Last Sunday was forecast to be very very wet and very very windy, with low cloud and poor visibility – so perfect conditions for a run round Kinder! It was round 1 of the RAB Mini-Mountain-Marathon series – a set of three 3-hour score events in the Peak District. Two years ago, when there were hardly any entries (it was the first year it was held), we managed to win the mixed pairs class. Last year we came a close second. This year I am officially an old git, and so we were promoted to the 'mixed veterans' class – usually more competitive as many fell runners seem to improve into their 40s and even 50s (so there's hope for me yet).
The drive down took ages due to heavy rain – spray on the M1, and floods on the back roads. But this gave us the advantage of a late start – the weather didn't take too long to improve, and the last 2 hours of the race were dry and even sunny at times.
I was tired after the previous weekend's OMM, and Carmen was still under the weather after a 2-week bout of girl-flu, so we couldn't go too fast. We started to the south of Edale with a steady climb up the hill, and a long run along Lord's Seat. Wet and windy, but on footpaths so no navigation to worry about. By the time we turned off the path to contour across the moors above Upper Booth and Jacob's Ladder, the rain was easing, and the cloud lifting.
After a control near Edale Cross we decided to play it safe, and rather than detour to Kinder Low for another 20-pointer, headed back towards Crowden Clough in dry weather but strengthening winds. Things went temporarily wrong when we reached the Pennine Way about 200m further east than expected, and faced a tiring fight back to the control, directly into the wind. But after this, we just had to follow the PW back to Edale, and made it with 3 minutes to spare.
175 points – could have been 185 with a slightly better route choice near the end, but still pretty good. It put us 32nd overall (out of 122), but more importantly, 1st out of 10 in our class. Which was nice 🙂
The next round is on 6th December, starting in Hayfield. Still a few places left if anyone fancies joining us! But don't wait too long, the last event filled up quickly.
Full results, routes, etc are here.
Tags: RAB