Middle Pack

The weather always seems to shine on the Rab Mountain Marathon!

After a cold friday night, runners are treated to a cloud inversion from the campsite as the cloud settled low into the valley covering Sedbergh. If you turned around the fells were basked in sunshine. It was 7.30am and it was already getting hot. Day 1 was going to be a very long 7 hours.

I had entered the elite class a long time ago. The aim to get a lot of training, build up throughout the year and try to do well in the elite. What actually happened is finally get running mid July, cram a few big days in and try to keep myself stuck together so I could just get round. I was coming into it totally unprepared, but that was good, it meant I was just going for a couple of “big day’s out” so no pressure and no racing.

The reality is always different to the planned. I have come to realise this over the last couple of years since I developed an unhealthy obsession with competing. Even in the queue to start my mind was cool, calm and collected. I was focused on enjoying the day and meeting up with people at the overnight camp and having a laugh. So why, when someone puts a map and a control sheet in my hands do I turn into a lunatic?

I got my first mistake in very early. Racing to the first control and then realising I had probably already lost 5 points over a preferred route. I must calm down! Sweat was pouring off me, time seems to be flying past me at an unfeasable rate and I was knackered already. I glance at my watch and I am only 35 minutes in! I must slow down before I drop.

The next checkpoint was reasonably uneventful, dropping into a gully, down a bit of scree. Then back up to the path at the top near Calder. This short sharp ascent slowed me down a bit and gave me a bit of composure. Using the trod from the Sedbergh Hills Race I contoured round Calder and on towards the Calf, just cutting out the top as I contoured round to the next checkpoint and onwards to my next one.

Mick, a mate from the same running club joined me at this point as we made our way to the next checkpoint. That was probably good for me as I slowed down a bit when running with him. We dropped to the correct gully to find no checkpoint? There was about 5 of us looking around for this checkpoint. Then we seemed to spread out and go with process of elimination

Eventually checkpoint found,it was definitely in the wrong place I split up from Mick and started to make my way out to the big pointers.

The middle of the day was spent trying to hoover up some good points without actually having too much climbing. Coming back into the deep valleys in the heart of the Howgills after getting some of the outlying big pointers. I eventually got to my decision checkpoint and had to make a decision if I should really go for the big 40, the less adventurous 30 or the easy route (or I thought it was the easy route). Now I am not sure if it was because the sun had got to me, my body was giving or I was having a bit of a strop with myself but my main aim with loads of time left was to avoid as much hills as possible.

Hitting bad ground, getting stuck near crags, generally running further than I thought, my plan had failed and I was now running out of time. I knocked a 5 pointer on the head and just managed to get in with 2 minutes to spare.

My other route choices, in retrospect were probably easier running. Very little height difference yet extra points. Looking at peoples splits it may have been do-able but only just. But then the extra points were probably worth losing a few on a couple of minutes over-running.

Eventually after my bad route choice meaning a lot less climb but some pretty exposed contouring above scree and crags at a slow pace I finished the day with 3 minutes to spare and 325 points in the bag.

After slowly limping through camp and sitting on my arse for a good 10-15 minutes I managed to get up my tent and then go get some food

Overnight results showed me in 10th in the elite. A result I was happy with, especially on thinking I could have got a fair few more points with better route choice. It gave me good motivation to move up the table day 2 against some good competition.

The rest of the evening was spent catching up with a few people. On the blog front there was Kate and Jane, along with Vicki (Jumbly). Kate had come to the same realisation as me the first time I did a mountain marathon solo. Bloody hell thats hard! So exposed to any error, and the mind games you play to try to keep you going are just completely different than when working in a team. She did brilliantly, despite her misgivings about it. There was also a fair few others that I often see at events so having a good catch up. The rest of the evening spent half in, half out my tent chatting with friends.

Overnight was cold, and condensation in my single skinned coffin tent was a real problem. Here my added bit of luxory really came into its own. I have a lightweight bivi bag, weighing in at 280grams. A great bit of kit as I also use it for my emergency bag (I checked with the organisers before anyone screams foul play) and a dry bag for all my dry clothes and sleeping bag. This means the weight penalty of carrying a full bivi bag is probably around 60grams

I got a great nights sleep and felt good when it was time to get up again. Only complaint was that I was at points a bit hot despite leaving the top vent open on my tent leaving me with a clear view of the stars. If I was doing the OMM then the bag would be coming with me!

Day 2 started with a pen disaster, the point of my pen seems to have broken so I tried another, this smudged and ran off the paper, so I was left with etching the points into the map and off I went. First thing to do was to start heading out to the big point controls and work my way in from there.

Early on I ended up running with Mick Loftus from my club and Adrian Chewter a friend who I met when we partnered for the OMM a couple of years ago. We were watching Jon Morgan run off into the distance looking effortless and smooth, whilst we laboured on behind.

Soon we were joined by a team of two and this set the tempo for me for much of the rest of the day. I take a better line and get in front, they take a better line and get in front. Neither of us were following or accepting others lines as although we were pretty much matched in pace across 7 checkpoints we must have taken different lines virtually all the time yet still ending up within a minute or so of each other.

I was made a bit nervous that I was going too fast when I realised they were at the sharp end battling for a podium in the elite and we talked races and race times, I realised I was probably batting above my weight here.

Eventually we split and went our different ways but was joined by another person I know. After a lot of shuffling throughout the day I was wanting to stretch my legs out and decided to go the long way round to the next checkpoint on good paths with no real height gain or loss. Following the Sedbergh Hills fell race route backwards to the next checkpoint meant no real difference in time over the shorter over the top option but I arrived feeling ready for the run in.

A few more checkpoints all uneventful as I knew I had loads of time but no real options to get any more points on the way due to two mandatory controls really affecting the route into the finish

• Results Day 1: 10th
• Results Day 2: 4th
• Overall Results: 7th elite category.

Full results and split times available from the Dark and White site.

All in all a great weekend! Brilliant weather, great company and an area I have been longing to do a mountain marathon in. A few route choice errors on day 1 was my only mistakes but if someone said 7th in Elite at the start of the weekend I would have taken that result happily. Day 2 was a better representation of myself and I came in 4th overall that day. I now know how fast the top guys are going and it really has spurred me on for next year. Will say it now and hope you all forget. Top 3 next year?

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• Tags: howgills, mountain marathon