Rab Mini Mountain Marathon Round 1
Posted in RunningThe first in the Dark and White Mini mountain marathons and I nearly missed it! I was shocked to see on the website on Saturday morning that entries had closed! The first time I had seen this, despite doing a fair few of their races. Good for the Dark and White crew, bad for me!
I did manage to scrounge and scam entry as some people were unable to attend so my favorite race was back on! Arriving in Castleton at 8.30am and the event area was already buzzing. There was a lot of hill fog shrouding the area and this I thought would play into my hands brilliantly (being slow but a decent navigator). So after looking at the event map and registering I was off. I did my customary glance at the map and set off in search of a nearby checkpoint.
The first 40 minutes was at a reasonably fast pace. The clag was lifting fast and a big bright light appeared from the sky. Apparently this was the sun? I had to check as it had been a while since I had seen it. I realised my cold weather running stuff was going to slowly cook me and any advantage from clag was going to vanish.
I was running at roughly the same pace as a Dark Peak runner and had a bit of a chat with him on the way round. A slight overshoot of a checkpoint then I lost my company as he shooted off at a pace I was not going to keep up with as I was still thinking of the next 2 hours. I faded a bit on the next stretch down from Mam Tor as there was a tarmac section through Castleton which bashed and drained my legs. Then a long slow stretch up to the tops kind of bored me.
Coming back towards the finish I was going to be coming in with 20 minutes to spare and 3 checkpoints from clearing. I saw one that I could possibly get in that 20 minutes so set off past the finish with gusto, only to arrive at the top of a big hill looking down at where the checkpoint was and realising that it was a no go. Now time running out I had to really push to try to get back in time and ended up 2 minutes late. End result 20 minutes hard running at the end for -2 points.
There was some very fast people and some good running by many people. I think it was a bit busier due to Lake District Mountain Trial being canceled which made the competition strong!
An on form Bob Johnstone from Dark Peak came in first after clearing the course and coming back in 2hrs 51 minutes. Alan Ward came back second, one minute behind, also clearing the course and being 1st vet 40. I came in 13th overall and 5th in category.
The next event being held on 2nd November near Edale. You need two out of the three races to compete in the series so if you want to do the series and was not there last week you have no choice but to attend.
Leave a Reply