Rab Mountain Marathon

The Rab MM was in the NE Lakes this weekend and was for the 4th year running blessed with good weather. I was in the elite distance, running with another Ilkley Harrier, Nicky Jaqueri. It was cooler than it had been for most of the week but the wind was OK and it was dry and clear. A bit of summit mist on day 2 but nothing too problematic.

Copying control values at the start

We had a good run on saturday, opting for the long run for high value checkpoints. We scored really well (although didn’t realise how well till the overnight camp) BUT were 14 minutes late back. The penalties are harsh for this event and we were docked 40 points putting us back to 250. 250 put us in 16th place overnight which we were pleased with, where as 290 would have put us 8th overall. 14 minutes isn’t much added onto 7 hours but what a difference! No one to blame but myself for that one.

We were pretty comfortable although a bit chilly at times overnight. I was gutted to see people strolling around in down jackets and looking a lot warmer than me, but once fed and in my bag I was fine. Used my balloon bed/sleeping bag for the first time and was very impressed. Nicky and I squeezed into a 1 man Laser Photon Elite tent which is very light but means you sleep with your nose against the tent inner. I am going to do a full article about the kit I carried and bag weights etc…

Mine is the little green tent.

Day 2 started a bit cold but soon warmed up. We went for a slightly more direct route back to the finish area were a small cluster of controls gave us plenty of options. For most of the day I thought we would be back too early and clear all the local ones with time to spare but Nicky stopped me being over ambitious and in the end (and after me wasting 15 minutes in the wrong stream gulley) we had to skip the very last 10 pointer. At least no penalties were incurred and we can home with 185 points.  I thought we did not score that heavily on day 2 but it put us in 17th for the day,  as opposed to 16th for day 1 so we gave a fair account of ourselves. Final poistion was 16th overall for the event.

The Rab is a great event, smaller in scale than some of the other national events but of the same very high standard. The atmosphere was great and we were very well looked after. I will definitely be back next year.

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