Rab Mountain Marathon 2008 – My First win!
Posted in Running
A glorious weekend was promised for the 2nd Rab mountain marathon and the weather really didn’t disappoint. A cold blustery Friday at camp turned into a glorious Saturday. A sharp breeze soon dropped and we were left with a cool sunny day and great visibility across the range of hills North of Skiddaw and Blencathra.
The start was slightly different this year with the first task to mark up the map controls with the relevant points (controls were pre-marked) and decide your route. My tactics were as always, look at a general route either clockwise or anti-clockwise then plan 3 checkpoints ahead.
Off I went. I think I set off a bit fast (be interested to see the splits results later) and I suffered for a couple of checkpoints up and over Carrock Fell and down a horrible descent of brambles, sharp rock and ferns. A real battle to get down to the bottom. This I think contributed to my biggest (and probably only) real mistake of the weekend. Due to feeling it a bit so early on. Not catching up with people I just should be flying past I went conservative. I all of a sudden didn’t trust my fitness and endurance and thought I would crash and burn so I started to run conservative.
I chose to miss out on a 40 score despite being shown by Richard from Dark and White at the overnight camp what he saw as optimum route would have meant hardly any height gain and good paths to run on. But carried on regardless with my exact loop. Some fast running along tracks round Skiddaw House, overtaking mountain bikers as they struggle up the hills, and moving out the way as they zoom past on the downhills. The second half of day one was unremarkable in most aspects as nav was spot on, route choice was perfect, everything just clicked. This meant I cleared all the nearby controls to base camp with over 40 minutes to spare on day 1. Despite being told I was current 1st at overnight camp I thought I had blown the chance of a good place as I was also one of the 1st at overnight camp.
There were some awesome performances out there at the end of day 1. Vets 40+ was the most competitive with a massive 430 on day 1 from Ali Hubbard and 407 from Pete Nelson. The male under 40 was competitive in a different way with a 3 way tie for 1st on points at 380. Once all the other competitors came in I had dropped to 9th in the order with 320 yet with that 40 I didn’t get I missed out on 4th. Tom Brunt from Holmfirth leading the Elite group with 530 and Shane Ohly and last years winner, Jonathan Alyward tied in second with 510.
The overnight camp was a great find! A little narrow field in a gully, surrounded by old oak trees. Managing to eat and chill outside before bed and the rain briefly arrived. the midges were out but didn’t seem to be biting as much.
Sunday started with a bit of hill fog over some of the higher peaks and meant when I started and got to the top of the first hill there was a great cloud inversion over many of the fell. There was a time limit on some of the high scoring checkpoints on Skiddaw so I made my way towards there via Little Calva and dropping down to the Cumbrian Way. A great chance to push on, whilst refueling and preparing for a tough middle section of the day. A 300m climb up Skiddaw followed by a nice fast section to Lonscale Fell and a thigh punishing descent, before another tough climb and descent of Mungrisdale Common. With all that up and down I was thankful for Mudclaws as they just stick to anything!
I knew by then that I had cracked the back of the course and I should start heading back. On the way back I scooped up a further 85 points on the run in and as I knew I was finishing really tried to push hard to get the final 15, although I did have my eye on another 15 pointer but was just too pushed for time after a final ascent.
On day two I managed 1st in the Under 40’s category with 305. Next was Jon Cox and Chris Naylor with 270 points. Toby Cushion and the team of Nick Hart and Charles Johnstone were back in 3rd with 240. A total of 65 points behind myself but with a bit of controversy as there was no early notification on the closing times for the checkpoints on Skiddaw. I have to agree it may have been nice to know the cut off points but it was also nice to see that people starting earlier had an advantage over those who wait till the end in the hope to pick up peoples trods and lines that have developed.
There was a lot of change on the final results at the end of day two. Firstly I won top in category! No-one was as surprised as me after being 9th at overnight. I even looked at the results day 1, saw I was current top but then went home, just not thinking that there was a possibility of top 3, never mind 1st! My first ever moment of glory and I went off home and missed it. GUTTED!!!
I was secretly hoping for a podium place but not mentioned it to anyone as I knew it was a tough order against some very good competition and fast runners. Not bad for a bloke who has been running for about 18 months in total. I managed to sneak first place by 5 points mainly due to a storming day 2 which had me with second most points overall and 65 points ahead of one of the overnight leader and eventual second place of Toby Cushion.
In the Elite Tom Brunt continued how he left off at overnight camp and came in with 400 points, 30 points more than 2nd placed team of Simon Patton and Dave Troman. Last years winner, Jonathan Aylward was 3rd after 340 on day 2.
The Over 40s category was again filled with great runs from Ali Hubbard and Richard Snowden who finished 1st and 2nd respectively. Pete Nelson, who had an excellent day one slid down to 5th overall.
Full results for day two
Overall Results
Overall an absolutely great event (again!) Nice friendly atmosphere, which is what I expect from Dark and White Events. Superb organisation and a great location that I will be back to explore, but maybe this time on a mountain bike. Long may the Rab continue as a laid back, low key but competitive event. Long will I continue to have this race as a goal for the season!
Elite next year or continue in the same class to defend my title?
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October 17th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
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