Report – Saturday 10th May 2025
‘The Rhondda Rollercoaster is not just an event, ‘it’s an institution’, that was the feedback from one participant in the HQ hall this year as they tucked into a bowl of home-made soup and longingly gazed at which of the selection of homemade cakes to have afterwards. And they are right – year after year we see many people returning to the course; familiar faces who seem to have short memories of how tough the course is and enter again the next time the rumour mill starts to circulate that ‘The Rollercoaster is on!’.
This year was a cracker, the event had sold out, and for the first time in recent memory we had a waiting list system. Sensing the scale of the challenge, a crack team of South Wales LDWA ‘Leekies’ was assembled: hall bookers, sandwich makers, cake bakers, equipment hoarders – all with a vital part to play, and my word they pulled it out of the bag!
All we needed now was the weather to play ball, and unusually for the Rhonda it did! Dry conditions on the run up to the event and a warm day forecast for event itself, so much so that the famously dour event organiser even relaxed the requirement for full waterproofs in the kit list!
We started welcoming entrants to registration at 7am for tea and toast before the off. In total 180 people started the event. 122 wrestling with the 26.5ml route and 58 toughing out the 16ml version, the latter route increasing in popularity again this year. With our checkpoint crews in place, just before 8am we made the decision to ‘unleash the hounds!’ and they were off!
As organiser, I was in HQ; There is a terrific lull just after the start. A pregnant pause. The calm before the storm. You watch, you wait. And then it starts; messages coming in off the Check Points – ‘First entrant through CP1!’, ‘Send more crisps!’, ‘Retiree at CP2!’, ‘Sweepers through’, ‘No sign of entrant 154!’, ‘CP3 set up and ready’. Not all messages are welcome, we did receive warning of mountain fires close to the course, but thankfully they weren’t close to our routes so didn’t require action, but we will be mindful of this in the future.
Then, the first entrants arrived. Around 1.30 they breezed in looking fresh and like they had strolled to the shops for a paper! And slowly but surely HQ busies up as the trickle of returns becomes a flood and the ‘post event catering’ kicks into full swing (the aforementioned soup and cakes). Of course, not everyone made it right to the end, we did have some retirees and in total 164 entrants finished the course – for those that didn’t finish this time, the hills will always be there, and the Rhondda Rollercoaster will return when you are ready.
All said, the event ran very well. The feedback off entrants has been superb so far and we will be following up to see how we can improve and make it an even better experience. Some suggestions from previous events was implemented: e.g. waste at events – this year we generated only 2 bags of landfill waste, everything else was separated into recycling or compost – it can be done! We also had feedback about other local groups participating and this year we had a space for local walking and fitness groups to display and chat to entrants – something we hope to expand.
The level of ‘no shows’ on the day was a slightly discordant note, and we intend to investigate why this happened and see what can be done to better support those that didn’t make it to the start line.
The Rhondda Rollercoaster genuinely feels more like a family gathering for both the entrants and us marshals, and we look forward to welcoming you back when the Rollercoaster Returns!
Results
Photographs
Participant Feedback
‘Well done! It was a fantastic day! X’ TA
‘Great day, well done, hot one’ JE
‘I really enjoyed participating in the Rhondda Rollercoaster yesterday, it was a very tough event with lots of elevation in very warm conditions. A thoroughly well organised event with great people managing the checkpoints and feed stations. A huge thanks to all concerned’ MC
‘Thanks for today, it was a fantastic event’ SG
‘On behalf of the Refail Runners just a short note of thank you for a fantastic event yesterday. We had a team of 12 out on the 16ml route and thoroughly enjoyed it. The weather always helps but the volunteers, checkpoints and huge selection of homemade cakes at the end made our day. Thanks again!’ N (and the Refail Runners)
‘Absolute stunner of a route and the marshalling is top draw. LDWA at it’s best’. TE
‘Was my very first LDWA event an absolute corker’. NDM
‘The friendliness of the volunteers, their willingness to help in any way possible and quality of the checkpoints (including the soup and massive selection of home made cakes at the end) was second to none. The LDWA at its absolute best. Thank you LDWA South Wales’ GE
‘Thanks for a great day yesterday! We had a blast. We agreed we will be back next time. Well done…everyone for organising so well’ JB
‘Please pass on a huge thanks from us to all the marshals and organisers for making our day out Saturday doing the Rhondda Rollercoaster such a good one. I don’t normally eat after an event but the soup was delicious!’ JC
‘I’m just glad I made it in one piece!’ Anonymous