I started Friday in Bristol for a work appointment, after which TomTom informed me that traffic on the M5 and M6 was so bad that the best way to Llanberis was to drive straight up the middle of Wales. Awesome.

I had a great drive past the scene of multiple previous holidays including Crickhowell and Staylittle, with the whole country looking amazing in the sunshine. This theme continued after I arrived at the hut and a few of us went to Pete’s Eats for some food – Snowdon looked great across the lake on the way home.

The following day was forecast hot, and didn’t disappoint. This was a bit of a pain since I was running the short course on the Welsh 1000m race. After last year’s second place I was under pressure, but the heat soon got hold of me and I slipped from third to seventh between the bottom of the Gribin and the top. My fear that I’d not quite picked the right line down from Glyder Fawr was later disproved by Strava which suggested I’d got a PB for that awkward descent.

I breezed through Pen y Pass, and soon after that I stopped at the side of the Pyg Track because I was seriously concerned that I was going to overheat to a dangerous degree. Twenty minutes passed sat in the shade as I watched everyone else slog by on their way up to the summit of Snowdon. After some more dilly-dallying I decided to carry on, and took it slowly to the top (12th place out of 23 starters) before a leisurely trot down the Llanberis Path back to the car. A massive well done to the others who did the long course; it must have been horribly hot running over the Carneddau before doing what I did.

Despite being incredibly tired after such a hot race, I couldn’t sleep the following morning and so found myself heading over to Ogwen at 05:00. Sunrise over the Carneddau was great, and I managed to steal a quick-ish ascent of the North ridge of Tryfan in glorious sunshine.

I didn’t tell Gareth this when I met him a while later for a lap of the Marin Trail on the bikes. However, I suspect it was pretty obvious by my slow pace, continual sweet-eating, and propensity to get off and push the steep uphills!

Nevertheless, it was great to head around with him, and the new section of trail alongside Swallow Falls is absolutely incredible – whoever designed and built it needs a medal.

I just about made it around without collapsing, and neither of us fell off which is always a bonus. Hooray for nice weather.