Middle Pack

The 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.

(more…)

The Rab Mountain Marathon, now in its second year has revealed its location for 2008 is Back O’ Skiddaw and Blencathra. Starting from the village hamlet of Caldbeck and taking us on a tour of some rarely visited fells. in the North of the Lake District.

(more…)

After a great start to the year with some fast and close racing at both the Open 5 and the Dynamic Adventure Race series Challenger and Endurance series there is a bit of a lull in February.

Someone obviously forgot to tell the Dark and White boys this as they have a full month of Adventure Racing and Trailquests packed into this inhospitable month (I say this as it is snowing outside as I type).

The first weekend of February kicks off with the opening event in the 6 in the peaks series from Dark and White. This one is going to be based in Macclesfield Forest and is a 6 hour event with running, mountain biking and the special feature of abseiling. This year Skins are the main sponsors for the The D&W team always hold good informal events so regardless of the snow drifts this will be a good one.

They are also holding a MTB trailquest and a biking weekend and even would be holding a further event if it was not for lack of entries into their night MTB score events. Busy lads and they keep this rate up throughout the year!

The 2008 date for the Rab Mountain Marathon has been released a couple of weeks ago. This year it will be held somewhere in Northern England on 27th and 28th September.

The entries are being limited to ensure that it is being kept as a low key affair so get them entries in as soon as possible.

(more…)

The Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon series finished on 2nd December with the mens under 40 already won by A Buckley having won the first two events convincingly. The real race here was for Vets category with Paul Addison, Andy Davies and Clive Hughes all in with a chance to win. Eventually Addison held on to the series in the final race.

The Womens category only had 2 competitors who completed the 2 races to get them into contention. Rachael Lawrance took 1st with two impressive runs at Hayfield and Hope. Womens Vets more well attended but Sally Gilliver ensured it was not as close as some of the other classes.

Mens V50, Womens V50, V100 team all were wrapped up by wins at the first two races. Full results can be found at the Dark and White web site

D & W have already released the dates for the 2008 series as Sept 14th, November 2nd and December 7th. Entries open in Spring 08