• The control at Bwlch Cyfryw-drum

  • Enjoying a few sips of Drambuie (with a hint of shampoo) before bedtime

  • A special campsite near A blessed with amazing evening sunlight - we ended up san bathing drinking tea for an hour before we got to making our dinner!

  • Nearing our penultimate control on Foel DduarthBRWe had amazing views out toward Anglesey and the Menai Straights, and back up Afon Anafon from this spectacular little summit near Abergwyngregyn

  • The start of the race, a 15 minute walk from Bethesda

  • Registration

  • Laetitia greeted by hardened mountain marathoners Richard and Rachel at Dyffryn Ogwen School in Bethesda

Our first Mountain Marathon – the 2011 Rab MM

After months of not very serious training, but very serious complaints due to aches and pains, the weekend of the Rab MM finally dawned. It was wet! But the forecast was set to improve, so we planned for a later start to try and avoid the worst of the rain.

After getting to the school in Bethesda we signed in, collected our dibbers, and met up with Rachel and Richard.

Laetitia greeted by hardened mountain marathoners Richard and Rachel at Dyffryn Ogwen School in Bethesda
Registration
The start of the race, a 15 minute walk from Bethesda

We had no idea what to expect, so our levels of trepidation were high! We had never used a dibber; didn’t know what a control looked like; how far we might be able to travel in the allowed 6 hours on day 1 and 5 hours on day 2; how tricky the navigation might be; or how our bodies would cope with two days of fell running back-to-back.

When we dibbed-in at the start that was first time we’d ever used the SPORTident dibbers and I think the guy administering the machine was a little surprised when I asked him what to do. We were off! 😯 After 20, or maybe 30 minutes, studying the map we’d decided upon our route – just five and half hours to go… A little later, at our first mark, we learnt what controls looked like (approx. 30cm square white and orange flags) and dibbed for our first score – a lowly 5 points.

Later we, along with another 40 or so people, wasted 20 minutes searching for control 121. Clearly all of our combined navigation skills couldn’t be that bad, it simply wasn’t there. We reported that at the over night camp and luckily we, along with the other teams, were credited with 20 points. Phew! Those 20 minutes hadn’t been wasted.

Nearing our penultimate day 1 control on Foel Dduarth
We had amazing views out toward Anglesey, the Menai Straits, and back up the Afon Anafon (this picture) from this spectacular little summit near Abergwyngregyn

We managed to cover 24km on day 1 and scored 190 points.

We learnt two things, we needed to focus more on higher scoring controls rather than the number of controls found. And that 24km was just about as far as our bodies could go on this terrain – despite having 20 minutes to spare from the allowed 6 hours, our knees were trashed! The killer was the descending – we reckon we made approx. 2000m of ascent during the day and all that had to be lost too.

The overnight camp was in a lovely setting and the weather had turned from wet and windy in the morning to calm and sunny (almost like summer), we laid recovering with cheese, biscuits, and several cups of tea in the sunshine. 😛

A special campsite near Abergwyngregyn blessed with amazing evening sunlight - we ended up sun bathing while drinking tea for at least an hour before we got around to making our dinner!

Eventually we managed to find Rachel and Richard, it wasn’t easy with over 300 tents spread out around the camp area, and shared stories of our respective day’s adventure. Just before bed I brought out the 150ml bottle of Drambuie I had carried to the camp to relax our tired muscles before bedtime. Unfortunately the bottle is a reused shampoo bottle, and although it has been in use as our camping salt-shaker for many years it still gave the Drambuie an interesting flavour – essence d’shampoo! 😆

Enjoying a few sips of Drambuie (with a hint of shampoo) before bedtime

Straight out of camp at 8.30am we headed up the “infinite-hill”, over 400m of ascent in just under a 1km – steep! However, the real destroyer was the first descent… My right knee immediately reminded me of yesterday afternoon’s punishment and hurt like hell!!! Things were not looking good for our planned route which included going right over Carnedd Llywelln (1064m) and picking up the high scoring (40 point) control on Yr Elen. But Laetitia encouraged us on and I kept hobbling along – in fact sometimes literally hoping on my good left leg on the down hill sections. 😮

The control at Bwlch Cyfryw-drum

On day 2 we covered 20km and scored 160 points. A better score considering we had an hour less and had very tired legs – we’d learnt the lesson of going for higher scoring controls.

Here’s a link to the Rab 2011 Mountain Marathon results

Clearly everyone had been suffering from fatigue on day 2 as we managed to advance 38 places in the score table. I reckon just the single day of experience gained on Saturday helped us improve our strategy for Sunday and, despite the ruined knees, pull out a slightly improved result.

Altogether a brilliant event (did I say/write that?) …

11 thoughts on “Our first Mountain Marathon – the 2011 Rab MM”

  1. You did a good job! Just be careful going for those high scoring controls.. they can catch you out if you can’t get back in time!

    My legs are killing me this morning!

  2. Pete forgot to mention the funny episode on day 1 where I ran through a bog and lost my shoe! 😯 Another precious 5 minutes wasted while I was on my hands a knees, elbow deep in bog trying to retrieve said shoe (or good excuse for a rest).

    It was a great weekend and a great location. I’d not really spent much time there at all before.

    I’m glad my regular aches and pains held off, the strategy of slow and steady progress paid off. My knees and ankles are sore today, and I’m very tired, but mostly I feel fit and healthy. Oh dear, I think I might have got the bug!

    1. I also forgot to say a huge “thank you” to the guy who helped me recharge my watch at the over night camp! Without his help I wouldn’t have had the ability to create the GPS trace for day 2 above or known, accurately, how far we’d gone on day 2.

  3. A really good result :star: :star: :star:
    I’d be tempted myself, with the whisky at the camp…… :yum:
    but is it compulsory to wear those skin tight leggings??? 😕 😕 😕 😕

  4. Well done, that’s a great effort for your first mountain marathon, but just think of all the extra points you could have gained if you didn’t have the extra weight of the thermarests and had taken bubblewrap instead!

    1. I saw lots of people with rolls of bubble wrap – but which is best, small or large bubble varieties? Small is perhaps warmer, while large is comfier… Hmm, I reckon I’ll stick with warm and comfy! 😀

  5. Good job! :star: And as I can see it’s not dull running at all! I’d be tempted myself as well, the only thing that doesn’t make much sense to me is carrying everything with you.

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