AN Oswestry athlete has roared back from injury to take the biggest victory of his career in the UK’s toughest marathon.
Despite the torrential rain and gale force winds, more than 2,000 runners lined up for the gruelling Snowdonia Marathon, won in style by Eryri Harrier Rob Samuels who stormed home more than two minutes ahead of his closest rival.
But as the 25-year-old explains, even taking part was far from certain just a few months ago, having spent so much of his early season dogged by injury.
“I had a tough first half of the year as I was out of running through injury,” reflects Rob who has been studying at Aberystwyth University. “But I had a strong comeback thanks to my physio, Andy Walling. I managed to get in the Great Britain team for the World Mountain Running Champs in Albania over the summer and then also the Wales team for the Commonwealth Mountain Running Champs in Llanberis where I finished in fifth, so I just carried my mountain running fitness over to the marathon really.
“I wasn’t necessarily expecting to win but I knew that I would be up there in contention. Once the race started I felt really good from the start and there was no point were I felt I was struggling.
“I started to push on from around 19/20miles and just pulled away from there. I was running with Richie Gardiner [2010 winner and Commonwealth gold medalist] for most of the race and I knew he was the one to watch as he is a great athlete.
“I was really chuffed to win. It was a great race and it was great to win on ‘home turf’ in front of the crowd. The support throughout and especially down the finish was amazing. It was all a bit surreal to be honest,” he added.
Event coordinator Jayne Lloyd said she was once again impressed by how impervious the runners were to the wet and windy conditions that have become the norm for the event over the last five years: “This doesn’t seem to deter the runners and we had a record entry again this year with over 1,400 finishers. The weather makes it hard for the marshals and our team are a particularly hardy bunch. In fact, they have been voted ‘Winner of the week’ by listeners to the Marathon Talk blog.
“The support and commitment of our team is unbeatable. It is a true community event, made even more special this year with victory for Rob, a really popular and well deserving winner of the 2011 Marathon Eryri,” Jayne added.