December 1st 7:10am, Celtic Royal Hotel, Caernarfon
Lyn has been awake most of the night, but the alarm still goes off, and both of us manage to get onto the Entry section of the website. ALREADY Lyn is 798 in the queue, and I’m about 50 behind, entering Graham Ferris’ name. You will reach the front of the queue in approximately 45 minutes, DO NOT CLOSE YOUR BROWSER or you will lose your place in the queue. Blimey…paranoia, panic, hot sweats…all set in, but keep calm, swallow some tablets, have a coffee, and eventually by exactly the time they predicted, we were in!
Very efficient system, all 2500+ places gone and paid for by 9.15! Not a bad little payday…over £90,000 taken in 2 hours! What next year? Full up in an hour?
Anyway, by our reckoning at the moment, we have 15 WRR confirmed entered, so we can look forward to another terrific weekend away.
Of course, Lyn was unable to run this years event due to Alison’s situation, hence the weekend in Caernarfon….our Welsh Weekend we never had. Lyn managed to run from Pen-Y-Pass to Beddgelert in pouring rain (surprise, surprise), about 9 miles. I supported as if it WAS the Marathon, by bellowing support at every opportunity, whilst playing Chariots of Fire through the Car stereo system. Otherwise we lazed around, walked the Conway Town battlements…absolutely fantastic, drank wine, ate good food and snoozed. All in all a great weekend away.
We have already booked all the remaining rooms in the ERW FAIR guest house, which is about 200 yards from the finish line. If you would like to stay there you will need to e-mail Lyn as soon as possible with your requirements. It will be a jigsaw puzzle, and we cannot promise anything, but if we can fit you in we will. Lyn will operate on a first come first served basis, so don’t delay!
If you don’t get a place at the ERW FAIR, then our recommendation is to find somewhere PRONTO, as places in Llanberis fill up really, really quickly. Outside the town is easier, but driving into the town on the morning of the run is a real pain, and parking is at a premium and expensive.
Well done to all those of you who have got in. We aim to have another terrific weekend with Witney Road Runners on Tour in 2018!
Steve Hopkins