Luke Carroll GB Ultras Snowdon 100

One of the things we cherish most in our history is seeing people we've coached go on to be coaches and to create running companies and dream big with qualifications and care and love for the ultra community.

One of those beautiful souls is Luke.

Luke has a wonderful back story - involving big ships and tricky training opportunities - when he first joined us it was a recommendation from our beloved Portsmouth ultramarathon friendship group (that one is deep and long). We loved coaching Luke through that period - he was always curious and he always did whatever he could to get some quality session in.

He took a break from being coached by Camino and he started up his own business - he shares some wonderful skill based content on his IG page - which we are proud of.

He is still learning and he recently rejoined us with a focus to do well in the tough GB Ultra Yr Wyddfa Snowdonia 100 - Luke excelled in the plan and he......

Well if you want to know how he did and the Luke vibe read on x

Catch you soon Luke x

Luke:

Snowdon 100.

This was down as my B race for this year mainly due to the fact I wanted to fill the void whilst I wait to run the WD100 later this year. 

Having done SDW100 last year and knowing how difficult I found it, I knew for a fact that this race would be 10x harder just due to the elevation but also the technicality of the course. This meant lots more race specific training which can be difficult when you don’t live near a mountain! Nevertheless going into the race, I felt well equipped and happy with my training to achieve around 30hrs to complete the race.

This was my main goal for the race.As expected i started of the race faster than what I wanted but managed to find my rhythm around the hour mark which was something I learned from my last 100 where I went out way to hard and fast. Not long after the hour mark and my first problem occurred, both my calf’s decided to go super tight, I’m still not quite sure why this was (initially thought it might be due to sodium intake as I’m a very salty sweater) but this made me very conscious on the down hills as I did not want to overreach and cause a cramp.

I had this for pretty much the first 50 miles and then that was it for the rest of the race.Couple more hours had gone and I had done 1 of the 3 big peaks in the race and it was time to go up snowdon. I had rekkied this route out prior to the race which meant I didn’t need to worry about looking at my watch for directions, looking back, I blitzed going up and down Snowdon which gave me a great boost for the next peak.

The 3rd peak up Glyder Fawr was the worst, the route up was awful for my feet and legs and then when you thought you were at the top, it kept going. Then I had to come down right next to devils appendix, I was very conscious coming down having already fallen over twice quite badly and I know a fall here would be catastrophic. After descending Glyder Fawr until about 50 mile point it was pretty low on elevation which meant I could find my rhythm again.

I managed to run with Helen for about 10 miles who was also from Portsmouth and was the only person I knew before going into the race which was nice as I find it some much easier when you are running with other people. Coming into the half way point, I felt good, I could tell my stomach was on the verge so was very cautious of what I ate and when I ate it on the segments between checkpoints.

Thankfully I had an amazing crew to help me during this race my dad and my uncle, plenty of experience crewing so I knew I was in great hands and they advised me to get food in at the aid stations whilst I was resting. I had rice pudding and jam and it definitely hit the spot for sure. Changed my clothes around, into my night gear and went on my way for the biggest stretch without aid station and going into the night.The majority of this stretch I was on my own which is 10x harder and in the dark aswell i was constantly checking my watch to make sure I didn’t go off course at any point, towards the end of this leg, I caught up with Josh, which we had both passed each other a couple of times before in the race and spent the last bit running with him and his pacer into the next checkpoint. 63 miles was done at this point, legs were good, feet were ok and spirits was high….. and my spirit was about to get a lot higher. I managed to smash a portion of baked beans on toast in, which when I say hit the spot, it hit the spot.

This was my 2nd wind. I knew from this that the fueling strategy for the rest of the race would be fuel at the aid stations and just stay hydrated during segments and I would be good. What I realised from this was that the majority of my training was actually been done at zone 1 and 2 and didn’t really venture much into the other zones so I’d been practising gut training in this zone. Having been in zone 1/2 for the majority of the night already I knew I could run of the food from aid stations and rely on my fat stores for the stretch’s.Off I went from checkpoint 8 being advised from my crew to walk the start so I don’t upset my baked beans on toast, however there was an opportunity to run with Jesse who had just set off or by myself. I choose to run with Jesse which ended up being a great choice. Into checkpoint 9 feeling really good, this was the first time I was told of were I was in the leaderboard and was quite frankly shocked to be honest. 5th,6th and 7th all in checkpoint 9.

Dave was the other runner who had just gotten in before us. He was struggling with stomach problems and we got him to run with us. 27 miles to go and was feeling good still, we had a good game plan at this point which was run what we could and walk the rest. Into Beddgelert the 2nd to last CP and had some pasta and tomato sauce here which again went down really well, we opted for a 25 min stop so we could have food, change clothes and assess feet which we were all happy for. Going into the last big segment and thankfully this was the segment which I rekkied out before hand so I led the the pack pretty much the whole way to the next checkpoint, this was a great benefit as we must of saved some time not stopping and looking at our watches to see if we were on the right path. It was another nasty stretch with difficult terrain and both feet getting soaked and staying that way till the next checkpoint. This is when my feet problems really ramped up. 

Coming into the last checkpoint I was hobbling a bit compensating on one leg as the bottom of my right foot looked macerated. I knew I had to dig deep as there was less than 9 miles to go. Another lot of baked beans on toast and then we were off for the final leg of the race. As with most races we decided to pick the pace a little to make sure we made sub 28hr. We decided on this leg that the best way to finish was crossing the finish line together as a team as we navigated and ran the last 40 miles together.

Although me and Dave were both content with letting Jesse take 5th as he carried us the majority of the way 27:44:18 minutes we crossed the finish line. Joint 5th place. 

Writing this now I still can’t believe how well I did. Like I said my goal was sub 30. I got sub 28 and joint 5th, amongst the elite some might say. 

Big thanks to Coach Paula and the Camino team for continuum support and coaching over the past few months, the training definitely ramped up but was all worth it in the end, I can’t wait for what the next training block entails as I prep for WD100 in December. 

Luke