Rab Mountain Marathon

Race: Rab Mountain Marathon, day one
Peaks: Carnedd Llewellyn, Foel Grach, Drum, Tal y Fan
Area: Carneddau, Eryri
Time/Position: 200 pts in 5:36
Having just missed a podium place last year in this, my favourite event, I could hardly believe that this year it was taking place in my spiritual home - the mountain region I know best of all. What a shame, then, that a monumental error and a large slice of bad luck this afternoon was to completely ruin any chance I had of improving on last year's effort. It all started reasonably well from Bethesda in persistent rain and low cloud, although I was taken aback by how restricted the 'field of play' was (with the eastern Carneddau virtually all out-of-bounds). I headed up to Cwm Llafur via various checkpoints: weird to be in the dramatic, yet familiar, terrain below the Black Ladders with hundreds of other people. After a tricky to find CP opposite Llech Ddu, which took me longer than it should have done, I slogged up Nant Fach to another on the main Carneddau ridge before heading over the top of Llewellyn in thick mist and pacing it down to a 30 pointer in Afon Wen. I sowed the seeds of my later destruction here, by unaccountably failing to go for another big CP above Melynllyn as the mist dramatically cleared. This put me way ahead of schedule as I took great 'local knowledge' lines contouring Foel Fras to a CP above Llwytmor before contouring awkwardly through the crags to a CP on the summit of Drum. Just over 3 hours to this point, with almost 200 points in the bag already. As a result, I found myself disastrously lured out to the big value checkpoints on the other side of Tal y Fan (rather than hoovering up those directly below me, which would have given me an easy, albeit wastefully early, finish). So I ran flat out round the side of Carnedd y Ddelw and down to Bwlch y Ddaefaen. I really was on home ground here, and contoured Foel Lwyd and Tal y Fan intent on bagging a 40 pointer in a ruin on the Pen fell race route. I didn't bother with the compass - foolish, as a thick sea mist unexpectedly rolled in just after I left the summit wall. Just a few metres of visibility, with no accurate position: so locating the CP was a hopeless task even though I could envisage the position of the ruin from the Pen fell race and dozens of walks in this area. After sweeping the hillside I found myself running out of time and eventually gave up and headed back for the camp in infuriating bright sunshine. The worst error I have ever made on a mountain marathon: it meant almost 3 hours virtually without scoring, so whereas last year I was 9th overall after day one, today I finished in 122nd place. A wonderful, memorable camp above Aber made up for it all though. Delightful views over the Menai Straits in lovely sunny weather, with me in a perfect pitch looking down the valley.