There were times when I thought we wouldn’t end up running the Rab Mountain Marathon in 2011 after Richard broke his arm in August and I sprained my ankle fairly badly three weeks before the event. But thankfully, we both managed to mend to an extent that allowed us to participate. The only problem was the distinct lack of preparation. On the positive side, the welsh scenery was fantastic and it reminded me of the three good years I spent in Bangor. The views, which I know so well, spurred me throughout the event.
It was also great fun having Pete and Tish compete; Anna and Ian, you’ll be next!
As Pete and Tish reported, the first day started in rather damp weather. In fact, I think we only got a couple of decent views throughout the whole day. We took pictures of both of them:
On the first day we had 6 hours to visit as many controls, and collect as many points, as possible. Richard had chosen a fairly risky route that collected both a 40 and 50 point control, which would have stood us a good chance of doing well. Running back to the camp on day 1, we had collected 320 points. Unfortunately, our risk didn’t pay off and our tired legs didn’t run the 2.5 km back to the campsite fast enough, which made us 20 minutes late … meaning that we lost 100 points! Ouch!
In total we travelled 28 km and ascended over 2400 m. My legs were useless when we arrived at the finish. I even had to sit down whilst we waited to download. Thankfully by this time, the sun was shining and it was blissful lying at the campsite completely still.
I had hoped that a swig of Pete and Tish’s shampoo-tainted whisky would have helped my aching legs, but the first climb of day 2 proved really quite strenuous. It was long and fairly slow. Thankfully I did recover later in the day and we sped up to some extent.
Despite our efforts on day 2 to collect more points (we got 185), we were not going to be in a position to be anywhere near the top of the field this year. Still, we had a fun weekend and we didn’t break/sprain any limbs.
Please tell me that these pictures were actually not made in Wales! I just can’t believe the blue sky and sunshine. 😯 It was definitely bad timing on our side. :angry:
We also had some very wet and very windy weather at the weekend, but Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon were both sunny with blue skies. 🙂
Disappointing for you not to get a top position as usual, but you had decent excuses! Anyone would think you were mere mortals like the rest of us 😀
Yeah, mega disappointing! With just a tad more luck/speed you wouldn’t have lost those 100 points and then who knows…
However, very selfishly, I’m quite encouraged in the knowledge that so many more points can come from just 4km more distance than we managed. There’s significant hope in that for mere mortals!