Just adding to the pressure by wishing you good luck - should be just about warm enough.
Just adding to the pressure by wishing you good luck - should be just about warm enough.
Good luck on the first 2 sections. I look forward to joining you at Llyn Trawsfynydd dam, road shoes in hand.
Wynn told me that the high temperature defeated Rob's attempt. It certainly was hot in the Old Counties Tops. Lots of retirements.
Next time Rob.
Yiannis
Bad luck Rob. At times it was like being in an oven, especially on the climbs that were leeward of any breeze. It was attritional weather for such a tough round.
Good effort. Wishing you better conditions next time.
Hard luck Rob. Sorry to hear you didn't get round. To echo Yiannis and Alan: next time!
Bad luck, Rob. Very tough conditions indeed.
Next year Rob
A group of us did section 5 after Rod retired at a leisurely pace, stopping for photos etc, the sweat was pouring out of us, to think that Rob had been in it all day as he retired around 18:00. Very difficult conditions to do a round especially one as hard as this.
Tough luck Rob, Clear yes but the heat and humidity made it very hard yesterday, Good luck on your next attempt.
Last edited by IanDarkpeak; 23-05-2010 at 08:38 PM.
Rob 7th May 2011.... 23:30 start....
Leave me alone, my quads are still hurting ;-)Originally Posted by ydt
Well, serves me right to attempt it without you there, Yiannis. Well done to you and Ray for completing the OCT.
Fantastic support, guys and girls, some doing several sections in tough conditions. Thanks you sooo much. Sorry it didn't work out.
Some memories and tales from the day:
0100 near the end of the Cader section, orange half-moon, already too warm in shortsleeved base layer.
0500, Y Llethr, first light, looking across to Rhinog Fach with Llyn Hywel at his feet; mist lying in the valleys. Fantastic.
0830, northern Rhinog, Caz dunks his sunhat in a bog pool and puts it on my head. This happens at successive pools and bogs throughout the day. Without it, heatstroke would have been a cert.
0930, Trawsfynydd, Alan Duncan coats my legs in half a bottle of factor 50.
1030 Dolgellau, Wynn walks into the Meirionnydd Hotel with a coolbox - how much to fill this with ice? Errr ... 3 quid?
1200ish, Dr Sam Smith diagnoses Neil Shepherd as having housemaids knee.
1300, before section 4, Wynn packs ice under the sunhat, some more down my neck and sends me off with a wet tea towel round my shoulders.
1330, Arenig Fawr, Kat discoursing on the Daddy Longlegs' life cycle.
1400, great descent off Arenig, then my quads start hurting. (Reading Yiannis's 1998 report, he completed with sore quads...)
1500, limp down to the road, looking for a quick escape. Alan Duncan coats my quads with half a tube of Voltarol, says if I want to bail out here I'll have to walk; he and Neil Talbott massage my legs and point me at Dduallt - looks a hellishly long distance away.
1644 Dduallt, quads and feet increasingly sore, a hour behind schedule, beeline for the road and an early dinner.
1900, corned beef hash; me trying to talk to the team but falling asleep mid sentence, so I'm told....
Considering the temps were high 20s (Wynn says the car gauge registered 30C at one point) I was lucky to stave off cramp, apart from 2 brief bouts in a calf and eventually the quads, thanks to Nuun tabs, Diarolyte and assorted elecrolytes. I don't remember such hot conditions in Wales since my Paddy Buckley!
Last edited by RobW; 23-05-2010 at 08:50 PM.
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