600 runners get ready for Snowdon heat
Murray Strain
With weekend temperatures expected to approach 30 degrees centigrade on the mountain, some of the UK’s best mountain runners will descend on Llanberis for the 38th Tyn Lon Volvo International Snowdon Race / Ras-yr-Wyddfa...
Anticipation of the 2013 event is as high as ever with 600 runners, including 2012 winner Murray Strain, getting ready for what promises to be one for the best ever races this Saturday afternoon. The main race will be precluded for the first time ever by the Snowdon Super Cup / Cwpan yr Wyddfa – a demonstration, uphill-only, race to the summit of Snowdon, starting at 11am on race day and featuring recent European Mountain Running Champs 5th-placer, Steve Vernon and Ethiopian and Scottish resident Wegene Tafese.
Hafod Eryri and the Snowdon summit
After one of the greatest ever races last year Scotland’s Murray Strain is back to defend his crown, and will be challenged by 5-time winner Andi Jones – whose race was ended before he reached the summit in 2012. However, the Englishman will be pushing hard to try and regain the title which he has made his own over the last few years. On the start line for Wales will be local men Alun Vaughan and Mathew Roberts, both aiming to challenge for top honours, with Vaughan in particularly good form recently.
Alun Vaughan
In the women’s race 2011 winner Pippa Maddams returns after a break from the sport to have a baby, heading-up a strong England team who take on the elite runners from Scotland, Ireland and Wales in the international race.
Pippa Maddams winning in 2011
The race, now it’s 38th year, is considered as one of the greatest in the world of mountain running, and attracts some of the best racers in Europe. However, the event has grown over the last four decades to be one on the bucket-list of mere mortals across the world, as just completing the 10-mile race from Llanberis to the summit of Snowdon and back is something thousands aspire to, but only hundreds achieve, year-on-year.
Evidence of this popularity has once again been visible as the 600 places available online went on sale on the 15th of March. By Monday the 18th all but a few had gone and Race Organiser Stephen Edwards was able to ‘close the book’ on 2013 entries later that day.
“Once again we have been overwhelmed with the support and demand for this race. Little could the organisers of that inaugural race in 1976 have realised what this event would become some 37 years later. Snowdon is now recognised as the UK’s busiest mountain and that is part of the attraction for those runners who get that ‘Tour de France feeling’ as they ascend the crowds of people cheering on the slopes come race day.
“With Murray and Andi back on the mountain, and some top UK and Irish runners snapping at their heels, we should be in for a fantastic race once again this year. It will also be great to see Pippa back for the women’s race too, this along with the Super Cup in the morning means that we will create a mountain running festival with something going on from 11am through until late afternoon.”
Edwards is keen to point out that the event is now much more than just a race, with major sponsors, attractions and a sense of festival which almost brings Llanberis to a stand-still on its traditional third-weekend of July race date.
“It’s amazing really. The buzz in this little village come Snowdon Race weekend is unbelievable, you have to be here to be able to understand that. This race means so much to the area and the people of Llanberis, they are proud of the race and what it portrays to the thousands of visitors that come here for the race and the weekend. We will have Ty’n Lon Volvo as our headline sponsor once again this year, TV coverage on S4C and the usual family festivities on the race field throughout the day. 2013 is basically going to be bigger and better than ever!”
