Bloodied Knees

Yawn....A very early start as Rosemary was doing The Brutal 'half' triathlon, a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and a half marathon in Snowdonia. The run included going up and down Snowdon. Fortunately, R's Dad lives in Dinorwig, just above Llanberis where the start was. She rode down and I hiked wearing my head torch to enable me to navigate through the dark woods.

Other competitors were doing double or four times the distance so the start was at 7am. Llyn Padarn was calm, and relatively warm for this time of year with there being minimal rainfall. The starter hooter went and and then I headed to get a hot chocolate.

Rosemary came out the water close to the front of the field and I nearly missed her as I was chatting! I scuttled towards transition to try and get a photo but struggled to keep up! When she headed off on the bike for two laps round the base of Snowdon, I went back to the lake to watch the swimmers! After an hour, I jogged a wee bit up Pen-y-Pass to see the leaders come through. Rosemary wasn't far back, and as she passed she called "I've fallen off". I wasn't too worried as there wasn't panic in her voice.

I headed back to the lake and asked the organiser if he minded if I got in for a swim. Most of the 'double' swimmers were still swimming but he was more than happy to accommodate, especially because I was wearing skin rather than neoprene. Indeed, my pasty Scottish skin made me easily distinguishable from the competitors in their black suits. It was about 17 degrees so I got a tiny bit of ice-cream head and a great deal of invigoration. I was racing in Anglesey the next day and it was just what I needed.

Rosemary came off the bike in the lead, but she was looking a little distressed. She had quite a bloodied knee and a sore looking elbow. Only an injury requiring amputation would stop her though. I jogged along for a little bit, checking she was ok and then I turned to the cafe and an early lunch. The lake lap preceding Snowdon was 8km so that gave me just enough time to eat and get onto the mountain.

After the cafe, I got a jog on moving and a competitor drew alongside."I'm knackered" he said "not looking forward to Snowdon". "I've just had a scrambled egg roll, a slice of bara brith and a large latte" I retorted...."this run is hardly a picnic for me either with that in my stomach". He laughed!

I could see why Rosemary had always resisted talking me up Snowdon. Tourists and people doing charity events were in the ascendency. 1000m mountains are not the place for super-hero outfits or people dressed for a nice little walk in the countryside. However, there were plenty such people in abundance as were lucozade bottles and sweetie wrappers too. I suppose it's better confining this all to a few mountains than having it go in everywhere.

Rosemary had been overtaken by the 2nd lady and was now behind by about 5 minutes. She was now worried about being caught by 3rd place......"focus on catching the girl in front, not about what's going on behind" I suggested as I jogged along for about 1/2 a km with her. Then I headed back to the finishing area in Llanberis chatting to this very fast swimmer girl from Cardiff!

The leading man came in looking fresh and delighted he had won. I was a wee bit disappointed when the leading lady came in and it wasn't Rosemary but c'est la vie! When she did arrive 10 minutes later, she was looking quite battered and very exhausted. Her knee was encrusted in blood with her elbow looking similar and a big dent in her helmet. The silly muppet had lost concentration within the first few km of the bike, hit the curb and not had time to save it! Avoidable accidents are never good!

After a quick change, we got her to the medic who did a fine job of cleaning the wounds and strapping her up. Her dad picked us up and we headed back to Dinorwig, doing very little for the remainder of the day!