Chris:
I have one of the 2004 runs of LOTR and the only time I got to valinor was on a mistake the game made. I am not a ranked player, but I have pretty good skills.
The thorn in my flesh with LOTR is the two towers multiball. It is impossible for me. For whatever reason I have a consistently hard time hitting the right ramp. Makes me crazy.
Enjoy what you accomplish and learn as you go. Otherwise you have a very difficult goal that the majority of times you wont get close to. Hard way to live- under the pressure of unrealistic expectations.