streams of light but it remained very dark. With the low cloud still enveloping the hills it took until 5:30 am until we started to get any noticeable light. We got to the Summit of Glyder Fawr in the allotted 35 minutes, but lost 5 minutes going over to Glyder Fach - the rocks are very slippy and even in the light the path is hard to keep track off. In the cloud and dark we could only walk on a bearing and try to keep on time.

The summit pile of Glyder Fach was a death trap and it took a good while to climb and descend before we faced the awful descent to Bwlch Tryfan. This night section was very hard on me, but as the skies lightened so did my mood. Rob and Noel did well on this stage to keep me up on time and with all the talk keep me distracted from what I was facing. The descent from Tryfan to Ogwen is brutally steep in the upper sections but no where near as bad as the gully of Glyder Fach which is loose and dangerous. We finished this leg a further 10 minutes up on the schedule and with only 10 hrs to go I was feeling very hopeful.

Leg 4: Carneddau
Time: 3:10
Support: Sarah Kleeman and Gavin Stewart

This is the last big steep ascent of the round, so with Sarah setting a good pace it was good to reach the summit in almost 45 minutes, 10 minutes up on schedule. This is as fast as I've done it when fresh but Gavin did well to keep with us. At the top of Pen Yr Ole Wen I had my first real bad stage of the round. I started feeling sick and legs felt tired. This section is navigationally simple, the only important issue is picking up the track to the left of the ridge so avoiding the rocky crest, which Sarah found straight away.

We walked most of the next 2 sections through to Carnedd Llewelyn, only running the easy downhills, but only dropped a minute in total. Once you reach Carnedd Llwelyn there's only two climbs left in this section and one is almost totally scrambling so you don't really feel it. Here my mood totally changed. The weather was looking good, and after some lucozade I was finally getting some strength again.

Sarah had coaxed me through the final sections of the WHW so knew how to handle me during a bad spell, so it was fortunate to have one on her watch. We shot through this section, leaving Gavin soon after Carnedd Llewellyn as the pace was getting stronger. The final descent is through rough heather. We had run this only last weekend and made some bad lines but this time Sarah got good lines all the way and soon we were soon on the bridleway descending to the A5, where hopefully my parents would be there with bacon butties. Nicky and Nick had already text Sarah that they were there and waiting, after driving down from Sheffield.

There's a good kilometre along the road to face here. Its hard on the limbs after 15 hrs but thankfully short enough not to be a problem. After a brief 5 minute stop at Capel, wth some more rice pudding, coffee, smoothy and a bacon butty we set off on the next section.

Leg 5: Siabod and the Moelwyns
Time: 6:15
Support: Nicky Spinks and Nick Cable

The climb up Siabod was the last big ascent, but on a good path and a kind gradient. We reached the top 5 minutes up on time. Nicky had said that we may struggle to keep to my schedule so I was pleased to have already saved some time. At the top a sign of things to come was when Nicky suddenly dashed off to my right. To me this felt wrong but I trusted her and followed - sure enough we popped out right on the track.

Nicky and Nick are as close to professional 'rounders' as there is. With a 2 Bob Graham's and a Paddy Buckley completion between them, plus many days supporting, they knew the score and the route. I was dreading this section, but chatting with them, and later Math as well, and knowing that Sarah was at the half way stage with food made it an enjoyable leg. It was a relief to quickly realise they knew the route so well, because it meant I could just concentrate on keeping going. As this was the leg I was least familiar with I was worried about having to navigate after 20 hours when your thoughts can get very muddled. It's a leg where it's easy to lose time with navigational errors so their expertise was most appreciated. I was glad I'd paced for Nicky on her successful Welsh round back in May - and that in meeting her then she could help me now. Along this whole section we passed the many false summits which I would have had to ascent without their knowledge. I reckon their familiarity of this leg saved me half an hour at least.

We were still grabbing 2 or 3 minutes on every leg and like before, the pacers were hassling me to eat, with Nicky at one point giving me to the top of one of the peaks to drink my lucoazde before I HAD to eat something. This was undoubtably another one of the key reasons why I had a successful round. Almost from the first hour I was eating pretty regularly and my energy levels remained quite high throughout.

I was getting tired as we ended the mid stage of this leg where Sarah and Math were due to meet us at some old deserted quarry buildings. This was where Nicky suddenly dissappeared over some cliffs. I'd trusted her unquestioningly throughout, but here I admit I had doubts. But sure enough a peer over the edge and there was a series of ledges which ran down to the quarry.
After a brief stop Sarah ran back to the car and Math joined us on the last leg. The climb up Foel Ddu is one of the last steep unpathed climbs but we still gained a few minutes. With 6 peaks to go I was into the counting down stage. The next leg was a long flat section out to the Moelwyn peaks and in the heat I was starting to flag. We ended up dropping 2 minutes for almost the first time since the Glyders. This was no worry as I was now well inside a 24 hr round. On the climb up to Moelwyn Bach Math gave me som chocolate and this high fired me on and we gained time almost immediately and by Moelwyn Mawr had made up another 7 minutes.

At just past 20 hrs in the round we were way up with only 1 peak to go. Now was the time to relax and enjoy the final few miles, sun on our backs no pressure... until Nicky turns to me and mentioned that a sub 22 hr round was possible. I tried not to think about it but the seed was planted and within 5 paces my mind was set - a '21 something' was my target! All the way from Capel I was thinking if I run well a '22 something' round was possible but with the time we'd made up, sub 22 was definately possible. The next 2 legs are quite hard, especially now I had a time to chase down, but the last leg had been shortened considerably by my starting location. The descent from Moelwyn Mawr is quite nice, grassy and within 10 minutes we were passing the Quarry, you then head along undulating trackless terrain to the Llyn Cwm y Foel, cross the Damn wall and start on the last ascent, possibly the steepest of the round, up the South East flank of Cnicht. It was down to old pace counting here, get to 100 and look up, then a boulder at a time, but soon we hit the path, and bang on 21 hrs, the summit of Cnicht, exactly 50 minutes after leaving Moelwyn Mawr.

With a sub 22 hr round now a very strong possibility we set off on the descent off Cnicht, soon we met with Sarah and Noel and there was 6 of us running the final few miles. After the first rocky section its good tracks and we made good time, and with only a few minor ascents all runnable. With the others getting the gates ready we made the road just outside 30 minutes, with a final time of 21:30:46. A time I never thought was possible. After a few photos, a beer which although tasting nice at first didn't go down well, and a chat we all headed off.

The final leg was Scheduled to take over 7 hrs, but through Nick and Nicky's navigating, and Math and Sarah providing half time provisions, we managed to get it done in 6 and a quarter hours. Even in training I've never managed to do that leg in less than 6 and a half hours.

Total Time: 21:30:46


Thanks to all the supporters. It worked out perfectly who paced each leg. I had left it up to each supporter as to which leg they preferred and Math was happy to kick off the opening leg with an area he knew well, Bill wanted a double shift and was happy with a night stage, and Noel and Rob (who got the day wrong despite me having spoken to him 4 hrs before I set off - luckily Noel called him!) were happy with the next night section due to work and holiday commitments, Gavin was happy with the early morning section and Nicky and Nick wanted the double last leg, a leg they knew so well and the one I knew least, especially all the short cuts. And finally Sarah (who also ran a leg and met me up at the Quarries) and my parents who provided the car support. Sarah 'managed' the round, calling up the pacers, making sure everyone was on time and even washing and drying off my sealskinz socks at 3am so I could wear them again later. Having someone else organising everything on the day is essential for a successful round. If you can pass all responsibilities onto them it means you can just run.