The weather was certainly kind for the 4th running of the DipDab race on Sat 22nd June. The event has changed slightly since it began, and this year saw the first use of the proper electronic dibbers that the amazing Tim Plumb of realtimeracing designed and built himself. 😉 How he does it, I don’t know. He also did the online techy stuff, online registration and the online results tool which automatically calculated the points for each competitor! In the past we’ve had to manually count all those pieces of paper!!! Oh, how things changed. 😉
A few weeks before the race, I was contemplating why I was even bothering spending so much time and energy into planning and organising this event. It’s a lot of work prepping, scoping out where to place controls, contacting and speaking to landowners, designing the map, and organising ‘stuff’, but on the day we had 39 runners turn up. 😉 So I was happy with that.
I was going to give runners a proper head scratcher this year in my course planning. Although there were less controls that before, they were more spread out. The start/finish was sort of in the middle of them all, so deciding which way to go also gave them food for thought. I’d put a number of controls out on the Foel Dyrch area, which I’d never used before for any of my previous races which confused a number of runners as they were going into new territory! 😋
I have to say a huge thank you to my helpers- Carol, Julian, Rhyds, Meryl, and Carolyn for helping out on the day from registration, kit checking, setting runners off, making refreshments, and tidying up. Diolch o Dalpen. The event couldn’t happen without you giving up your time and energy. 😉 Huge Thanks to Tim Plumb for spending soooo much time helping out behind the scenes too. 😉 My wife Rachel for being so supportive, even though she couldn’t be there herself this time. Thanks to the landowners for being so accommodating, and to Dyfed, Pantithel for allowing us again to use his land where the start/finish is. Diolch 😉
Ok, now for the race itself. Runners had 4hrs to try navigate their way to different controls to get as many points as possible by using a pre-marked map that they were handed on the start line. The closer, easier-to-get-to controls would be worth less points than those further way! The runners left at approx 1 minute intervals and had to figure out a way of attaining as many points as possible. If runners were over 4hrs, then they’d be penalised 5 points per 5mins.
The first few runners back were within 4hrs, and at one stage Kev and Lenny were currently leading the overall standings on 240 points, even though they’d missed an easy 50 pointer! 😋. Kitty Robinson then romped in to take the podium seat temporarily with 340 points. However, she’d had a mare of a time trying to find GF on’t other side of Drygarn, and lost a lot of time meaning she had to miss out on trying to get other controls. This then allowed others to take the podium spot. It changed a few more times until local ‘lad’ James Greenhalgh trumped them all, and stayed on top until everyone else was in. 😋 Out of the 470 maximum points on offer, James managed to get 420 points! Boom! He could have got a further 20 points as he finished 12 mins inside the time so would have potentially had time to get another control. However, it was enough for him to get his first ever overall win! Double boom! 😉 James also took the M50 title beating another M50 Eryri orienteer runner Ian Jones who finished second overall! Ian’s son and fellow team mate Marty took the open male win in joint 2nd overall, whilst Rob Critchlow took the M40 win and 5th overall with 355 points. Kitty took the Open Female win and 6th overall, whilst MDC M60 winner Andy STOTT was 7th overall with 320 points. Tenby Tracey (as we know her) took the F50 win with 250 points. She and Carolyn had paired up, and had a blast by all accounts. 😉 The newly categorised Rachel Mathews has apparently been looking forward to getting to 60 for a number of years, and she was well happy that she’d taken the win in that class. 😉 Amman valley runner Tammy Rees-Davies took the F40 win with 145 points. Huge well done to everyone, you all did amazingly well. Big up to Lon Morgan, who I believe was the oldest competitor at 71, whilst Rebekah Williams was the youngest at 12. She ran it with her parents, but she’d left them standing on the last descent, and came bounding down the hill to the finish. 😉 Brilliant. All the runners then gorged on tea and cake at the end, whilst perusing at their maps seeing where they went right……..and wrong! 😉 Some of the strava routes resembled soft spaghetti! 😋
Diolch o dalpen/Thanks in heaps again for making it such a success. It’s very much appreciated, so I’ll probably try and do it again next year. 😉
Big up to James(again), as not only did he run well yesterday, he went out and collected a load of the controls for me today. 😉
Next up now is the Carn Ingli Killer race. Sounds bad, but it’s only a 5k starting and finishing in Newport Pembs on Thursday 18th July at 7pm. 😉 😋 Entry on the night, at a whopping £3. 😋
Caz the Hat.
Ps- Lenny and Kev then managed to entice me to the Globe afterwards, and it then got rather messy!!! 😋