Rab Mountain Marathon

Race: Rab Mountain Marathon, day two
Peaks: Foel Dduarth, Yr Orsedd, Foel Fras, Yr Elen, Gyrn Wigau
Area: Carneddau, Eryri
Time/Position: 220pts in 4:36 (33rd from 300 [62nd overall])
Salvaged a bit of pride today, although it was still a pedestrian performance well down on previous years in this event. Started early, after a good night's sleep, slogging up to the top of Foel Dduarth and contouring the ridge to Yr Orsedd - all very familiar territory in beautiful muted early morning light, so I was taking good lines and landing bang on the controls. More contouring down to Llyn Anafon, then very steeply up to the CP below Llwytmor. There was, sadly, inevitably an element of 'retracing steps' about today's route, given the restricted nature of the course. But after dibbing the CP above Melynllyn I embarked on a long contouring traverse above Dulyn to drop down to a big value CP in Ffynnon Llyffnant - a beautiful isolated high cwm that I haven't visited since doing some easy snow climbs here in the mid 1990s. I was going well, and slogged up to dib again on the main Carneddau ridge, then take the contouring path to a 40 pointer on the summit of Yr Elen. Local knowledge a big help for all these, as I landed bang on everything with minimal effort. Nice weather, with some cloud, all helped. I was well ahead of schedule, just enjoying the unpressured nature of the day, so finished with the steep climb up Gyrn Wigau (painful memories of the climax of May's Carneddau race) before dibbing a few more checkpoints on the very relaxed jog in to the finish above Rachub. Great fun, as always, but obviously a bit disappointed with the overall result compared to previous years.